Forging Beauty of Sea-Foam and Sand
Sep. 17th, 2021 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fictitiouswhimsigotA Magical Skill
The most perfect of Kingdoms was built on June 16, 1932 on a beach in Spain.
It was children who built it. They piled onto the beach as the tide fell down, reached the still wet sand and began their ambitious architectural work. A mound of sand to shape into a towered castle was first, then tiny buildings to sit in its shadow, then a wall to protect them from returning waves and errant crabs.
It was a work of care and love, with carefully shaped columns and the best seashells one could find. As they worked, the sand seemed to be more pliable to their will, acting to show their dreams of the best of castles rather than what their hands could achieve. Birds swept low, dropping feathers and interesting leaves or flowers. Crabs build a pile of shells and stones outside the walls. The tides themselves brought forth the best of building materials for them to use. As they finished, late in the afternoon, and the tide was lapping at the edges of their walled city, tiny flowers began to grow, anemones and carnations and poppies. They dances through the little streets and atop the walls and castle like proud residents. A delicate purple orchid sat near the top, on a balcony, like a queen surveying her kingdom.
The children stood still in awe of this that they had created, and then a gentle wave struck the walls and finally cracked them. Water began to flow into the small streets.
As their parents called them to leave, the children knew their kingdom had but a few hours remaining.
But they knew then that beauty held in the heart can never die.
Forging Beauty of Sea-Foam and Sand
Magical Skill
Non-Magical Techniques
Obstacle 0
Magical techniques
Obstacle 0
The most perfect of Kingdoms was built on June 16, 1932 on a beach in Spain.
It was children who built it. They piled onto the beach as the tide fell down, reached the still wet sand and began their ambitious architectural work. A mound of sand to shape into a towered castle was first, then tiny buildings to sit in its shadow, then a wall to protect them from returning waves and errant crabs.
It was a work of care and love, with carefully shaped columns and the best seashells one could find. As they worked, the sand seemed to be more pliable to their will, acting to show their dreams of the best of castles rather than what their hands could achieve. Birds swept low, dropping feathers and interesting leaves or flowers. Crabs build a pile of shells and stones outside the walls. The tides themselves brought forth the best of building materials for them to use. As they finished, late in the afternoon, and the tide was lapping at the edges of their walled city, tiny flowers began to grow, anemones and carnations and poppies. They dances through the little streets and atop the walls and castle like proud residents. A delicate purple orchid sat near the top, on a balcony, like a queen surveying her kingdom.
The children stood still in awe of this that they had created, and then a gentle wave struck the walls and finally cracked them. Water began to flow into the small streets.
As their parents called them to leave, the children knew their kingdom had but a few hours remaining.
But they knew then that beauty held in the heart can never die.
Forging Beauty of Sea-Foam and Sand
Magical Skill
Non-Magical Techniques
Obstacle 0
- Build a sand castle or sand town
- Find a tidal pool.
- Clean up or beautiful a beach you care about.
Magical techniques
Obstacle 0
- Smooth and clean things made of sand as if using carefully made tools.
- Include a new building element or decoration into something made of sand without harming it.
- Have the wildlife of the beach bring you building materials for a project of some kind, like wildflowers, shells or driftwood.
- A single flower blooms from where you have touched the sand. The sound of the breeze, for a moment, sounds like a song.
- With a touch, cover parts of the beach in wildflowers. The wind echoes with songs and the waves sound out with instrumental beats, for a while.
- Find something of exceptional beauty to include in your works, like a perfect shell or a beautifully shaped piece of driftwood.
- Shape sand into architecture faster than you should be able to, as if your hands are just suggestions and your emotions and thoughts hold the true sway.
- Raise up kingdoms and castles from the sand with a whisper and a word.
- Make something you've made on a beach so beautiful and sublime that it will be remembered by all who see it for the rest of their lives.
- The flowers spring from the lapping waves, and seagulls sing of heaven. The wind thrums the chord, and the waves are the beat of the world. There is holiness and wonder. ...and then the world returns to itself.
