Meena, Orrin, and a Breath of Ice

In which Meena and Orrin look for a lost child and find trouble instead.

"...Looking back at her was the great, glowing eyes of a beast; green and even brighter than the moon!" Meena tossed her head back and held her hands out like claws dramatically, to the great delight of the squealing children who were happily cowering in a pile before her. She enjoyed their reaction for a little bit, waiting for just the right moment to continue the story. Making sure your audience was immersed in the tale was just as important as how you told it, after all. Her nieces and nephew watched her intently in their squirmy fear, and held their breath in a collective sweep as Meena started again, her voice low and so quiet that their little ears strained to hear. 

"Mother stood there, transfixed by those eyes." She continued. "Nothing made a sound as the two stared at each other, locked in place by each other's gaze. Right when she started to believe that what she was seeing was just a dream, the monster reached out..." The girl slowly leaned forward towards the little ones, ready to give them another good fright.

Meena didn't get to finish the story. She was quite rudely interrupted with a sharp yank on her hair, rescuing the little ones from their trance and an incoming tickle. She sheepishly turned around and looked up into the disapproving gaze of her mirror. 

Well, almost. Rather than being a reflection, Meena's twin Orrin was more like a flesh-and-blood copy of herself, despite Orrin being a boy, and Meena, a girl. They looked astoundingly similar, even for twins, and especially for their ages. Both Meena and Orrin had reddish brown hair, cut short, except for a small braid that ran along both of their left ears. They were both a little small for their ages, just a little smaller than five feet, and tanned golden by the sun. They both had sharp eyes and slender builds; long fingers and the tendency to squinch up their noses if they were confused by something. When they were little, they'd been constantly confused for each other; even now at fourteen, it was a little hard to tell them apart if you didn't look closely. 

There were a few way to spot which was which. The best way was to look at their eyes. Orrin's eyes were green, green as a cat's, where as Meena had blue eyes. Although they were a lovely shade, matching her mother's and a pretty flower that grew in vines along the trees, Meena secretly wished she'd had those green eyes, too. Orrin was the only one in the whole family with those eyes. And that was counting parents, six siblings, and even the grandchildren. Meena also had freckles scattered across her face and shoulders, but that was from her constantly soaking up the sun; as opposed to Orrin, who preferred cooler, shadier places. Like inside.

Meena looked up into those eyes as she tried to put together a quick excuse, while her nephew crawled into her lap, trying to beg up the rest of the story. "You tell the story differently then I remember it." Orrin said in his quiet but stern voice. He always sounded like he was slightly vexed with something, the way his voice was always soft but low, like he was just about the to start a much said lecture. It was like listening a river grumbling smoothly over stones, if rivers could talk. He also always sounded a little more stern when talking to Meena, probably because he was used to the tricks and tales she'd pull to get away from his scoldings. "I don't remember mother saying anything about a beastly shadow, or you being brought back by one."

Meena shrugged her brother off carelessly, placing her nephew safely back on the floor before he could start chewing on her hair. "The way I tell it is much more interesting than her way." She said.

"The way you tell it, the moon itself brought you back in a golden carriage, and you had dragons to lead you there." Said Orrin. "You keep filling their heads with stories," Orrin said, motioning to the children. "And they'll start thinking you're some sort of changeling, or that sootlings are hiding under their cots when they sleep."

His sister scowled and stuck her tongue out at him; a very sisterly thing to do. "There's nothing wrong with telling a story, or looking for sootlings." She defended. She'd taken the little ones on a "soot hunt" the other day, after a particularly exciting story about the mysterious puffy creatures. It had ended up with a few things knocked over and with Micha getting tangled somehow in Orrin's cot, Sophi getting kicked a few times while trying to get her brother out, and Tiffa was found crying inside of a chest when it closed suddenly on her and she'd been too frightened to climb out. Her sister, their mother, had been furious, and Orrin had been worse by being quietly angry and shooing her out of his room for three days straight.

It hadn't been the best day.

