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| Vale of the White Horse | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 5 Jan 2010, 13:03 (19,343 Views) | |
| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 17:39 Post #1831 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'It didn't feel right,' he shrugged, 'so half way I turned back. I followed your tracks, first to that cave and then to Two Lakes. Looks like I was just in time...' He didn't ask exactly what they had been doing. It was clear it pained the girl so he'd drag the story out of Morcant. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 17:45 Post #1832 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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'...I'm glad to see your face.' She drank the tea. It burned her mouth. It was also wonderful. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 17:46 Post #1833 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'I'm not so glad to see yours,' he admitted, 'because I'd hoped that by now you'd be back home, safe.' Cuhelyn shook his head. 'You go get some shut-eye after your tea. I'll bring you to the caer tomorrow.' |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 17:52 Post #1834 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She emptied the cup silently. By the time the last drop was gone, she had ceased trembling. But sleep, after this? She remembered the last dream: all frozen, staring faces, accusing her. Had it come true? How many lives had the ice taken today? Putting the cup down, she stood up gingerly. The blanket fell over her shoulders to the ground, covering her whole body but her face like a king's robe. 'Thank you, Cuhelyn.' Essylt took his one hand in both of hers, pressing it to her lips briefly. 'I'll remember this.' She turned around, finding a place just within earshot. With her back to them, she could pretend to sleep, at least. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 17:57 Post #1835 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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When Essylt had gone off a distance, Cuhelyn turned on Morcant, his eyes burning. 'You owe me an explanation,' he said with a quiet hurt in his voice Morcant hated to hear. 'I do.' 'Well, let's have it.' He shrugged his shoulders. 'I thought I could rid our land the Romans without any more casualties.' 'Without casualties?' Cuhelyn was struggling to keep his voice down. 'Essylt nearly died, or were you too blinded by hate to see that?' 'You hate the Romans as much as I do,' Morcant growled in answer. 'At least I do not risk innocent lives for it.' |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 18:01 Post #1836 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She lay still, staring into the darkening sky. Behind her, she could hear the sparks flaring up into the dusk. Morcant sounded closed off. She could just imagine how his face must look like, perhaps distorted into a demon’s face by the shadows and highlights of the fire. After that one brief glance, she had not looked at him anymore. She had tried to pretend he wasn’t there at all, and he hadn’t forced his presence on her by talking to her. She was not sure what she felt, or what she ought to feel. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 18:10 Post #1837 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'I get your point, all right! Stop pressing it.' 'Like hell I will.' Cuhelyn crossed his arms and looked at Morcant. 'Just tell my why. Why her? She's hardly more than a child!' Morcant stared off into the fire. 'I didn't want you or any of my brothers to die in a futile battle, and I'd seen what she can do. You've seen it, too!' 'That's no solid reason, Morcant. You had no right.' His friend was silent for a long time, his face as closed as he'd ever seen it. 'I know,' he admitted. 'And I know that she'll probably never be able to forgive me.' |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 18:13 Post #1838 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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There it was again. That word that had seemed so important to him before. Essylt tasted blood on her tongue. Her lip was probably bleeding again. ‘I’m not a child,’ she whispered, so softly that they would never hear it. After this, she was nothing like a child anymore. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 18:19 Post #1839 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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Cuhelyn shook his head. 'You've disappointed me, but I'm guessing you disappointed yourself even more.' He wasn't the man to bear grudges, and he found it hard to keep being as angry as he was half an hour ago. It didn't mean he'd already forgiven Morcant, but... 'You'll stay here when I bring her back tomorrow. Then we're going back to try and explain this whole mess to Gwyddien.' 'She doesn't want to go back.' '...What?' Morcant turned around to look at him. 'She made me promise that I would take her a place faraway, where no one would be able to find her.' Cuhelyn grunted. 'We'll see about that tomorrow. I'm going to sleep.' He still felt faintly disgusted with the situation. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 18:26 Post #1840 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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Yes, she had. That was before she had fully realized just how dreadful this whole ordeal would make her feel. Now she knew it, now she felt it. Perhaps she should just return with Cuhelyn, to embrace her family at last and remain forever silent on this subject. The Romans, no doubt, would investigate, but who’d link such an uncanny natural phenomenon to the young, delicate daughter of Two Lakes’ chieftain? But then how could she never speak of this? The nightmares wouldn’t stop; there was a reason she hardly dared to shut her eyes now. And it would be a matter of time before the powers leaked out of her body. Then there was the matter of the brown haired girl and the standing stone. The monster she’d seen, erupting from a white mare. And, irrevocably, undeniably…Morcant, drowning while she hung suspended and helpless in the air. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 18:34 Post #1841 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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Cuhelyn was fast asleep - or pretended to be - but Morcant sat, still staring into the flames. He didn't have the strength to keep his shoulders up or his face as impassive as he was used to. Everything had crumbled, falling down around his ears. And what had he accomplished? Destruction, yes: but not of the Romans. He shook his head and heaved a sigh, hating himself and his misplaced ideals. