Element

The Visit


         The familiar face of our tall clock frowned at me as I tread silently down the hall. In the dark, its hands were like long, shadowy fingers, beckoning me to steer closer. "That clock controls our lives," Granmara always said. "When we eat, when we bathe...the patterns of wake and sleep."  The dreamy illusion of my grandmother's voice faded softly down the wooden stairs, swallowed by rustling branches and whispering winds.
         "Nuri," a soft voice whistled. I turned and brushed against a pale arm floating in mid-air. Slender, ghostly fingers slowly lifted the hood of my friend's black cape. Her shining face was smiling. "Are you excited?"
         "You gave me a start," I replied quietly. Her eyes were huge and flickering with intensity. "We could get into trouble for being awake at this hour," I warned. "Especially during scavenger season."
         Daelfine nodded but did not seem wholly disconcerted. "I know, but it has been such a very long time since I have seen her, and you should not cross those woods alone." I nodded faintly, but she doesn't know how many times I have ran the kingdom's length in a night, over many years. "Besides," she added, glancing both ways before opening the ancient arched door, "We are sixteen. Centaurs will not prey on us anymore, so we need not fear them. And the giants will not allow vampires near the valley...so we are safe."
         I could not help but laugh at how naïve Daelfine was. "There are more creatures to worry about than the werewolves or vampires," I said, crossing over the bridge into the dead of night. Tall ebony trees, foreboding against the curve of an enormous moon, cast their shadows across the field into another stretch of entangled forest. I could sense nerves rippling up and down Daelfine's skin, but she kept a steady pace. It has been very long indeed, since she has last inhaled moonlight air. Rules of the Aalors kingdom have changed drastically since our borders were invaded by Trivar, the country directly north of Aalors. Ever since my uncle came to power, his fear of creatures larger or stronger than himself has led to an annexation of our kingdom and complete isolation. Dragons, who rule the night sky, have no barrier and therefore can take flight over our territory from dusk ‘til dawn, so night-time activity outside is strictly illegal. Giants barricade our land from "undesirables"- Cyclopes', griffins, vampires, ogres, werewolves, trolls, sea-serpents, and the like. We were protected from many of those creatures, but certainly not all, and absolutely not the dragons. In scavenger season, to be seen by a dragon is suicide.
         "How far away is she?" Daelfine hissed. Both of us studied the sky as we walked, watching for dark shadows circling overhead. Trivar leaked monsters stricken with deadly diseases into our country, including Red Belzar Dragons. A single curl of smoke from a Red Belzar's breath will suffocate anyone within thirty feet.
         "She lives a good distance from the village, if that's what you mean," I retorted. "Keep your hood over your face, Daelfine." Immediately her short white hair shrank from sight.
         "Sorry," she apologized. "Sure am glad the moon's so bright, or else I think I would trip over all those branches." She ducked underneath a low bough from a young oak. A lot of trees in these woods grew upside-down, with their roots high in the air and their leaves sweeping earth, half-buried. Opposite Planting, as well as other favorite tricks by forest fairies causes all sorts of court skirmishes, which my uncle hastily tries to undo as soon as he becomes aware of them. He says the wizards of Aalors have worked too hard trying to keep our country, and the other two magical countries that make up Tempus Isle, off the human map. Our enchantments have sealed us away from other nations very unlike ours, who had driven their "undesirables" from their lands for thousands of years. Any dragon, elf, or mermaid left behind is hunted, captured, dissected, and brutally murdered. All of those who wish to be safe from those destructive humans reside quietly on Tempus Isle, which is invisible to our enemy.
         "There should be a flooded stream coming up," I muttered to myself, scraping Giant Bluebeetles off my arms and legs. The black woods swallowed us whole, leaving no trace of the tall, jagged castle and my brightly lit village behind us. I smiled to myself at the thought of Uncle's reaction to the town leaving their lanterns on past sunset...he would be absolutely livid. Our resistance to his new rules is our only defense against being complete puppets. I would not, however, especially enjoy crossing paths with a Red Belzar, but I do find other "undesirables" quite fascinating. Maybe that is because my best friend has the blood of one herself, and I myself am finding my kind more and more scarce.
         "Nuri, is she in the stream?" Daelfine inquired, astonished.
         I laughed softly. "Of course not. I think it's obvious where she must be."
         "Well - yes, but I wasn't sure if she's relocated because of the war. If your uncle knew you were still coming to see her, he'd have a complete fit."
         "Granmara doesn't care in the slightest," I said, holding my head up high. "and her opinion means a whole lot more than some old uncle who doesn't even care about our family." She nodded in agreement.
