CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Five Act Play in a Signature
By Fish A. Chips

ACT I - The Boy on the Shore

SCENE I
Travelers from a far away land bid us hello on our dark shores.
They described to us a world of surpassing beauty
Where I knew I could never live, for I was ugly.

SCENE II
Our guests left by the morning, taking to the Eastern Sea.
They left only a single lamp, to illuminate their path
And perhaps to guide those that might follow after?

SCENE III
The Wind King whispered to me amidst the spray of the sea salt.
All my worldly belongings securely by my side,
I made the only decision I could.

SCENE IV
My raft was hardly seaworthy, and I had only the lantern to guide me.
The sea was as large as I had ever imagined,
But, should I never leave, I would never have known how large.

SCENE V
I took a deep breath, the dark shores of my home far behind me.
I would never step foot on them again...
...That was fine.

ACT II - The Mercy of the Wind King

SCENE I
Now the Wind King was cunning, a trickster at heart, to his very marrow.
Malicious, both fond and famous for his brand of mischief.
He had never expected the traveler to reach the far shore.

SCENE II
The death of a dream, a beautiful calamity worth bringing about.
But something consumed him with guilt, an idea, he could not guess what.
And so the Wind King traveled the Eastern Sea for the boy. Such was the spear of guilt.

SCENE III
Hidden in the canopy of the sea, he found the boy, sleeping beneith its surface.
With hesitation, he plunged into the depths for as long as his breath would carry him,
Gambling against the current of time.

SCENE IV
The sea breathed, allowing passage to the restless sky.
The Wind King's patience had won, the boy stowed safely at his side, sleeping still.
He laid the boy's head against the unsuspecting sands, free to awaken.

SCENE V
The cloud lifted darkly. The Wind King took his leave to the Northern skies,
Not allowing a second thought towards the boy to escape, unconcious on the shore.
Would that he had remembered the continent on which the boy lay.

ACT III - The Girl in the Tower

SCENE I
I awoke to the sting of the sand against the sea and the spray.
I was a stranger in a land I could not name, breathing water.
Was this the beautiful world I had set out for?

SCENE II
Not a soul breathed across the shore, calm and lonely, except for the ghosts.
On the horizon, a tower, like a needle, pierced the cloudbanks.
My mind was fixed. I traveled by its shadow.

SCENE III
The length of the tower was tedious, I feared my legs would give out, crumbling to sand.
Each step towards the summit, each breath towards the heavens.
The door was unlocked. I pushed it aside...

She turned from the nightingale at the windowsill.

SCENE IV
I had never seen a girl like her before, trapped in a world of white, freed by the sky.
I stepped in, silently. I had no clever words. She rose and met me.
Her fingers brushed against my face, and for one second, I was beautiful.

SCENE V
A cough and a clatter, softly killing her. She was sick.
I had no medicine to cure the heart or the head. I had nothing to offer her.
Only time. For days, that was all she needed.

SCENE VI
There was a cure, for the careful. Kept away in a forest to the North.
She had always been alone. The only other who had cared for her kept her hidden. Kept her safe within the tower
While he sought the cure. And now I would leave her. Alone, again.

SCENE VII
My name? It was a simple enough request.
I turned, a wry smile and the wind to my back.
I'd tell her when I returned. I promised.

ACT IV - The Medicine

SCENE I
The way was perilous, obscured by fear and by fog.
The air grew cold. I hugged myself for warmth, drawing the lantern to light my path.
To a blossoming forest surrounded by a desert of snow.

SCENE II
Brushing the cold from my sleeves I stepped into the world of trees.
Ancient things that towered into the heavens.
I felt that which I had fixed my sights upon was close.

SCENE III
The path was long, lead by specters of leaves and lost words unspoken by man.
The heart of the forest beat in tandem with everything, a strange music.
It was there I saw it, gates to the vineyard, the medicine tree.

SCENE IV
It was regal, the king of the forest. I laid my lantern by my feet.
The fruit, the medicine, hung proudly aloft, and yet-
Something seemed off. It's color, it's tint.

SCENE V
And there he sat, smiling, a branch just above,
Resting, serene and sinister, his palm opened to me.
The Wind King laughed, and there was venom in his voice.

ACT V - The Cruelty of the Wind King

SCENE I
Extinguishing my lantern with a thought, how could his generosity be so cruelly overturned.
That the boy he should save from sleep in the sea of the dead
Should steal that which he had endeavored to preserve for himself - in his tower.

SCENE II
The miracle medicine hung ripe, except tainted; poisoned by the tree.
Its fruits could be cleansed, imbued by the power of their true form, nurturing,
But, only at terrible self-cost.

SCENE III
A simple price was named. Find that which you seek to gain, at the loss of yourself.
The Wind King had been unable to bring himself to pay this toll,
A life, one for another, and despaired me.

SCENE IV
I hesitated, and the world did not turn, consuming time and emotion.
Was I sure enough of myself to tempt a fate I did not understand? Or that I understood all too well?
The Wind King thought not.

SCENE V
A deep breath. An entire lifetime passed within its span.
I stepped forward, and committed myself. I remembered my promise.
Smiling, painfully. I wouldn't be able to keep it.

EPILOGUE

SCENE I
She stepped lightly, tracing the sand across the shore. How long had it been.
At her side a small child gazed into the depths of the sea.
At a distance further, he watched them both, pensive.

SCENE II
The sea fell silent, and in that vacuum his heart ached.
The Wind King placed a hand to his chest.
Would this pain never subside.

SCENE III
His conscience eased as the sunset reflected against their dancing forms.
Contented mother and child, what name had he given her boy.
She should have recognized it, but how could she?

A broken promise cannot be repaired.

~THE END~