The End of the World

I was going to a lot of things today, like reblogging and may commenting on peoples writing (if I can actually think of anything intelligent to say), but I lost all my tabs because of a crash plus I need to unwind from stuff. I will try and get around to it though.

Writing wise, I’m thinking of carrying out some planned edits to the first Act of my WIP and releasing that in some form that anyone can read – I haven’t decided yet. In the meantime, here is an another excerpt from the start featuring a young Jennifer Airhart and Kaya Cade:

The End of the World

Long ago, when days were long and the world was young, there
were two girls. Both were dreamers. Jennifer dreamed of the night sky and of
traveling everywhere covered by its shroud to uncover whatever mysteries
sparkled there. Kaya’s dreams were filled with music and harmony, of waves of
sound splitting a dark ocean to both shield and guide her to a better life.
Jennifer had yellow hair and Kaya’s was brown, and one wore blue and the other
wore red. But despite these trivial differences the two of them were together,
clasping hands and spinning each other round and round the fairy circle under a
twilight that seemed to last forever. Until they slipped and both fell on their
backs, sucking in cool air and blinking as the first stars twinkled above.

After a few moments Jennifer said, “you’re looking at the
past.”

Kaya’s young nose wrinkled. “Why do you say weird stuff like
that?”

“It’s not weird!” Jennifer sounded wounded and indignant.
“It’s science! The stars are so far away that it takes years and years for their
light to reach us. So what we see is actually how they were a long time ago.”

“But light is light. You flip a switch and everything lights
up right away.”

“Light has a speed. You know, the speed of light?”

“But it’s really fast.”

“And the stars are really, really far away. Even the Sun, if
it exploded, we…”

Kaya bolted upright, her back and arms straight as her
fingers clung desperately to the Earth beneath her as she gasped, “The Sun has
exploded?!”

“What?!” Jennifer sat up too, a little red in the face. “No!
I-I didn’t say that. The point is that if it did, we wouldn’t know for about
eight minutes as that’s how long it would take the light to get here.”

“I’m messing with ya,” Kaya chuckled and lay back down with
her arms under her head. “But, at school, maybe don’t talk about the Sun
blowing up around everybody.”

“Why not?” Jennifer huffed. “It’s fascinating…”

“It’s freaky and weird,” Kaya sighed. “Kids don’t like to
talk about the end of the world and stuff. Especially not girls – they like to
talk about dresses and make-up and vampires.”

“You don’t talk about any of those things,” Jennifer pointed
out.

“Yeah,” Kaya said, kicking her leg in time to music only she
heard, “but I’m cool in so many other ways. I’m trying to help you fit in.”

Jen huffed again, putting her arms around her knees then
grumbling between them, “probably won’t happen for a very long time anyway.
It’s more likely to be a meteor or super-volcano that gets us…” she caught the
time on her watch, sighed, and slowly clambered to her feet. The sun had dipped
below the horizon about eight minutes ago and soon it’s rays will longer reach
them. Other stars were filling the inky canvas above while the lights of
Irongate twinkled in the valley below. Mom and dad were likely already calling
the police and organizing a search party to find them. “We should get back.”

Kaya frowned and groaned, “do we have to?”

She never wanted to go home, Jennifer had noticed. Kaya
didn’t like her dad, but didn’t like to talk about it either. Jennifer didn’t
want to either as the night was just right; clear and cool but not cold. Even
the busy town looked peaceful from up here. But later they would be thankful
for having a warm bed and they were going back to Jen’s house for tonight at
least. Kaya understood all that perfectly well so Jennifer held a hand out for
her. “Come on.”

Kaya squeezed one corner of her mouth and squinted up as if
Jennifer were peculiar white and shimmering thing her eyes couldn’t quite focus
on. “You look like a fairy,” she said, taking the hand.

As she pulled herself up Jennifer just wasn’t sure how to
take that comment. Did it mean she was pretty, or strange and weird, or both?
There were times she wasn’t sure if Kaya even liked her because of the things
she said, although usually she was assured she just hadn’t understood properly.
And Kaya must have liked her or they wouldn’t have played together since they
were five, over half their lifetimes ago. Maybe it was just a reference to the
thing that had brought them up here in the first place.

As Kaya went to get her coat and little guitar, Jennifer
went to get the book ‘The Hidden People’. It was stories collected about
fairies and elves throughout history, people describing their encounters with
the creatures and the fairy realm, warning others not to go there as even the
kindest of fairies was ferocious in guarding her privacy from mortals. There
bits by a man named Shakespeare, and pictures. Lots of pictures, but no photos.
So Jennifer had ignored the warnings – after all, if they were really so bad
how was it people knew so much about them? – and came here with a high-speed
camera to try and catch a glimpse as the book said dancing in the circle would
allow one to. But she went to the tripod to replay the footage, seeing only
herself and Kaya. Maybe the camera wasn’t high-speed enough, but somehow she
doubted that was the issue. She was beginning to suspect that they just weren’t
there.

Jennifer had thought that such an outcome would make her sad,
but she wasn’t. Tiny people with insect wings never struck her as very
imaginative anyway. Out there, in the sky above and throughout the world below,
there were far greater mysteries the shape of which no-one could imagine.

So she wasn’t a fairy. But maybe Aliens…

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