A Fairytale of the Soul Twins

Once upon a time, there lived a girl in a small fishermen village in a beautiful land. The village, like the whole kingdom was picturesque in whatever corner one were to happen to be in. There were many small villages and odd towns where people engaged in various trades and works. There were forests and large swathes of fields which separated them. The farmers usually lived near the forests and the rivers and the shepherds and cattle farmers on the fields. As for this particular village, it was one of the numerous which lay near the big river that was the lifeline of this wonderful land.

Sabille, the girl lived with her mother, father, two little brothers and grandmother in the small wooden house in that small village. Each morning, when it was still dark, she would set off to sail with her father into the river. The other girls her age usually did what their mothers and other women of the village did, but that sort of work never went well with Sabille and so, from very early on, she had started going with her father inspite of the fact that boys her age on the boats often made fun of her.

In the afternoons, after she returned, she would go out, hopping from one place to another, completely uninterested in chatting and making wreaths or dresses and doing other things which her girl-friends did sitting in front of the mirror. She would go off to the wilderness at the back of their village and climb the trees. She would stay there for long sometimes, looking out on the fields. Often, she climbed to the top of the tallest tree and look at the river, the village and the lands, unending and lush in each direction. Doubtless, she never got scared. Instead, she would wish sitting there, to have wings so she could fly like the birds in the wind.

In fact, she just did not wish, she believed she could actually have wings, if she truly tried finding a way to get them. All this was, unsurprisingly, the material of laughs for the younger and pity for the elders. Sabille hence, tried to mostly keep her dreams and imagined flying scenes to herself and only tell them to her granny if she really wished to, for her granny was the one who had told her about the fairies and mermaids and all the other magical creatures. Her granny had narrated each and every story she knew at least 20 times at Sabille's requests and yet, despite 'not-being-a-child-anymore' according to her mother, she asked her granny to narrate one of her stories each night. She would listen and dream of having those wings one day.

***

While Sabille was living happilly with her family and listening to her granny tell her tales, in some other part of that majestic land lived a boy named Marco. Marco was a joyful boy, he was bright, smart and looked as good to make people smile just with a glance at him. His friends loved him, both in the jungle where he lived and outside, in the town. The only problem that was with him and because of which he was forced to live in a jungle instead of the town, was that he... had wings.

Marco had made a really nice tree-house over the years, and was happy living there. He would come meet his friends, the kids from town, almost each day near the edges of the forest and play with them. The rest of the time, he spent with the chimps and other animals.

He hadn't always lived in the forest though. Earlier, when he was small, and as far as he could remember, he lived in the town, with a human family. It wasn't his own family and which was why, when roumors started going around his house about the wings, he had to be sent-away for the safety of both his and the family's. Following this, he lived on the backalleys first and later, in these far more amicable surroundings of the jungle, away from humans and population.

He knew not where he came from, before he was temporarily adopted by the family in the town. But he had known well since, that he was different from the humans and since no-one, including himself, knew who, or rather what he was, they feared him. Which in turned made him fearful to stumble into a party of grown up men or women. Children on the other hand, found him fascinating, and friendly. But it had been a long time since he had been living alone and he often wondered if he could find the place where he came from or would encounter someone like him. Often, these wishes turned into moments of wants and needs and in one such moment one day, he decided that he would go out and look for his people and land, and would leave the comforts of his jungle home.

***

Sabille, was on the other hand, as happy as she had always been and living her life normally. Until one night, after three days of continous slow rain, a rain cloud burst above the river near her village. It was a like a sudden attack of a silent prey, the river overflew boundless in every direction and nearby fields and forests and some villages too, flooded uncontrollaly in the dead of the night. Many houses were destroyed almost suddenly and its inhabitants drowned. Very few people, who were awake then, and with sheer luck, were able to swim to the trees in the north and climb up to save themselves from the raging river. Sabille was one of them.

After two days, when help came from nearby villages and the kingdom, Sabille got to know that her whole family died in the flood. Everyone she had, she lived with and loved, was no more. She cried and cried at the loss of her family, and kept thinking how they too could have been saved. She thought how if she indeed had wings, she could have, somehow, saved her parents and brothers and granny. After two days, when her tears dried up, she left the village in her immutable desire to have wings. She listened to none, and with a belief positively unshakeable went about on her own.

***

During the first few days, Marco flew through forests and mountains, and open fields of men at night. But when he didn't come across a single person, let alone communities of beings like him, he decided to search in the villages of men. Though it was unlikely of him finding someone there, for the same reason he could not inhabit towns or villages, he still found it in his heart to not leave unlooked where he could. And he had plenty of time on him anyway. He would watch the markets from a distance, walk on the periphery of farms and villages and would wander streets at nights when others were asleep. He would often look through the open windows and would find amusement in different things he would get to see from them. He didn't find what he was looking for but he kept on going.

