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Showing results for tags 'Unfortunate Event'.
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Thoughts of Spring “Granma, I’m gonna live forever.” “Now isn’t that something?” said Granma, bouncing little Timothy on her knee so he smiled and the sunlight caught his teeth, all eighteen of them. Birds chirped from somewhere beyond the backyard fence. Granma caught Timothy’s head and turned it back to her so his attention wouldn’t wander. “Don’t you know that that’s never happened before? Living forever, I mean.” “But it will, and you’ll live forever, too, and my mom and dad and friends—” “Timothy, nothing in this world is forever.” “God?” “Well, God’s not of this world, Dearie, what are they teaching you in Sunday school?” The strident sound of the church bell shattered his thoughts. Timothy hadn’t been to Sunday school in years. Automatically, he straightened his back and glanced to his parents to make sure they hadn’t noticed his reverie. Their faces were still downturned in prayer, their lids shut and faintly glistening with moisture. Tears. Heat rose in his cheeks. He quickly looked back down, trying to focus on the priest’s baritone homily, trying to focus his prayers onto the wine-red carpet, but he couldn’t conjure the necessary reverence to make his actions feel earnest. His emotions were expended. He’d cried when he heard the news of Granma’s death. A twenty-one-year-old man could admit to crying without feeling ashamed about it. He had admitted it. That didn’t calm the shame simmering in the back of his mind. “—to many of us, she was a loyal friend, but her devotion to her duty was what I think we all remember—” “—remember the bird calls you showed me?” Sunlight, a warm breeze, the rustling of leaves. Timothy could count the particles hanging in the air above his head. He looked back down, and Granma stood a meter from him, hands crossed over her lap and eyes gazing toward the trees behind the backyard fence. “I think I can try, but it’ll be difficult. You know how Granma’s lungs feel nowadays.” “Mommy says the smoking did it.” “Well, your mommy’s a smart young cookie.” “She’s not a cookie. I can’t eat her, Granma.” Timothy laughed, and Granma laughed too, and the warbling tones of an avian faded into the voices of a congregation in song. No laughter, just prayer. Timothy blinked and tried to follow the words. He couldn’t. He only knew “Amazing Grace”, “Here I Am, Lord”, and traditional Christmas tunes. Even the clothing around him was unfamiliar: black suits and ties and black dresses both floral and more demurely designed. Timothy was used to a more variegated array at college, blue, green, and red, more like the stained glass windows that lined the cathedral than the people beneath them, lined neatly in pews. The song trailed off. Mom audibly sniffled. Dad pulled her in, let her drain her despair into him. The soloist demounted the stage, and the priest, with his rumbling voice, implored the congregation to join him in prayer. “We are gathered here today,” said Timothy’s grandmother, and Timothy shook his head. No. Try to think better thoughts. Happier thoughts. Like spring, and flowers, and Grandmom categorizing them as easily as if she were a botanist. Bees humming and butterflies dancing on a breeze. Granma’s smile, the way it crinkled the skin around her eyes that made her seem both old and kind. And then, as Timothy watched in mute horror, the skin, desiccated now and colored with makeup so her skin appeared plastic, pulled her face taut and blank, and she was lying in her coffin very still while the priest intoned verses that were meant to comfort but were only words in the end. But Granma didn’t look like she was sleeping. She looked like she was about to open her eyes and say to seven-year-old Timothy, “Nothing lasts forever.” He should’ve slept more last night.
