fiction - ljidol week 19 - invitation
May. 26th, 2017 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwango804 words
Ours is a strange old world filled with oddities and curiosities, some of them by design and some of them by chance. Today, I will tell you a tale of how one of those oddities came to be.
This tale takes us far, far back to some of the earliest days, back to when the great romance between Restless Ocean and Steadfast Earth was still young. You have heard many stories of the terrible war between their families, and how their unlikely love brought about peace. Many of those stories skip over a few significant details, however.
At first, the love between Earth and Ocean was young and uncertain. They knew that they could not bear to kill one another just because of their families' ridiculous war, but that's not the same thing as wanting to spend the rest of their lives together. After some time, though, their love grew strong and they knew it to be true, and they wished to honor that love with oaths and promises, much as might be done today with a wedding. They wished to swear the strength of their bond before Earth's father, the Fire That Dwells Below, and before Ocean's mother, the Endless Open Sky.
The tricky part would be getting the two of them to attend and, if at all possible, not attack one another while they were there. Neither the Endless Open Sky nor the Fire That Dwells Below had spoken to their children since what they saw as their great betrayal, and Ocean and Earth knew that both of their parents hated no one so much as they did each other.
Earth was able to swallow a message to her father, who answered with a terrible rage that shook Earth and tore terrible wounds in her that oozed molten rock. Ocean held her in his cooling embrace and whispered poetry to her until her wounds healed. Eventually, grudgingly, the Fire That Dwells Below calmed himself and reluctantly agreed to attend this ceremony of theirs.
Ocean could not deliver his own invitation himself, but was loathe to send any messenger in his place. He had seen the terrible fury of the Fire That Dwells Below, and feared a similar reaction from his mother. But the two bravest and proudest of all birds, having witnessed Ocean's devotion to his beloved, volunteered to deliver his message to the Endless Open Sky.
Ocean thanked them, told them to be careful, and gave them his message. It was elegant and formal, but it also spoke with great passion. It told of the great love Ocean felt for Sky and for Earth, and his wish that Sky would attend and share this moment that would mean so much to him and his beloved. It also cautioned her that Earth's father would also be there, and very carefully asked her to try very hard not to murder him during the ceremony.
The birds carried the invitation with them high into the clouds, their mighty wings gleaming with feathers of gold and silver and such colors that the world has not seen since.
Sky did not want to hear from her son, and his emissaries were not welcome. She soaked them with rain and battered them with freezing winds, but they pressed on. Ultimately, she grew weary of fighting them and just let them deliver the message. Its contents did not please her.
Sky's wrath was terrible. She redoubled the wind and the rain, and then tore the very air apart with lightning. She cast the birds back to Ocean broken, blackened, and with their wings torn to pieces. But she also sent with them her answer, which was that she would come.
Ocean was distraught over the suffering of the birds. They would never fly again, and their beautiful feathers were ruined. He offered them all that he could, which was a new home with him, where they might never need to visit the sky again. They were the first penguins.
Yes, the funny little penguin. Odd to think they descend from such proud, noble ancestors. And just think, if they had not delivered Ocean's message, Sky would not have attended the ceremony. She would not have broken the peace and ruined the day by attacking the Fire That Dwells Below, ultimately tearing out his heart and carrying it laughing back into the sky, where even now she parades it from horizon to horizon every day as the sun.
So what do we take away from this? That unless your wedding is plagued by erupting volcanoes, lightning storms, and one family savagely attacking the other that it was not truly a disaster? That true love endures even through one ruined ceremony? That without those first two brave penguins, we would not have the sun?
It's a strange old world indeed.
Ours is a strange old world filled with oddities and curiosities, some of them by design and some of them by chance. Today, I will tell you a tale of how one of those oddities came to be.
This tale takes us far, far back to some of the earliest days, back to when the great romance between Restless Ocean and Steadfast Earth was still young. You have heard many stories of the terrible war between their families, and how their unlikely love brought about peace. Many of those stories skip over a few significant details, however.
At first, the love between Earth and Ocean was young and uncertain. They knew that they could not bear to kill one another just because of their families' ridiculous war, but that's not the same thing as wanting to spend the rest of their lives together. After some time, though, their love grew strong and they knew it to be true, and they wished to honor that love with oaths and promises, much as might be done today with a wedding. They wished to swear the strength of their bond before Earth's father, the Fire That Dwells Below, and before Ocean's mother, the Endless Open Sky.
The tricky part would be getting the two of them to attend and, if at all possible, not attack one another while they were there. Neither the Endless Open Sky nor the Fire That Dwells Below had spoken to their children since what they saw as their great betrayal, and Ocean and Earth knew that both of their parents hated no one so much as they did each other.
Earth was able to swallow a message to her father, who answered with a terrible rage that shook Earth and tore terrible wounds in her that oozed molten rock. Ocean held her in his cooling embrace and whispered poetry to her until her wounds healed. Eventually, grudgingly, the Fire That Dwells Below calmed himself and reluctantly agreed to attend this ceremony of theirs.
Ocean could not deliver his own invitation himself, but was loathe to send any messenger in his place. He had seen the terrible fury of the Fire That Dwells Below, and feared a similar reaction from his mother. But the two bravest and proudest of all birds, having witnessed Ocean's devotion to his beloved, volunteered to deliver his message to the Endless Open Sky.
Ocean thanked them, told them to be careful, and gave them his message. It was elegant and formal, but it also spoke with great passion. It told of the great love Ocean felt for Sky and for Earth, and his wish that Sky would attend and share this moment that would mean so much to him and his beloved. It also cautioned her that Earth's father would also be there, and very carefully asked her to try very hard not to murder him during the ceremony.
The birds carried the invitation with them high into the clouds, their mighty wings gleaming with feathers of gold and silver and such colors that the world has not seen since.
Sky did not want to hear from her son, and his emissaries were not welcome. She soaked them with rain and battered them with freezing winds, but they pressed on. Ultimately, she grew weary of fighting them and just let them deliver the message. Its contents did not please her.
Sky's wrath was terrible. She redoubled the wind and the rain, and then tore the very air apart with lightning. She cast the birds back to Ocean broken, blackened, and with their wings torn to pieces. But she also sent with them her answer, which was that she would come.
Ocean was distraught over the suffering of the birds. They would never fly again, and their beautiful feathers were ruined. He offered them all that he could, which was a new home with him, where they might never need to visit the sky again. They were the first penguins.
Yes, the funny little penguin. Odd to think they descend from such proud, noble ancestors. And just think, if they had not delivered Ocean's message, Sky would not have attended the ceremony. She would not have broken the peace and ruined the day by attacking the Fire That Dwells Below, ultimately tearing out his heart and carrying it laughing back into the sky, where even now she parades it from horizon to horizon every day as the sun.
So what do we take away from this? That unless your wedding is plagued by erupting volcanoes, lightning storms, and one family savagely attacking the other that it was not truly a disaster? That true love endures even through one ruined ceremony? That without those first two brave penguins, we would not have the sun?
It's a strange old world indeed.
