The entire city burned in a sea of red, yellow and orange. A young girl ambled across the streets in a daze, head ringing from the sounds of shattering stone. Her pale blue dress was ripped and stained with the ashes that fell from the sky like snow. Her hair, rippling gracefully in the wind only yesterday, was matted with the blood pouring from a wound on her head. She watched glistening shards of glass cascade from the burning buildings as flames licked the charred window frames. Then they ripped through the buildings surrounding her, tendrils of smoke reaching desperately into the sky as if trying to escape the blazing inferno below.
There was a deafening roar. The thick reinforced walls of the city caved inwards, and shards of stone flew into the streets, burning everything they touched. They cut arms and seared the faces of the city people as they flew by, and the residual heat from the explosion began to blister the girl's skin. But that heat was only growing stronger.
From the earth-shattering rumbles came the screams and cries of her people, as a monstrous being emerged from the crumbled city walls. The acrid smell of burning coals reached deep in into the young girl's lungs before her eyes fell upon the beast. It was a menacing creature, twice the size of the tallest man she knew, seemingly consisting purely of shadow and flame. As it stepped onto the streets, the ground underneath her feet rumbled so violently that she fell like the tallest towers of the city, which crumbled away like dust.
"Ffion! Ffion!"
Pale blue eyes snapped open and stared up at the plain white ceiling. Ffion's heart was pounding as if a hypodermic needle of adrenaline had emptied into her carotid artery. But her mind was clear and empty. Ffion's mother was hovering above her, clinging onto her daughter as if her life depended on it. She looked scared, terrified even, and Ffion knew that she'd had another night terror. Luckily for her, she never remembered much of it. Only the faint sensation of heat lingered on her skin, but when she put her fingers on her skin, it was cold as ice.
"Ffion, wake up!"
"I'm okay, Mam," Ffion said faintly, her heart still pounding. Her mother didn't let go of her. Instead, she pulled her daughter into a tighter hug. "Mam, I'm fine."
"I know, I know," her mother whispered.
"I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No, no."
Ffion heaved a sigh. She was lucky. On bad days, her mother or father would get scratched up, trying to wrangle and calm their thrashing daughter. Sometimes, Ffion would run straight out of her bed, screaming. She'd fallen down the stairs and broke her arm once, and a collarbone a few years later. Her parents dreaded the day she broke something they couldn't fix.
Heaving a sigh, Ffion's mother squeezed her daughter one final time before leaving the room. Ffion watched her go and lay back onto the floor. She was at the end of her bed, legs still tangled up in her blankets. Ffion took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, running her hands over her face. Slowly, she slid the quilt aside and stood, not bothering to toss them back onto her bed. Ffion got dressed, pulling on a pair of jeans that she had to wrangle over her thighs, and expertly put on yesterday's bra without removing her shirt. She shrugged at her dark circles in the mirror and then hopped down the hall to put on her socks.
When she came downstairs, her mum was waiting with a plate of Welsh cakes and a cup of tea. Ffion grabbed one and shook off the excess cinnamon sugar; her mother always put too much.
"Currants or raisins?" she asked, examining the mystery fruit in her cakes.
"Currants, of course," her mother replied. "You don't have to go to school today, you know."
"You trying to turn me into a mitcher, Mam?"
"'Course not. I'm just saying."
"I've got a project due in two weeks, and I haven't even started it yet. To be honest, like, I should probably be at school early."
Ffion grabbed another cake from the counter, shook it, then threw on her coat and her backpack. Her mother looked at her, worried, but followed her daughter out the door without a word.
The countryside rolled past Ffion as her mother drove. Even under the grey skies, it stretched like a giant quilt of golden, brown and green squares held together by the thick green stitching of hedgerows. It rose and fell like giant waves on a gentle ocean and was dotted with animals. Occasionally there was a wood that separated the fields, or a farmhouse or barn. Beyond, mist rested softly on mountain peaks like a cloth draped over a pillow.
A small smile grew at the corners of Ffion's mouth. Seeing the countryside always made her feel better, no matter how bad the dream was. It was peaceful, the complete opposite of what she'd gone through earlier, and Ffion hoped that these views were the precursor to a better day.
The streets of Aberystwyth were glorious in their conception. The walkways were smooth grey stones, joined with such precision that the joins were nearly invisible. The walls were concrete, but not like in a rural villa in Spain; they were colourful, shades of white and blue that echoed the crashing waves of the nearby ocean, and yellows that mirrored the sun. By the seafront was the old college, and a few streets in was the University, a world seemingly populated by groups of three or four teenagers milling about with rucksacks of all colours on their backs. At 21, Ffion felt old here.
"Thanks, Mam," Ffion said as her mother pulled up to the University. "I'll text you when my day's done."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. If I don't feel up to it, I'll just ask Dafydd to give me a lift home, okay?"
"Okay, okay. Love you, Ffi."
"Love you, too."
Ffion watched her mother drive off and then glanced at the horizon. Even under the grey clouds of Wales, the ocean managed to glitter like thousands of sapphires. She could hear the waves from where she stood, and their soothing sound gave her a little more confidence to bear with school for the day. For a moment, she regretted not taking up her mother's offer.
