Crystal Children

"This beach doesn’t seem that bad…" murmurs the girl in reply, trying to stay positive, despite the overwhelming urge to give in to defeat; aside from the malevolent storm brewing out there, and the endless rain, of course. In comparison to the totally creepy woodland, however, it was paradise. At least she could see any monsters that decided to eat her out here, and the cave seemed interesting. She had never got to go, but daddy had told her of the Heart Caves, and how one was full of crystal. It was slightly consoling to know that, while she’d never get to see that Crystal Cavern, she could go see this one. That is, if some sea beast didn’t rise up from the sea, jaws snapping, and eat her on her way over to explore it. It’s not enough consolation to stop her river of tears, and no sooner does she start to cry, than her new friend does, too. Maude, compassionate and caring, quickly moves to embrace the crying girl, though she cannot staunch her own tears, and, together, they fall to the sand, sobbing and whimpering. What Otem is blubbering makes the healer’s daughter cry all the harder, her tears thicker, and more steadily flowing than they had been at her own pain. The Mountain! Otem’s mother had been the Mountain?! Had the world been a normal one, not rife with grief and fear, she would have asked the aching question burning within her breast that no one knew the answer to: why was the Earth’s daughter called a mountain, when she was a horse? It greatly flummoxed young Maude, this conundrum, but, in the throes of her weeping and Otem’s grave, terrible loss, the question doesn’t even rise to mind. All she can think of now is the image of the Mountain’s death, alongside the strange girl trailing embers and ash, and how they had become one in the energies which had shielded Maude and everyone else from Kaos’ malevolence. Struggling with her own fears and worries that her family is dead or lost forever, the appearance of the fairy is, at first, uplifting: her tears seem to slow as she looks up hopefully at its magical presence, but, when it falls away, clearly a contrivance of personal magic, not a blessing from the one kind nature God in this terrible, dark place, she feels that fleeting light crushed away. "M-m-me too," she cries and sniffles, rubbing her cheeks against her knee. Though she tries to stop the tears, they refuse, stubbornly flowing, her nose a font of goo that she sucks back to keep it from running. " I d-d-don’t even know wh-where mine… i-i-i-i-i-is." Sucking in a deep, warbling breath, Maude unleashes a hot sigh, which she hopes to cast out all her crying with (a trick her vanished dam had taught her). It works, somewhat, at least allowing her to clearly speak again, though she still leaks from both eyes with slow, steady trickles. It was childish of her, to complain about someone merely being missing, when someone else was dealing with death. "I’m sorry about your mom," she quietly remarks through her sorrow, glancing at her new friend in a way she hopes truly expresses how she feels about her sacrifice, "I...I was writing a song, about the Gods, and Helovia. Before everything…" The upset threatens to overwhelm her again, but she sucks it back with a warbling breath, and carries on. "We were making the Moon a temple on the Edge, overlooking the sea. I was going to sing the song there when we finished, but… well, doesn’t matter now when I finish it, so," her shrug is defeated, sad, her teary eyes looking down at her pearly knees with a hollow ache building in her breast, "I’ll change it, now. To remember the Gods, and how brave your mom and that other woman were, and the others that Kaos ki-... How brave all of them were." When all I did was run away... MaudeHow should we like it if the stars were to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me.

Image Credits | Table