k_a_webb | October Prompted Fiction: Fae School Collection: Island Whales: 511 words (Reply)

Written for forgottenspirits' picture prompt.

There have been stories, ever since the entry of the fae into our world, of islands that have appeared out of nowhere before disappearing just as suddenly. Humans have been searching for a meaning for them and if they'd asked the fae it would have been much easier, although the fae had no idea that the whales had managed to follow them. Of course, what the fae don't know is that the whales only followed them because they wanted to. For millenia the whales have been travelling through undersea portals, finding worlds with some form of magic and enjoying the feel of new seas.

You will know one of these whales if you see one. Normally the only thing you'll actually see is the appearance of several trees and a couple of hills in the middle of the sea, but that is one of the whales. After a minute or two they'll disappeared beneath the waves again. If you're lucky enough to see more of the whale then it will look like any other whale, apart from the tiny island on its back. Occasionally you might even see a school of these whales, and that really is a sight. Once or twice a sailor has actually believed that the whales are really an island, but in the end they will disappear under the sea, taking with them the trees and hills that the sailor believed was an island.

One thing it is important to know when you see one of these whales is that they are actually inhabited. I know this may be hard to believe, but it's a part of the magic of the whales. Each whale will be home to a different type of miniature fae. Most of these types have never been heard of before on Earth and won't be heard of again after the whales move on. All of them have a form of magic, much like the magic of the mermaids, that allows them to breath both underwater and over water. It's also important to know that these colonies are all fighting each other. The reason for this war: some whales have better islands than others and every one of these colonies wants to live on the best whales. They want to be able to live the easy life, which, of course, isn't possible while they're all fighting each other. Unfortunately they don't seem to have worked that out yet, so they continue fighting in order to live on the best whales.

All of the whales know that they have small fighting fae living in their islands but none of them really care. It's too much effort to care, so they don't try to stay away from other whales. There's no reason for them to. So you will often find in schools of whales that there is a huge battle going on, and I assure you that you don't want to get into the middle of it because it is a battle of magic and poison. My advice: keep away from the whales. It's much safer.

© K A Jones 2011