blackrobemage (nospaces!) yeah i gotta make them have faults. i just...i dont wanna! they are so happy and stuff...i kinda dont wanna give them some, but i should. prol'y be lame faults, too. actually, i guess shes overly curious, kinda stupidly compulsive...(lets grab onto the bird! oo great idea!) (lets run around like a freak and pass out) terrin is like mopey dopey man... ok im going nuts again...dont be sorry, i like that kind of critique!
i actually released my email! so proud of myself...yay...haha. anyway, write if you wanna. im just writing this in all my stories...its original....sorkarobinton@yahoo.com!
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Lianah awoke with a splitting headache. "Not again," she murmured, holding her head gingerly, as she took in her blue and silver surroundings. The dim lights in the room wavered in and out of view as she blinked warily, for her head pounded like a drum.
She thrashed out of the confining quilt, slightly panic-stricken at the unfamiliar room. Where was she? Jumping up, her green eyes took in the litter of feathers by the door and Terrin sprawled on a couch, halfway on the velvet cushions but partly on the floor. She supressed a giggle, but stopped when her mind finally registered fully the scene in front of her.
"Oh," she exclaimed quietly, replaying yesterday's scenes in her head. She frowned. But everything after the bird left was a blur...
Lia stood there, confused, for quite a while before a moving shimmer caught her eye. Swirling around, she saw a large hourglass filled with tiny glowing sapphires the size of strawberry seeds. The drops gleamed luminously in the darkened room, their cut shapes enticing. Wrapping herself in her rose silk shawl, she padded quietly over to the fine table it rested on. Her fingers itched to touch the fine craftsmanship...
She just about to reach out and caress the smooth glass when Terrin suddenly leaped up and shouted. "Lia, don't touch that!" Stepping back with a small gasp, her hand withdrew hastily. Still blinking sleep out of his brown eyes, the boy interposed his body between her and the hourglass.
"Terrin," Lianah asked, greatly alarmed, "What's wrong? What is that?"
Though he smiled wryly, the boy's dark eyes were sad. Turning to stare at the glowing timepiece, he sighed. "Lia, that's my life."
"Your life?" Her voice held a mixture of dismay and disbelief.
"Yes, it is my life." Pointing, he indicated the sapphires. "Each of those represent a day in which i can live free, and once they are gone..." he trailed off. Turning back to her, Terrin bit his lip. "Remember how i told you before, the bird took me here?" The girl nodded. "It showed me this, all the grains at the top, and...when it ran out I would change into one of them."
"One of what?" Lia whispered, though she knew the answer already.
"You know, one of it."
She shuddered. "But why?"
The boy shook his head. "I don't know. I also don't know why it would keep me here for two hundred years, except to watch me suffer." He paused. "The only way for me to escape transformation, which i would despise, is for my soul to become pure again. But then i would be drunk by the bird, so my destiny is still destruction."
"But isnt there a way to destroy it?" Lia argued, unwilling to give up. "I mean, a way to kill the bird, or turn the hourglass the other way...?" Staring at it, she whispered to herself, "But there's so little left to fall..." Terrin, however, didn't hear her soft voice.
Terrin thought a moment. "There was this book i was reading, many years ago, about folk lore and other mythical creatures..." he said. "I had just begun on the different strains of phoenix when the bird appeared and snatched it out of my hands, and threw it in the fireplace."
He grinned. "I did learn a few things, though. Like the bird drinks souls every year, and can fly through doors and walls. I also learned that it keeps its souls behind its eyes, which is why when you look into the bird's eyes, you see their victim's final moments..."
Sighing, he sat down on an empty chair. "I was just reading about destruction when the book was taken away, but...the bird can only be killed by death of the Pureblade. That's all I know..."
Thinking hard, Lia wondered out loud. "Pureblade...that's strange. Did you search the palace for something that could fit the description?"
He nodded. "I even scoured the library for more books, but there are no more."
Remembering a remark he had made before, Lia asked, "What is a pure soul?"
The boy stood. "Look into this mirror." She obliged and peered into a gleaming silver surface, its border shaped like an unfolding rose. She gasped, for her reflection had a pale aura of silvery shadow around it.
"What is that?"
"Your soul is pure." His fingertips, seen through the reflection, gently brushed the edge of the glimmering shadow that was her soul, but as she turned his hand withdrew hastily.
Terrin had no such aura around him. "Is it hatred that makes a soul...unpure?" she asked softly.
He nodded sadly once before assuming a cheerful mood. "You're catching on!" he laughed. Continuing comically, his voice pitched overly low and serious, "Every rule of Nature previously assumed is broken in this castle, deep in the enchanted woods." His humorus stance dissolved as they broke into laughter.
"C'mon, lets go outside." The glint in his eye was hopeful, and his face still strained with desperation. He needed a good cheering up, after the depressing discussion they just had. In fact, he always seemed to be depressed...
"Wait, I have to change!" Lia said, realizing she was still in her sleeping clothes. "Maybe you sleep in your clothes, but i am in a nightgown." She grinned.
"Fine, fine. Meet you outside?"
"Definately."
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copyright sorka robinton 2001