This A Godling for Your Thoughts? (Tales of the Navel: The Shadow Forest) freebie story was the result. This will be the last freebie story or poem until May since #BloggingFromAZAprilChallenge: Character Change is about to begin on April 1st...stay tuned and get to know my characters a little better when it happens. :) Once more, they'll be talking in first person and taking over the blog. :)
Omphalos was a new beginning for everyone in what was now regarded as the Old Cottage, whether those everyones wanted it or not.
Tayel was one of the ‘nots’.
“Maybe it won’t be so bad.” Danyel sat on the edge of the bed he shared with his twin, trying to be cheerful. “Yes, there will be noise as more cottages are built, hammering, thudding, and talking, but we’ll be able to talk to.”
“Speech always waits on the tip of our tongues if we feel like indulging in it.” Tayel turned his face to gaze at the window.
“Well, yes, you can talk to me, Leiwell, and Map, but this is a chance to talk to people we’ve never met.” Danyel studied Tayel’s jutting lower lip, so similar to his own. “It could be interesting.”
“Interesting.” His twin turned the word into a curse, wrapped in the allure of intriguing change. “Hammering and strange voices are merely the tip of the sharp blade brought to our breast by the presence of strangers. That is what Omphalos is or will become.”
“Maybe it won’t be a blade.” Danyel swung out legs that were a little longer since he and his brother returned from the other side of the Door. After years of remaining the same age, the twins were experiencing a sudden growth spurt. “Maybe it will be more like a cup, filled to the brim with a liquid that tastes different with every sip.” He closed his eyes, visualizing a dagger dissolving into rainbow liquid that fell into a waiting goblet. “Sometimes it’ll be bitter, but at others, it’ll be sweet.”
“What’s sweet tastes bitter on the wrong tongue. Or the right one.” Tayel stuck out his own for emphasis. “Omphalos is Ashleigh’s plan, Ashleigh’s triumph.”
He still wasn’t calling Ashleigh “Mother”, for all Map insisted she was. Not that Danyel was having an easy time with it either. It was hard, considering someone their mother who’d been gone for most of the twins’ lives. Who might disappear through another Door the moment she got bored.
“We’re part of Ashleigh’s family, even we don’t feel like it.” Danyel sighed, not entirely convinced of this himself. “Omphalos is just her way of making us a part of it.”
“Drawing us into a design whether we care for the arrangement or not.” Tayel withdrew his tongue back in his mouth and glowered at the window. “Just as she’s finally drawing us into something she’s spent most of her existence fleeing from.”
“I know.” Danyel threw up his hands, unable to argue this point. “She’s a little late in deciding to be our mother and take care of us, isn’t she?” He swallowed another sigh and dropped his arms. “Map is our mother, however, and she really wants Ashleigh to be a part of our lives.”
“Doubt flowers and takes root in Map regarding Ashleigh’s intentions.” Tayel dropped his head, allowing a golden curl to fall forward, concealing his eye. “The outside world’s unkindness hunted our mother into isolation. She’d never allow it to get too close.”
“Perhaps the people of Omphalos won’t be part of the outside world Map is afraid of. Not once Ashleigh is finished building this village around us.” How Danyel hoped this would be true. “Perhaps they’ll be part of our lives and we’ll be part of theirs.”
“Perhaps.” Tayel allowed his head to droop even lower, not saying anything more, even though there was something he wished to. Danyel could feel it, breathing between them.
Perhaps I don’t want to share our lives with this village, but you do. At the very least, you’re curious about sharing, being part of this community, this Omphalos. I’m not, but there’s no point in saying so, in widening the gulf between us by saying it.
Only Danyel could feel that gulf widening with his twin’s silence. What could he say which would breach it?
He reached out for Tayel’s small, pale hand, not speaking.
Cool fingers laced through his, accepting the contact.
The gulf might remain between them, but hopefully it was a little less wide.
Danyel feared the coming of Omphalos would only make it greater. Surely there was a way to welcome their new neighbors and community, to get along with them without becoming even more distant from his twin.
Right now the distance seemed inevitable.
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