Fayette County Literary
E-zine

Submission Guidelines

Questions:
E-mail

Contents of this web site are intended to be used for the enhancement of instruction only.

Day of Green Fire
by Tiffany C.
 

Marcasite strolled across her brightly lit room. She was pacing. Bored and thoughtful. She glanced at her reflection in the seeing-glass while passing it. Green. That was the color looking back into her through those deeply saddened eyes of hers. Immediately, she knew with a pang of foreboding, that she would have to continue the fight tonight as she always did on Green Days.

All elves had an individual, natural-born gift all to themselves, that was said to one day help them in their time of greatest need by the elder elves, all knowing and wise. Although sometimes the way of your gift being useful is not always able to be seen until the moment comes that it is needed; the statement had been proven true repeatedly.

Marcasite certainly did not see what hers could be. At her time of birth in the great maple tree of foresight eight elvin years (16 human years) ago, her mother had been told what her beautiful, silver haired and multi colored eyed child's gift was. It was quite a unique gift, not given previously to any other elf to that date. It was a gift they deemed "eye depth" for it was truly remarkable. Marcasite's eyes changed colors depending on her mood. To be sure, her mother pinched her. Fire red and blazing, Marcasite's eyes flashed upwards in unmistakable anger.

When asked of what use this gift could be to her daughter, the elders answered her mother by saying that they could never really be sure, and even if they were, they were sworn by oath not to tell. But the elders did reveal that there was something different about Marcasite.

That became apparent when, at the age of 13, the age where most elvish young women were out in the forest collecting flowers, she began to seclude herself alone in her room and talking less and less, which was most un-elven like. No one in the small community knew just what was wrong, but the elders just nodded their heads sadly in the canopy of their tree unspeaking of this "silent girl".

Marcasite looked away from the mirror, refusing to think of her past any longer and wishing she had some control. She searched her mind for something else to focus on and fill her mind with, something happy. She glided across the room and gazed out her white marble window, detailed with tree and leaf engravings, and looked at the soft, grassy ground far below her. There she saw a group of elves her own age that she recognized vaguely from somewhere in her pained and lost memory, standing around a flower garden smelling the flowers. Then, as they felt her captivated gaze above them, they looked to the skies and saw her. The group immediately turned back and lowered their voices to the hushed tones she had heard her mother use down the hall when she was talking about Marcasite's strange habits.

Slightly irritated by this gesture from them, she turned away and went to her bed racefully lowered herself onto it, thinking. Just as she began to get lost in her confused maze of thoughts once more, she began to wonder in the back of her mind why she did this day after day. Answering herself, she assumed it was because thoughts cannot be controlled by mind alone, it also takes the spirit to usher them away or bring them in. She remembered hearing that somewhere, but didn't remember exactly where, for her past was mostly a fog of misery except for the outstanding Green Days, which were very vivid to her. She soon brushed the thought away and buried it among the others lost inside her, and placed her slivery head in her arms and slept, somewhat peacefully.

Awaking hours later from her normal, demon-filled dreams, Marcasite glanced again into her seeing glass. Green as a clover, her eyes looked back at her. Only she truly knew what each color meant for her mood, and some even she wasn't sure about. She was sure about green though. Green was a combination of sadness, self-blame, and anger. Everything she hated in herself. She also knew what happened when she awoke to Green eyes. As soon as the night sky stretched her arms over their forest home, a sudden wind would hit her that she was unable to fend off, ignore, or block out. It was all the emotions of her Green eyes, attacking her at once, torturing her slowly until she gave into the uncontrollable power and preformed the most painful curse she knew to try to override the feelings. So far, it had worked every time, this spell of Inner Fire, that caused enough physical pain to drive it away. Her magic was unknown by her parents and unspoken of by the elders.

Marcasite personally liked this pain, it made her feel more real and in touch with reality than anything else did in her enchanted home. No words could describe the power it gave her, to be able to drive away these feelings, even when it seemed they had complete control over her, it meant she still had some power over herself.

While she was contemplating how long she would be able to resist this time, she realized with a gasp that it was already night. She rushed to her window. The mother moon was high above keeping watch on her children of the night. Marcasite panicked and ran to her mirror. Her eyes blazing, it took her suddenly and without warning. There was no time for her to prepare an emotional defense against it, so it therefore took her quickly. Confused and dazed by the power, while overwhelmed by her mind, she referred to the Inner Fire spell, to attempt to be rid of it for at least tonight. The spell finished, she lumbered over to the middle of her room and braced herself for the shock. Burning, it began. A slight warm feeling throughout her body, then a burning sensation that should have incinerated her instantly if it had been real. And yet to her, it was real. In her mind, it was real.

 No matter, the spell worked perfectly as it always did, and the Green emotions left in a haze from her exhausted mind and body for one more night. The result was her lying panting on the floor paralyzed by the invisible pain, the agony of her mind reaching its limit quickly, and the sheer overload of her fried nerves. She struggled to her knees, her mind racing in search of an answer to end this once and for all. For it had been happening more regularly, as often as thrice a week and she didn't know how much longer she could hold out like this.

Her mind slowly but surely shifted to the answer she had been searching for and that had crossed her mind more than once before that moment. If she ended her life, she could end the accursed pain forever. Both the Green feelings and the addictive physical pain she felt when they arrived. She would never have to face any of this ever again. Mindset, she prepared herself to begin the advanced form of the Inner Fire spell she had used on herself, a real burning spell. This spell was so powerful, it could easily burn her alive before she felt any warming sensation at all. Quick and simple.
She stood trembling to her feet one last time to look at the accursed eyes on more time accusingly before she plummeted herself into the death they had caused. She looked at herself as she slowly brought her eyes up to look through her own and saw an amazing thing. Blue. Blue as the sky. That was what was looking back at her. She had only once seen that color in her whole life that she could remember. Blue was calming, peaceful, and soothing. As she gazed deep into them, Marcasite was filled with those Blue feelings and quickly forgot her post- Green feelings and thoughts. She ran to the top of the elders' tree and told them of her experience. She told them of her blue eyes and how they had saved her. The elders nodded their heads in agreement; another elf had been saved in their moment of greatest need by their gift, even the one who believed the least.

Never again did Marcasite have to look upon clover eyes, and she went back to her schooling, excelling in mind reading, another gift of the elven people, for she was, after all, born within the canopy of the Tree of Foresight.