{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/aurora/flash01",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/aurora/flash01",
  "publishedAt": "2023-08-03T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "A girl falls to earth.\n\nIt's a pounce, but her arms close around empty air.  Her foe has\neluded her again.  Moments later, she spots it hiding behind a bush.\nA spirit resembles a greenskinned child.  No face to bear expression,\nbut the jerk of its head still indicates surprise.\n\n\"Gotcha!\"  The girl charges after it, prismatic hair trailing like\nribbons behind her.  The spirit-child stands about half the height of\nthe girl; there was no way its legs were long enough to keep up with\nher.  But with each footfall against the green-covered earth, it moves\nswift --- as if each blade of green helped convey it.\n\nThe girl has no such advantage, and she's huffing to keep up, her face\nslick with sweat in the summer sun.  Despite the heat, she has gloves\nand boots on, a thin, hooded coat over her a arms.  Almost none of her\nnight-black skin is exposed.\n\nThe spirit may be faster, but Aurora moves with cunning.  When she\ncorners the nature spirit at the bank of a creek, it leaves spirit no\nchoice but to fight back.  The spirit has tricks --- if the weeds\nbeneath the girl's feet aren't catching her feet, she's sliding on\nseeds or falling onto thorns.  Once, the spirit blinds her with a\nmassive dandelion blown into her face.\n\nBut when she gets close enough to throws fists and connect, there's no\ncontest; the girl makes easy work of the spirit.  Grappling its limbs,\nkicking the legs out from under it, landing punch after punch.  This\nexchange culminates with her picking up and throwing the spirit, body\nsplashing in the creek.\n\nThe spirit rises up, drenched, with its stubby arm-appendages closed\ninto almost-fists.  (Spirits have no hands or fingers.)  The arms\nthemselves are half-outstretched, half-curled up.  Its head twitches\natop its neck.  Altogether, a comical display of anger.  Stamping the\nground, kicking dirt (without displacing any grass), it charges\nforward.\n\nSeeing it so worked up, the girl cracks a grin.  She leans forward and\ncharges when it does.  The two are running at each other, about to\ncollide at full speed.\n\nThen a sunflower shaped like a woman rises from ground, sudden like it\nhad sprouted up between them.  Thin petiole arms are thrown out and\nstop the two, arm-stubs against their head, halting each of their\ncharges in their tracks.\n\n\"Aurora, you know what your father told you about fighting all the\ntime.\"\n\nThe voice of sunflower is not the voice of a human.  Aurora wasn't\neven sure if it was Extolan, or mere sound enchanted to convey intent.\nThe voice came from high above the child; this spirit stands taller\nthan her father.\n\n\"But there's nothing else to do around here!\"\n\n\"There's always work to do on the farm.  You can pluck weeds.\"\n\n\"Blank plucks the weeds.  It's way better at it!\"\n\n\"Have you trimmed the hedges? Cut the hay? Cleaned the house?\"\n\n\"Sunny, you know I'm no good at any of that stuff.\"\n\n\"You can still do it.  No one is born good at anything, you have to\nwork for it.\"  Sunny smiles, but it looks odd on her sunflower face.\n\"Sweeping, at the very least, must be within your abilities.\"\n\n\"But I get tired of sweeping all the time!\"\n\n\"If you have the energy to fight, you have the energy to sweep.\nPlease, Aurora, leave Blank be.\"\n\n\"But it doesn't mind.  Right, Blank?\"\n\nBlank throws its arms around the sunflower spirit's legs, clutching\nit.  It glances it up at Aurora, flinches and interposes Sunny between\nthem, hiding behind her long legs.\n\nSunny pats Blank on the head.\n\n\"Come on.  If it wanted me to stop I would have stopped!  I can\nsense these things --- I got better at that!  You believe me, right\nSunny?\"\n\nSunny gives a significant look to Blank.  Then, \"Yes, I believe you,\nAurora.\"\n\nBlank droops, a hurt look, then flops dramatically on the ground,\nplaying dead.\n\n\"But Blank has work to do.  And so do you.  Come with me, children.\"\n\n\"Harvest isn't for two moons!  Nothing needs to be done!\"\n\n\"Work always needs to be done.  It builds character.\"\n\n\"Then my character won't be built.  I'm not doing it!\"\n\n\"Aurora...\"  There was a warning dissonance in her song.\n\n\"What are you gonna do, huh? Make me do it?\" Aurora sticks out her\ntongue.\n\nThe sunflower's eyes narrow.  \"You're goading me.\"\n\n\"It almost worked...\"\n\n\"I'm not going to fight you, Aurora.\"\n\n\"What, are you scared I'll beat you? Here, if you win, I'll do\nanything you say for a week!\"\n\nA significant pause.  \"Is that a pact I hear?\"\n\n\"I promise! But you'll have to beat me first.\"\n\n\"Very well.  Blank, go along now.\"\n\nThe blank-faced child looks up at Sunny, silently pleading to watch.\n\n\"There's work to be done.  Go!\"\n\nWhen the fight starts, Sunny's approach immediately differs from\nBlank's.  The sunflower keeps her distance, petals glowing with\nmagical light.  She throws out an arm that sparkles, and a rays of\nlight leap forth.  Aurora dodges them, and where they land, it's as if\nthe spirit had thrown a punch from a distance.\n\n\"No fair! I don't have any crazy spirit magic!