Page 46 of The Iron Fae
There is an urge to wipe the salt water from my eyes but when I lift my hands I know it'll do me little good. I clap my hands together trying to brush away the dirt.
What kind of magic has my mother guarded this place with? Better yet, how am I going to find my magic?
Standing, I spin in a circle hesitant to take a step in any real direction. Desert. I take a deep breath and step forward.
My clothes drag me heavily under the rocking of the ocean top. I only glimpse at the stormy sky and fluffy black clouds. They've strung together in the oddest fashion, moving with an unnatural speed. I want to see more. I need to see more.
But my head goes under. My boots are like anchors tied around my feet. Down and down I go. Bubbles edge their way over my face as trapped air finds its escape. I reach, tugging at my laces, and pushing out of my one boot, then the next. I kick. Under me, my legs push and pump myself toward the surface, my arms propelling as they force the water down and my body up towards the sky.
Inside my chest, my lungs burn. It's reminiscent of the magic that brought me into this world. I have to wonder... if that's all it is now. It's not that my body has been deprived of the oxygen it needs or that I've been underwater for too long. It's that this entire place, the desert, the ocean, it's all magic.
It's all magic. And it fucking burns!
Under the water is darkness. Salt stings in my eyes as I look for the surface with little light to offer from above. Air finally hits me. Water slicking every strand of hair flat to my head.
Lighting strikes with a flash across the sky. The clouds glow with it. I follow their curve trying to make out their depictions like a child guessing the shapes as different animals. Only these are most certainly letters.
Just as quickly as the storm offered me visibility of the clouds the water takes it away. Water slaps against my skin pushing my body away and my face sideways into the ground.The hard, sand covered ground.
Damn it all!
I cough water, that I'd inhaled in the punch, out into the dust. Groaning as I let my head rest, I breathe heavily. The rocks in the distance cast the only shadow for miles against each other. I blink at them.
The shadows curl like a snake then pitch like upside down mountains. This better not be a mirage. I try sitting up but the shadow shifts into nothingness, again. So I lower myself to the dirt, letting my breath send the small particles into clouds.
S.
W.
I.
M.
SWIM. FUCKING SWIM. The desert is telling me what to do when I fall into the ocean? So there is a word in the cloud. Context clues. Context clues. I chant to myself. So maybe my mother was banking on me being semi-smart and less on brawn. But even this... this is almost too easy.
But there isn't anything else to do. I roll my body forward one time and tumble from the sand back into the ocean. The water claws at me with its frozen fingers, so drastically different from the dunes of the dry sand. Another wave is already growing in height not too far away.
I look past it, knowing if I don't start swimming soon I'll be drug back to where I started. But I need the command first. Squinting up at the clouds I hope the darkness doesn't play tricks on me. They swirl and curve so smoothly I wonder how I was able to make out words in the first place.
JUMP.
Jump. Next I need to jump. But now... as I see the wave heading straight for me... I need to swim.Swim, Briar, swim!Something inside of me cheers and I slap my palm down and break the surface of the sea and surge forward.
My shirt catches on thorns, my hand hanging over the edge of rock. Wild flowers, in pale yellows and royal purples shoot up in front of my face. I drag my hands under me and push myself up, getting my feet under me. My sock feet—the pretty boots now tragically long gone. Water gathers in a puddle around me, making the brush I'd landed that's squashed down to the earth sparkle.
There is an end to the wild here. A long meadow dotted with blooms comes to a point and abruptly disappears at the edge of a cliff where I stand. I swallow, hard.
Jump. This bitch wants me to jump.
Maybe I shouldn't refer to my mother as a bitch, but goddamn.
A tremble travels through my legs. My vision blurring at the edges. There could be sweat building on my forehead and gathering in my palms but the ocean clings to me so fiercely I can't decipher the difference. I lean as far as I can, looking down over the edge. It's nothingness. It's rock that falls into darkness with no sounds of running water below. I have no guess for what comes next but I know that I can't leave this spot until I find the same direction.
I turn, my gaze running over anything and everything. The sky is clear, the sun not near as demanding as the desert. I'm trying to make letters out of petals and flower stems. They'd gather into beautiful bouquets but they don't spell anything out.
With a frustrated hiss, I ring out my shirt. I crouch down, pinching at my pant-legs to dispel any water that I can. Grass is bent at odd angles from my entrance to the meadow, and if the decision was up to me this would be a perfect spot to hide a word.
A greatcawcarries over to me as a bird flies across the sky. The first I've seen of life in either of the three scenarios. My attention is quickly drawn to it as I watch it circle down closer to me. It has long dark feathers that grow to a light shade of brown closer to its face. Its beak shines the off-white color of bones.
