Birds of Oil, Daughters of Rain

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A related short fiction piece which provided roots for the serial boxes world.
​
May contain Volume One spoilers

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The pair stood face to face,
wind swirled around their feet,
rain began to fall
​then the girl with the dark eyes moved forward,
reached toward the stone for leverage

The ledge was narrow,
the cliff dropped sharply
as it plunged to a narrow grey line at the bottom

The other girl stepped back,
gravel crunched under her feet

The water droplets on their shoulders
splattered with greater force,
water bounced into their faces,
began to soak their hair

And the dark-eyed girl snatched
from her side a glinting object,
hairline edge of the sword
not six inches from her counterpart's nose
the other's breath quickened
and she backed into the stone wall
where the ledge came to a point

Her eyes met the dark eyes,
pleaded them to stop their pursuit,
let her free from the ledge,
to go safely home

The rain made the ledge beneath
glossy and treacherous,
oil from the factory washed the stones
then streamed into the river below

The unkempt, desolate land edged their existence

The sword continued ever closer to the girl's face
the dark-eyed girl intent
arm steady despite the pelting beads of water,
feet planted on the increasingly slick surface

But the rain only fell harder,
became solid spheres of hail and freezing rain,
chilled their exchange
breaths of fog escaped their mouths
vague wisps in the darkening air

Then the ground shook,
hands slipped from their tenuous grasps on the wall,
the clatter of metal against stone
relieved the dark-eyed girl of the sword

And the rock beneath their feet
released itself from the mountain,
air spun beside their ears,
drowned their screams as they fell

She woke in a white water wall of thunder,
waves echoed about her ears,
water seeped through her clothes,
penetrated her body, numbing her core

She blinked as the water pulled her forward,
looked to take in her surroundings

The river was a mass of white foam
cliffs towered up around her,

The village disappeared somewhere upstream
- her sense of direction thrown off by the rushing water

Then she once again felt the ground fall away beneath her,
she flew over the ridge of the waterfall
- free fell in and out of the spray

Bubbles of air released themselves into the depths as she went
deep into the belly of the pond
her eyes closed
and her body floated
absently without effort

Her eyes opened
to streaming sunlight carving itself into her pupils
her body was without feeling

As the scene before her emerged from white
into colours and shapes,
she blinked it into life

She was at the edge
of the waterfall pond,
alone

She sat up
but became uneasy at the effort,
her stomach tumbled into itself
and she retched onto the sand

She blinked again,
the light and stillness
made her nauseous

Blooming orchids wafted toward her on the air,
magnolia and jasmine joined
she retched again at the sickeningly sweet combination

After her stomach was unclenched
she forced herself upward in a wobbly manner to standing
once upright she leaned against a rock, tired with exertion

Then the waterfall grew louder,
a resonant splash echoed the rocks and trees

Soon a figure bobbed in the pond
and the dark-eyed girl floated toward the sand

On the shore, the other girl stood motionless,
terrified that the most minute escape of hope or breath
would return her to the nightmare

But the body
was without life
when it reached the sand
at the edge of the pond

There was no movement from the air,
no birds sang
no sticks crackled

Silence pervasively expanded
as though emerging from the body itself

With energy bridled from relief,
the girl on the shore
carried the other
to a forest clearing

Their last moment together ended
after a cavity of six feet
was hollowed from the forest ground
packed with new soil and relief

Their last moment together ended
after the sounds of dripping oil,
factory machine hums
and the clatter of metal on stone
had faded from the girl's ears
as she walked through the forest

Their last moment together ended.
her nightmare was over.

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