That the Blind Might See

Written for contest at "Invalid Item" .  Flash Fiction, 500 words.

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Binda had ever been a warrior.  The string of her bow was pulled tight, the arrow pointed straight at the heart of the Unseeing. Were she to let go, the creature would die, never to swathe the world in darkness again.  The wind wafted through her wings, slightly distorting her vision with their green haze as they wrapped around her, but she did not stand down.

All Binda knew of these terrible creatures was their blindness to reality, their inability to see beauty in the life that fell all around them.  Even now, she knew the creature saw little of the glory surrounding her, the verdant green of the grass on the banks near the bottom of the cliff, the lush prismatic clarity of the water as it dipped over the fall.

Sprites were the lucky ones, the ones who still saw the richness of the world around them, the life force exuding from every living being.  The world provided its children with a tapestry of prismatic hues, if one could only see them.

Binda had been watching her for weeks, biding her time, waiting for the opportune moment.  But somehow this creature, Skie, had ceased being an Unseeing to Binda. Her dark eyes and dour countenance drew Binda to her.  Binda held an appreciation for the darker things.

So did Skie. When Binda was nearby, Skie would stare straight through her, as if willing her to appear. Binda had obliged by stepping into Skie's dreams, telling her riddles she could never answer.

All this had led Binda here, taking aim at the woman as she overlooked a large waterfall. The woman leapt, and Binda acted on sheer instinct, using all the magic she could to guide Skie safely to the grasses below.

Binda sat near the now unconscious woman and wondered whether she would be worth the cost of her choice. Binda gripped her bow. Perhaps Skie was not as blind as most Unseeing, but she was still one of Them, the creatures destroying their world.  Binda’s duty was to rid the world of her dark influence. 

Binda dropped the bow. Instead, she danced her fingertips across Skie’s eyes, whispering the forbidden incantation.

"You're alive," Binda whispered, watching as Skie’s eyes slowly opened, taking in the world she'd never seen before.
Skie turned, and Binda smiled as her appreciative gaze was finally returned.  "Like what you see?" Binda teased.

The woman blinked.  "You're....beautiful…What are you?"

Binda smiled.  "I am that which you long for every night as you fall asleep, that which you see in all your dreams but forget come morning, that for which you yearn so greatly that you longed to abandon life rather than live it without."

Binda stood, offering her hand to Skie.  "Now is your moment of truth, Skie.  You can die here, never knowing what might be, or you can let me show you things you never imagined."

Skie smiled and placed her hand in Binda's.  Binda spread her wings, and they flew.