#fridayflash: Not the one (excerpt from Winds #2)

But even after the appointed time, Danis, Hana and the babe did not arrive at the castle nor did any news from the south come to the Castle. Restless, Mica paced the ramparts.

He grew melancholy as the days passed and neither his grandfather’s advice nor the Steward’s warnings made a difference. Instead, he spent his days in the Painted Hall, talking to the Yuki-musumi, for she appeared as young as him.

“Do you intend to kill me?” he asked her one day.

She raised her face from her inspection of the exquisitely painted whale to look at him curiously.

“You wanted to kill my father, didn’t you?” he pressed on.

“I didn't. He wanted to kill me. You don’t, do you?”

“No.” He gathered his courage. "But you tried to kill him first." At least, that was the stories said. The white snow woman had tried to kill him, so Danis had burnt her, flinging fire and coal, ending her reign of cold.

The snow girl shrugged. “He broke the first part of my curse.”

“Your curse? But surely you mean our curse.”

“My curse, your curse, what’s the difference? When I cursed your grandfather, I cursed myself too. To be tied to this tedious castle, waiting for the time when I will be released.”

Mica shivered. “I can’t wait to break the second part. Then maybe I can go home.”

“You? I’ve told you before. You can’t break it.”

“Why not?”

“You’re not the right one.”

She watched as his brows furrowed. Before he could voice the stumbling words on his tongue, she shushed him, laying a finger on his lips. "It doesn't matter if you're of age or not. Even if you were a babe, you would have broken the curse just by being here." She watched the emotions play on his face. Fear. Frustration. Worry. Confusion. "Besides, you hate it here, don't you?"

Mica nodded miserably.

"How can you be king of a kingdom you hate?"

---

I started writing a fairy tale because I saw a submission for fairy tales. The deadline is today and I'm only at 3K words, and I don't really know where it's going and I don't want to rush it.

So oh well. At least I started writing something! It's intended as a continuation to When Winds Blow Cold (hahahah) which you can get for free by signing up for my mailing list or on NoiseTrade (which gives me your email addresses to be put on my mailing list). Or you can buy it on Smashwords or Amazon (and I believe other retailers I'm too sleepy to go search links for).