Post by Queen of Hearts on May 20, 2010 11:38:58 GMT -5
Like the grasp of a ghostly hand, the thick mist encircled the bared feet, mischievously keeping the hazards and pitfalls that lie beneath hidden from eyes the color of the sunset's warm hues, flickering through reds, oranges, and yellows at their own pace; while the female that owned them bruised and bloodied her feet upon the treacherous ground.
Even as her battered knees once more met the sharp rocks, her mind was trying to tell her that this was the sum total of her existence, she had always been here wandering, stumbling, falling while some small stubborn part held on to a hint of rhyme repeated over and over. ...must claim the fire lest it become her pyre...
She thought maybe she had spoken it out loud, sometimes mumbled like the old aunties of the village. Village? What village? No answer and the spark of memory faded and the rhyme took its place, an endless loop of the chant fragment cycling through, preventing other thought, like the Why am I here? that occasionally surfaced.
There had been a dozen a hundred? times that the girl could have sworn she heard a noise to the side or back? Front? as if someone was with her in this gloom following her? herding? though she never saw anything she could rely on for certain. Movements from the corner of your eye, shadows moving wrongly, an exhaled breath where there was no life. Life.. give your life for your people.. Even as the thought swam through her head, the questions chased it. People, what people? Who..?
But it was gone and she was alone in her head again, trudging along through the mud hadn't there just been rocks? buried up to her knees. Something in the muck nibbled at toes as they squelched through the bog, weary face lifting to the horizon and seeing nothing but more of the same swamp, it had always been swamp, no light, no fire ..must claim the fire.. no warmth here for the cold, shivering female.
There was only the brown gray of the bog as far as the eye could see, excepting Pyrrha yes, this was her name! who was clothed in a dress that had originally been made to blend the colors of her element fire, she was attuned to flames by a long process of dipping into vats of different plant dyes. For a brief moment, the image was crisp within her mind, then the edges began to fade and all the girl could see was a vague memory of color.
And the swamp, the endless swamp.. Something moved on a tuft of brown grass, it seemed a vulture to apathetic eyes ..thought nothing lived here.. then seemed to shift into a mouse, then nothing was there. The mystery held her attention for a brief wonder, then vanished under the weight of the task what task? she should be focusing on. Searching, she was searching for what? for the fire what fire? that contained something what? that she needed .
And then she saw it, a glow ahead of her, down the smoothly cobbled streets of the city what happened to the swamp? still devoid of life which no longer seemed strange to the woman and suddenly she was running, a panicked rush to grab the light before it faded from view. It danced away from her keeping a taunting distance as the branches and brambles of the forest forest? tore at her dress and skin, ribbons of fabric and blood trailing down as she hurried.
Suddenly she was flat on her face, the snap of bone resonating in her ears as the pain blossomed up from her leg accompanied by a shriek that seemed to come from somewhere other than her cracked and bleeding lips. For a few moments hours? she lay there weeping, before something slithered across her shoulders and she flailed at... nothing, there was nothing there but now she could see the bone poking through her leg at its awkward angle.
Pyr felt her resolve at last bow under, crushed by the exhaustion, hunger, pain. The girl looked up to where the flame had been, was still, hovering the same distance away disdaining her pathetic efforts to retrieve it. She stared at it, so close, and so far away and all at once fury like she'd never felt before effloresced, exploding within and she willed that fire to be in her hands.
And it was, she staring in wonder at the flame swirling in her open palm as she half-lay against a tree. In wonder first and then horror as it licked at her palm and then began to spread up her arm. She batted at it frantically trying to push it away, to stop it but it was now on her other hand and crawling up, leaving bubbling flesh and that sickly-sweet smell behind it. As it overtook her face, she thought once of the people she had failed once again again..but this was the first time..? until the pain became too much and she fell into the blackness of coma to escape.
