Icarus and The Magpie (Short Story)

(4) An experiment of Will

Nights within the meadow were different. So very different from nights anywhere else. They were impossibly dark. Like the coverings shed from an inky creature padding its nest. During the day, when the light broke through the trees, they seemed a little less dangerous. But at night, when shadow raised. When even the moon seemed much to shy, it was dark. The trees bowed and bent into each other, an indistinguishable mass of wood. Leaves. And tall grasses. They were all one thing. All connected. But not them. Not Iris. Not The Magpie. They were visitors, and the trees knew it. They could feel the magic dwelling between them and how they wanted it. Trees were jealous beings.

It wasn't the first time Iris had been swept up in the fields quietness, it wasn't even the first night she had woken in a panic from missing her bus. But The Magpie was there, and so it was different. Different. She turned over, her face lying inches from his. And she watched him sleep. Iris' gaze travelled his silhouette as it fought with the darkness around it.

"Are you awake?" She whispered.

His eyes opened and a smile crept into them. "I am."

Iris nudged closer. "Do you sleep?"

"I've been asleep long enough." He stretched. The grass crackled and something small skittered away.

Iris was more curious about just how he worked with each passing minute. How his mind could work if she hadn't drawn him one. "Do you dream?" Is that what he meant by hollow?

"Can a dream, dream?" He pushed closer, his fingertips gently grazing her hand. "What would one dream?"

Iris was quick to answer. "I think, it would be something beautiful. Something light and... like flying. It would be a dream of missing pieces, and finding them. Whatever they may be because finding is always good." She was childish under his watchful eye.

"Icarus." The Magpie sighed "If I find what I'm looking for... what will happen?" and he sat up.

"Well. When I lose things-" Iris joined him. "-and find them again. I feel... happy."

"Happy."

"Happy." She assured him. Though his confidence in happiness seemed buckling.

"I'm afraid to find it. I am afraid I won't have time." He seemed distant. "I am afraid of finding the pieces."

Iris didn't know what to say to make someone not afraid. Especially someone who wasn't bound by the worlds rules. For all she knew. He was looking for his own Magpie and it was an impossibly selfless quest. "It's always ok to be afraid. Nothing worth finding ever came easy. Some of the best things take before they give. It's an exchange."

"How so..." He engaged. Eyes twinkling.

"I gave up years, weeks, hours to find you. It took time, and that was all I had left to give." Iris lingered in her words, recalling sleepless nights, self imposed anger and hatred and much worse, the loneliness her search brought to the blank pages she left filled. "But anything you love makes all the loss worth it. The thing you're looking for must be worth it."

The Magpie listened. Rolling again onto his back. "- for I am made of nothing, so I have nothing." He held out his hands. Under the pale light of the moon. His fingertips were a ghostly shade of white "I have little to give. All I am is made of dreams and whimsy. Those I cannot hand away." and they faded. until trees could be seen through them. "So I, am nothing."

"Hey-" Iris sat up, grabbing his hands. "You aren't nothing. Don't say that." His hands were so cold. "This isn't like you." She said like you as if she had known him her whole life. She knew what made HIM, him.