\"\n\n\"What made you think this fight was fair? You intend to wrestle me\nwhen I lack even muscles.  The only means for me to move is through,\nahem, 'crazy spirit magic'.\"\n\n\"Doesn't matter, even cheating won't let you win!\"\n\nAurora charges, but the spirit side steps and the girl's momentum\ncarries her too far.  The spirit keeps her distance, and more rays of\nerrant light keep Aurora cautious, even as some of them go wide.\nAurora's clothes are drenched in sweat now.  Still better than feeling\nthe dirt, though.\n\nWhen Aurora closes the distance, she catches hold of one of Sunny's\npetiole-arms.  The other arm glows with a new ray.  Aurora flinches,\nbut instead of being directed at her, the new ray hits the spirit's\nown body, at the arm where it joins its stem.  The ray of light\ncleanly severs the limb, freeing the spirit from Aurora grasp.\n\nThe girl chases the sunflower into the forest, and the she fires yet\nanother magical beam --- this one going completely over her head.\n\n\"Ha! You missed!\"\n\n\"I didn't.\"\n\nA tree bough above her falls, and Aurora yelps and hops back out of\nthe way.\n\nAnother ray, this time hitting the fallen branch --- but instead of\nbeing punched, the branch flies toward Sunny as if yanked by a cord.\nThen the sunflower catches the bough.  Where it was severed from the\ntree, she joins it to her own flesh, granting her a new, sturdier\nlimb.\n\n\"Ready to give up, child? If you concede, I'll will reduce it to a\nmere five days of service.\"\n\n\"I never back down from a fight!\"\n\nAurora charges, and the sunflower swings her new arm down with a\nmassive crash against the ground.  The girl frowns, a bead of sweat on\nher head.  The bough-arm gives her a whole new way to keep Aurora at a\ndistance\n\nWhen she tanks a hit from the bough, she grabs hold of it.  Grinning,\nshe climbs on top of the tree branch and crawls towards Sunny,\nweighing down her new limb.  Aurora leaps to pounce on her, and Sunny\npicks that moment to discard her new limb with another ray-amputation\nand runs for it.  Once again, Aurora's arms close around empty air,\nand she gives chase.  She's slower this time, wet and panting, almost\nnauseous.\n\nIt's short lived, because a moment later, she trips and face plants\nagainst the ground.  Aurora cries out, not from pain or surprise, but\ndistress.  The texture of dirt was awful and now it was on her\nface.  The grit mixes with her sweat to become a muddy grime, and she\nrolls over, and forgets about her pursuit, wiping the dirt from her\nface.\n\nThere's a squeal of laughter.  She had tripped over something, after\nall --- over someone.\n\nShe recognized the spirit of the woods beyond her fathers' farm.\nHalf-pig, half-goat, and both ends covered in leaves instead of fur.\nIt was still as red-orange as a wild boar, though.\n\n\"What the heck gives?\"\n\n\"You had tunnel vision.  Practically asking for.  It was hilarious.\"\n\n\"I was in the middle of something.  Our fight!\"\n\n\"I will consider it...  a draw,\" Sunny says.\n\n\"I was gonna win!\"\n\n\"Win what, though? What was the point? Calling it a draw's the same as\nsaying you won, ain't it?\"\n\nAurora crosses her arms.  \"It's not the same.\"\n\nSunny gives a level stare at the pig spirit.  \"I have work to do.\nEnsure she returns before dinner, Sus.\"  And the sunflower spirit is\ngone.\n\n\"Why did you do that?\"\n\n\"Do I need a reason? Us spirits gotta look out for each other.\"\n\n\"Doesn't look like she appreciates it.  Looks like she doesn't even\nlike you! You nuisance!\"\n\n\"You have no idea what you're talking about,\" the spirit says with\nteeth visible.  Did pigs have such sharp teeth? \"Shows how little you\npay attention.\"\n\nAurora blows air out of her mouth.\n\n\"You really don't get it, do you? Do you think she doesn't despises\nyou? Is there any love between you two?\"\n\n\"Nanny Sunny doesn't...\"\n\n\"Or what about Blank.  You think it cares for any of this? You're just\nless annoying when it plays along then when you're ignored.  Me? Haha,\nno.  Why would any of us like you?  The relationship is one-way.\"\n\n\"That's...\"  She frowned.  Her head hurt.\n\n\"Insightful?  Puts everything into perspective? Or is it just hard to\naccept?\"\n\n\"No, you're wrong.  If nobody liked me, then why don't you all\njust...\"  It was hard to find words through her headache.\n\n\"Just what?  We can't go anywhere.  We are this land.  So long as\nthe old man Geller keeps you, we just have to put up with you.\"\n\n\"Father! He loves me.  There, you're wrong.\"\n\n\"He feels some obligation toward you, sure.  Else there's no reason to\nkeep you around.  Don't do any work, and you're not charming, so what\ngood are you?\"\n\n\"I can fight!\"\n\n\"Yeah, you're nothing but trouble.\"\n\n\"No, I'll be a knight when I grow up!  I'll fight robbers and\ngembeasts and comets!  I'll vanquish the biggest monsters and then\neveryone will see how great I am.\"\n\n\"A comet?  What a daydream.  Why would you even want to do that?\"\nThere was a snicker behind it.  It wasn't funny.\n\nAurora gets quiet.  She looks up at the sky.  Her hands work as she\ndebates giving voice to what has, until now, only been a persistent\nsuspicion.\n\nAurora knew there was something wrong",
  "title": "Flash i: Melt in Battle's Heat"
}