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[anthraxpretzels.livejournal.com]

Challenge: 186 - Black and White
Title: Balance
Word Count: 445
Summary: Once upon a time, there was a witch and a boy...

Once upon a time, there was a witch that lived alone in a snow-white castle, rearranging minds.

Although the girl proved to possess great skill at chaining away or breaking the chains that lay inside the hearts of men, she had no heart to call her own. Day in and day out she worked, dressed in white and surrounded by white, beautiful, empty walls.

In her eyes, the colors of her crayons, from scarlet red to striking violet, blurred and merged, and became white as well.

And so time began to pass in the pristine, ever-changing castle.

One day, a strange boy dressed in black appeared from thin air. He was robed in the same absence of color that clothed those who controlled the witch.

Black. The color of darkness. Mistrust. Fear.

Seeing him, she was afraid, and drew back into a corner.

But his eyes, though they were of the same empty-hearted gaze as hers, were gentle. Although the shadows that he emerged from were the color of pitch, he made no efforts to strike fear into her mind. Taking a tentative step from the corner, she stared at him.

What she saw was a face as young and curious as hers. There was little to fear around him.

And so the witch found in the boy a friend.

A friend was a strange new sensation, as if a new, exotic color had been added to her collection of crayons. As the witch found herself spending more and more time with the boy, she began to ask questions.

Black. White. Were they truly so separate?

On the day that the boy was to depart for somewhere far, far away, where he could no longer meet with the witch, he took her to a town bathed in yellow and gold. Facing a blank wall, he drew from coal-colored shadows two objects.

At the sight of them, the witch knew what they were. In his left hand was a feather-white key, and in his right its ebony-colored twin. Pointing the white at the wall, he conjured up lights of every color, from scarlet red to striking purple. As they merged, she knew the resulting color instantly.

And yet, in another instant, all the colors, mixed into white, receded back into the black key, leaving the wall as black as night.

The boy withdrew the keys, returning the wall to its original state.

“Balance,” he said, holding white key and black key side by side.

“They are the same,” he concluded at last, taking her hand. “We are the same. Do not be afraid.”

One day, she remembered these words, and stepped without hesitation into the darkness.

Comments

[frostfromfire.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was beautiful. I love the fairytale narration you use here. The white and black symbolism that you use to convey a sense of balance was perfect. I also like the sense that Namine's understanding of his darkness is what lets her overcome her fear.

[anthraxpretzels.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

Since KH2 has a lot to do with the in-between parts between light and darkness, I thought I'd have that sort of a take on this prompt.

[greedchan.livejournal.com]

This was.... real frigging cute. xD; I thought the crayons thing was really interesting -- though they're not truly different colors, would the white crayons confuse her?

Also I was like =O when I realized who it was with her. Usually I'm really bad at figuring it out. xD

[anthraxpretzels.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot!

Haha, I hope I didn't make it super-vague D:

[demishock.livejournal.com]

This is lovely. Very good pacing, and I love the progression of how she learns a little more about colors the more she works with them and the more she sees them around her. The ending ties it all together nicely.

[anthraxpretzels.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the feedback. I really wanted to tie Namine's thought process to colors, and so I took the prompt to mean discussion of the colors themselves and what they could represent :D

[tabitha-dornoc.livejournal.com]

I like your colour analysing and fairytale themes, but eiee, your ending is my favourite. We are the same. Do not be afraid. Niiiice. <3

[anthraxpretzels.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the feedback :)

I'm kind of a fairy tale geek, and KH has a great universe to play with XD