Doris and the 3 Fates

In a dark, dank cave at the edge of time, live 3 sisters. The maid, the mother and the crone who decide the fates of all gods and men. The 3 sisters spin a thread that begins each life. They manipulate the thread influencing decisions. They cut the threads at the time of death. Their decisions are final.

"I'm bored" sighed Clotho, the youngest fate, as she spun rainbow threads into the birth of a sun.

"Remember what happened last time you were bored. " Snickered Lachesis as she braided a thin string of lost patience.

"There was a war and a hero." Giggled Clotho. "it was so romantic!"

"You mooned over that hero for centuries." Complained Lachesis.

"Oh but what a hero, eyes of a hawk, hair of spun gold, broad shoulders and hips." Clotho cheeks turned red

"Oh hush you two! No use mooning over a dead hero, like milkmaids." Grumbled Athropis, as her bony hands snipped, a red glowing thread, ending many livies.

"Achilles was no ordinary hero!" Cried Clotho, as she set a new born sun, at the edge of a black hole.

"No he was not! Are there no heros since the ancient Greeks?" Demanded Athropis. She snipped several crimson, aqua, amber threads watched them fade to ash and die.

"Just work, spin weave cut repeat, no fun, no heros, no romance, even the gods sleep." Complained Clotho.

"Ladies that was centuries ago! Maybe a little joke. What use is it to waste all our power over life and death." Stated Lachesis.

"What do you suggest? Asked Athropis.

"Earth? Suggested Clotho, "3 wishes."

A moral decision?" Suggested Lachosis.

"A woman, I won't have you mooning over a Greek hero for centuries. Commanded Atropos.

Clotho spun the thread. Lachosis braided the thread. A female child was born on planet earth.

Ocean waves caressed the shore. Silver diamonds sparkled, dancing on the surf. A bundle of aqua and crimson lay in the sand. Squaking seabirds peeked at it. A lone man stumbled, balancing himself with a cane of driftwood. He approached the bundle, scattering seabirds.

"What gift is this, the sea gives me today?" Smiling he poked the bundle, with his cane. Small pale arms waved, the bundle rocked, the bundle screamed.

"Oh it's alive! Not gold or silver or even a meal but a gift from the sea. It is not wise to refuse a gift from the gods."

Unsteady, balancing himself with his cane, he strapped the protesting infant to his chest.

'There there now you noisy creature, I'll take you home to my wife."

He leaned down and entered the driftwood hut, where he and his wife lived. His wife leaned over the cooking fire. Her long black hair unbound glowed in the firelight. She added wild herbs to a fish stew. The infant cooed.

"Halie see what I brought you," He cautiously told his wife. "A gift from the sea."

She stirred the stew. " What is it this time? A shell, a rock, a piece of wood for the fire?"

He pinched the infant it giggled. "No this is a gift from the sea. It is not for the fire." He answered. He handed the babe to his wife.

Halie took the infant. She unwrapped the cooing bundle. She cuddled the infant, tears flowed.

"It's a girl. A healthy child. She wears a silver necklace 2 crescent moons surrond a full moon. What dose it mean?" Crying she cuddled the infant. " I'll name her Doris. Zale get me a goat, she needs milk."

Zale smiling left the hut in search of a nanny goat.

Doris was a mystery wrapped in an enigma. If Halie looked away for a second, Doris quick as a dragonfly was in the sea. When her parents searched for her dead lifeless body, sure she drowned, she would return riding on a dolphin. Doris would sit in the sand for hours, singing to seabirds. She waved at the moon, giggled at the sun and played with hermit crabs. In the village, wide eyed and quiet, she hid behind her parent's legs, thumb in mouth, she crept, never looking anyone in the face. Only in the firelight, at storytime did she gaze into the eyes of the storyteller. She listened until sleep took her to dreamland.

Years passed she grew into a young woman. Her long flowing hair, glowed like copper in the sun. Her eyes teased with the depth of the ocean. She was not beautiful, but her body glided like a soaring bird on an air current. Men were enchanted. Rumors of her grace spread. When she sang in the village at night, all sorrows ceased.

Zale sat in his hut, by the fire, stroking his long grey beard. "Doris do you have a sweetheart?"

Halie, "what kind of question is that?"

"One that must be asked?" He sighed.

Doris served her parents fish stew. "Yes the sunkissed beach after a spring rain. The moon spreading diamonds on the sea. Crickets singing, owls hooting, dolphins playing. The smell of roasting fish. There are many things sweet to my heart."