         Even through the hood, her nearly transparent glow was still visible to me. With my strong eyesight, nothing could quite mask the icy tone of her skin, except the sun. The suns' assistance lent Daelfine an appearance of an ivory-complexioned blonde, with slightly sharpened features and frosty blue eyes. When exposed to her elements- the darkness of night and the moon's spell, she releases that shell and then you can see her true self. Daelfine's chin-length white hair, sleek and straight, is like a reflection- wispy and only partly there. At some angles, it appears very, very long. At other angles, the hair is more like short fur. Her skin is almost pure white, with a slight tinge of blue. If I were elvish, her skin would seem wholly blue. Daelfine's eyes have pale gray pupils and silver irises. The closer to a full moon, the curvier her lips are, the longer her nose is, and the stormier the color and expression of her eyes become. Unless you have blood like mine, all of her features are dimmed, and to another's eye she would always look normal, a spell her mother cast for her protection. Unfortunately for them, no spell can guard against the grand effect during a full moon, so if one was to see her then, they would know her secret.
         On the night of a full moon, no one is safe from Daelfine. The ghost of a girl becomes full-on werewolf, acknowledging the father she never knew, who still runs wild with his pack in the northern regions of Sluthorn, the mountainous country north of Aalors. Sluthorn is nothing but wilderness and wild creatures. She takes these forests and hills of Aalors by storm. In that skin, she knows every rock, every tree, and the scent of another person breathing from a mile away. When chasing her prey, she knew which tree in which they sought refuge, because she could actually see the wind trail behind them after they'd turned another direction. If they jumped into a lake, Daelfine knew a victim's sweat from all the other billions of water droplets. As much as I love her, being raised like sisters, Daelfine honestly terrifies me to death when it is close to a full moon. If my uncle knew her secret, she would be exiled to Sluthorn faster than her jaws can tighten around a bear's throat.
         Daelfine sensed my uneasiness. She clucked her tongue in tune with the crickets. "Not to worry, Nuri my dear. The beautiful moon is far from whole." Through her hood, I could see disappointment in her silver eyes. They looked like two huge orbs reflecting that which her father worships.
         "Almost there," I told her, taking her hand and leading her out of the forest into a clearing. Open sky smeared against the rolling sea. My stomach lurched with every wave, my knees weakening. To Daelfine, I knew the darkness must have less power. She loses control over herself when the darkness is too pure. My eyes, unlike Daelfine's, never vary in color.  Merpeople have spectacular-colored eyes, which are built for seeing through dark, murky water. The pupils are always a glittering garnet - almost black, but not quite. My irises are gold, flecked with amber. In a family of mostly fairies, my eyes are the first thing to give me away as seablood.
         An overwhelming urge to dive into the ocean swept over me, but Daelfine held me back. She senses what other people do not, and that is one of the benefits of our friendship. She usually can predict what I feel based on my heart rate, which her wolfish ears strongly detect. Since she is also influenced by her blood, she understands how I feel when exposed to the elements. Her element is the moon. Mine is the sea.
         "And this is where my mother sleeps," I whispered, my words washing away like the tide. Every particle of sand under my feet was felt a thousand times over. The salty air was highly concentrated in my presence, making it very difficult to stand still. I watched longingly as Daelfine's moon reflected on my sea, like a gigantic black mirror, illuminating every tip of every wave. I wanted more than anything to be gliding below the surface, reaching out with my fingertips to touch the cool night air, and then to dig deeper below and find the mother I knew must be swimming swiftly near.
         "There she is," Daelfine gasped as a head slid above water. Violet curls spread like lilies on the surface, and a wet, pale face smiled at me. She swam closer, and rested in the lagoon next to a big boulder.
         We sat down next to her, our legs hanging off the rock into the lagoon. An intoxicating warmth washed over me as my ankles touched the cold water. Dive, dive, dive, the sea called to me. "My Nuri," Mother said, touching a hand to my cheek. The warmth drained from me with her freezing touch. I had forgotten about the temperature of a mermaid who never raises her head above the waves during daylight. Mother's long lower body, extending into elaborate green fins, gleamed marvelously for us to see. Each scale was an entirely different shade of green than the next, and all of them shimmered like captured starlight.
         "How have you been?" I asked softly. "I brought Daelfine. You remember her?"
         "Of course I remember little Daelfine," she responded. "Although, not so little anymore..."
         "Have you been staying around these shores?" I ventured. It's dangerous for her to swim too far out, past the lines of enchantments. If a human found her...I shuddered to think of my mother's fate. "Granmara and I worry about you out here by yourself. I know most of the other merpeople have migrated south of Trivar, where it is warmer. You stay here only because that's where I am, but you really should be where it's best for you."