Looking at the haze that swirled around her raw, bloody feet, she tried to see through it, tried to watch for the next peril that lay hidden beneath it, cursing the rocks where was the forest? that bit eagerly at her shoeless soles. She had always been here with these rocks there had been a city..? stumbling trying to find something.. what? something that would help ..it become her pyre..
Even as her battered knees once more met the sharp rocks, her mind was trying to tell her that this was the sum total of her existence, she had always been here wandering, stumbling, falling while some small stubborn part held on to a hint of rhyme repeated over and over. ...must claim the fire lest it become her pyre...
She thought maybe she had spoken it out loud, sometimes mumbled like the old aunties of the village. Village? What village? No answer and the spark of memory faded and the rhyme took its place, an endless loop of the chant fragment cycling through, preventing other thought, like the Why am I here? that occasionally surfaced.
There had been a dozen a hundred? times that the girl could have sworn she heard a noise to the side or back? Front? as if someone was with her in this gloom following her? herding? though she never saw anything she could rely on for certain. Movements from the corner of your eye, shadows moving wrongly, an exhaled breath where there was no life. Life.. give your life for your people.. Even as the thought swam through her head, the questions chased it. People, what people? Who..?
But it was gone and she was alone in her head again, trudging along through the mud hadn't there just been rocks? buried up to her knees. Something in the muck nibbled at toes as they squelched through the bog, weary face lifting to the horizon and seeing nothing but more of the same swamp, it had always been swamp, no light, no fire ..must claim the fire.. no warmth here for the cold, shivering female.
There was only the brown gray of the bog as far as the eye could see, excepting Pyrrha yes, this was her name! who was clothed in a dress that had originally been made to blend the colors of her element fire, she was attuned to flames by a long process of dipping into vats of different plant dyes. For a brief moment, the image was crisp within her mind, then the edges began to fade and all the girl could see was a vague memory of color.
And the swamp, the endless swamp.. Something moved on a tuft of brown grass, it seemed a vulture to apathetic eyes ..thought nothing lived here.. then seemed to shift into a mouse, then nothing was there. The mystery held her attention for a brief wonder, then vanished under the weight of the task what task? she should be focusing on. Searching, she was searching for what? for the fire what fire? that contained something what? that she needed .
And then she saw it, a glow ahead of her, down the smoothly cobbled streets of the city what happened to the swamp? still devoid of life which no longer seemed strange to the woman and suddenly she was running, a panicked rush to grab the light before it faded from view. It danced away from her keeping a taunting distance as the branches and brambles of the forest forest? tore at her dress and skin, ribbons of fabric and blood trailing down as she hurried.
Suddenly she was flat on her face, the snap of bone resonating in her ears as the pain blossomed up from her leg accompanied by a shriek that seemed to come from somewhere other than her cracked and bleeding lips. For a few moments hours? she lay there weeping, before something slithered across her shoulders and she flailed at... nothing, there was nothing there but now she could see the bone poking through her leg at its awkward angle.
Pyr felt her resolve at last bow under, crushed by the exhaustion, hunger, pain. The girl looked up to where the flame had been, was still, hovering the same distance away disdaining her pathetic efforts to retrieve it. She stared at it, so close, and so far away and all at once fury like she'd never felt before effloresced, exploding within and she willed that fire to be in her hands.
And it was, she staring in wonder at the flame swirling in her open palm as she half-lay against a tree. In wonder first and then horror as it licked at her palm and then began to spread up her arm. She batted at it frantically trying to push it away, to stop it but it was now on her other hand and crawling up, leaving bubbling flesh and that sickly-sweet smell behind it. As it overtook her face, she thought once of the people she had failed once again again..but this was the first time..? until the pain became too much and she fell into the blackness of coma to escape.
Looking at the haze that swirled around her raw, bloody feet, she tried to see through it, tried to watch for the next peril that lay hidden beneath it, cursing the rocks where was the forest? that bit eagerly at her shoeless soles. She had always been here with these rocks there had been a city..? stumbling trying to find something.. what? something that would help ..it become her pyre..