Meanwhile, Sabille travelled too. She crossed village after village, went through forests, sailed in boats to bigger towns, wandered alleyways in search of sorcerers and alchemists who could help her grow wings. She found many too, some bid her away at the very sight, some listened to her story and excused themselves, some even promised to try their best but none was successful to grow her wings. 

She would do whatever work she could find and sometimes, a family would let her stay at their home while she looked about for alchemists and chemists and those who claimed to be able to help people with magic. At other times, she would have to sleep in a barn or a tree in the forest. At times, she would feel very sad and would break down.

As strange as it would sound, when she cried, Marco who was in some other part of the kingdom, felt sad too. He would not know why, a sinking feeling would just start to grow in his heart without any reason. And this happened with both of them. Likewise, it so happened that when Marco felt joyful, looking at some families at night secretly, or watching birds and other animals in some forest, or playing occasionally with some kids, Sabille felt the same. She would start feeling happy and positive even if she was sad the earlier evening or morning. All this started after a few days had gone into both of their journeys, which was barely noticeable at the beginning, kept increasing as they kept on their journeys.

***

Many days hence, Sabille woke up one day to find her back tickling. She went at the edge of the pond she was sleeping near which, and lifting her shirt, tried looking at it. What she saw in the reflection, she could not believe in at all. Two tiny, transparent wings were starting to come out of her back. She shrieked and jumped with utter joy, and went back to see it again. And yet, they were there, her newly growing wings. She was so happy, she jumped and danced and shouted so much so that her voice echoed throughout the jungle.

When Marco woke up that morning, he was filled up with happiness and a queer sense of good forthcomings filled his heart. He set out with a feeling that he would soon find who he had been looking for long. Sabille, even more pushed by this happy news, and beckoned by an invisible force, kept travelling. She crossed towns and villages, without stopping or caring about any chemist or wizard anymore. Marco flew without stopping as well. At nights he would lie down, but could not sleep soon due to excitement. It was so new and amazing a feeling, that nothing could stop him from meeting another like him anymore, he knew. 

And surely, on the 8th day after that morning near the pond, Sabille entered through a winding thoroughfare, a forest. On her way, she saw a clearing between the trees where sunlight fell in glittering shineness and was surrounded by as gorgeous flowers as she had ever seen. Colourful butterflies fluttered from flower to flower there and pulled by the beauty she hence entered. As soon as she did, in the sunshine, her clothes turned automatically into a dress, a beautiful pink dress with  
pretty red shoes. Her transparent wings, which had grown full by now, sparkled with a silvery glow and if she were to look at herself then, she would have found herself no less than a princess. 

Right after this happened, she saw a boy in wings, similar to hers descend down into the clearing. Marco's happiness on the other hand was uncontained, he had finally met the one he had spent so many days and nights searching for. And he could not believe how well his wishes have been answered. He did not know where she came from or what she might be thinking at the moment. He could only see that she was as happy to be here, if with a tint of glad surprise, as he was. 

'Hi!' said he...

***

Story written around this image.

They did not know how they came to meet each other, or who the other person was, or what is that they were going to do after their meeting, but it was all going to come to their knowledge slowly. For the fate which led them to each other was going to take care of all this too. 

They were going to be the best of friends and partners, they were so destined to be. They were going to realise that they were not just friends, but soul twins.

***

This post is part of Theandric Thursday, a fortnightly whenever-she-gets-time-and-feels-like-posting feature hosted by Ashna Banga.
The dictionary definition of 'Theandric' is 'Relating to the joint agency of divine and human nature'.

Sounds interesting? Write your own Theandric Thursday post and drop a link on her blog. You can write reality, part-reality-part-fiction or total fiction(like this post here), it's flexible. You can also use the picture on the right for the post.


P.S: She wrote an amazing TT post this week. Check it out here.


Comments

  1. This is one of the cutest stories I've read :')
    Very well-narrated, written and described. I can't believe you made all this up around a single picture! I could imagine all of it happening somewhere and the theme! *_*
    So glad you wrote this. It's beautiful! :D Worth documenting ;)
    Thanks too, for participating in TT! :D

    Keep writing! :')

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is beautiful and lovely only because I did not make it alone. A really awesome writer and closest friend ever helped me with the ideas. ^_^

      I can't thank you enough for starting TTs, they have given me a reason to keep writing short stories. Many hugs to you :')

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