         She pursed her lips. "Don't worry about me," she said. "I worry about you enough for the both of us. That uncle of yours would kill you for coming out here at this time of night, and with reason. I spotted a herd of ogres traveling very near here."
         I shrugged. "Daelfine and I like the night. Besides, I had to visit one last time before tomorrow. My uncle ‘requests my presence' in the morning, and although Granmara warns he must be up to no good, I'll see what he's up to. Either way, I think it'll be at least a week before I could visit again, unnoticed."
         Spray jetted out of the rocks near us, soaking Daelfine's cloth slippers. She winced. "Probably for the best," Mother decided. "I certainly don't want him watching you again. I know he doesn't like you talking to me, anyway. He thinks you'll decide to join me as a mermaid and then he won't have another heir to boss around. Pity." Her eyes were sad and solemn. She was right, and I knew it because she most certainly did want me to join her. But I could not do so. I could not become like them, who were lost in the depths of water and never rose from them again. Once you have a taste of it, it is hard to go back.
         "I'm sorry," I said to her. "I'm not ready for that sort of life."
         She gave me a half- smile, and touched a strand of my gold-red hair. "Defiance," she said. "That's the human in you."
         My heart skipped a beat every time she mentioned that. I knew that somewhere in the other nations, of people who are all the same, perhaps least one man knew of Tempus Island. Mother told me the story long ago, when she was still living in our Aalorsian home, when she had two legs, warm skin, and was a prominent person in my life. Before her calling for the sea became so overwhelming that she left me with Granmara. She whispered to me before I went to bed all the details of how they fell in love after his ship wrecked on an island very near to ours. My mother, who cannot resist exploration, found him floating steadily toward Trivar upon a large piece of driftwood. She took him to a cave in Aalors, and told her family that he was merman. My father apparently had an exceptional shade of green eyes for being human, so he was able to fool her village. They were married, and she gave birth to me. When I was four years old, my father disappeared. Granmara thinks he went back to where he came from, using one of our own boats, but Mother disagrees. Mother thinks that he was drowned by Trivarians when the war broke out.
         After my father left, Mother left us for the ocean, and never came back.


***


         Our visit didn't last as long as my mother hoped, but I was tired of watching Daelfine scan the sky for dragons and hippogryphs. As my mother's distant figure bobbing in the sea grew faint, the forest seemed even darker and more forbidden than usual. It was always this way- much scarier returning. Having company helped a bit, because of how chipper Daelfine was feeling. She loved a good adventure, and tonight was just the thing to keep her spirits up. Despite her paranoia of a dragon swooping down from the sky and eating us whole, she had no problem whatsoever with talking quite audibly.
         "Daelfine, you're going to get us heard by someone we do not want hearing us," I said. "Remember, there are those who can hear even better than you can, and see better than I can. Let's just hurry up and get back."
         "No need to be bossy, I already know," she grumbled, but then continued on with her normal self. "Do you think your uncle would mind if I tagged along tomorrow?"
         "Shhh..." I stopped dead in my tracks, my eyes widening. I knew Daelfine heard it too, because she pulled her hood closer about her white face and cocked her head to the side, listening intently. A long, ghostly finger extended from her sleeve and I turned towards the direction which she was pointing. Daelfine's senses were so acute that I knew she was not mistaken. Glazing my eyes over, I peered into the thick wood. My spine knew it was there before I did, and began to tingle. A shadowy figure was leaning against a tall leafy Oak, staring in our direction. I realized my hood had fallen down, exposing vivid reddish- gold hair and fair skin which contrasted eerily with the moonlight. "Come on, we've got to hurry," I said.
         Daelfine and I huddled close together and scrambled out of the forest as quickly as possible. Being so frightened, we were noiser than we realized, but we became calm once we were within sight of the village. Very few lanterns still burned brightly amongst the stone houses with thatched roofs. One of them was ours. A ghastly black shadow loomed over the dirt roads full of sleeping chickens and square gardens. I didn't have to glance upon the high hill to know it was King Sol's castle- the gloomy home where my uncle ruled his village, and every other village that made up Aalors.
         Daelfine turned just before my street to enter her house, where her brother was burning a light for her. She whispered goodbye, and as she neared the lantern, her eyes rotated from silver to blue, and then back to silver as she entered her dark house. As I made my way to the familiar cottage on the fifth row, diagonal from hers, my nerves danced with the illusion of someone watching me. My eyes swept the village, but I saw nothing to be worried about. Then I entered the house I shared with Granmara and my aunt and cousin, and did not look back.



