Fractured Fairytales

Melted Passions

A long time ago, where the water was as blue as cornflowers, and the ocean was so deep that you could not see it's floor, there was a kingdom. A singular kingdom, full of strange plants, with fishes flitting through the rushes like birds, and populated by merpeople- half-human, half-fish. And that kingdom was ruled by a fair and just King, Frexspar.

He lived in a palace with walls of coral and long windows of the clearest amber. Sometimes, when the windows were open, fish would flit in, just like swallows and sparrows.

Their family's old Nanny kept house for him and his six daughters- Sophelia, Milla, Illianora, Oziandra, Nessarose and Elphaba. The King had been a widower for ten years now, as his wife Melena, an adventurous sort, had been killed in a shark attack.

Now, each of the girls was beautiful, but the youngest, Elphaba, was the prettiest of all, and the most like their late Queen. She had long, curly red hair, fiery dark eyes and skin as fair as snow. Her tail was as green as emeralds, and her features were statuesque. She was nearing eighteen, and the darling of the family. She was always asking questions about the world above the sea. She had a sharp tongue, and often could not stop talking, especially when excited. She also enjoyed collecting things that she found underwater.

She and her sisters played among the living blossoms that grew in the walls of the castle, which looked like flickering flames and would flutter in the waves and recoil when touched. When the amber windows were left open, the fish would swim in and allow the mer-princesses to stroke them.

Each of their sisters had their own little patch of ocean floor, tended to like a little garden. Elphaba's had a cherry coral tree on it, full of delicate pink blossoms that would rain down in her every time she approached it. She enjoyed tending her garden, and reading old scrolls in the castle library.

But what her quiet and dreamy inner self enjoyed the most was listening to the stories her sisters had about the world above.

"I remember seeing so many young men and women dancing on the shore, with something they called a dog and music- so much of it- and they had those long things that they use to move around-"

"Legs, Sophie. They're called legs," Elphaba said, shaking her head, interrupting her eldest sister.

"Fabala, sweetie, you know too much. Which makes you a right pain sometimes," Sophelia said, winking mischievously as Elphaba pouted.

"Oh, and Sophie, the wonderful buildings they have! There are so many kinds! They have castles too- there's one by the shore, I saw. And they wear these flowing things- what do you call them?" Milla said, dreamily.

"I believe they're called clothes? Atleast that's what the scrolls in the library say," Elphaba said, winding a lock of long hair around her finger, as she was wont to do when deep in thought.

"Oh, Fabala, you little genius! That's exactly what I meant," Milla said, almost bowling her youngest sister over in a hug.

"Oh you poor girls," said Illianora, the third sister, who was also the bravest of the lot. "None of you have ever been up the Munchkin river! The updraft is so strong, you really have to push yourself. And the mountains are so high and lush! And the people are so tiny! They take water from the river, and use it on these land things- like our gardens, only larger- and make things grow-"

"They grow crops in fields, Nor" Elphaba informed. "I've read that Munchkins are traditionally peasants, and they grow food for the while of Oz- that's the name of the land above, I believe. And they have Kings and Princes and Princesses too, only they use different names."

"Don't read so much, Fabala dear," Illianora said, shaking her head. "It's unbecoming."

"Oh, and Fabala, that world is so beautiful in the cold season," said Oziandra, who had turned eighteen two winters ago. "The sea surface is green, with big floating islands of ice-"