Dancing on Strings

Clockwork Boy

Mai looked at him for a moment, then turned away, staring out over the landscape.

They were quiet for a time, before Griffin glanced at her.

"Did it occur to you?" he asked.

"What?"

"That if you win, open the door and perhaps break apart this world... did it occur to you that you might wipe me from existence in the process?"

Mai was quiet for a time, letting the warm night breeze trail through her hair before she looked at him. "No," she said and Griffin gave her a weak smile.

"Well, that's alright," he said, looking away. "You weren't to know."

They fell into silence again for a time.

"Where does it go?" Mai eventually asked, pointing to the world ahead of them.

"The Palace," Griffin said, "You walk and walk and walk and eventually find yourself back at the palace. Trust me, I've done it, five times, you just come back here. And then you enter the palace and discover it's abandoned because Reve abandoned it when he locked himself away."

"Because this is the real realm of dreams."

"Exactly."

"So... do you think the door is here?"

Griffin shrugged. "Might be. I've looked for it. Never found it. I've never own the other gods to appear here but who knows, we can always look – we have all of time now."

Mai grimaced and Griffin laughed.

"Eternal life doesn't sound appealing?"

"Yes and no," Mai said.

He chuckled then straightened his back and crossed his legs. "Alright, enough chatter. I actually brought you out here because this is a good place to play with the threads of dreams. Reve, me and Angelique can all play with ludic dreaming. We can control and create at will. Naturally not as strong as Reve but we can do it. I'm going to assume you can as well."

He set a hand down in the grass, palm flat to the earth.

"You can't do everything – Reve would never give that much power – but you can have fun."

Mai looked at him, then blinked.

The world under her was glowing.

She looked down and stared as small flowers bloomed into life, their petals glowing as they flared up all around them, then down the hillside and onwards, passed the rivers, into the forests and up the distant mountains, setting the world aglow with an icy shine.

Mai's mouth opened as she drew in a gasp, looking all around them as petals rolled through the air and dashed up towards the skies.

"How did you do that?"

"I imagined it happening."

"I can do stuff like this?" Mai asked, eyes still wide.

"Probably. Why don't you try? What would you like to see?"

Mai glanced at him, then grinned and pushed to her feet. She looked up at the sky, closing her eyes and clasped her hands together in front of her chest.

At first, Griffin thought she was praying, until she threw her arms open wide and her eyes snapped opened.

Griffin was sure, for just a second, he saw something other than the night sky reflected in her gaze and then the world around him changed and he looked up.

The night sky was being torn apart over head.

Like cloth being shredded, the sky pulled apart, the darkness and stars rippling and folding in on themselves like satin and the sunlight poured down on them.

Warmth that could only come from the sun lit his face and blue skies made the world glow in a way his flowers never could.

Birds rocketed upwards towards the fresh sky as wind that smelt of spring showers and summer flowers whirled around them.

"Even the darkest nights will become the day," she said slowly.

Griffin's jaw dropped as he stared at what he had wished to do for decades and what she had done in minutes as Mai span back towards him, her smile bright and her eyes brighter.

And it was like seeing her for the first time again. Like he'd never truly looked at her. Like he'd never see the dazzle in her hair or the diamonds in her eyes.

"I'm going to make him regret it," Mai said, her eyes on fire with the sun, "I'm going to make him regret making me a princess. I shall shine within the darkness of nightmares as Queen of Dreams."

~~~~

Next Up: Thursday

Art By: Google Image

And we are FINALLY back - again.

I had meant to upload while on holiday but we were crazy busy (lots of palaces) and then we had the whole issue with the flight and lost that extra day (and I struggled to write on that day like you wouldn't believe).

Then I had work and whatnot. 

BUT, we're back.

My Etsy shop is also officially up and running with 14 individual designs for bookmarks and more to come - including characters from this series. 

RenaFreefallDesigns (or, if you can't find it, it might still be under its old shop name TheFairyTaleEmpire atm until the system changes it) if anyone wants to take a look and spread the word - for which I would be so very grateful as I have no money anymore lol. All my savings had to go into buying a car (Which I needed as my old one was going to kill me at some point) but it's not a nice place to be XD

Actually (Update) - if you click the 'external link' button at the bottom of the page by the comment/vote section, that will take you directly to it

And making these things for the store is actually so much fun. At the moment, there aren't any on there with characters from this series, but I'll be putting up six designs in the next few days. I think you've seen all the designs before. Mai also has her own Ballet set and there will be a mermaid set. 

So spread the word, my pretties! Spread! Spread! Like Nutella!

If anyone has any ideas for bookmarks they'd like to see, quotes/characters etc - not just from my books but any books/movies/TV/quotes - let's hear them!