The Earth and The Sea

On the shore of Pemaquid Point, the rocks have surged upwards, forming a bowl, protecting the people. It was formed years ago, after a drawn-out, vicious, and bloody battle.

The waves gush at the shore, which was once a flat surface. They devour and steal anything nearby. The Ocean grasp at the legs of people and animals, pulling them in. Tearing down trees and pulling apart limbs of anything it can reach. This was the way of life, the Ocean taking the lives of many into its torrid and violent grasp. They savagely shred across the beach and snatch mothers from their children and trees from their roots.

One day, the Earth finally had enough of the the thieving Ocean. She began to thrust herself up, creating a ledge for the people to be wary of, and that the Ocean couldn’t climb. It took many days and nights, and the Earth worked tirelessly for the life of those who cared for it. And the Sea still climbed. The tide rose with the sediments, splashing the scalding surfaces of the newly forming metamorphic rocks. The Earth forced back, burning up the Sea while still stretching and twisting the sedimentary rocks that were packed tightly after millions of years of wear. They heat and change shape, blossoming into a wall of glittery metamorphic rock. And the Sea still splashed and tugged and stole those who ventured near.

The Earth broke out another tool she had. She spewed magma up through the metamorphic plateau, building walls and filling in cracks. The Ocean fought vehemently. It surged after the red sludge, and the Earth hissed back. With each crashing wave the Sea perished, its ghost floating upwards and blinding the onlookers from the shore. In the haze, the Earth began working on the other side of the new mountain. It pushed up walls of metamorphic rock from the inside, shaping a sharp drop into the Sea on the outside and gentle waves of rock on the inside.

Many years passed, the Earth was triumphant in protecting her people. Until, of course, the Sea began it’s retaliation. In the eyes of people, the Ocean held a grudge for hundreds of generations. For the Sea, it was mere minutes. It flooded the bowl of rock, pirates pouring in to attack the land beings. It was then that land roared its final retribution. The people and animals of her were her children. They strove to protect her, and she would do the same in return. The walls of the formation surged up in a final attempt. She struck the base with magma that spewed upwards. The Sea burned and retreated.

Many generation passed without any future attempts from the Ocean, who seemingly has given up. Even the Earth and Sea can barely remember the when this brawl happened. Since then, many things have happened at Pemaquid Point. Settlers arrived and the indigenous were kicked out. Pirates swarmed and hurricanes raged. As for the Earth and Ocean, they live in uncertain harmony. The Sea still viciously whips against the basin, and small tide pools exist within the walls. The Earth is still wary of the Sea, waiting for it to lash out once more. She slowly continues to rise, even to this day. So slowly not even the Sea notices.

The Earth would die to protect her beings, as the Sea would for its. Many tales have been spun about the nature of their interactions.

The City of Ice

In a faraway land at a far away time, there were people like any other who longed for creativity and beauty, seeking knowledge and freedom. These people would stumble upon a great castle that glistened in the sun in a breathtaking display of dazzling ice. And they would approach it; it was everything they had ever dreamed of. Within an arm's distance of the castle, the ground would shoot up and encapsulate them in dark tunnels that twist and spiral.

In the city of ice, walls are invisible barriers that keep the hostages contained, sprouting out of the ground in front of them, trapping them. They make claustrophobic tunnels, shoving them away from anything they might believe they desire.

The air is cold and thick and hostile, and it wails through the tunnels softly. Whispers from the unknown echo above, underlying the child-like screams of the wind. Large clouds of breath disperse into the walls, freezing intricate flakes against them. The occupants avoid the crystals, fearing the delicate structures, the unknown causes of the exquisitely detailed formations that eerily resemble humans. They continue to be shoved deeper and deeper into the maze of forever-shifting ice.

Some inhabitants are overcome with curiosity of the ice. The ice that beckons with its humanoid features and delicate form. The ice that tugs at their breath and creates diaphanous frameworks. The ice that emits wind that screeches and echos. They touch the crystals and are absorbed into them, forever solidified the pellucid glass.

It is only then that the citizens are whole, are able to traverse the city in peace and live in harmony with the divine ice. They suck in the breath of the living to build skyscrapers and plant gardens. The crystals bloom in an intense and intricate lace to be picked and preserved in the name of love.

Once they have become the ice, the citizens see the decrepit people entrapped in their city. They see their blueish, deathly pallor, and ice embedded in their hair and eyebrows, encrusting their skin. They see their rags hang loosely on their sickly frames, they see the light in their eyes dim every minute within the borders of the city as they get closer and closer to giving up the possibility of leaving. The possibility of going back to the way things once were. The ice people see themselves as they were before they touched the ice. They see their past in all it’s sickly glory and they yell to them. They call for them to join them, they shout about the ease of their life. Their words aren’t in a language the entrapped dreamers understand, and are received as the howling of the wind. They pull on their breath and present them with flowers and smiles, but the inhabitants of the maze fear them.

It is the people who can’t open their minds and see the ice in a different light, the people who can’t interpret the screams as anything but unnatural and see the ice as daggers rather than lace, it is these people who perish in the city. They live out their lives shying away from the kind offerings of the ice people, running from the shadows of other prisoners and slowly losing hope of leaving.

The city isn’t trying to trap them, and the walls aren’t meant to be impenetrable barriers. The walls are opportunities for a better life. They spring up so suddenly in opportunistic joy for the people who stumble upon this city. It is so unfortunate for those who can’t see the city for what it is and who will ultimately breathe their last within. However, the breaths that they did breathe built skyscrapers.

The Story of Casey Vout

Chapter 1: Prolouge

Casey Vout had barely tucked himself into his kitten’s collar before she darted out of the room. This kitten was a small grey 4-month-old with big eyes like avocados, long white socks, and a tannish stripe at the top of her front right paw and across her back. She was awesome beyond belief, really unbelievably awesome.

The kitten’s evil owner was Elena Lopez, who got her for her 13th birthday. Her parents got her a cat in hope of making her more responsible using a little furry ball of cuteness, but all that Elena’s makeup slathered face had to say was mean things about that adorable ball of fuzz. She didn’t even bother to name it. The only time the little kitten got any attention from Elena was when she was chasing her around or torturing her, like by letting her smell a treat and then putting it away, or putting the kitten outside the door in the freezing Vermont cold and not letting her back in until she was meowing loud enough to wake up her parents.

Now, you can understand why the kitten had darted out of the room. Casey gave a cry of alarm as the kitten was on a straight course into Elena’s mom’s leg! At the last second the kitten darted out of the way, and Casey gave a sigh of relief. He make a kissing sound to calm the cute kitty down.

“Shh, girl. Woah, girl.” He sounded like he was calming a horse. His size compared to the cat was like a teen riding a full grown stallion, so I suppose it made sense. He hopped of gently, smoothing the kitten’s dusky fur. “I’ll go get you a treat. Now stay.” He whistled and Elena’s grudging father called her in for dinner.

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