FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: Lunadar Homeward Bound

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***This will be the last Friday post I will be doing for awhile. I wanted to highlight the wonderful talent of illustrators out there like I did with authors from my WRITERLY WISDOM series, but there doesn't seem to be enough illustrators interested in participating so I will suspend my Friday posts for now. I will be participating in the A to Z Challenge in April and will be reviewing 26 children's books over the next month. If more illustrators start contacting me again, I might bring back the series but for now I leave you with the opening passage to my young adult novel LUNADAR: HOMEWARD BOUND for this final FLASH FICTION FRIDAY...enjoy!***

 

The setting sun, a fiery orange, bathes the deck in an unnatural light. The men are restless. They have been too long from land, too long from hearth and home and it weighs heavily upon their spirits. This night will be a rough one with choppy seas and razor sharp tongues. My hand is firm upon the railing and my body sways in rhythm to the waves. Eyes peer into the fading light as if to see land just beyond the horizon. I will get no rest this night...

Voices waft up from below; a harsh word muttered here and there as the men settle down in cramp quarters which reek of sweat and dirt from many months at sea with only each other and the moonlight for company. My body begs for rest, to lie on a down filled mattress and sleep for a hundred years. But my mind races. Crowded with memories and filled with the what-ifs and what-could-have-been of another life time. It's too late now to change things. The sea is my master and I am it's slave for I follow wherever it may lead me. I'm just grateful that tonight it leads me homeward bound...

My eyelids grow heavy as I struggle to stay awake. I can not leave my post for there are too many who are counting on me to lead them through the rocky maze which lie before us. One false turn and I doom this ship and it's passengers to a dance with Davy Jones. But I am confident. I know this path well, having traveled it many times. Truth of the matter is that I could steer this ship through these waters with my eyes closed. Every rock and shell are as familiar to me as the stars in the northern sky...

Finally, the maze is done and once again we are on the open sea. A solitary moon looms before me, the only other thing awake at this time of night. 

Midnight hour. 

Witching hour. 

A time when the portal opens between the here and now to stretch into the outer world. My heart races as if mere wishing could make these sails quicken the journey. At last we are homeward bound and another moon will not rise before we are once again in the arms of our loved ones. All that stands between them and me is the moon...

The Isles Of Avalon

I had seen her once before...the lady on the water...when I was but ten years old.  She came to me in a dream back then. I should have been afraid but her eyes were so kind and blue.  Blue like the water she walked on and with a warmth curling around my toes to move up my body until I was engulfed in it.  And when she whispered my name...Ariele...I knew she had known me from another place and time.  Oh, how I wanted to follow her back into that blue water but she said no...it wasn't my time yet.  She would return for me when I reached the age of reason.  She would come back and reveal to me the secrets I had long forgotten.

Now, eight years later, she had returned once more.  But this time she was as real to me as the water in which I stood. Spreading great white wings tipped with black, she rose above the water and beckoned me to follow her.  A great ship rose behind her and I could see the sails glowing as if on fire.  I turned to look once more into those warm blue eyes and as if she whispered into the wind, her voice echoed to me from across the water...

"Come to me, Ariele...it is time."

"But where are you taking me?"

"To the lands of your ancestors.  To the Isles of Avalon where you shall be reborn."

"Reborn?  But I...I don't understand..."

Her wings gently swooped down and folded snug against her body.  Glancing back at the ship before reaching for my hand, I found myself compelled to step deeper into the water as she replied, "Oh, but you will, my child...you will."

Song Of The Siren

One of the most beautiful sounds in all the world is the sound of ocean waves as they rush to meet the shore.  Those waters call to me and sing to my spirit.  When I am in my sanctuary and among my treasures of the sea, I wait patiently and dream as the creatures of the deep slowly come to whisper their stories to me.

I stroll among the peaceful waves and search for distant shores which lie just beyond my vision.  The waters beckon to me and I alone have the spirit to sing their song.  My hands cup the cooling waters and splash it's healing powers over my soul.  Serenity cocoons my senses and I am home once more.

The night time calls to me and I sway with the rhythm of the waves.  Passing ships trumpet their horns in the distance, but they do not see me for I am as still as the darkness which surrounds me.  The conch shell touches my lips as the sounds of the sea swirl and sway and dance with my song until I am almost dizzy with happiness.  Only the lighthouse beam and the man in the moon know I am here.

If only I could remain with these waters which are my true love.  To spend eternity amongst sea and sand.  To follow the sea gulls call and go wherever the dolphins may lead me.  But alas, it is not meant to be.  Mortal flesh and mermaid spirit can not last for long, and I must return to the land of my beginnings.  Only to wait 'til the moon rises again and once more the waves call my name...