When the day is blue

[elaezerbelle]

[W in case of language?]
(for Daniel Carson mostly)

It was morning, dawn, everything seemed to look tired under the gray blue sky. Odille hung out of the back door of her cottage on the outskirts of town, with an oversized coffee cup in hand, watching the birds twitter and hop about in the grass as she took big sips. The air was freezing and damp, but she had on a flowy dress, as she usually did, and an oversized sweater to keep her warm. She went to take another sip of her muddy spiced coffee but nothing met her lips. She looked down into her empty cup and spotted her boots on the mat on which she stood. Then she glanced back outside towards the woods. Why not?

She set her cup down and slipped the boots on quickly, then went to frighten the birds away. The ground was covered in wet leaves that squished under her steps, which were long and quick. The forest was quiet but alive with the peaceful sound of morning crickets and the wind blowing through the branches. She started to hum to herself as she went, touching trunks as she passed through the maze of trees.

Odille felt overwhelmed when she came here, with a strange sense of being the only person in the world, and yet at the same time she imagined her mother was there with her, a little girl asking her to play. She expressed this with an illusion. A pretty little girl with yellow hair laughed shrilly and skipped up the rows of trees in the distance. Odille followed her.

She noticed her now and stopped her skipping, walked up to her with her hand out and a smile plastered on her lovely face. She was wearing the sort of dress little girls wore enthusiastically on Easter Sunday, frilly and big. Odille nearly touched her small hand when a rustling sound interrupted her. As she turned, her young would-be mother turned too, and mirrored her startled reflection just before vanishing.

“Who’s there?” She said, her eyes somewhat wide with a mixture of fear and anger.

[daniel]

It was night and Daniel was wandering through the woods again. This time he was drunk. Somehow Daniel got of some very nice wine for free. “When you’re gone! The pieces of my heart are missing you!” Daniel was singing rather loudly and off key. Daniel loved music, but he was not a singer. Especially when he was drunk. Daniel stumbled about in the darkness and bumped into a couple tree here and there. For him drinking was a rare occasion since he could not hold his liquor very well. So all it took was maybe half the bottle of wine Daniel was plastered and singing very badly. One could not blame him for wanting to get drunk. The man did go through a rather nasty divorcee and found out that his wife never loved him; she only wanted the money and resorted to blackmailing him for more money. Daniel bumped into a few more trees and then fell to the ground. It was cold and he wanted sleep. “When you’re gone…” The earth around him began to move forming a hole and Daniel buried himself within the earth’s warm arms. Sleep. Peaceful sleep.

The sleep was rather wonderful, but the waking up part was not. Yes, a very bad hangover. When Daniel woke up there was a lot of random movement around the woods. The movements often end up making rustling sounds upon the surface while Daniel stretched himself around somewhere four or so feet beneath. The hangover was impairing his powers somewhat so just him bursting out of the ground was a lot harder then he thought it would be. His body felt so stiff from the pressure of the dirt. Normally Daniel was able to move through that pressure with ease, but that hangover was doing its thing on his concentration: destroying it. Slowly Daniel managed to move himself into a vertical position. Oh no, he was not fully free yet. He had just managed to pop his head out of the ground.

His vision was groggy and painful due to the light and headache. It took him a few moments before his vision finally focus. Yup he was in the woods. Daniel took a quick look around, turning his head side to side, in order get a bearing. Was that a foot? Daniel saw to the left of his head and upon turning the other way he saw another foot. Things were not adding up to him. Was he still drunk? Where was sun? Maybe if he looked at the sun he could get a good determination of the time. Daniel straight up and saw something perhaps he shouldn’t have. Thing still weren’t adding up yet. “Pink…”

[elaezerbelle]

At first there was no answer. She turned her head in various different directions, each movement like a flash. All she saw were the dead tree branches twisting off into the distance every which way. But she was sure she heard something. "Who's there? I heard you!" She insisted, and this time recieved one short reply.

“Pink…”

Odille let out a good strong gasp, it was her natural reaction as opposed to screaming, in such situations. She looked down and saw a face there in the ground, jumped away, and felt her foot hit said face as she did so. “What the bloody hell!” She raised her voice now definitely, though one could never be sure with her even melodious way of speaking. The person down there groaned in pain, but she didn’t feel any remorse for having accidentally kicked him in the head. In fact, later on she’d be unsure as to whether or not it was truly an accident after all.

