Donkeyskin - ON HOLD

Of Possibilities

*Of Possibilities*

 Once, when Elodie had been quite young, her Nurse had taken her and Adrienne swimming. It had been a day in early spring, unseasonably warm, and she and Adrienne had been complaining about the heat, fussing and whining, until the Nurse had given up in frustration, and had marched them from the palace, and into the surrounding forest.

Beneath the leaves of the summer trees, the air had been cooler, stirred by a delicate breeze. The ground, green with new growth, had been dappled golden with sunlight and shadow. Hidden in a gilded glade, beneath a canopy of aspen and ivy, fed by a chiming brook, was a still, deep pool, shallow enough around the edges to the two little girls to play in.

That peaceful afternoon, as the Nurse paddled leisurely about in the deeper water, Elodie and Adrienne had amused themselves with water fights, making mudpies, and splashing about, examining the new surroundings. Then, as the sun had been setting, the Nurse had taught them to float on their backs in the water and, with one hand on the small of each girl's back, had floated them out into the deeper water.

Lying on her back, staring up at the wafting tree branches above, being gently rocked by the lapping water, Elodie had grown sleepy and dazed. Eons had passed in an instant as the golden wood had grown silvery with the approach of night, and Elodie could have sworn she'd felt, for the briefest breath, everything, within her and without, align perfectly, and then fade away into a blur of light.

Now, a decade later, Elodie felt as though she were once again floating on the surface of that pond, being born infinitesimally upward, as everything blurred and danced around her. Even as the feeling enveloped her, the wheeling dance sped up, until everything whirled painfully around her, echoing with a piercing ringing that seemed to resonate against the inside of her skull.

Rough hands chafed and pounded against her flesh, to be replaced with bitter aches, and a bone-deep shaking that refused to stop.

As the whirling began to make her stomach lurch, Elodie squeezed her eyes tightly shut, fighting to get a hold on her stomach. The whirling stopped abruptly, replaced by a rhythmic throbbing between her temples, and her stomach lurched again.

Fighting against protesting muscles, she lurched into a semi-upright position, and let her stomach empty itself over the edge of her bed.

Her muscles failed as she dry heaved, and she hung miserably over her bedside, her head hanging, aching as if someone were beating a tattoo against her brain. She moaned, too weak to do anything to halt the pain.

Gentle, cool hands raised her from where she hung, accompanied by a low, unintelligible, feminine voice that she could have sworn was Adrienne's. She called out her friend's name, reaching through the blurry world, and coming up empty-handed. Salty tears snaked down her cheeks, dripped into her mouth, clearing the blur from her eyes.

She blinked, her heart sinking as bright red ringlets and gooseberry eyes materialized before her. For a moment, a brief moment, she could have sworn Adrienne had been right there beside her. She sagged, her tears falling freely.

"Elodie?" Mattelaine's hushed voice attempted to sooth her. Elodie turned away from her cousin, squeezing her eyes shut, clinging to some childish hope that, when she opened them, she might awake in the nursery once more, with Adrienne and the Nurse at her side.

But it was not to be.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back in the little cottage, alone with Mattelaine and Ninon. Both her friend and her cousin wore matching looks of concern, and, when it was clear that Elodie was awake, both of them seemed to relax.