Pen Friends ~ Here is Part Two of the Dual POV Prompt Reply: This is my world… Enjoy the stories! Thanks to all who participated!
Teen Writer, Lily Gooch’s Prompt Reply:
This is my world. It’s beautiful here, but too quiet now. I hate all the stillness. There’s no one to talk to and I think too much. I can’t help but remember why it’s so quiet here. I don’t want to remember how they all died, but I do–silent blood paints the walls of the palace.
I’d give anything to live somewhere that wasn’t so sad. Words can’t express how much. Somewhere where noise would distract my mind. Where I could drown the memories in music. Somewhere where I could finally get peace.
This is my world. Prince Ferris sighed, gazed out the stained glass windows of the school spire, and wished for the umpteenth time that he was the one out on the spines of the Rhadrize instead of here memorizing history and lists of policy. It wasn’t fair that she, (in his better moments he referred to her as Kat—but today, stuck inside when the spring sun beckoned—was not one of his better moments) Master Philomius lectured on. Sneezing briefly ever so often when dust from the tomes and scrolls wafted up into his beak of a proboscis.
Ferris let his thoughts wonder. Up the twisting winding paths, past fern growth and pines out into the thin, clear air of the top of the spine. From the window the mountains were a range of blue and purple hues. Up close they pulsed in a variety of grey, greens, browns, almost every shade imaginable.
And he was stuck in here. He bet he could find what she was looking for. In fact, what if they traded places. She could study boring politics and he could go hunt for that treasure. She would be the one to rule Mid’Arch anyway.
“Prince Ferris. PRINCE Ferris!” Master Philomius’ voice was considerably louder the second time and it jerked Ferris back into the library.
This is my world, and I must save it. I awoke this morning knowing I must meet her, as the Seer predicted. But I fought my future. I helped mother prepare bread for supper. I helped Alana with her washing, ignoring the other boys who laughed at me for doing a womanly task. I wandered, not knowing where I went but knowing I didn’t want to end up here, at the Grand Falls.
“What are you looking at?” I say to her, not knowing or caring if she’d understand.
“You’re eyes,” she says, not the least bit afraid, “they’re red.”
This is my world…I thought as I grinned up at the wisps of clouds, lit up by the moons. The iridescent glow gleamed green as I raced across the still wet grass and under the low hanging branches, only skidding to a stop at the edge of the river. Pebbles scattered like diamonds at my feet and tinkled into the glassy water.
I glanced back behind me with a mischievous grin.
My hands broke into the surface of the water until I held a firm grip on a vine of kelp. With a whoop, I threw myself into the river and let the current carry me speeding forward toward the edge.
This was always my favorite part, the feeling of being swallowed by nothingness, the freedom of flying through the air. I tipped over the brink of the waterfall and plunged into the empty abandon of space.
Here the rules of gravity were broken, for only the water would spin back and travel against the underside of the earth. Everything else: fallen leaves, loose pebbles, and perhaps a wayward wild child like me, dropped into the darkness. Most were never seen again.
But, just as the gust of cold air gripped at my lungs, its frozen fingers trying to claim me, the rope of river kelp bounced me back to reality.
I shook the spray of water from my face as I settled back onto the riverbank and held the rope out to him.
“It’s your turn.”
The Spinning Pen 