“Whutchu doing down there? Staring up at my knickers as bold as brass!” She looked at him with puzzlement and put her arms out questioningly, then gave an inclination of her head that further demonstrated she was anxious for some explaining. The man was in an awful state, and she wondered if he’d been mad enough to have slept in the woods. She was too mad to ask however. She didn’t like being ogled…even if it was a misunderstanding.

[daniel]

Pink. Yes pink. In fact as Daniel looked up what he saw was not the sun, but strange stretch of pink cloth. It took Daniel a moment before he realize he was staring at some very cute pink panties. Panties. That was odd why would panties be up in the sky. The realization was starting to come slowly to Daniel. To his left and right were feet. Above him were panties. Connected to said panties were a pair of delicate looking legs. “That’s odd.” He muttered, but soon a blush made its way across his face. It was very clear to him now, still mildly gawking upward, that he was looking up a woman’s dress. It was the only thing that made sense. He was coming out of the ground, there were feet, legs, and panties above him. Now Daniel was no pervert and he would’ve of politely went back underground and pretended not to have seen anything… however one of aforementioned foot smashed into his face.

“Ahh! Oh god ow!” Daniel yelled in pain as soon as the foot left his face. He followed the exclamation with a string of profanity in Arabic – which he was very proficient at having come from Saudi Arabia. Her small foot left a red imprint across his face, which should disappear after a while. For looking up her dress perhaps Daniel deserved being stepped on, but it still hurts as hell. Speaking along the line of pain, the pain made him lose concentration of his powers even further. That combined with his hangover was like turning his power into a fire that danced to the wind. The wind was his emotions. Yes Daniel was very mature in his power and had plenty of control, but his power was still heavily influenced by his emotions when he lost control of them.

It did not take long for his powers to manifest themselves. The ground around them suddenly sunk. The ground she was standing suddenly gave way and became a very steep incline. In fact all the ground around them suddenly became a steep incline towards him like an ant lion pit. This was a result of Daniel’s natural survive instincts, which told his powers to: disable the threat (the girl) and get himself out. The ant lion pit he made would’ve accomplished both objectives just fine. The sinking of the earth would unbury him and the steepness alone with the change in the ground’s density would either cause her to sink into the ground or come tumbling down towards him.

It was just his luck that the girl would come tumbling down at him. Daniel, still too stunned to notice it, turn in time to see the girl a moment before she would crash into him. Daniel was a featherweight so there was no way he was going to catch her. She was just going to knock him down and land on top of him.

[elaezerbelle]

“Ahh! Oh god ow!” The man yelled out in pain and followed this with some familiar Arabic swears, which she recognized having a special place for the middle east in her heart…and considering the first thing most people want to teach you is bad words. She tilted her head to the side and was about to pose a question, but the ground began to shake beneath her. It rose, fell, and sloped off, sending her rolling like a acrobat towards the strange man.

She hit him, thought she kicked him again, and landed with a thud. Her face was inches from his crotch, her legs were straddling his chest, and her skirt was over his head. Being such a strangely innocent girl, her eyes again went wide, which must’ve been something considering their normal size. She squirmed to get out of this precarious position, and crawled on the forest floor, dirtying her dress and knees. “What the hell is happening?” She asked breathlessly in probably broken Arabic, not sure if he’d understood her English.

She was clutching at the soft wet dirt, trying to gain some kind of balance as the ground continued to shake. She was breathing heavy from the effort and becoming increasingly upset at how dirty she was getting. She couldn’t see him at this point, her body was shaking too much. All she saw was the muddy leaf covered ground and her very filthy body.

Finally, the quaking ceased. She sat there for a moment, on her hands and knees, still clutching with all her might and trying to breath. She must’ve looked like a wild animal. She struggled to stand, using a tree trunk for balance, and what a sight when she did. She stood up straight, her hair, which hadn’t been dreaded, was matted and wet. Her dress was splotched with dirt, the sleeves of her sweater were brown to the elbows, and her body was splattered in various places, the worst being the knees. She let out a long angry breath, and didn’t put on a sweet façade of any kind. She took long quick steps to where the man now stood and slapped him hard on the cheek. She called him a rude name in Arabic and stood there waiting for an explanation, wanting to cry.

[daniel]

Before Daniel knew what was happening the girl crashed into him. Of course Daniel fell backwards and the girl landed on him. Daniel had no intentions of having the girl crash into him from the ant lion pit he made, but it happened anyways. Having the girl crash into him was certainly not the worst part of the whole incident. The worst part of the whole incident was the position in which she landed on him. The position was very… compromising. The girl’s face was only inches from his crotch and his head was up her skirt again with his face close to those pink panties again. Yes it was a most compromising situation for the both of them.

