fairy tales of a different sort

Ryri: The Glass Girl -round 1

This is for the fantasy smackdown. Sub genre was urban fantasy. Pics used are 1,2,4, and 7. My group had the bonus pic of a tractor. Word count 4,235.

For years she sat alone on the shelf as if she were invisible to the world. Her papa had left her here for her own protection, crossing the realms to the human world. He told her that Jyhra wouldn't be able to find her here. Said that he wouldn't be able to handle it if anything were to happen to her, and promised to come back for her after he got the kingdom back. Despite the fact that she was made from glass and magic, she was his daughter; the one who was next in line to rule the Kingdom of Ry.

Jyhra, the Lion of Knights, had gone mad with power. He was tired of only being a knight; he wanted more. Power wasn't anything without magic. So he had taken over the kingdom and set about eradicating all beings created by magic. The fewer magical beings there were, the more he could be in control of magic. He declared himself the new king, overthrowing her papa and chasing them from their homes.

Now, she was left to watch as the humans came and went in this old house; families, grandparents, and an old man who lived by himself. But only a few of them had ever ventured into the attic, and those that did never took much notice of her. And why should they? They couldn't hear her; to them she was just a glass doll: transparent.

Time had passed by, seasons had changed, the sun rose and fell night after night, and yet her papa never returned for her. Her life was passing her by while she observed the children play through the attic window; she was always apart from their world.

She witnessed the leaves changing colors before they fell, floating to the ground. Kids were running around in them, laughing. Her papa used to do that with her. He would stack them up using his magic staff, the same staff that he had made her with, and would chase after her through the piles. One time she remembered she had fallen, cracking her arm while playing in the leaves. Glass tears had dropped down her face, on their own accord, shattering, as she looked at her broken arm. She remembered her papa saying, 'Ryri, no need for shattered tears. Look, Papa will make it all better.' He had used his staff, fixing the cracks in her glass arm. But her papa wasn't here now; he couldn't fix her loneliness. So she let her glass tears fall, breaking as they hit the ground.

If only she could become a real girl, then maybe she could go back and help her papa. She felt useless; hopeless. She didn't know what would make Jyhra want to take over the realm. Her papa was a good man; he ruled fairly. Everyone was happy, free, and magic was seen as a good thing. Though if she was a real girl, she could get down from the shelf, leave this house, and could go find her papa. Then she wouldn't be wasting away doing nothing.

~

Amongst the boxes and other discarded items on the attic floor, Dax was helpless to do anything besides watch his little princess cry. He was her Papa's right hand man, so to speak, seeing as he was a cat and not a man. And had been in search of Ryri for some time. The compass that he held in his hand was to lead him straight to her, but Jyhra happened.

He tried to fight him, except his bow and arrows on his back proved to be no match for Jyhra's sword. He did, however, managed to escape. Though it had cost him. By the time he had reached Ryri the magic had been drained from him, freezing and shrinking him down in size as he turned into a statue. To the humans he appeared to be a stuffed animal, a toy to be played with.

His only wish was that he could reunite the daughter and father. And that wish was in his mind as a shooting star flew over the night sky.

~

Kyra gazed out at the city below, sitting on the roof's edge of her apartment complex. Her knees were bent as she rested her head against them. The air felt refreshing on her scantily-clad skin, which was common for a fairy. Clothes had a tendency to get in the way of their wings. She felt perturbed, as if something was calling her. Like something big was about to happen. She looked out at the lights; beacons for those sleepless souls who wandered the world alone. The city that never sleeps; a perfect place for the lost. Where the freaks, the outcast, and the restless could blend in.