Mine: Sowing
Title: Sowing
Rating: PG
Word Count: 575
Warnings: less than cheerful, vague violence
Summary: Once upon a time, a Nightmare walked the Earth.
A/N: For iron_fist123 because she's my best friend and I love telling her stories when she asks me to.
Once upon a time, a Nightmare walked the Earth.
He was at once slim and unfathomable with white irises and red lines swirling across his skin to make a language that had not been spoken since his birth. To set eyes upon him was to flinch away. The ground changed under his bare feet with every step, never again to be what it was. Women and men alike fled the phoenix feathers tied onto his bladed staff. Children stared in awe of his wings.
The nightmare made his way through the forest, scattering animals before him. At the edge of the field he stopped and waited.
Death set out to greet the Nightmare early in the day. It was her custom. She climbed down her building's fire escape to avoid notice and made the long trek to their meeting place on equally bare feet. The breeze tugged at her silvery hair but refused to touch any mortal thing. The asphalt cracked where she stepped and soil eroded around her soles. Where she followed the Nightmare's path exactly, fresh green leaves poked up through the ruin.
As was tradition, he had waited for her to arrive at sunset, the death of day. She disliked anything less than symbolic. It pleased her that he'd stood there the whole day- she almost felt special. The stars came out to watch the play.
The Nightmare stood a head taller than Death.
"Brother," she greeted.
They were twins but sight would never show it- their sameness was in their distinct difference.
He nodded to her, kind despite his task. "Sister."
Death summoned her scythes. They were slender tools, small ones, fitted to her hands and sharpened against light so as to sever even the faintest thread. The Nightmare was patient as she laid them on the grass at his feet. Ï am frightened," she said, looking up at her Nightmare. They had the same eyes, the eyes of their mother. His held love and some regret but they both understood the inevitable.
"I know, but you have been in this world too long, Sister."
"I know," she echoed, "Will you save them from me and me from them, Brother?"
The script held but hollow comfort.
The Nightmare nodded shakily and bent to kiss her cheek. Death sighed- her brother gave off heat like a miniature sun where she herself could only siphon it from others.
He stepped away and took up his bladed staff, the feathers catching the moonlight and glowing for it. They shared a single infinite moment- they both knew they would not meet again for many moons- and he decapitated his sister. She vanished as the blade sliced through her skin, a fine mix of powdered bone and spider's silk that drifted away on a wind that did not and never would touch him.
Life knelt and picked up his sister's scythes. He buried them at the center of the field and all the grasses for a yard around the small mound withered and died so that not even his step would revive them.
His path back to the city was marked by erupting vines and singing insects. Foundations cracked from the stress of new trees' roots and on the other side of the planet the ground trembled where new earth was being made.
It was his turn to go into the world and reign until the Nightmare would come for him. He would meet her gladly.
- Fin
Rating: PG
Word Count: 575
Warnings: less than cheerful, vague violence
Summary: Once upon a time, a Nightmare walked the Earth.
A/N: For iron_fist123 because she's my best friend and I love telling her stories when she asks me to.
Once upon a time, a Nightmare walked the Earth.
He was at once slim and unfathomable with white irises and red lines swirling across his skin to make a language that had not been spoken since his birth. To set eyes upon him was to flinch away. The ground changed under his bare feet with every step, never again to be what it was. Women and men alike fled the phoenix feathers tied onto his bladed staff. Children stared in awe of his wings.
The nightmare made his way through the forest, scattering animals before him. At the edge of the field he stopped and waited.
Death set out to greet the Nightmare early in the day. It was her custom. She climbed down her building's fire escape to avoid notice and made the long trek to their meeting place on equally bare feet. The breeze tugged at her silvery hair but refused to touch any mortal thing. The asphalt cracked where she stepped and soil eroded around her soles. Where she followed the Nightmare's path exactly, fresh green leaves poked up through the ruin.
As was tradition, he had waited for her to arrive at sunset, the death of day. She disliked anything less than symbolic. It pleased her that he'd stood there the whole day- she almost felt special. The stars came out to watch the play.
The Nightmare stood a head taller than Death.
"Brother," she greeted.
They were twins but sight would never show it- their sameness was in their distinct difference.
He nodded to her, kind despite his task. "Sister."
Death summoned her scythes. They were slender tools, small ones, fitted to her hands and sharpened against light so as to sever even the faintest thread. The Nightmare was patient as she laid them on the grass at his feet. Ï am frightened," she said, looking up at her Nightmare. They had the same eyes, the eyes of their mother. His held love and some regret but they both understood the inevitable.
"I know, but you have been in this world too long, Sister."
"I know," she echoed, "Will you save them from me and me from them, Brother?"
The script held but hollow comfort.
The Nightmare nodded shakily and bent to kiss her cheek. Death sighed- her brother gave off heat like a miniature sun where she herself could only siphon it from others.
He stepped away and took up his bladed staff, the feathers catching the moonlight and glowing for it. They shared a single infinite moment- they both knew they would not meet again for many moons- and he decapitated his sister. She vanished as the blade sliced through her skin, a fine mix of powdered bone and spider's silk that drifted away on a wind that did not and never would touch him.
Life knelt and picked up his sister's scythes. He buried them at the center of the field and all the grasses for a yard around the small mound withered and died so that not even his step would revive them.
His path back to the city was marked by erupting vines and singing insects. Foundations cracked from the stress of new trees' roots and on the other side of the planet the ground trembled where new earth was being made.
It was his turn to go into the world and reign until the Nightmare would come for him. He would meet her gladly.
- Fin