Maryam Al Hammadi is back with us with a brand new post titled “Skin of Glass” We hope you enjoy it ^^

Saraye’s hair glinted in the moonlight, green and rich and growing from a scalp of glass. She had chosen this clearing for its distance from prying eyes: eyes that belonged to nymphs who claimed they wanted nothing to do with her. All around, the trees stood as thick and dark as they have done for thousands of years before. Blades of grass tickled her feet as she moved to the middle of the clearing and lifted her face to stare at the moon.

The faint lunar rays turned white and bright where Saraye’s arms and cheeks reflected them, hot enough to fry a potato. She allowed herself this single freedom once a month, when he moon was full: the freedom to let the moonlight touch her body of glass.

Saraye shivered in her dress, one she had sewn with petals of the Flower of Dawn, threaded with grass blades and pine needles. The moon echoed the sun’s light; Saraye echoed the moon. Its light shimmered on her wrists, ran through her veins, and, although she could not see it, turned her eyes a fiery shade of orange. When Saraye felt her hunger satisfied, she was careful to creep back into the shadows and lean her body against a bark of tree, gently, gently.

She stared at the swaying canopy of leaves overhead. It was the same colour as he hair, thick enough to drown out the light of the sun the next morning. Saraye had to get out of here and back to her cave, but the bark smelled of pine and moss and her mother. All the fire was out of her eyes now, and as she closed them, she could also smell dreams, dreams and promises cut in half

Author: Maryam Al Hammadi