Manaia Dreaming

It was on a whim that Manaia had ventured to the Grand Tourney. It was the whispers of excitement she’d heard around the towns surrounding her island that had her intrigued. It’d been a year since she’d had her freedom and most of that had gone into building and starting her resort and well, business was good, Fortune and herself were fed so she hadn’t had a reason to go beyond. 

Dust brushed past her legs in a light breeze as she stood facing the lane of stalls, staring down the centre of it all. Her wings rustled and tucked in tight as she took in the vast amount of strangers passing by each other, the buzz of the tourney vibrating through the excited chatter and laughter. She’d drunk her fill the night before, but being amongst a large crowd for the first time since she’d been blessed by Fortune was rather intoxicating and she couldn’t help the teeny tiny sips she look along the way as she made her way past the stalls, feathers brushing delicately over her gift givers. Little glees of laughter trailing behind put a smile on her face, growing larger after she felt her skin firming and any trace of laugh lines fading away. 

Manaia’s eyes were caught by the shining trinkets as she passed, talismans to various patrons, stunning jewellery and little delicacies too. She certainly didn’t need it, but she handed over a coin to a vendor of fruit tarts, marvelling at the sweet bursting sugars on her tongue. How many years had it been since she’d enjoyed dessert? She shook her head at the simple pleasure and sat amongst the masses to marvel at the great feats. She witnessed musical battles and fencing, battles of strength and those of wits and she felt heady along with the crowd at the competition of it all. She felt powerful and powerless all in one thrilling tornado of emotions as the crowd grew euphoric at their choice participant thriving while they groaned and felt heavy when it went the opposite way. Admittedly they didn’t stay heavy for long, one amongst the crowd would say those heavy feelings dissipated pretty quickly and the giddiness quickly resumed. 

Later:

Feeling jubilated from the day of freedom, Manaia confidently strolled back down the lane. There was something soothing about walking down the pathway as the vendors closed up shop around her, like she was in a whole separate world, unknown and unseen. It was then she glanced down and noticed a strange mist rolling around her ankles, she wasn’t sure what drew her eye but her skin prickled as she looked up and into the middle of the tourney grounds. Her eyes widened as she took a step backwards far away from the looming figure that seemed to hover there. Manaia stumbled backwards and could’ve been sure she almost fell, yet here she was still standing tall and feeling remarkably confident, so confident in fact she acted first. She wanted to be the saviour of this tourney busting fool. Launching herself into the sky she flew towards the great dark skeleton, at first she couldn’t feel anything coming off from them, no emotions whatsoever, but as she flew around the head, she noticed the eyeball within its mouth and in the same shock of notice, the eyeball swivelled to look straight at her. It was then she felt it, nothing on the surface, but below that she could feel the dull emotions and from the way her tainted skin was prickling she could feel it wasn’t good. Good for her however, breathing in deep, Manaia released a calming breath then prepared to take in their emotions and was met with butterflies in her stomach. A shy smile grew on her face as she looked up to the handsome stranger handing her flowers. “I’ve never been given flowers before, thank you, they’re beautiful.” She blushed as she looked up into his handsome dark face, she’d never felt this feeling before, had never had the opportunity to do so between suppressing her magic, getting sent to control that magic and then prison. A soft clearing of a throat had Manaia whipping around to a feminine figure, holding a box of chocolates out for her, the confidence emanating off of her had Manaia stuttering for words, speechless at the sudden shows of affection for her. The three of them walked to the park where a picnic was waiting. Manaia had never felt so delicate in her life, tucked in-between two larger, horned companions. They brushed against her feathers as they sat down, sending goosebumps along her skin. After some easy chatter and a delicious array of food, the three lay down, easily watching the world float by in the ever-changing shapes of the clouds talking about everything and nothing, their greatest dreams and their greatest loves, but they all came to the conclusion that the best part was what they were living right there. Something niggled at the edge of Manaia’s consciousness, but she brushed it away, she was too content right now. 

Walking through the clouds, Manaia still felt a blush on her cheeks, lifting a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, she stopped short, all butterflies vanished, her left hand was completely unmarked, stretching out her left wing she turned to see it was grey also, something she hadn’t seen in a couple of years. Something wasn’t right here. Looking towards the horizon she saw a flash of fins but she put it aside. Turning around it suddenly occurred to her that she had companions just a moment ago, where were they? Who were they? By Fortune’s winds she didn’t even get their names! Oh it was all going downhill now. What was she doing? Her magic starting flaring, reaching out for anything to get rid of her own negative emotions and despite there being nothing around her, she started to calm down. In the quiet moment of piece she cocked her head, something was definitely not right here. A figure stepped out from the clouds and Manaia found herself in a defensive state, a dagger now in her hand. “Who are you?” She called out to them, a glowing crescent on their forehead drawing her eyes. “A friend, I promise, let me help you out of this, I just need one of those feathers of yours.” Not really seeing another way out of it, Manaia handed over a loose downy feather with a distrustful side-eye. “The name’s Atlanta by the way, I am a friend, I do promise that much.” She said with a warm smile before the crescent glowed and with a wave of her hand Manaia was rising from the strange mist once more.