Just a quick note and a bit of backstory:
I've been meaning to start this project since I saw Rise of the Guardians, but never had the inspiration until Twisted Skys posted "Riding Untamable Winds" in their ongoing series "Invisible". If you haven't read it, look it up.
Sídhe Castell (pronounced "she'd") is the spirit of Wind in this little drabble. She lived in the same village as Jack when they were alive. Tell me what you think. Set before the movie. Part one of the Somber Silence arch. Soundtrack: Louder than thunder by Devil wears Prada, Fairytale by Enya and Lullaby by Creed. Sídhe plays The sound breaks the silence of the snowy woodland in the most agonizing way. "Jack," a young girls' alarmed voice screams. Breathlessly running toward the sound, the cool weather bites at my lungs. They begin to seize up. Clenching pain assaults my chest, but I can stop. Not now. Not when they need me… Breaking into the clearing, I don't stop to think. There's no time. The water is frigid as I dive in after the auburn haired wonder that had lit up my life. ~flashback~ "It's fine, I promise. I won't let anything happen to you," the lanky boy smiled at the blonde girl who was half hidden behind her mother. "Go on, Sídhe… go play," her mother said, then smiled when the timid girl reached out to take Jack's hand. While her daughters' health had always been frail, she knew this would be good for her. The two children ran off to meet Anna, Jack's sister, and the other village kids. Between playing hide and seek and watching Jack fight off the "evil beasts", Sídhe and Anna never stopped smiling. ~end flashback~ Darkness fills my vision and I try push back to the fear that is creeping into my heart. Suddenly, my lungs give out. The dark water around me floods into them. I see his cold face just inches from my fingertips, but there's nothing I can do… nothing. The crushing weight of the word destroys any hope that lingered. The world I knew faded into pitch black.
Crack.
Cold. Breathless slumber under the iced lake would have seemed endless, if not for the Moon. Its silvery rays warmed the young girl who had all but frozen in the crystalline waters.
Whispers echoed around her, swirling around the frigid lake that had become a prison. For a time, their meaning was lost. Sorrow was her only companion. Loss the only thought echoing through her mind.
'I failed them. I failed Jack…. when he needed me most,' guilt ransacked her thoughts, making the soft whispers seem meaningless.
The whispers grew louder until grief was washed away. Soothing thoughts found themselves chasing away the loneliness. Pale green eyes fluttered open to see the bright full moon through the ice. The thin layer between them began to crack. The current lent its strength, propelling her frozen body to the surface. A gentle breeze broke the perfect silence above the lake and carried the girl skyward. For a moment, the Moon's glow was all that mattered. The bright light shattered the darkness completely.
A man's voice reverberated in her mind, 'This is your second chance… your defining moment. Use it well.'
Slowly, the wind calmed down and sat the luminescent child down on the lakes' surface. The breeze had dried the sky blue dress the girls' mother had made on the way down. It helped remove the frigid water from her frail lungs as well. She coughed in response to the unfamiliar feeling and watched as her frozen breath was exhaled as a cloud of white. It was then that she noticed how remarkably chilly it had become. Stranger still, while the girl noticed the arctic temperature, it didn't bother her in the slightest. Glancing back up at the Moon through her long white hair, she pondered. There was something important still under the ice. A question mulled in the foreground of her thoughts.
"Why me?" she asked the Moon feebly, and then looked back down at the ice, "And why not him?"
'All in good time,' the man's voice countered.
The wind swirled around her. She extended her right arm at its request, confused until the breeze deposited her oaken staff into her outstretched hand. Tears welled in her eyes as she pulled it close.
Then: World View
"Jack," Anna squealed in delight, "Let's play hopscotch!" Jack grinned and pulled a friend along by the hand. The pale girl smiled, and then side stepped to avoid walking into a sheep. She knew he was supposed to be minding the herd, but was thoroughly distracted. Keeping up with Anna was no easy task, after all. "Wait up, Anna," he complained lightly, twirling the shepherd's crook with a laugh. The two older children made their way through the sheep to the top of the hill. The girl let go of Jack's hand to climb the boulder on the hill's crest. She pulled a set of tin whistles from her satchel after sitting down and began to play Muir Eireann. Jack knelt in front of Anna and pretended to be winded. The little girl pouted, "You're getting old, Jack. Soon, you'll be just as slow as daddy!" As if on cue, Anna spotted the burly man walking up the hill with a staff. She shrieked in mock horror and scaled the boulder to hide behind the older girl. Jack stood quickly and tried to mold his flustered face into absolute innocence. His father saw straight through him. "Jack," the middle aged man started while trying to hide his own grin, "What have we told you?" The boy opened and closed his mouth several times before stuttering something incoherent. His father cracked up, laughing at the hysterical sight. "Take care of your sister… but minding the sheep is also important, son," his father snickered. It took them a minute to stop laughing, but once they did, the older man walked up to the boulder. Anna poked her head around the girl's side, and then ducked behind her again with a giggle. "Now where could me wee darlin' be?" the older man asked as a playful smile danced across his face. He propped the staff up against the rock. The pale adolescent sat her whistle down at the end of her song, "I wouldn't know, Mr. Andersen." Anna looked over the girl's shoulder and smiled innocently at her father. Mr. Andersen extends his arms. Without moment's hesitation, Anna launched herself off the boulder and into her father's arms. He held his bonne lass close as he mock waltzed a few steps. Setting her down, he smiled and gave Anna a small nudge towards Jack. "Go on, you two. I want a word with our young piper," he nodded to Jack, who led his sister off to the flock, and looked back to the girl, "Your mother and my wife have been talking all day and just recently let me and your father know what about. Maggie and Sina told us they would have our hides if we let slip the nature of those talks to anyone other than you, my dear." The teen's eyes twinkled with joy. She knew where this was headed; her mother, Maggie, had asked for her approval weeks ago. It had taken her some time to come to terms with what her mother had asked. She still had some slight reservations about the talks and more than a few issues with even thinking the word marriage. Mr. Andersen picked up the staff and studied it for a moment before handing it to her, "This was the other half of the sapling that I used to make Jack's crook. I thought it would be an appropriate, if early, gift." The girl took the staff, admiring its gnarled top where the roots once were, and spoke with the upmost sincerity, "Thanks so much."
