Hi again! Today's a busy day!
As promised yesterday, the revisions of Catching Fireflies are out. I have just uploaded the new document onto Amazon KDP and those who've a copy of the previous version are getting an update of about... 900% more than the story was before! The story simply developed out of hand while I was working on it.
So here's to you, reviewer who wanted MORE CONTENT and NEEDED MORE INFORMATION about what happened after the initial story. Here's the continuation of a story I didn't think I'd ever write on again.
Of course there also needs to be a celebration! So in order to celebrate the new and EVEN SHINIER version of Catching Fireflies I've decided to post the first part of it (what it used to be before today) here on my blog. That's right. It's right here if you just scroll down a little.
(PS: before you lose yourself in Mairie and Dyl's world please keep in mind updates on KDP will take a while still so perhaps the actual update will only be available tomorrow. Have fun!)
Catching Fireflies
“Tell
them you're catching fireflies,” Dyl's mother said. “For the
lamps.”
Dyl acknowledged her
words with a quick jerk of the head before he collected the glass
jars she'd laid out for him and left. He swam up to the calm surface
near the shore. The alibi could hold. It was summer and the fireflies
aplenty this close to dusk. Dyl gathered the tiny insects until the
sky darkened and the town lit to mock the stars above. The harvest
was good but couldn't quite ease his tension as he waited. His
stomach – empty except the few fireflies who'd found their way past
his sharp, needle-like canines – quirked queasily.
The girl coming down
the small hill just off the shore was about the same age as he would
have been were he man, her bare footsteps light on the wet sand. Her
dress and curls rustled in the evening wind.
Dyl decided to play
it coy. He hid in the seaweeds, but kept the top of his head above
the languid tides.
Until he heard her
cry out.
Then came the next
phase of the plan.
He ducked under the
waves and waited to hear her call him back.
“Come
back!
Come
back!”
she cried. Her voice was muffled by the waterline as if she were
speaking through a great conch. “I
won't hurt you!”
Nonetheless he made
her wait a while before he re-emerged. Long enough to ignite her
curiosity with a spark of desperation, so that when she saw him, she
would only wonder at his strangely dark-luminous eyes and boyish
appearance, not worry about the too-long needle-fangs and tall dorsal
fins.
When he did surface
he did it slowly, as if he were shy.
“Who
are you?” she asked. The calm curiosity in her voice reassured Dyl
somewhat as he struggled to remember how he'd been taught to proceed.
The girl's head
tilted. “You're not a mermaid.”
Dyl's
tail twitched. Why wasn't she scared? At least a bit? He did have
fangs and eerie-to-humans eyes after all. There was no protocol to
deal with unfazed
human girls.
“What's
your name?” he managed.
Her forehead
creased. “Why should I tell you? You haven't told me anything about
you.”
Dyl wet his lips.
“I
– I'm – my name is Dyl. Indyl.”
“Strange.”
It was his turn to
scowl. He crossed his arms – pectoral fins jagged against the
pale-blue skin of his elbows and forearms - snarled – and closed
his mouth immediately when her eyes narrowed curiously. The girl
laughed.
“What?”
he said.
“I
like it. Your name. It doesn't matter that it's strange.” A pause.
“I'm Mairie.”
Dyl's arms
unravelled. He couldn't help himself. He might just like her better
than the others – all the others combined.
“What
are you doing?” Mairie asked.
He forced the
flutter of his gills to stop.
“Collecting
fireflies from the reeds.” He turned to show her the jars tied to
the side of his waist with seaweed rope.
“Why?”
“To
light the lamps in the deep.”
“Why?”
He paused slyly.
“It's dark down there.”
“Oh.”
Dyl twirled in the
water and showed her his tail fins. “I could show you if you like.”
Mairie scowled.
“Papa'll be angry if I leave.”
Dyl wet his lips as
if that'd help the sudden dryness in his gills. How would he play
this? He hadn't considered the human girl's parents because they
didn't matter. They weren't his prey. What could he say to disperse
her concerns?
“He'll
never find you.”
Her brows creased,
as if this didn't reassure her at all, and she shook her head.
Dyl gave an
elaborate shrug – as if her rejection didn't sting just a tiny bit
worse than the average pincer - and turned to the open water as if to
leave.
“Wait!”
He glanced over his
jaggily finned shoulder.
“What
do I have to do to come with you?” she asked.
Dyl's heart
thrilled. He would have to play this last phase of the plan gently to
keep her placid.
“You'd
have to grow fins and gills to breathe,” he said.
Her eyes widened.
“How?”
He felt a pinch of
guilt. “You can't go back if you do.”
“Back
where?”
“The
surface.”
“But
you're here.”
“You
can't ever walk the land again,” he said.
“Never?”
“Never.”
She crossed her
arms. Dyl's gills heated. He thought she would reject him then, out
of fear or trepidation, and also that he should have talked more
about the firefly lamps and the alluring serenity of the deep and
less about the everlasting dark and the Rubicon she would have to
cross.
She
said, “I don't mind. Daddy's gone and I don't like papa's new...
friend.
They always fight.”
Dyl tried to keep
himself from nibbling his nails as his heart hitched.
“I
could help you if you want,” he managed. “To grow fins and gills
and a tail like mine.”
“You
would?” And then, suspiciously, “Why?”
Dyl shrugged. His
gills must have glowed, so hot did they feel.
What
could he have said? That she was special? That he wouldn't hurt her?
That it
wouldn't hurt? But he wasn't that good a liar, and he wanted her to
know the truth.
Because
she was
special.
Mairie contemplated
Dyl a moment longer, as if his silence communicated more than any of
his words could have.
And at last she gave
a nod.
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