Photo credit:via Google Maps
As a child, Eza hadn’t realized she lived on an island. Or rather, she pictured all places like this, surrounded by ocean. That you could always walk the shore long enough to return to your beginning.
But now she’d been to the big land. You could walk for days, weeks, and never find the opposite shore. If there was one. Her powers had felt so dim, so useless.
How could Eza protect her people from those who lived such dry lives? People who’d fight not only on the water but here, in the mountains?
They say you can teach a bird to swim easier than teach a fish to fly. She was a fish by birth, by culture, and by training. She begged the ocean to accept this new training, to share her with the sky.
Eza spread her arms, casting the wind beneath them, praying herself buoyant.
She soared.
Word count: 150. Written for this week’s What Pegman Saw. Big thanks to Josh and Karen for hosting this great writing challenge. This week, Pegman takes us to Taunoa in French Polynesia. Such gorgeous ocean views and landscapes I found there! Click on the link to see what images others found, and the stories they inspired. And as always, feel free to jump in and write your own!
This is my first flash fiction piece in many weeks, and it’s great to be back. I’m still recovering from emergency eye surgery over four weeks ago. I’m doing much better, but my eye is already aching from writing and reading as much as this has taken, so it might be a while before I can read everyone else’s stories and comment on them. For anyone interested in the gory details, see my post: Me Versus Eye Surgery.
It is fascinating how much the environment we grew up in affects our original conceptions of what the world is like. I read books about cities, but lived in a small town, and always wondered why they were so different.
So, islands vs. continents. Never really asked an islander how it affected their lives. My mistake.
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Thanks for the great comment, Brian – I’m glad you liked it. To be honest, I never asked an islander either (although now I want to). That’s what writers constantly do, right? Try to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and imagine, with empathy, what that might be like. But then, my drive to do that is probably why I’m a sociologist and psychologist, with a side interest in anthropology. 🙂
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Which is no doubt why you find Crispina congenial, given her interests.
I’m having a fascinating time with a lengthy book on the famous Scottish witch Isobel Gowdie, which advances the theory that Gowdie was a story-telling visionary, or, to use a controversial term, a shaman. Giving me yet another perspective on the fantasy I read, and that I write.
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That does sound interesting! Fortunately (or unfortunately?) there’s an endless list of wonderful resource books for anyone interested in such topics. And finite time to read them, alas…
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Fortunately, my excuse is that I’m preparing a course on early modern European witches and witchcraft trials.
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What an excellent excuse! Sounds like a very interesting class indeed.
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Super story to make your return with, Joy! I just love your last line “She soared” How inspirational is that!
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Thanks Penny! Yes, I wanted something with a positive spin this time. We could all use an upbeat ending these days!
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Oh, I so envy that… she spread her arms… and soared
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I know what you mean, sounds great to me too!
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Something to do with us both being Geminis?
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I imagine a lot of people who are cooped up these days, between the lingering winter and the COVID-19 closings, would like a chance to fly free.
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Love this. It’s wonderful to have you back. I could use a little world-building right about now!
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Thanks Josh, glad you enjoyed it! And yes, that’s one thing I love about writing fantasy: when I’m not loving what’s happening in the real world, I can always build something entirely different and wonderful in Eneana.
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I love that you’ve seen the mainland from an islander’s perspective – you’re right, for those who’ve never known anything else, the mainland must seem like a strange, alien world to negotiate. And I love that ending – she willed herself to take flight and she did. Perfect.
Just caught up with your eye surgery post. I missed it when it went out as we were working through British mothers’ day here, just before we went into lock down. Wow, Joy. You’ve been through so much! You’re so tough, so resilient to come out of this still positive, still thankful. I’m so glad this latest surgery seems to be working for you and may you make the best recovery. So good to see you back online and to read your writing. Take care
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It’s great to hear from you, Lynn! Glad you survived the Mother’s Day rush — perhaps a long period of isolation is just the thing after that, no? Glad to hear you liked the story. Indeed, shifting perspectives is always interesting to me. In this case it’s pumped up a notch: imagine seeing the mainland, with all that endless *land*, when your magic comes from worshiping the sea, and your primary power is to turn into a fish!
Thank you for your kind words about my eye surgery drama. It’s been quite the ordeal. Unfortunately, it continues to be so because of this blasted oil bubble in my eye, which blurs my vision off and on and off and on. I am trying to get back into the swing of things, and catch up on emails and (ugh) work. But if I push things too hard, by about 6 pm my eye is killing me and all I can see is a big smear — like having greasy glasses, but no amount of blinking or eye drops helps. Thank goodness for audiobooks! So I suppose this is also a good time for me to be isolated at home, with no disappointment that I’m missing out on lovely social events or fun outings, since everyone else is also hunkered down.
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