Day 1 of Inktober and Blogtober… I’m late 😂

First… Happy October! 

It’s going to be a busy month with Inktober, Blogtober, and novel revisions… wonderful! I’m looking forward to it though. What I am attempting is a submission for Inktober and Blogtober with the prompts from Inktober creating short stories like I did a couple of years ago. 

My drawing skills need work but I haven’t done it in a while so …yeah so I’m hoping to get practice with this by doing Inktober and if I say Inktober one more time…

Anyway.. I’ll be posting the prompt list to the WORKS page.  I hope you’re all having an awesome weekend. Mine is flying by but that’s cool too, got stuff to do and get done, off I go.

So here we kick off the madness…  Day 1 “Crystal”

This the Diamond Palace in the short story I wrote for this prompt… which will be posted below.

 

Crystal

Lumi slowly paced across the crystalline surface of the floor of the diamond palace, each step ending in small cracks. In deep thought she clasped her hands behind her back and bit her bottom lip. G’Lumi imitated her steps, with her hands clasped in front of her.

“Father’s going to be furious”, Lumi said full of worry.

“You think?”

“Hush G’Lumi!” She spoke sharply, “This is serious! The castle is falling to pieces and we’ll soon be out of options.”

“Do we even have any options?”

“Of course we do. We could send out for someone– a mage or wizard. You know, someone who specializes in enchantments and charms…that sort of thing.”

“What about the elven architect that put this opulent heap of rocks together? Where are they?”

“Last I heard, his last project… was exactly that. He’s well within the spirit realm by now. Would be hard to track down and even if we track him down, there’s no telling if he’d want to help.”

“Greeaat.”

“Indeed.”

Lumi stood still and felt a pressure building at back of her head. For instant relief, she unraveled her hair that had been placed in a tight bun at the back of her head, letting her hair fall down to her shoulders in loose waves. She shook out her mane and watched as G’Lumi pinned her hair up and out of her face, into a similar bun that Lumi’s hair had been in.

“That’s better”, they both said in unison.

“You know… if you hadn’t been so adamant about not take up the craft, you might’ve been able to fix this yourself. But… here we are, watching your world crumble down around you,” G’Lumi extended her hand out before and looked at her long brilliant fingernails looking for blemishes and found none.

Lumi crossed her hands over her chest and rolled her eyes. She could hear the cracking intensify around her and stood still to listen for where it was coming from. Seconds later she could hear a piece of the castle break away and tumble down toward the ocean below, crashing into the depths of its emerald waves. She cringed at the sound of the crash then looked to G’Lumi.

“Well??”

“Well what?”

“As one who studied the craft… what would you suggest be done?”

“It’s about time you asked. First of all, we need to figure out how to undo all of this.” G’Lumi said, making a flourish with her hands toward her body.

“Oh, right. But I’m not exactly sure how that happened. I only discovered you like this a few hours ago and that was after I came to. Do you remember what happened?”

“No… not at all. I just remember opening my eyes and being here.” G’Lumi sighed heavily.

“Wait, isn’t there a spell or something you learned that would help us? Like the Finders Keepers enchantment.”

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure that only works for lost things. And how did you know about that?”

“I was listening during our studies, I remember. And technically our memories are lost things. Maybe it’ll work.” Lumi laced her fingers together and lowered herself to the floor. G’Lumi followed suit.

“Magic doesn’t work on technicalities, it might make things worse. Do you like being able to remember at all?”

“Well we have to try something. We can’t just let all this happen and continue to be.”

“Why do we have to do anything? I’m pretty sure this is a you thing.”

“It’s a we thing because if we don’t fix this issue, you’ll be lost along with the palace… Now help me!” Lumi looked down at her sister’s visage in the crystalline floor, at what should have been her own reflection.

“I didn’t think about that. Crap!”

“How do we do it again?”

“Okay… connect and point both of your forefingers north with the rest of your fingers tucked and touch them to your forehead, then in the incantation, state the thing you want.”

“Should I speak it or should you?”

“You. I’ll tell you what to say since this happened on your end. Ready?” G’Lumi watched her sister nod in agreement and then began the finger movements and enchantment, “North where treasure doth hold, return to me the memories to unfold.”

When the spell was complete, Lumi and G’Lumi’s minds filled the last thing they’d forgotten.

Lumi and G’Lumi argued about who their father’s favorite was. They eventually came to blows. Pulling each other’s hair and calling each other names. Their father had to break up the fight and send them to separate wings of the palace. Before he left the palace, he sat the girls down for a chat explaining to them how important it was that they get along and work together. That their lives were dependent upon them doing so. He placed an enchantment on the palace and the girls that one would follow wherever the other went. That they be tethered to each other until they learned to work together, and each time they fought or showed disdain toward each other, the palace would crack and fall apart, until there was nothing left of it or them. He kissed the girls and left the palace with his belongings after setting the enchantment on them, causing them to fall into a slumber. He did this with the intention that they would know peace and tranquility before waking. He knew it would be the only time they would not fight or argue and would actually get along.

The girls sat quietly for a moment. Lumi began to cry while G’Lumi chuckled at the strange twist in fate.

“He set us at odds with one another, which is why I am in a world of reflection and must do opposite of everything you do.” G’Lumi, unable to stop her laughter, did so until tears rained down on her cheeks.

“He hates us!” Lumi cried.

“More than we ever knew.” G’Lumi chuckled.

The girls looked upon each other one above the other below with a gleam in their eyes. Lumi looked at her sister with fire in her eyes ready to accuse her sister of their misfortune and G’Lumi looked at sister with heat below her skin ready to cut into her.

Traveling the road near the castle, a young man sent by their father came to deliver a message, before he could reach the castle gates… the entire castle crumbled and fell into the sea. The young man turned back and returned to the girls’ father with his findings.

Their father simply said, “I am free.”