Daniel was not a pervert, but he could not help it when he stared a little bit. It was more like spacing out then staring really. Daniel was not in the best of minds at the moment. He had a pounding headache thanks to his hangover and then he had his face stepped on plus the girl crashing into him. Daniel was dazed and confused so it was going to take him a few moments until he realized the situation he was in. Yes when he realized that he was looking up some girl’s skirt his face became beet red. Daniel, as eccentric as he was, was strangely shy and conservative about matters concerning females. That was due to the influence of his living in the Middle East, his oriental mother, and his father being a catholic.

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief when the girl squirmed off of him. Daniel was kind of frozen at the moment and well… since the girl was on top of him there was really no way for Daniel to move out of that situation. Well she was off of him and hopefully that would be the last time he saw her panties. When she squirmed off of him and crawled away Daniel would’ve of sworn he heard some Arabic coming from her. That was rather odd. Daniel did not expect anyone here to speak Arabic in France unless he went to some town with a high Muslim population. Really that was rather strange and he would have to inquiry her about her Arabic later on.

Daniel pushed himself up into a standing position. His mind was slowly starting to clear itself and focus again with the headache hindering him slightly. When he was standing he looked over to her. The poor girl was so messy and well Daniel felt really bad for her. Part of this was his fault… somehow… in someway… he wasn’t sure of. “Miss I…” He tried to start explaining when she walked over to him, but when she did came over she gave him a hard slap across his cheek. His cheek grew warm and then hot as a red mark slowly appeared over it. Daniel looked at her and knew he deserved it. The girl was about to girl. No one should cry. At least not because of him.

Daniel paused a moment as he ran over what happened. Daniel took in a deep breath and gave a full explanation of what happened all in one breath. “My name is Daniel. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. Last night I got drunk and I decided to sleep in the woods. I can control the earth so I slept underground. When I woke up I popped my head out of the ground to get my bearings, but I did not know I would pop up in between your legs and see your pink panties. Then when you step on my face I lost control of powers and that why…” He paused to take in another breath, “We’re here and why I saw your pink panties again.” He blushed, “I-I-I mean by accident. I have no ill intention towards you and once again miss I’m sorry!” He gasped for a breath now.

[elaezerbelle]

Odille took a deep breath to get her bearings and keep herself from crying, it was just a little mud. Well ok, it was a lot of mud really. The guy’s cheek turned red where she hit it, and she felt mild satisfaction at her keen ability to throw a…slap. She was terrible at punching however. Even with the loads of practice she had on her sister, Linnet. She mentally winced at the familiar thought, and pushed it out of her mind. It was all in the palm, you had to make your hand very stiff and put the full force in the palm of your hand. That was how she threw the perfect girl slap, and it never failed to inflict pain.

“Daniel” as he introduced himself, started apologizing profusely and going off on a tangent while he was at it. She missed half of it, but it sounded like a load of rubbish about her undergarments mostly. She crinkled her little nose at him, “Stop calling them panties, it’s sounds so “cheap porno”. Knickers, underwear, skivvies even.” She tried to process everything as he went on and on. She noticed she kept straightening her skirt self consciously. She was sort of a modest girl, and moreover she hated men ninety percent of the time. They made decent friends, and were always good for a laugh, but mostly she loathed their existence.

As he was talking she tried to smooth her hair, but was only succeeding in rubbing the muddy earth into it more. She tried to wipe her face with a day part of her sweater, but then saw the mark it left and became frustrated. Her whole outfit would have to be dry cleaned at once, and it would cost too. It wasn‘t like she didn‘t have the money, but it was the principle. She paused for a second, “Hang on, did you say you can control the earth?” She quirked a brow, and looked at herself again.

“Look, as invigorating as this is, I want to get un-muddy, now. How about you tell me all about whatever it is you’re talking about over some coffee, and then you can give me your information so you can pay my dry cleaning bill.” She smiled sweetly.

[daniel]

“Knickers?” Daniel repeated gingerly. Daniel never really heard the term knickers used before unless the person was referring to the basketball team or it was something from a movie taking place in Britain. “Knickers then. I do not mean to look at your knickers, I’m terribly sorry.” His face was still red. The red came from a combination of the slap and the blush from seeing the pink knickers as she had called them. Daniel did come from a very conservative part of the world after all, even if he was raised in a liberal American lifestyle. Daniel was rather curious now. He never met a person from Britain before. He figured that since he was here why not make it a learning experience as well. “Well miss, are you from Britain?” He asked softly, “I never met a person who called underwear Knickers before until I met you and the only people I know who calls them knickers are British people.” Daniel was generally a friendly person who often tried to strike up conversations if he could.