Dafydd was easy enough to spot once she got to class. He was the only blond in a sea of brunets, and it helped that he always saved the same spots. With a pen in hand and his books already open, Dafydd didn't notice Ffion sit next to him until she flicked him on the side of the head.
"Aigh'?"
"Aigh'?"
"Not gonna like to you, you look like a right mess," Dafydd said when he saw her face.
"Thanks, butt," Ffion sighed. "Think maybe I should have put on some concealer or something. Might scare away the kids."
"By kids, I hope you mean our lecturer."
Ffion was woken by a sharp jab in her side. Class had been dismissed, and Ffion had missed all of it. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and Dafydd gave her a sarcastic greeting as she became aware of her surroundings. Ffion chuckled and gave him a small punch to the shoulder, then packed up her things. The lecturer said nothing as they left, which meant he'd gotten too excited about economics again to even notice half his students were sleeping.
Laughter sounded along the halls, joined with excited conversations and shouts. Model worthy girls were perched on benches like exotic birds, gossiping and giggling. A rugby ball flew above Ffion and Dafydd's head, caught by one of the school team's players, and several other young dashed forward, overly excited about the simple catch. Groups of what looked like high schoolers wandered around, laughing and causing all sorts of problems, all except half a dozen of them that sat silently, staring at their laptop screens, massive headphones glued to their heads. A small breeze brushed past Ffion's ear; she followed it to find a blue paper aeroplane clumsily gliding through the air, before turning around and poking Dafydd in the forehead. He caught the plane and threw it behind him, aiming the people who'd tossed it in the first place.
"What a twp," Dafydd sighed, glancing back again.
"Shut it, Dai," Ffion chuckled. "It was just a paper aeroplane."
"D'you have any other classes today?"
"We see each other every day, haven't you figured my schedule?"
"Can't be bothered. I know you'll just tell me."
Ffion rolled her eyes.
"No, I don't. Did you have plans?"
"I was going to hit Ship & Castle with Lewis and Osian. Fancy a pint?"
"Ah, no, I'm fine," Ffion said, shaking her head. "I think I'll just text my Mam and call it a day."
"Okay. I can give you a lift home if you want. I'm not meeting the lads for a bit."
"Yeah?"
"'Course."
Ffion loved Dafydd's car. She'd come to think of it as being part of the landscape. It belonged on the streets of Wales as much as the trees and the sheep. The old rabbit's engine sputtered when Dafydd turned the key, as usual, and it took forever for Ffion to get the window down. But as the car engine sung to the deserted country roads, Ffion relished the brisk, roaring winds that twirled in her long black hair, and secretly dreaded the day that the old rabbit died.
She thanked Dafydd for the ride as he pulled into her driveway and gave him a short wave as he drove off again. Ffion's mother was waiting for her at the kitchen table, her laptop and papers sprawled about the table as usual. They gave each other a short greet, and Ffion went up to her room to change. She came back down in old sweat pants and a shirt full of grease spots, hair tied up haphazardly to keep it out of her face.
"Is Dad in the garage, Mam?"
"Should be. Grab yourself something to eat before you go out."
Ffion grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter and then went to the back. Ffion's father had converted the garage into a small home business, and it was from there that he made the most spectacular jewellery. He had a small forge in one corner, a grinding and sanding station in the other, and hundreds of feet of ventilation tubes connecting them both to the outside. Ffion's dad was sitting at his workbench, hunched over a small glinting piece of silver in the low lamplight.
"Alrigh', Ffi?" he said without moving.
"Alrigh', Dad?" Ffion said back. "You still working on Ms Rhys' ring?"
"Aye. We got another order in, too. Can you start on it? Should be on me desk."
Ffion nodded to herself and took a bite of her apple. She sorted through her father's desk beside the garage's entrance until she found the cleanest piece of paper there.
"Simple band. Small adornment. Stone of choice," Ffion read aloud. "Who's it for?"
"Don't know. Your Mam got the order from a friend."
"Lends to a lot of creativity."
Ffion shrugged and quickly finished her apple, then got to work. She pulled two small pieces of recycled silver from her father's collection of materials and went to her own workbench. Ffion had been helping her father make rings for the past five years, and it was for this reason that she was studying business. When she finally graduated and got her degree, she wanted to help her dad expand his business and make jewellery with him full-time.
Ffion pulled out a torch and began annealing one of the small bars of silver. Once it was annealed, Ffion grabbed it with tongs and brought it to the bending machine and shaped it into a circle. Then she placed the ring onto the tip of an anvil and hit it until the ends came close together. Ffion went over to her father's workbench and used his fine jeweller's saw to cut off the excess, and then she went back to the anvil to close the ring as much as possible.
"What'd you pick?" Ffion's dad asked, coming to stare at her work over her shoulder.
"Silver," Ffion said. "I think I'm going to do a couple of twists, and then maybe one of the blue gems. Have you gotten any aquamarines, recently?"
"No. But I've got topaz."
"Oh, that'll do."
