Copyright – Al Forbes

Another entry for Sunday Photo Fiction. Click the link to find instructions for submitting your own stories and to read other people’s submissions. Didn’t submit anything last week as I was preparing for a job interview that was south of London. (South of London? To a northerner like me, it might as well be a different country.) Going past all the flooded fields on the train was a source of inspiration for this story. 😉

As a child, I never saw winter. You may have heard that there are places in this land which are impervious to the changing seasons. I was born and raised in one such place.

The forest south of Karob has a centre that’s near impossible to penetrate. The foliage is as thick as the walls which guard this kingdom. If your nurse or mother told you fairy tales, she may have described the garden of the water goddesses. Did they describe the trees that never lost their leaves? The turquoise fountain warmed by a never-retreating sun?

I was never the same as the other child-sprites. I was somewhat more opaque. I could never meld into my natural surroundings or hold conversations with the river like they could. I was glad when my father came to collect me on my sixteenth birthday.

Unfortunately, there was no place for a bastard child like me in court, even a half goddess. It wasn’t until the floods came that they began referring to me as “Lady”.