SON OF SEA

Prompt: A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words Summer contest (500)

Date: July 2022


They called her witch because it was the greatest insult they could fathom.

She was not born of magic, nor could she command it. She had found but a small slice to wield, and even that she barely controlled.

She was in every way that mattered, completely and utterly ordinary.

Her village sat on a clifftop, over-looking a mighty, dark sea. On the shores below, these two worlds met at a sharp contrasting point; black rocky sands meeting white foam. Night and Day. Those who dwelt above were not meant to exist anywhere else.

That is what the natural order demanded.

And that was exactly what she was trying to defy.

She wished for the sea with every fiber of her being. She craved it, lured to the sea's shores by the siren call of the waves.

It was her heart song, she knew it, and if she could just get to the source, she'd finally be home.

The sea was a forbidden place she was not to step foot in, but she would pace along the shore, chasing the white foam, just out of reach of it. She wanted to let it take her, but she didn't dare.

She knew once the sea had you, she never let go, and despite the desire of her heart, she was not yet ready to leave the life she'd always known behind.

Every day, she would leave the safety of the fishing village and travel a hidden path down to the rocky shore below. Her feet were calloused from traversing barefoot over the rocks day after day, year after year. Without shoes was the only way to get to the beach; the rocks could be fatally slippery unless one could feel every single groove and crevice below them.

She would spend many hours, pacing the shore, wishing to dive below the haunting icy surface.

But the sea was not for her, just like the shore was not for them.

They had many names, but none of which you could utter aloud for fear that they would come and steal you away at night.

She knew this fear was unfounded; she'd spent many a night whispering under her pillow, longing for them to take her.

They never did.

She would have to find her own way, she'd decided one day. She'd have to find a way to live in both worlds.

That's when she turned to magic.

But magic was not in her blood, and she could not be trusted to wield it.

That was the beginning of the end.

In her desperation, she tried to command the sea, but the Sea cannot be controlled, and she will take from anyone who dares to try.

The sea came with a vicious fury, and one by one plucked away all that the girl held most dear until she was utterly alone.

Heartbroken, the girl swore vengeance on that which she once loved.

And she would not stop until the sea herself knelt to her.