Aizza



         Now would be a good time to tell you about my grandmother, who is the most important person in my whole life. She raised me since I was four, and practically raised her other granddaughter, and in a way is still raising her own daughter. I am, of course, referring to my aunt and cousin. But they are irrelevant when I am telling the story of Granmara, because for most of Granmara's life, she wasn't Granmara. She was Aizza.
         Aizza was born to fairies, and fairies only. Her parents and grandparents and everyone before her took great caution when choosing mates (which were often arranged) to ensure a pureblood line. They thought this was very important when establishing the small country that we live in- that we wouldn't all become intermixed. That, they thought, would be the end of civilization as they knew it.
         Aizza popped out of her mother and was completely different then her twenty-two brothers and sisters. Yes, that is correct, twenty-two. That is thirteen brothers and nine sisters. Aizza was the seventh daughter, seventeenth child. With luck in her numbers, she already had the upper-hand. She married the king, who then was also a pureblood fairy. It was an arranged marriage, and she absolutely hated it. It was with King Darren that she gave birth to Sol and Sonora, who are twins. They are the vision of their father: jet-black hair, beady black eyes, and swarthy skin. They had the small stature of fairies, and the genetic tattoo which symbolizes family lineage. The tattoo intertwining Aizza and Darren happened to be a royal crown with wings, and both Sol and Sonora were born with it engraved on the bottom of their left feet.
         Aizza fell in love with a merman she met while taking Sol and Sonora swimming when they were five. After being lonely with a man she despised for six long years, she had no problem loving a merman from the sea. When she discovered she was pregnant, she was petrified, and had to disguise it to seem like it might be Darren's. When a baby girl was born, there was no marking on her left foot. The king, his parents, and the prince and princess were horrified. When they turned over baby Celestia, they found a tattoo of a fish on her shoulderblade. Minutes later, Aizza and her daughter, who had a violent shade of purple hair, were out of the castle forever. When Sol and Sonora were teenagers, King Darren died. Sol was named king, and he had no use for his sister. Sonora had no choice but to live with her mother, who had shamed the kingdom.
         Sonora grew to marry a fairy, and they had a baby girl named Olympe. The man Sonora married, however, decided he wanted to be with a duchess, and left. A few months after Olympe's birth, Celestia became mysteriously pregnant as well. Aizza, who was never a hypocrite, asked no questions. Sonora blamed her mother and thought both of them to be horrible people. Meanwhile, Sol never married and never produced any heirs of his own.
         Celestia, as you know, gave birth to me. She named me Nuri and both her and my grandmother loved me better than Aizza loved Sonora and Sonora loved Olympe. I was born with red and gold hair, which wound together in long curls. My eyes were always gold, but I bore no tattoo. This is because my father was a mere human- something only Granmara, Mother, and Daelfine know. Everyone else believes my tattoo is somewhere under my mane of hair, and my they believe my father is also merman. They think this is why my mother returned to the sea, so that they could be together there.
         My mother is nothing extraordinary in my eyes. She is beautiful and majestic, but she left me and never came back. As Sonora liked to say, she put me into this world and then did nothing to fix it. Granmara always let me visit her without question whenever I wanted, which I have been doing since I was four. Mother once considered making a return to land when I was about ten, but after being in the water for so long, didn't have enough fairy power left in her to give her legs. I always have urges to be in the water, but I rarely transform- and when I do, it is for a very short period of time. When I begin to feel the symptoms- rubbery hands, lowered body temperature, and glassy eyes, I surface.
         Olympe has always been jealous of me, just as Sonora was jealous of my mother, Celestia. Sonora has bewitched Olympe to be prettier than what she really is. She's removed all of her freckles, and lightened her eyes, and was able to give her hair some wave. Olympe undergoes routine spells once a month - lengthening eyelashes, rosier cheeks, smaller feet, smaller waist, smaller ears. But she cannot get rid of Olympe's eternal appearance she inherited from King Darren- mousy black hair, beady eyes, a double-chin, and a sallow complexion. The enchantments which attempt to improve her physical beauty have drained her of brain activity, and she is stupid and foolish because of it. In a way, she's sacrificed one thing for another, and ended up being just as ugly as she would have been anyway.
         Sol never spoke to Granmara again, but sometimes writes me a letter just to fish for information. He's never uttered a word of intended goodness towards me, as a punishment to Aizza and my mother for staining his family tree. I am a blemish. I am like Daelfine, who is the product of an Elvish mother and a Werewolf father. Both of us keep our fathers secret because our mothers made radical decisions that go against my uncle's law. He practices the faith that we must keep to our own lines to avoid becoming mutants. In truth, he does not want anyone who has abilities higher than his own. I do not have those abilities, but Daelfine does. Daelfine could rip him limb from limb and not even remember it when she turns back to elf.