by
Craw city has always been magical, at least to Luce. No boring war could ever make her love her seaside home any less. There’s the beach, where she and Adu can mess around and cause trouble, as well as the ancient songs they love to sing. Legends state that a vengeful mermaid named Sea Mother will protect the children from war. Why worry about politics and fighting? Nobody would risk the wrath of an angry sea serpent. Would they?
So why are groups of people fleeing the city, and why do Luce’s parents disappear every day to partake in mystery war work? What exactly are they doing, and why doesn’t Luce’s artist mother invite her along?
One day, Luce spies something that rocks her beliefs and changes everything. Her faith in the sea, and all she holds dear, will be sorely tested. But love is fierce, and so are sea goddesses.
- 1 Read list
Publisher: Ninestar Press
Editors:
Genres:
Pairings: F-F
Heat Level: 1
Romantic Content: 1
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Lesbian
Protagonist 1 Age: Under 18
Protagonist 2 Age: Under 18
Word Count: 20000
Setting: fantasy setting
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Same Universe / Various Characters
Things had been going well up to then. We’d just blown across the city towers when it happened. A vapid darkness consumed the city and the ocean with a deafening noise and howling wind. Poison spilled far into the ocean, and lightning streaks ripped the skies apart.
As one, we covered our ears and tried to shield ourselves from the bolts of light that Sea Mother hurled. Bluebell trembled, and whined, and wrapped herself around my neck.
“What is it?” Adu and I cried.
I honestly thought Sea Mother had cracked open the world, and everyone and everything would die. In some respects, my guess wasn’t far wrong.
“Oh, my heart. A poison bomb,” Da said quietly and with force.
The blackness spread throughout the city, down the coast, and into the sea. For many miles, that obscene and wicked stain of horror gobbled up all the colour and goodness that constitute our good Earth.
READ MOREIt didn’t look as if we could possibly survive. Against such powerful electrical lightning, our balloon shrank, and shrivelled, and struggled. We lost height and drifted down towards the water.
Trish flung herself from one side of the basket to the other, pulling at levers and gadgets. Anything to keep us afloat. Years later, she admitted she reacted from instinct rather than knowledge, and that she didn’t believe she could save us.
Aln sat between Adu and me with an arm around our shoulders. Both stared up into the canvas as it heaved and contracted.
“Hold. Hold!” Aln whispered. “Not a stitch, Adu, my darling, my baby. We didn’t drop a stitch.”
“Not a stitch, Da. We didn’t drop a single stitch,” Adu replied with tears running down her cheeks.
Ma forgot about her phobia of heights and squared up to the horror. When she shouted, it was with fists clenched and a fearlessness I’d remember always.
“Fools! What have you done? The sea is poisoned and ruined. The dolphins and seals? The whales? Sea Mother will never forgive us or let us back. Don’t you know her curse? Craw will wither!”
Somehow, we got through it. Trish ignited a light, and the balloon shone brightly through the gloom. The mermaid that Adu and I had previously helped to paint so carefully drifted past the city and down the coast, the last light before the longest and most bitter of nights.
My mother screamed her goodbyes into the smoke and poison of Craw. “I’ll come back for you, children! Don’t forget! Don’t give up! One day, one day. I’ll come back for you! Remember me.”
COLLAPSE
