Young Writers Society

The pale lighthouse hunched on the cliffs. Beneath it, Elenna’s arms were crossed over Muryk’s waist, where his human features became a black-scaled fish’s tail. Their eyes looked at each other and held the same emotion; sadness. Muryk stroked Elenna’s cheek with one hand, and held her black umbrella over her head with the other.

“I will miss you,” Elenna said. She felt his tail coil around her knees and smiled.

“I will miss you too,” he said. She uncrossed her arms and wrapped them around Muryk’s waist tight. “Do you really have to go?”

She nodded. “I wish I didn’t.”

“If you were going to another shore, I would follow,” Muryk said. “But this Kansas you talk of, this place I cannot go to.”

“There is no ocean there,” Elenna said.

“Then there is no magic there either,” Muryk said. His tail coiled around Elenna’s legs a little tighter. She shivered. Nothing had ever felt as good as this. And now it was to be taken from her.

“Shall I put a Charm upon you?” Muryk asked with a smile.

“A Charm?”

“I can Charm you, so that in but a little time, you will yearn for the sea. All your mind, body, and soul will ache for it, and you will do whatever you can to come to it. Then, I will be there, and we may be together again.”

She nodded. He reached down and pulled her up, brushing the hair away from her face and gazing long into it. A shy smile creased her lips. One crossed Muryk’s lips as well. Softly he leaned forward and kissed her. A salty taste entered Elenna’s mouth, but she didn’t mind. His kiss was intoxicating. She felt the sea roll in it and moaned a little. He kept going a little, rolling his tongue around. Waves of emotion rolled through her. She felt hot and cold all at once. A tear traced its way down her cheek and she laughed in her heart.

At last, Muryk pulled away. Elenna looked down at him. Her eyes begged for more. But he smiled and put a finger to her lips.

“That and more will be waiting for you,” he said to her, his voice full of that boyish sincerity she had grown to love. “When you return, I shall take you down to many-shadowed Narthranzil, and there we shall know love and joy forever.”

He slid Elenna off of him. She got to her feet. Though she wanted to say something, she found that nothing was coming to her mind. No words could express her sorrow at this parting, none. Muryk tried to hand her umbrella back to her, but she waved it away.

“Keep it. Remember me by it.” She smiled a little. “Until I get back, that is.”

He smiled and held it over his head in a pastiche of actually needing it. Elenna giggled a little at the sight as she turned to walk away. As she got ready to climb the rocky path that took her away from the beach, she took one last look at Muryk. It hurt to leave him. He was such a boy, more than any human boy she’d ever known.

The grey sky stretched out over the scene. Elenna knew that same sky stretched out over Kansas. Though Muryk and his kind had very little care for it, she knew that he cast an idle thought to it every once in a while. This gave her a small amount of comfort. She would be on the flat grassland, and he would be in the ocean’s depths, yet they would both be under the same sky.

Elenna turned away from Muryk, every detail of him ingrained in her head, and began to climb up the path to the shore. It was plain. She would return.

This is for Caligula's Chorus contest. The song I used is Under the Lighthouse by Big Wreck, and the word prompt is epiphany.