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The Queen of Gravity pulled on her horse’s reigns as she came up to the mountainside. It looked as solid as ever, peaks towering miles above her and a number of narrow ledges scattered about at random. The gray stone created an impregnable wall that curved inward to create a large ring around the city within, protecting it from all angles against whoever might wish to invade it. It’s good to be home. She dismounted and stroked the mane of her horse. Tall as she was, the animal looked slightly underdeveloped standing next to her. She tied her mount’s reigns around a nearby tree and then removed her tan travelling cloak, revealing numerous plates of heavy iron armor, and placed the garment in her saddlebag before walking over to the base of the mountain. It was there that the Queen of Gravity stopped and crouched. Her mind opened. Feeling the force of gravity’s embrace on her body, she pushed against it with her will, commanding it to loosen its hold to a mere fraction of its normal power. The force complied, and she felt herself grow lighter. With the magic active, the Queen pushed off the ground, launching herself upwards parallel to the rocky slope. The stone flashed past her in a blur and the wind pulled back her long black hair. Her armor rattled a bit at the resistance, but it held strong. The peaks grew closer and she could feel herself slowing, smiling as she anticipated the aerial view of her queendom. Her expression changed to one of terror as she soared over the top of the mountains. About a third of the area within the mountain ring was nothing but open field, and half of that was on fire. Most of the remaining area was filled with a multitude of stone buildings, once bearing great variety in size and shape, but now all were nothing but rubble. At the far end, carved into the inner wall of the mountains, was an imposing castle—well, a once-imposing castle, now with its walls sliced clean through and the guard houses along its sides totally absent. Oh no…Land! The Queen began to fall down into the valley, but she twisted her body in mid-air. Fixing her gaze on the mountains, she ordered a small center of gravity to form within it, causing her to be pulled out of her fall. She landed on her feet, standing perpendicular to the ground, and crouched once more. Now looking directly at the castle, she launched herself again, dismissing the artificial gravity as she did so, and rocketed over the ruins directly towards the castle. Gradually, she allowed the natural force of gravity to return, drawing her down until she was only a few yards above the ground. She was near the castle now. Putting her legs forward, she cancelled the last effects of her spell. The Queen braced herself and touched down, going into a skid that carried her along the dirt road in a matter of seconds. The wood double doors had been knocked off their hinges, so she slid straight into the remains of the foyer before finally coming to a stop. Dead guards littered the open floor, and a number of the stairs spiraling up into the ceiling had been ripped out. No… She leapt up the broken steps and dashed down an empty hall with huge chunks torn out of the wall. At the end was a large room deep within the mountain; with no windows to provide it light, it was usually lined with candles or brightened by magic, but it was now pitch black. The Queen searched the floor—enough light came in from the lamps in the hall that she was able to find a candle and light it, allowing her to go deeper into the chamber. She took each step very slowly, constantly moving the candle so as to view as much of the room as possible. Various pieces of furniture were strewn across her path, but she pressed onwards, stepping over or around each one as she continued her search. “Land? Are you here?” The sense of dread within her only intensified when there was no response. Perhaps she wasn’t here, the Queen reasoned. She could very well be in any other— The Queen of Gravity stopped cold. Just at the edge of her light was the Queen of the Land, lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. “Land!” She knelt next to the other Queen, set the candle on the floor, and took hold of her. The Queen of the Land’s dark skin had been ripped apart, the worst being one deep gash in her stomach through which massive amounts of blood had poured. There was armor encasing her body, but it appeared to have been thrown on hastily, and its protection had evidently not been effective. “…Land…? Come now, wake up. You have to be alright! Land, answer me!” No answer came. The shock began to wear off, and the Queen of Gravity felt the reality of the situation sinking in. Pulling the broken body of her wife close, she closed her eyes and started to shake. *** “It was the Queen of War,” the soldier said. The Queen of Gravity did nothing in response, merely continued to watch as the other remaining soldiers helped rescue people from their collapsed houses. “The platoon you were informed of was a trap meant to lure you out. She found a way in and challenged the Queen of the Land…Her Majesty fought as best as she could, but…” The Queen of Gravity cleared her throat. “That’s enough.” Turning, she looked at the soldier. He cringed when he saw the intense rage burning in her eyes. “We will hold a funeral ceremony tomorrow. The day after that…I shall be leaving again. I think I shall pay a visit to the Queen of War.”
