Stardust Castle: Tears of Mercy [Drawing][Story]

Away, up in the clouds there is a castle. Inside dwells an angelic maiden with hair of pure starlight. Her mirror-polished armor glitters from every conceivable angle. In her right hand she grips an ash pole topped with a marvelous pearl spearhead.

Alone she sits and watches the world from the highest parapet between Midnight Tower and The Lunarium. Time passes slowly on the world while the years race by on the blessed isle in the clouds. She has all the time in the world to mourn the long-expected, but no less painful loss.

Tightly she squeezes a silver locket bearing the portraits of her mother and father. Not since she first day when she placed their images inside has she ever opened the heart-shaped locket. She knows their faces. She cannot unsee them. The locket is all she has left. The last remnant of their existence.

A dull glow catches her eye behind the Trinity Sequoias. Not exactly the expected lazy lights of the fireflies, that give Firefly Pond its name. This was something much more mysterious, exciting, and a bit terrifying in nature.

Bound by duty, Starla adorned her blue cape around her armor, and descended the castle through the tower stairwell. As she passed quietly through the empty halls, Starla's frayed mind continued to dwell on how her life was torn apart. The last pages completed in her grand saga of life were now burned in the hearth of history, leaving only the ashy remains of her blackened eternal soul. She knew her role, and her responsibility, but the missing pages of her life mocked every fiber of her now-cursed existence.

As she exited the front gates of Castle Stardust, she knew no fear. Hardened by tears, she no longer knew how to be afraid. She felt nothing, other than the pain of the black hole inside her heart.

---

Below is the drawing I felt inspired to sketch this evening. This is a pencil sketch, which I later inked. It represents the opening scene for a story I imagined for a knight who lives far up in the clouds in a fantastic castle.

Eventually I may flesh out the story more, or perhaps I'll draw other locations, or characters related to it. Next I am thinking of painting the image in photoshop, and possibly use something like SketchUp to render it in 3D.

I hope you like it.

---

Diseased by the sadness overtaking her soul, how much time had passed since she became an orphan? The names of her mother and father... it occurred to her with shame that she could not recall their names. Sheila? No. Helman? No. She wondered these things as she followed the path past the sacred Yew Trees and the Blaze Bush in The Spiral Garden. It must have been an eternity that passed since the world changed, and the responsibilities of her title had fallen upon her all at once.

The waterfall of that burden weighed heavy on her shoulders, but she did not show it with her trained confidence instilled more deeply within her. Her mother and father had always insisted that she carry herself with honor at all times, as a living representative of her family name... of which she had also shamefully forgotten. She dared not dishonor her family now by not walking with the grace and surety her station deserved.

Even so, she nearly stumbled over the strange shadows bouncing over the smooth bricks on the pathway. Not far ahead she saw the tragedy of the fading light.

Lying on the center hill of the firefly pond was a unicorn.

Its combed white mane, soft as snow. No speck of dust or dirt grimed its polished gold, unshod hooves. The mossy bed it was lying on shimmered green from the ambient glow of the unicorn. The glow was fading. The unicorn was fading. Dying.

The miraculous sight of the unicorn exploded from her whirling thoughts as the concussion blast of sudden trauma hit her. She might as well have been struck by a thunderbolt when she realized the reason for the unicorn's defiled fate.

The horn was missing. Shorn off aggressively by some cruel weapon of hellish power. That could be the only explanation for how this sacred spirit was now facing the unfair prospect of sudden mortality. By why? How did it get here? Those questions would have to wait. Her mind was screaming to think of the possible harm this might cause. The death of a unicorn.

Starla wondered, where do the gods go when they die? In the stars? Is that what the stars are? Living gods flying across the universe to perform heroic miracles on distant worlds. Do they blink out when they die?

All the stars, she learned their names long ago when she was young. Her mother read her their stories by her bedside at night. Starla knew every constellation. Her father had taught her how to chart their movements, and to understand their esoteric meanings. A quick glance at the night sky, and she could know the fortunes the gods might be bringing to the world below.

"I know your name, Unicorn. First of your name, and last of your kind. Please accept this gift, my most precious heirloom. May it comfort you from the darkness."

At the head of the unicorn, Starla placed her pearl spearhead, along with two teardrops stolen from her glistening cheeks.

---

How is that for the opening to my fantasy story? Some of you might remember the story which I outlined a few months ago.

Read about it in my post: Describe Your Dream Game: High Fantasy RPG

I know, I know! Quite a cliffhanger I left you with. You can probably imagine the miracle that is about to happen next in the story. As always, I look forward to your comments below. Share any insights you might have, or let me know if you relate in any way to the words or images I presented.

#fantasy #pencil #unicorn #creative #creavite-writing #shortstory #short-story #fiction #castle #story