Unlike any other day in Arcanum, the sky was dark and resentful; the winds were strong and restless, beating against the thin-trunked trees and shaking the delicate leaves on their branches. The waves on the black sand beach were rolling in fast with every gust of wind; no one was in sight except for a little girl in a purple one-piece swimsuit.
She sat nestled within the dark shore, building a castle with her hands, a pail and shovel forgotten beside her. She didn’t seem to be phased by the oncoming storm as she patted together the wet sand.
From the trees that stretched across the forest line, two young boys emerged. They were twins; the taller of the two had bright green eyes while the other’s were dark blue, and their shaggy chocolate-brown hair was tousled in the wind. The two boys walked onto the shore and stopped in front of the little girl.
She looked up, tossing her loose chestnut curls back, and smiled largely at her two best friends, her silver eyes shining.
“What are you doing playing down here, Aries?” Mason, the green-eyed boy, questioned.
Aries held up the plastic blue and green bucket and shovel with both sand-covered hands. “I wanted to make a sandcastle.” She giggled.
The boys chuckled at their six-year-old friend. Aries always loved to do things she wasn’t supposed to do. Much like at this very moment; her parents, as well as their own, had told them continually to stay off the beach due to the storm. And yet Aries just didn’t seem to care. But the boys did.
“Look, Aries, we need to go back to the cabin. Your parents are looking for you,” Zack said, looking at her slightly pudgy baby face.
Aries pouted, her lower lip pushed out and her large, upturned eyes widened pleadingly. “Please, Mason, I don’t want to go back, it’s boring there!”
Mason had always had a soft spot for Aries. Especially when she made him feel guilty for following the rules, similar to how she was now, and Aries knew that she could convince him more easily out of the two.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Zack scooped up Aries with one arm, threw her over his shoulder, and began walking to the dark wooded forest, ignoring her flailing arms of protest.
Mason bent down to grab the pail and shovel, gazing at the growing waves and the grey water mirroring the sky above. Little piles of sand dusted his boots as he shuffled his feet anxiously. There were stories of a merciless black beach that wouldn’t allow anyone to step on its shore. His parents refused to tell him more; he and his brother were too young and innocent to understand the true dangers of Arcanum.
When he turned to walk back to the others, he heard a crack of thunder from above, then a laugh from Aries. Mason looked over at Zack and Aries, who were in the middle of an open field beside a little wooden cottage. Aries was clapping, clearly trying to get another crack of thunder to sound as she stretched her neck back to stare excitedly at the sky. It made both boys smile softly at her.
Only those smiles faded once the thunder boomed in response, right after Aries clapped her hands, loud and clear. It shook the ground and rippled the water behind Mason; a sapphire glow ignited within the waves.
The boys looked at each other with wide eyes, startled. Zack picked up Aries again, who was still giggling and clapping more frequently in excitement, and rushed back to the cabin; the modest structure backed onto a wall of fog, and the strength of its enchantment radiated off it. Mason stepped off the beach, kicking up grains of sand into the air as he sprinted, oblivious to the shore where the sand slithered and moved as though it was a shadowy hand, slowly reaching for him to come back. It softly disappeared back into the shore.
The boys ran inside through the open heavy oak door and slammed it shut in one quick movement, their chests heaving slightly. The dark oak cabin smelled strongly of burning wood as the boys and Aries walked into the small, rustic living room. The boys relaxed within the safety of the cabin, their families having come here every summer together. Love and laughter were embedded within the walls from years of memories.
Aries’s mother and father were staring worriedly outside, while their own parents were tending to the fire, talking in hushed voices.
Aries’s mother walked up to them and smiled weakly; her brown eyes held unease. “I think it’s time to start saying goodbye … they’re coming.”
She took Aries and walked to the upstairs loft, her father trailing behind them. His broad shoulders were the last thing the boys saw before they were called.
“Boys,” their mother said softly. She had thin auburn hair with a claw mark scar across her cheek.
The twins knew that they had to say goodbye, knew what would be coming. The bad guys were after them, their parents had said; ones that they couldn’t protect themselves from. They all choked back sobs, their eyes brimming with silent tears. Unable to form words, the family embraced each other so tightly they would’ve broken each other’s bones if they were human.
After what felt like only a few seconds, Aries’s parents came down with her fully dressed. She was wearing little black boots, trousers, a green long-sleeved shirt, and a leather cloak with a hood fitted over her thick hair. Her father’s face was like his wife’s, ageless; but where her features were more delicate, his were strong and defined. It held a solemn expression as he watched his wife place Aries on the ground.
They heard another loud clap of thunder. And then another; and then once again. Everyone laughed lightly when Aries giggled, but it all stopped when she clapped twice and like before in the clearing, thunder mimicked her.
“Boys, I think it would be best if you … if you leave …” Aries’s mother couldn’t finish her sentence as she began sobbing quietly.
“She’ll be okay, Alice,” the twins’ mother said softly. Her soft hands folded with her husband’s.
“Oh, how could you know? She’s being hunted, at six years old! All because of what she is she has to hide,” Alice burst out. “They were gone! And now all because she’s different they are coming back.”
“Alice, let’s go to the kitchen, yeah? We said our goodbyes; Aries will be protected. She will be okay.”
Alice muttered something so low that not even the boys, with their enhanced hearing, could catch what she said. She then left the room with her husband, tears streaming down her face and her shoulders set in a defeated slouch.
Mason took that as his cue to grab Aries and hoist her onto his back. She gave a little yawn and closed her eyes, leaning her head on Mason’s shoulder as they walked out of the house. Taking one last look at the cabin with a sorrowful glance, they let a few tears fall.
As thunder sounded three times, followed by a blinding strike of lightning, the boys looked back at the cabin before heading straight into the Onyx Forest. It was full of twisted, thick-trunked trees and bright glowing green leaves that lit up a pathway for them. The boys broke into a run, rushing past trees that morphed into blurs as they pushed their legs as fast as they could go.
They didn’t stop until they saw a rainbow of magic clusters in the middle of the forest. Seven small clouds of glittering dust sparkled near the largest tree in the forest, each cloud a different colour. The magic then seemed to bubble and turn into darkening globs of slime, growing larger and larger the more they moved. Eventually, seven women with large wings that trailed low behind them replaced those small clouds. Each woman had her own colour: dark red, sunset orange, shimmering gold, forest green, sky blue, deep violet, and bright fuchsia.
Mason walked up to the women. He placed a sleeping Aries into the pale arms of the woman wearing a long elegant red dress, her ruby wings brushing the ground at her feet, which were placed in dark crimson heels. Nothing about her face was soft; it was all sharp, angular, and fierce.
Mason couldn’t bear to look at Aries anymore as he turned away. Without looking back, he asked, “Will she be safe?”
“You mean, will they find her? No, they won’t,” the woman holding Aries responded.
Zack took one last longing gaze at Aries, kissed her forehead gently, and turned away like his brother.
Mason pivoted and looked at the woman with narrowed eyes. “I want to hear you say it.”
The woman in red smirked and tilted her head to the side. “Say what?”
He didn’t miss a beat. “That she will be safe.”
“Anger is always the beginning of one’s destruction, Mason. You would do well to remember that.” was all the woman said before dark smoke began to curl around them welcomingly.
Before the boys ran, the rain finally began to pour, instantly drenching the creatures within the forest. Mason looked at the faerie women who had begun to disappear into the smoke and spoke with desperation.
“Just keep her hidden.”