Memories of my secret childhood flooded my mind, and with them, a great understanding of the magick flowing through my body. With practice, I was once again able to change my form, swapping between a blackbird, an Aloja, and a human. Despite my renewed power, I knew the mystical energy flowing through me was already dwindling. It would be unlikely that I would ever see my 30s, and my poor mother would pass even sooner...unless I took desperate measures.
I waited for the dead of night and took to the sky for the first time since I was a child. The rush was incredible. After a few awkward spills and one fall that nearly knocked me out, I started to find my rhythm in the air. I stopped battling the jet stream and surfed along the updrafts, transforming back and forth between a bird and an Aloja. The sense of freedom was all-encompassing. For a moment, I was tempted to follow the winds wherever they would take me, but I carried on with my mission to save my kind from extinction.
My heart was racing by the time I arrived at Tossa de Mar. I made my way past the obsidian gate to the sea cave where my mother had told me her secrets. It was there I found her, unconscious but still alive, floating in the azure pool. She was beautiful as ever, but her wounds had still not fully healed. I gently shook her but she remained in a deep sleep. For a time I cried, but seeing her again only strengthened my resolve.
I remembered every word of my mother's stories. Tales I once could barely comprehend now were as clear in my mind as the waters of the sapphire pool. The purest magick still flowing through the mortal plane rested in the hands of the Antecedents--ancient beings who once reshaped the earth as they saw fit. With them, I would find the power I needed.
And if they refused to give it to me, they would die.
YOU ARE READING
ALOJA: The Journal of Pteridophia Anteres Lumina
Fantasy-A TALE FROM THE SECRET SEA- As a child, Pteridophia washes up on the shore of a small village in Catalonia, a stranger in a strange land. Just as her isolation becomes unbearable, a forbidden object high atop a towering sea cliff beckons to her, se...