Ffion's father gave her a gentle squeeze of the shoulder, then left the garage, presumably to help her mother with supper. Meanwhile, Ffion filled the gap with a sliver of silver, soldered it and covered in flux paste. She headed over to the forge and turned it on, adjusting the knobs to get it to the right temperature, and then heated the ring until it was glowing bright and evenly. Ffion quickly removed it from the forge and quenched it, then dropped into the heated pickle to dissolve the flux.
While the flux dissolved, Ffion searched her father's box of gems and found a lovely squared blue topaz. After placing it onto her workbench, she grabbed the ring from the pickle and dropped it onto a mandrel, checking to see if it has the right size. Then, the long part started. Ffion sat down at her workbench and pulled out a file. She clamped the ring down and began meticulously filing down the edges to round out the ring. She'd only stopped when her father came to get her for dinner.
"Ffion go shower before dinner," her mother said as she came inside and began serving herself.
"There's no point, Mam, I'm going back to the garage after."
"Come on, Ffion, you've been in there for hours already. You need to sleep."
"No, I don't," Ffion argued. "I don't want to have another terror two days in a row. I'll just take my dinner out."
She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and then her plate, and went back outside to the garage, unnecessarily annoyed. She ate quickly, downed half her bottle of water, and then went back to work.
She used the fine jeweller's saw to cut a few slivers of metal, which she heated and connected at the base, and then to the ring, to create some sort of conglomeration of silver branches. She heated the silver branches again and twisted them until they whimsically took the shape of the stone she'd set in there. Again, she spent the next few hours filing down everything until it was smooth. By then, it was dark, her parents had gone to bed, and the only light that was shining was the one on her workbench.
Ffion gently placed the stone into the silver branches and positioned it just right so that when she bent the branched to hold the gem, it clamped it down permanently. She grabbed a small hammer and gently tapped on the edges of the branches. Ffion filed down all the rough edges and then buffed the ring with a few different abrasives until it began sparkling. Finally, when the sun was starting to rise again, Ffion washed the ring and polished it with a clean piece of leather until the newly created ring sparkled in the low light.
Ffion sat back in her chair and stared at the ring she'd just completed. It was quite beautiful for something she'd made in only twelve hours, and she was sure that whomever this was for, that they'd love it. Ffion tagged it and put it on her father's workbench, then locked up the garage before heading inside. She took a long shower, hoping to postpone sleep as much as possible, but when her mother knocked asking for her to hurry, she knew she couldn't avoid it for much longer.
When Ffion left the bathroom, her mother said something about going out, but the girl barely heard her mother before she shut her bedroom door behind her. After changing into her pyjamas, Ffion laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. All the reasons not to sleep came flooding in as if her body was already anticipating another night terror. She could feel the soft panic that could grow even more depending on what she did next. It would fade if she fell asleep, but then she'd have to run the risk of putting herself through another night terror. Then again, she could also just have a good night's sleep.
Heaving a sigh, Ffion decided to risk sleep. Her eyes were hurting, her arms were sore from hammering metal all night, and the heat of the forge had taken a lot more energy out of her than she'd thought. Before long, Ffion was drifting off into sleep.
The entire city burned in a sea of red, yellow and orange. A young girl ambled across the streets in a daze, head ringing from the sounds of shattering stone. Her pale blue dress was ripped and stained with the ashes that fell from the sky like snow. Her hair, rippling gracefully in the wind only yesterday, was matted with the blood pouring from a wound on her head. She watched glistening shards of glass cascade from the burning buildings as flames licked the charred window frames. Then they ripped through the buildings surrounding her, tendrils of smoke reaching desperately into the sky as if trying to escape the blazing inferno below.
There was a deafening roar. The thick reinforced walls of the city caved inwards, and shards of stone flew into the streets, burning everything they touched. They cut arms and seared the faces of the city people as they flew by, and the residual heat from the explosion began to blister the girl's skin. But that heat was only growing stronger.
From the earth-shattering rumbles came the screams and cries of her people, as a monstrous being emerged from the crumbled city walls. The acrid smell of burning coals reached deep in into the young girl's lungs before her eyes fell upon the beast. It was a menacing creature, twice the size of the tallest man she knew, seemingly consisting purely of shadow and flame. As it stepped onto the streets, the ground underneath her feet rumbled so violently that she fell like the tallest towers of the city, which crumbled away like dust.
A sharp pain went up through her leg, and the girl knew that that was it. She tried to back away, but the debris from the crumbled walls was stopping her. She tried to push some out of the way, but the beast roared and, frozen in fear, the girl stopped moving. From the shadow that surrounded it, the creature pulled out an immense many-thronged whip. It crackled and sparked like flame, and even from a distance, the girl could feel its heat. As it got closer, her mouth began to dry up, as did her eyes, and when it was merely feet away, her skin started to bubble and blister. The pain grew and grew as the fiery beast cracked his whip until it became merciless without escape. For a moment, the girl felt too weak to continue. Her head lolled, and her eyelids were getting heavy, and it was in that moment that the beast roared one last time, and the fires claimed the young, defenceless girl.