The wind helped her stand and pulled her into the open air. The whispers flew with her. They told her how to ride the currents and keep her balance.
After several falls to the ice and flying into trees, the girl finally got the hang of coasting with the wind. It seemed intensely happy to have a new playmate. So much so that it gusted some of the snow into the air. The girl laughed, a sound like silver bells, and used her staff to cause the flurries to fly higher. She felt the Moon smiling over her as she played through the night.
Eventually, the wind led her over the town of Burgess. The sun had just risen over the mountains, cascading its downy light on the sleepy town. There were a few townsfolk who had begun their day early enough to discover the new layer of snow on the ground.
The girl drifted down among the people. She was eager to show them what wonders had found her in the moonlight. She flitted among them, but none of the people she had grown up with seemed to see her. The girl had the wind carry her directly in front of the local baker.
"Hello?" she said uncertainly.
The baker looked past the girl he had spoken to only a few days before and then walked through her. The wind sensed her pain; the heart wrenching sensation that afflicted her entire body. It tried to carry her away to the lake, where it knew she wouldn't be walked through again. She asked it to do something for her instead.
The girl was in a state of panic by the time the wind set her down on at the house she had been born in. Her mind buzzed with millions of questions, but the Moon wasn't there to explain this. Inside, her family sat around the fireplace wearing black shrouds. No one was speaking or moving. Then her mother stood up. Even through the glass, she could see the tear stained face and hunched shoulders that marked the once proud woman.
"We will all mourn the two children whom we lost this past week," the aged woman said, her voice thick with emotion that could never be named, "My daughter, Sídhe, and her dear friend Jack, who drown in the lake."
The world fell away and nothing mattered in that instant except the crushing weight of knowledge. She and Jack had… died? The wind picked up, carrying her and screaming the emotions the girl knew she couldn't face. She wasn't aware of the storm brewing over her head nor the rain as it began to pour. All the girl knew was uncertainty.
Burgess faced its most extreme weather since its foundation nearly one hundred years ago that evening. Acute wind damage plagued the town accompanied by bouts of hail. The wind heard the pleas of the frightened villagers, but listened only to the young girl who had taken refuge in the higher altitudes.
"Zephyr, take me to the lake," Sídhe mumbled to the breeze, half asleep in its caring embrace.
The storm had sapped her, unknowingly, of her strength. Zephyr borne the young spirit to the frozen lake and lay her down on a low hanging thick tree branch. It whispered to her through the trees. The rustling of the branches sounded like a lullaby. Belatedly, she fell into a deep, dream-filled slumber.
In her dream, she felt something… different, as though someone was trying to speak to her, but would not use words. Instead, visions of wheat fields lay before her and even the dirt had taken on a tawny hue. A summer wind blew through the field she stood in. It played in the crops, making them wave akin to the oceans' ebb and flow.
Ocher daoine sìth, the Fair Folk, rose from the grain and danced around Sídhe; a haunting melody hung in the wind. From their midst, a short, blonde man appeared. His gravity defying hair made her giggle. He wore a strange suit made of what looked like sand and a smile that made her worries fly away with the fey. His silence was different than what she had encountered before; it was merry and comforting. For the first time in a long while, Sídhe felt something stirring within her. It took several minutes to recognize the emotion as hope.
As the dream faded, Sídhe was befuddled. The image of the strange little man floated beside her on a cloud made of golden sand. It took some time before she realized that what she was real. When she did, her curiosity piqued.
"Who are you?" she asked tentatively.
Several small images formed from the sand above his head; an hourglass and a diminutive sleeping child, then a golden moon.
She was remotely lost until he showed her the moon. Lune had told her about a group of beings who protected the children of the world. He had called them the Guardians and one of them was master of dreams.
"You're Sanderson… the Sandman, aren't you?" she asked. Her apprehension was suddenly replaced by a coy smile.
Sanderson nodded, and then turned to pick something up from his cloud of sand. He held up a piece of hail with some difficulty; it was the size of the Wind spirit's head. A question mark appeared above him. Sídhe started to answer, but couldn't bring herself to say the words. Even so, the Guardian understood. Actions spoke louder than words; the lamenting look in the young girls eyes was enough to explain everything.
Afterward: I'll eventually get this right. My Muse decided to visit while I was sick... *rolls eyes* happy days.