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Post by monarian on Nov 8, 2023 4:44:14 GMT -5
Two It was raining softly, winter rains but it always rained here and it was late. I stood statue silent in the deep shadows of the square watching, unmoving, still as the stone buildings around me. The rain trickled slowly down my cheeks in cold rivulets. Like the tears I could never shed. It was fitting that they both blessed me this night with this small gift. It was raining and then it was not. What I has so patiently been waiting for had come to pass. The clouds parted slyly revealing the half crescent Selune coyly shining through the charcoal wisps of the heavy rain clouds. Shadow soft I slipped to the small garden tucked tightly between benches. This was perfect spot. One final wary glance, there would be no interruptions. I knelt down pressing my hands firmly, deeply into the cold congealed earth scooping away great handfuls of frigid gelatinous muck. For how long I do not know. My hands ached with the numbing chill of the wet earth while beads of sweat dribbled down my face It was raining again and I knew that now was the right moment, the right time. My hand caressed the silken smoothness of the tiny wooden box and with a heavy reverence I lowered the makeshift casket slowly, deep into the silent waiting earth. A man, a dwarf had given me this lump of flesh unbidden and unasked. My ladies move in strange ways. I had contemplated this matter of burial for a long time, my hands shovelling the disturbed earth back masking this nights excavation. Both would be pleased; Rest now forever A flower garden surround Trapped now in stone Sleep forever now Music playing to listen Drown out by the noise
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Two
Nov 26, 2023 7:56:01 GMT -5
Post by monarian on Nov 26, 2023 7:56:01 GMT -5
Five Sometimes you are meant to find a thing and sometimes you are not. The beast-man, massive brutish but slow of wit and movement had it strung around its neck. A necklace that was nearly absorbed into the flabby folds of its flesh. The grim work was a collection of atrophied dried finger-bones. Grisly trophies of its past victories. I knelt and wrenched the necklace off its cooling corpse dangling the ghoulish jewellery from the tips of my fingers. There were not many bones in the piece, five. One might even say a handful. Each fragment of bone was drilled and strung together by a haggard dirty leather thong. Five living, now dead, five stories once known and now lost. Some would sell such a thing for what ever coins were offered. Some would leave it were it was found and some perhaps would even bury the necklace. None felt right to me. I would not profit by selling nor casually abandon the necklace. To bury all five together also felt wrong. They may have never known one another , they may have despised each other. No I would ask each for their tale.
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Two
Feb 27, 2024 8:12:18 GMT -5
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Post by monarian on Feb 27, 2024 8:12:18 GMT -5
I am standing in a vast featureless plain. There is no light only grey. It is raining but its a soft gentle rain, calming soothing. There is no wind, no noise except the soft patter of the rain drops. Here the rain rises from the earth and falls from the sky in a constant motion of moisture. There is the scent of something in the air sharp acrid unsettling. With a sudden flash of electric-blue light I am elsewhere.
I stand in a village, it is raining, a chill bitter driving rain who’s droplets strike hard stinging me. It is chaos here, people running, people screaming and everywhere there is flame. The iron scent of blood hangs heavy cloying in the night’s sweet air. I am screaming too. The sky splits apart by a jagged flash of lightening.
I am on the featureless plain once more. Why am I screaming, it is peaceful here. I shouldn't scream, its noisy, not at all polite. The sounds of my anguish slink away from me crawling away into the vast plain. My throat hurts, I can taste blood in my mouth, My cries are little more than a hoarse croaking whisper. Why am I screaming still? There is once more the soft flash as the gentle rains manages another bolt of lightening.
I am knelling shivering in the cold stinking mud. Across the village square I see her. My sister shining silvery bright, dancing as if carried by the wind. My she is perfection, the embodiment of the goddess, laughing with joy. With each flash of her sword a bandit falls. But there are so many and she is but one. With each beat of my heart thin lines of black appear marring her silvery perfection. Now her steps become slow labouring, halting. Each new bandit taxes her, saps my sisters strength. The mud claws at her feet grasping them with its unrelenting cold malevolence. She twists slips and from her erupts a spray of black. Her luminosity ebbs and fades away. My sisters pain lances through me a cold dark jagged agony. I feel her heart slow, taste the blood in my mouth hear the rattled gasp Mercifully I slump to one side slipping into the cloying fridge mud numb to the world
Once more I exists on the grey plain. My body shivers slightly as the calming soothing rain washes over me. Here there is no fires, no smoke, no shrieking cries, no violence only the ever present rain swilling about. This is a diaphanous cotton grey enveloping peace that gracefully, slowly leeches away all my feelings. Quiescence, serene, tranquil all slithering worming there way deep inside me replacing everything leaving only a calm dispassionate numb emptiness of being.
“No.”
For the briefest of moments the rain shimmers.
“No?”
“I can not stay here, my sister.” The words die in my throat as a shuddering sob crawls its way out from my throat.
“Do you wish to return?”
“No,”
The rain arrested its relentless downpour for the briefest of moments then resumes as a rhythmic pulsating wave that slowly ebbs away.
“You will not stay, nor will you return. If you stay I will take away all of your pain, all the hurt , all anguish felt. If you return they will be yours once more. I will return what is yours by right back to you. Is this what you desire?”
“No, no my sist...” Even here, even now my mouth failed to form the words. The sounds of my voice washed away by the relentless rain. I stood silent stoical a sentinel for a moment, a day a year?
At last;
“I understand, I too have a sister who once was all and is no longer part of me.” “Serve me here and serve me there and I shall return your sister back to you. Look for her, she will be the first thing you see.”
“YES!. Yes, anything. I will do anything, I will serve.”
There was flash of lightening as I rolled to one side gasping in the cold fetid mud. There was absolute silence now, the storm abated. Thick cloying smoke lingered, creeping over everything. The smell of blood, of death enveloped me. My throat felt ragged wet stinging, my legs sticky with blood. I lay back eyes closed enduring the deep burning pain of the right side of my body. My hand clutched at something hard, something cold, something heavy. Its chill touch calmed the fierce waves of torment arcing through me. My hand pried up the weighty object drawing it closer. In the darkness a quick flash of steel reflected the smouldering fires and two dark eyes staring back.
Mine? I paused staring at the image of eyes staring back. Tears welled up, Hers. Ours.
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