“Yes miss I can control the earth.” He confirmed her question. She was not freaking out or running away. She was not attacking him or calling him names. That was new. This was different then what he expected. He had honestly expected at the first sign of him having powers he was going to get shunned and attacked. She did not seem to be frightened in any way at all. That was very god. That was very very good indeed. Daniel was rather happy now. His trip to France was very fruitful if he could find people who would not run away at him having powers.

Daniel paused for a moment when she suddenly invited him for coffee and paying her dry cleaning. Well that was not going to be a problem. Belle did not know that Daniel was a millionaire so that little dry cleaning bill was almost nothing at all. However Daniel was not going to have to pay for it. “Well I would love to go for some coffee and talk. I take it you have some special gift as well.” Daniel took a step forward and assessed how much mud was on her. He waved his hand at her legs and the mud there just went off like someone wiped her clean. He did the same to her parts of her that had mud and the mud fell off leaving clean. “There, I hope that is better.” Daniel smiled sweetly.

[elaezerbelle]

“Ehh,” she paused at the surge of questions, “Yes, well, I am from Britain. But I didn’t stay around those parts for terribly long. I’m sort of a gypsy, I’ve lived everywhere. England is lovely, especially the countryside, London was too bustling for my mood at the time, though it was very nice too.” She explained. “You don’t have to call them knickers really, I just loath the word “panties”. Personal preference.” She said nonchalantly.

“Yes miss I can control the earth.” She was starting to become irked by the way he kept calling her miss, but she didn’t want to keep telling him what to do, so she shrugged it off. She was waiting for him to tell her more about what he meant by “control the earth” when she realized he had stopped walking and she was a ways ahead of him. “There, I hope that is better.” Daniel smiled sweetly and she looked down to see that, with a wave of his hand, the grime that covered her moments ago had vanished.

She tilted her head and her mouth was a bit agape, but she wasn’t sure what to say. She stuttered a thanks and he started to walk again. He had asked about her ability. They were walking a steady pace back to her house and no one was around, naturally. She concentrated on the trees ahead and made large wild blossoms bloom from them, a very large blue butterfly flitted past them excitedly. Then a scared black winged horse stood momentarily on the path before scampering nervously away from them with a stretch of it’s wings. “I cast illusions.” She wasn’t sure if she’d ever told anyone that before, she shrugged one shoulder and continued walking. “I suppose that’s why you came here? To find other tainted?”

[daniel]

“You haven’t stayed in Britain for long? Well I heard that is really nice there in Britain.” Daniel stated since he actually heard a few stories from Internet buddies of his. He heard such things from a few friends of his. Daniel kind of had a very active Internet social life. Even though he was a bit of a party boy back in his days he was still a nerd at heart. Money can only change so much and get you so far before you realize everything is a total lie. That how it was with Daniel. He could only carry on that rich party boy visage for so long before he returned to being a nerd. However it did give him a lot more meaningful friends… well granted they were Internet friends.

Naturally Daniel and the girl headed off to her home since it was nearby. Maybe there Daniel could call for a ride home or something along those lines. Daniel could barely remember what happened that night he got drunk. It must’ve been something since Daniel rarely drank. At any rate there were only two people Daniel could call now. One was Vicky who might be in school right now which meant that wasn’t a good choice. The second was Alex, his faithful assistant, who might be able to arrange some of her minions to give him a ride home. Or run him over with his own car again. Or something between the two.

“Wow your illusions are beautiful.” Daniel looked with awe. They were not the first illusions he had seen, but they certainly took the cake. Maybe he could get Belle to come and help Vicky train her powers. That would be great since Vicky works so hard at trying to control her powers. Controls comes from practice and hard work; Daniel’s power came the same way. It took Daniel maybe ten years of practice before he got his powers somewhat mastered and now Daniel was still learning more things about his powers.

“I can’t really make anything that amazing with my powers… well at least not so pretty.” Daniel demonstrated by raising his hand out in front of him. The ground lurched up and rose up in a large circular lump. Parts of it then drop while other moved with careful precision until it formed a lotus in front of her. It was a flower, but like Daniel said… it wasn’t that pretty. There was no color to it: only shape. “I can’t make pretty flowers like you. At least I can make the ground rich and then plant flowers.”