"Yes but is there a man sweet to your heart?"

"No I know little of men, except they look at me strangely. "

Halie appraised her daughter. "Dose anyone wish to marry her?"

"Marry! Why would I marry?"

"No man or god, not yet but soon."

"Greetings" interrupted a giggling female voice, from outside the hut.

A guest? In all the years Doris lived in the hut no one visited.

"Shoo" she signaled to her parents. She looked outside the hut, the new moon shed no light. The stars cast no shadows.

"Greetings are you ignoring me?"

Doris stepped out into the night. She smelt floral perfume. All she could see was an outline of a tall person with a walking stick.

"Hello are you lost?" Stammered Doris.

"Could you help me. I'm searching for a sunken ship."

"There are 2 sunken ships, but there at the bottom of the sea.

"No problem, just point the way."

Zale "Doris take this goddess to the ship." He bowed to the dark woman." Please excuse my daughter's manners. " He humbly spoke.

Doris lead the odd woman to the edge of the sea. She gave directions in the language of the dolphins.

The woman understand. She opened Doris's hand and placed a light the color of a maiden's first kiss on her palm. "I grant you 3 wishes use them wisely." The woman turned into a dolphin and leaped into the sea.

Doris sprinted to the driftwood hut. She told her parents what happened.

Halie hugged herself rocking. "A goddess here! Why would an immortal be here? "

Zale shaking "an immortal will do as she pleases. "

Doris starred at her hand. It looked the same, she felt the same. "A goddess granted 3 wishes?"

Doris woke up to screams. Thick smoke filled the air. Yellow flames danced in the sky. Doris slapped her parents. "Wake up! Wake up now!"

"No no no raiders, run Doris hide," Halie ordered.

"Come with me." Doris begged.

Zale "leave us, save yourself, we're to old to run." He shoved her out the door.

Doris fell to the ground shaking. Her body froze like a statue refusing to move. A raider picked her up. Foul decayed breath caused her to gage. Steel hands enclosed her wrist. He set her home on fire. She heard her parents screaming. The raider knocked her out.

Day dawned like any other day. Sun warmed the golden sand. Surf lapped the shore. Birds feasted. The smell of smoke lingered. Doris woke up in a pile of bodies, stacked like firewood. She heard strange male voices. Women wailed, dogs barked. She forced her eyes open. Smoke lazily drifted over burning embers, the remains of huts. Dead bodies littered the ground. Strange men carrying swords and spears poked thru the ashes.

"Not much here" grumbled a deep male voice, "load the ship."

The maidens, some young boys, a pair of goats and a hog were loaded onto a wooden ship. The men rowed the ship away from shore.

Doris watched her home disappear. The reek of sweat and fish invaded her nose. Filth covered her body. A man grabbed her. He stroked her copper hair, rubbed her neck. She slapped him. He smiled reveling rotted teeth. He tried to kiss her.

"No no no, get your hands off me." Screamed Doris. The man grabbed her waist, he licked her lips. Doris shook, wiggled tried to jump off the ship. It was in vain, the man to strong.

The immortal, the wish, she cursed. "Grant me revenge, sink this ship."

A volt of lightning out of a clear blue sky, struck the ship. The ship split into pieces and sank. The men weighed down by armour drowned. The hog and goats swam to shore. The maidens tried together with ropes were drowning.

Doris cast her second wish. "Save the maidens please."

A trumpet wailed. A rainbow glow encircled the maidens. Their legs and feet shivered and shook. The maidens grew gills, they breathed salt water. They grew fish tales and fish scales. They swam like fish.

Doris starred at the maidens. What had she done? They were alive but was it worth it? What were they? They had heads and arms with fish bodies. The music faded. The glow disappeared. The maiden fish moaned.

Doris swam to her home. Nothing remained, but smoke, ash and death. With a fish tail she could not bury her parents. She pounded the sand and screamed in vain. The only reply bird song. The fishy maidens surrounded her.

"I want revenge. Grant me my third wish. Grant me the power to destroy men. '

On the shore, the 3 fates waved a string and a walking stick. They chanted. "Your wish is honored. We the fates grant you enchanted voices, to lure men to their death."

To this day, Doris and her maidens live in the sea. They set traps and wait for ships. They sing to sailors, giving them immense joy, until their ship crash on rocks and sink.