The twins stared each other down until Meena gave a dramatic sigh and gave up. Orrin could out stare a cat, and besides, she was starting to see purplish spots. Instead, the girl chose to sulk, turning her back on her brother with a huff. Meena hated when Orrin was right--sadly, he was right quite often. "I did get brought back, I know I did." She grumbled to herself. She absently reached towards her shoulder and rubbed it as if it was sore--sometimes, she could feel the scars from the Roc tingle. If she closed her eyes, she could almost remember something carrying her back carefully, smelling wonderfully of wet earth and leaves, and mist. She didn't know what exactly mist smelled like, but she did know that's what her rescuer had smelled like. 

Orrin watched his sister with a frown, eyes on the jagged white strip marring the copper colored skin around it. Three of those markings were cut deeply into her skin, curving from the top of her shoulder to her back, just below her shoulder-bone. There were all that was left of the vicious attack so many years ago; made by claws bigger than any hawk or bird around. Those scars were the last way to tell Orrin and Meena apart--and Orrin hated them. 

Like many times before, Orrin adverted his eyes from his sister's wounds and looked right past her instead. Noticing he'd fallen back into this bad habit, Meena frowned. It stung, being put aside like that. While she could understand why it might be uncomfortable to look at, no one avoided the sight of those marks as quickly as Orrin, not even their mother. Orrin would rather ignore all of Meena and space out in his own mind than look at those stripes; it was something the girl didn't understand.

To Meena, these marks were a symbol of survival. She'd slipped out of the claws of a great beast, and somehow, miraculously, avoided a tragic end. When she saw them, the markings almost excited her. She'd survived a deadly story--and had the feeling she was just as invincible when it came to more. It was invigorating. 

Whatever the scars seemed to mean to Orrin, he never spoke about it, which irritated Meena even more. Already tired of Orrin's silence, Meena scowled at him, then picked up her cloak off of the seat she'd left it draped on. Made of soft, woven fur and rimmed with thicker, fluffier fur, it was a little too hot to be wearing on a summer morning like this one. But when she clasped it on, her shoulders were no longer showing; neither was the scars. Because Orrin was still spacing after this, and because she was still irritable, Meena ever-so-gently stomped on his foot with all her might.

That brought him back, the girl noticed smugly as she watched her brother hop up in pain. She even started to giggle when he fell over, holding his foot. 

"Ooooops. Was that your foot? I thought I'd stepped on a big mushroom." She taunted. "All slimy and gloomy in the middle of our floor...g-r-o-s-s!I had to stamp it out before it sprouted more of em." 

Meena deftly dodged Orrin's foot slamming down in retaliation with a small hop, along with his attempt to grab her arm and catch her. His next attempt went just as fruitless, as Meena cleverly swept her leg out and caught his feet, knocking him down to the floor.

"Orrin's getting clumsy, Orrin's getting slooow~"  His sister's taunts made the more serious boy scowl as he scrambled to his feet, watching her cloak disappear through the doorway as she slipped outside.

"Meena!" For one heart stopping moment, Orrin watched as Meena lept off the walkway, which was quite a ways from the ground--a few stories, or so. For a second, it looked like she was flying, with her cloak billowing out as her wings. Then she dropped like a stone out of sight, making Orrin dash to the edge of the walkway, trying to spot her. He couldn't see anything but the bare ground and a few piles of leaves that had been raked up the other day. He tightly gripped the railing, recklessly preparing ready to jump down and find her when one of the piles of leaves rustled, and Meena's head poked out. 

"It's itchy!" She complained with a short laugh. She climbed out of the leaves and shook herself off, while Orrin remembered how to breathe again. 

He leaned over the railing, face red with anger. "Idiot! Of all the reckless things you attempt--!" Meena cut him off when she started to run away, calling out to her brother as she did so.

"You'd better catch up, or I'm going to eat all the sweets!" Orrin rolled his eyes at his sister; Meena was a glutton, but even she couldn't eat a whole festival's worth of pastries and candy. However, she might very well try it, and that led Orrin to scramble down the ladder along their home. 

Orrin padded down the dirt path that wove through a slim grove of trees and wild bushes, leading down towards the main village. "Meena! Wait!" Meena looked back and laughed when she saw her brother attempting to catch up, and put on more speed.

