Short Stories

March 2017

I wrote this one quickly, in about three school days (FRENCH school days) and I'm really proud of it! It's the first time I create an allegorical story. A lot of things happen so it was hard to keep track of the rythm in such a short text, but I think I did okay :) It was originally meant for the Young Author's Fiction Festival, in Paris, but the word limit was 1,000 (pretty ridiculous) and mine went to 1,200, and I didn't find a way to shorten it before the due date expired :( Outside of YAFF I can't seem to find a free, English, amateur contest, for participants outside of the US and for short stories like this one. If you happen to know any, please share... I'll shut up. Enjoy!

PS: A title! Yaaay!

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Wings

How many times had she fallen by now? She hadn't deemed it useful to count.

Above her head, a glass ceiling; above it, another glass ceiling, and another... And under her feet, level upon level of glass floors. The crystal maze, as she had soon come to call it, seemed to stretch infinitely in every direction, a never-ending fractal of corners, tightly enclosing her. And yet she could still remember, distantly... the touch of a breeze, the brilliance of a blue sky—the surface of the Maze...

Once upon a time she had wondered how it was possible to be lost in a labyrinth of transparent walls. She had explored it with curiosity and determination then; but these feelings had at length been quenched when she realized that infallibly, after a certain amount of wandering from wall to wall, the floor would give away beneath her—relegating her to a new level, an all-new Unknown. Again and again.

She picked herself up from her most recent fall and wearily stared at the rectangular gap, in the glass floor that had so suddenly become a glass ceiling. Once upon a time, too, she had wondered where she might end up if she fell deep enough, but by now she was pretty sure the answer was nowhere. With that conclusion departed any leftover eagerness to explore and discover, welcoming in tyrannical fear and despair.

She looked around nervously. Usually levels were at equal distance from one another. This time, the floor of the level beneath her seemed way too far down to fall without seriously hurting herself—yet she had to decide...

Should she choose to move, the uncertain floor that for now supported her would soon let her down. Should she choose to stop here, her life was condemned to eternity in the crystal maze for good—or, on the contrary, she might find out the hard way what exactly was that shadow, which she often saw circling a few levels over her head, sinister as a vulture, waiting for her to give up...

Taking a shaky breath, she eventually ventured forward—step after step, with painstaking precaution. As long as I move, maybe the shadow won't be interested in me. As long as I move slowly, maybe I'll have time to withdraw before a hole swallows both my feet. Having a reasoned plan reassured her.

It wasn't long however before a chill running down her back made her aware of a looming presence. There it was—the shadow, immense wings spread wide, much closer than it had ever been, so that she could actually make out details this time... Despite herself, she froze: the shape was unmistakably a dragon's. There was a clatter of claws, the slide of folding wings, and she realized with a jolt that it had landed on the floor directly above her. Then she did run.

Scratching and whipping noises sounded as the monster took off behind her. Panic had taken full position of her body... She ran—tripped—the ground disappeared beneath her. As she fell forward, she thrust her arms out, and somehow they collided with the edge of the other side of the gap; but she was sliding quickly, vision blurred by the impact, too late, its jaws suddenly clamping down on her neck...

Then silence, and solid ground beneath her. Alive?... She fearfully touched the back of her coat, torn to shreds, the back of her neck, intact. She whipped her head around in disbelief; she was alone once again... She stood up on shaky legs, but immediately leaned on the wall and slid back down, devoid of energy. Eventually, she organized herself into a sitting position, head on her knees, knees in her arms. The dragon had inexplicably vanished... She kept looking around in case he returned. Was he from outside? How much did he know about the maze? Why lurk around then suddenly appear, to save her?

Suddenly she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and let out a terrified yelp when the dragon abruptly landed beside her. She backed away on arms and legs and nearly decided to get up and dash off again; but forced herself to stay put, and to sit facing her savior. Then, as she calmed her breathing and the beating of her heart, it occurred to her: had the walls and floors of the labyrinth no effect on him? Was he free to fly and land where he chose?

Free... She fixed her gaze on the creature's wings, suddenly filled with awe. She noticed then that the wings were feathery, and that his back was lined with soft fur. She noticed, too, that he was about the size of a wildcat... Why had his shadow seemed so much bigger? After a minute or two of mutual scrutiny, the dragon bent his neck, and dropped something into her lap. She stared at it in shock: an apple!

Never since the beginning of her aimless wandering in the crystal maze had she eaten, or needed to; but as she gripped the apple's slightly rough, wildly red surface, and was filled with the crunching and sweetness of her first bite, she realized just how empty she had felt, how dead her senses had become. She savoured a few other bites, then dared for the first time to look directly at the dragon's face. His features were peaceful and attentive; she thought he was beautiful. Innumerable questions swarmed her head and pressed her lips, as she continued to look at him. She finally raised her half-consumed apple.

"Where did you get this?"

The dragon tilted his head; an amused light played in his eyes. He indicated a space behind him with a jerk of his head. She followed the gesture and stared in utter bewilderment: in the distance, a few levels up, stood what looked like a tree. There had never been anything else but glass in the crystal maze... Unsure of what she saw she started to stand up, but was cut short by a soft feeling beneath her fingers. A couple yards of grass had sprouted under her feet! She stared at the dragon, still sitting calmly beside her.

"What the heck is happening?"

The dragon unfurled his tail and wrapped it lightly around her: sit still and watch, he seemed to intimate. The whole labyrinth was shifting away from the reality of the crystal maze with each passing second: colors unfolded, vegetation sprouted; the air grew warm and rich with texture and smells; life gushed from branches and bushes with a wave of sounds, sounds that had been so familiar to her, sounds of the forest. There was no more abyss beneath her, the ground had never felt so real, and—lest her eyes deceive her!—high above her stretched a fragment of blue sky... So far away, was it still close enough to touch?

The dragon turned to her and met a radiant smile he had never seen her wear before. He slowly spread his wings to their full extent and looked at her inquisitively: impossibly, her smile widened.

She savored the sensation of unfolding for the first time her own pair of feathered wings. She admired their brilliant blue tips. Then she fixed her gaze on the sky, the shape of a puzzle-piece, braced herself, and—knowing he was watching over her, knowing she was at last ready to break the surface—took flight.