Empress

It all started when the sky, muted tones of powder blue and dusty grey, turned dark and dreary in the morning, an hour of pastel pinks and streaks of orange. Ponderous inky clouds lumbered into the skyline like stubborn stains. And the sea, she started to roil, a bubbling heaving mass of deep blue, as waves crashed ashore with destruction in mind. Each wave seemed bigger than the last as it receded into its fortress of salt and sand, only to come back larger and higher. The sea is truly a feisty lover – warm, gentle caresses some days and cold, menacing threats the other; a cradle of life some days and the bringer of death others. Today she chose annihilation.

Soon enough, she towered the little beach, staring at the minute ant-like figures before slamming into them with all her might. The ants began to scurry away soon enough as she continued to ram into the sand, frothing violently as she did. The depths of the unknown were stirred and spat up to the surface, coiling and hissing, writhing furiously; building up only to collapse onto the beach with a thunderous clap

Near the horizon, a wall started to build, baleful and forbidding, approaching the little town with alarming speed, a solid mass of water harbouring death under its huge white cap.

She could give birth to life just as easily as she could reap souls, but this time she chose the latter. Who would’ve known that she, lying calm and serene would unleash such devastation in wrath? Who would’ve known that she, tranquil like a millpond, would stir up such a storm? Who would’ve known that she would declare herself empress – paramount, boundless and absolute – claiming all land as her own? Feisty as she was, she chose a raging tempest over zephyr because she is power, she is supreme and her reign had just begun.