~*~*~*~*~

The village of Cassia is normally a very quiet place, almost sleepy in its peace. It's inhabitants mostly live in massive hollows in the trees of the enormous forest around them, and there is rarely much to argue about. The unwritten rules to live in Cassia are simple: share everything, use everything, and lend everything. Since there isn't much to start with, these goes over very well with it's few inhabitants. The village is friendly, and green, and when they get the odd traveler, he's treated well.

On certain days, however, Cassia seems to burst to life: Festivals. In Cassia, no day is more important than a festival day, and even the very air seems to change. Like today, as Meena and Orrin ran through throngs of brightly dressed people and objects, the breeze rich with the heavy scent of sweet flowers. On the Day of Colors, no place celebrated as richly as Cassia's people did. Children wore brightly colored clothes, usually splashed with bright blues, reds, and golds. The littlest ones wore bells on their ankles, and the bigger ones wore them on their clothes. There were games to play with these bells, but it seemed to be mostly a decoration thing nowadays.

The adults looked like exotic beasts in their outfits; shining feathers and mysterious furs, clothes as bright as any peacocks plumage. Elaborate masks were made and decorated, but they wouldn't be worn until the evening. For now, they hung on doors and necks, and sometimes you'd see a child running off with one. Meena was often one such child; a well-made mask was a great prize to show off to other children.

Meena ducked behind a large bushel of flowers to wait for Orrin to pass, smiling to herself. Unlike stick-in-the-mud Orrin, Meena still enjoyed festivals. He'd become unbearably boring, in her opinion, sticking to his rooms and dusty scrolls, and going for long walks by himself.  Their mother had worriedly muttered about him courting a girl to their father one day when she'd thought they were alone, but Meena knew that wasn't true. Her brother was handsome, growing into his forest eyes and beginning to sharpen his softer child's frame,  but he rarely paid attention to anything outside of his books. He could be as cold as winter to other people, and ignored everyone who looked at him funny. If Meena was honest, the only friend Orrin really had was her...but sisters don't really count as friends. 

Feeling something soft brush against her fingers, Meena picked up a flower that had fallen off from somewhere, and happily pinned it to herself. Flowers were a great addition to any Day of Color outfit. Her own clothes were rather plain compared to some other children's, being hand-offs from three sister's before, but that didn't make her any less proud of them. The cloak was plain, light brown and nothing adorning it but the rims of fur, but the tunic under it was more stylish. It had once been a bright, strong blue, but the color had slowly bled away with the years, so it had become a milky blue-white color, the color of stars and, less romantically, the color of snow slush. Bands of scarlet and rust in jagged shapes decorated the hem and sleeves, along with a similar sun-ray shape band of the same colors along the collar. The tiny golden circles in the triangles matched the tiny gold bells on her wrist, and because it was a bit wide on her, it was tied with an old thick blue sash, with fading green and gold banding. Meena felt like a princess in these rare colors: blue dye was hard to come by, and had to be traded for whenever they found it. 

Not spotting her brother anywhere, Meena climbed out of the flowers, and started strolling along, enjoying the bright sights and cheerful sounds. The village was alive with makeshift booths and stalls for games and wares, the sounds of laughter carried itself everywhere. Meena paused at stall with sparkling sweets shaped like gemstones, flowers, and tiny animals; the sunlight glinted off the hard, sugary surfaces alluringly, making the girl's mouth water. She picked up a piece that looked like a tiny golden fish she's never seen before, admiring the swirls of orange that shone through when the light hit it. 

She reached into her cloak and fished out two small coins, ruddy brown with a swirling imprint on it, and bought the candy, along with a green flower. The rich smell of meat and fresh bread wafted over to her, and Meena was lured away once again, following her stomach obediently. A few more coins later, her hands were full with a savory whorl-nut and rabbit meat pastry, piping steam from the cut in the top of its soft, doughy wrapping. As she took a careful bite, the sound of a voice as comfortable as an old, warm blanket caught her attention, and she found herself in front of another stall, where other children were all quietly gathered, eyes locked on the large wooden box with a paper screen before them. 

"Long, long ago, in a land as different to ours as the sun is to the moon, there was a god who fell in love with a human."

The voice continued from somewhere in front of them, but everyone's eyes stayed on the box, with the flickering shadow figures dancing across the paper. A bright light flashed across the paper, until the paper scenery of trees and clouds grew, and the "god" shadow appeared. The shadow was dressed in feathers, with magnificent headdress to show who he was. 

"This god, who had loved all of the humans for so long, had fallen completely in love with a mortal girl. One day, a young girl had come across the god and mistaken him for a mortal man one day while he was resting on a riverbank, and the two had struck up a friendship. Fascinated by her and the stories she spun, the god kept coming back to see her. He was amazed by all the new things he'd never known about humans before, and by how cheerfully the girl saw the world.

The scenery changed to a peaceful river bank, where the shadow girl and the god sat, hand in hand, while swirls of colored fabric weaved over their heads, representing the stories the girl told the god.

"The god grew so enamored with the girl, all he wanted to do was watch her. He vowed to never reveal his identity to her, for he was sure it was frighten her away. He wanted to be with her forever. However,  a terrible tragedy struck, and the girl was mortally wounded by the knife of a bandit!"

The enraptured crowd gasped as streak of red suddenly flashed past the shadow girl. The girl now lay on the floor, with a crowd of shadow people around her, along with the god.

"The god was enraged by this act, and wanted to seek out the mortals responsible. He left the village to destroy them, against his own law to protect and cherish them. He slew the men vengefully, but became filled with bitterness and sorrow. Despite all his power, he could not bring back his beloved one, and the further into despair he sank, the worse the land suffered. Soon, it became a barren and poisonous place, just like the heart of the divine being who'd oversaw it." The scenery changed to a dark, shadowed place with sheer gray and black fabric swirling around, with the god in the middle of all the ruin, his figure crumpled up.

"Suddenly, a creature appeared before the mourning god. It told the god that he could grant his wish of bringing the girl back to live, and even fixed the ruined lands. To achieve this would be very simple; all the god had to do was let the world he'd already abandoned be completely destroyed, so it could be reborn again."A tiny light shone next to the god, to symbolize the wish-granting creature. "The god agreed to the deal, and the world became awash in a great flood of water." 

The "flood" on the stage was reproduced by grey and blue fabric flowing over everything, covering all the trees and people. Even Meena, who'd heard and seen this story more times than she could ever count, was waiting anxiously for the next part of the story, just like the rest of the crowd. There wasn't so much as a murmur as the scene changed again, depicting people with their hands in the air, trying to reach their god desperately.

"Having abandoned his lands and people, the god no longer heard their cries or prayers. He could no longer hear any more suffering, and felt at peace, while the rest of the world suffered."

"Eventually, the people's despairing cries were answered, but not by the god. The soul of the girl herself came to them, unable to rest peacefully. She could not bear what her precious home had become, and how the people were suffering. Although she could no longer live among them and with the god, she still wanted everyone to be as happy as she had been. And so the girl gave up herself, and went to the god to stop him. She used her very soul to seal him away into a tree, one of the few remaining in the entire world, and put him under a deep sleep."

Meena jumped when she felt something heavy rest on her shoulder, but wasn't all that surprised to find Orrin scowling down at her. He looked ready to chew her out for all her reckless behavior, but before he could say a word, Meena clamped her hand over his mouth. "Shhh!" She said, while the narrator continued with the story. When she looked back, the stage was different again, with a perfect replica of the great tree of the forest and people gathered around it.

"When the people learned of the girl's sacrifice, they wept for many days, all gathering around the tree that held the two. When their tears fell onto the ground around the tree, a miraculous thing happened. Flowers of innumerable colors began to bloom

Author's Note

AGH THIS CHAPTER WAS DONE I HATE MY COMPUTER.

Ahem, Please wait for the update to be fixed.

Reviews

[EmaleighLynn]

I enjoyed reading this. You have a great way of telling a story, and I could really picture the twins. I also love how you connected the first chapter to this. The world you have created is fantastical and wild, and I could see myself getting lost in it. Write more!

[EmaleighLynn]

Each update gets better! One of my favorites. I'm interested to see how this story plays out. :)