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 18:38 Post #1842 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She heard one of them breathing in the rythm of sleep now. The other must still be awake. Even in the darkness, it wasn't hard to tell who. Essylt shifted, using the firelight to distinguish a sitting form. The dark shape of his body looked beaten, defeated. Not at all proud or shut off from the rest of the world. He wouldn't be able to see her face clearly, so she kept her eyes open, looking at him from her silent shadows. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 18:43 Post #1843 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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Morcant took a little twig from the fire and twirled it around between his fingers, following the streak of light the burning end of it made through the night-air with his eyes. It would perhaps be better to just disappear now, while they were asleep. He was a strong man, he could take out at least five or six Romans before they killed him. He took a long shuddering breath. His eyes stung uncomfortably and he threw the twig back into the fire. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 18:48 Post #1844 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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He trailed the spark through the air like a firefly and she heard his breath leave him as quivering as a tightly strung bowstring. Perhaps he didn’t dare to sleep, like herself. Perhaps what was pressing his shoulders down so low was not bitter defeat but guilt. Perhaps they were not so different right now, between the dark night sky and the small fire. She stirred, then stopped herself. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 18:55 Post #1845 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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He didn't know when the tears had started rolling down his cheek, but he preferred to ignore them either way. Something stirred behind him, but he didn't care to look over his shoulder. He could only sit and stare at the fire and the wood being consumed by it. It felt much like the smoldering remains of his dignity. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 19:04 Post #1846 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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Everytime she had woken from a nightmare, his arms had found a way around her. And though she thought it was not right for a man like him to hold a girl like herself in such a way, she had never found room in her desperate thoughts to resist them. He had rough hands, but he had always been gentle when he wasn’t swallowed up by the fire of inspiration that drove him to these wild things. Essylt freed herself from her blanket and crouched to his sitting form. Cuhelyn didn’t shift and neither did he, so she assumed that her tread was like the silent wings of her owl. Lightly she brushed her fingertips over his shoulders from behind, cautiously embracing his back the way the wind caresses a flower. ‘I know,’ she said quietly, ‘that you wanted to do something good.’ |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 19:12 Post #1847 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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His shoulder tensed, and for long moments he couldn't speak. Her touch was like a cool shower of rain on his skin, but he felt like he didn't deserve it's comfort. 'It was disaster,' he croaked. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 19:34 Post #1848 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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There was no need for her to agree out loud, so she was simply silent for a while, feeling his hard muscles under her butterfly touch. 'Tell me what you're feeling right now.' Because she needed to know. If he was only disappointed in her, she'd leave with Cuhelyn and forget he had ever existed. If he was in pain, perhaps she could try to relate to him. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 19:36 Post #1849 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'Not worthy of your company,' he said, vainly attempting to stem the flow of his tears. It was like she had broken a dam in him. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 19:43 Post #1850 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She could not truly say that she was sorry. She could not so lightly dismiss the cruelty he’d shown her. He had meant only the good things, she understood that. There was a glint in his eyes that wasn’t caused by the deceptive firelight. Yet the spell of ice had nearly shattered her body in halfs and he had pressed her hands in the soil, hissing in her ear the worst things to make her continue. Mutely, she remained the way she sat: holding him, touching the close air around him and yet barely touching his skin at all. ‘Breathe,’ she told him, her own voice not quite steady. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 19:48 Post #1851 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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He was breathing, but he might as well stop that all together. The world wouldn't miss him if he'd serve as food for Arawn's dogs. 'I shouldn't have said those things,' he finally found the heart to say. 'I didn't know what came over me...' He wanted to reach up and put his hand over hers, but he was afraid that he might break whatever spell had possessed her to come to him. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 19:54 Post #1852 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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‘You. You’re crying.’ |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 19:55 Post #1853 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'Yes,' he admitted, 'I am.' Shouldn't he, after all he'd done today? Weren't those tears the only thing that made him human, instead of the monster he'd become the past few days? |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 19:59 Post #1854 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She let her hands move down from his shoulders to his arms. He wouldn’t see her face very well, unless he’d turn his head around. She liked how the shadows hid her from his full view, because she wasn’t sure what her face would show him. ‘‘Don’t go to sleep tonight,’ she whispered. ‘I want you to stay awake with me and feel how inescapable the things we’ve done are.’ |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 20:08 Post #1855 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'I couldn't sleep if I wanted to,' he said, realizing she was in the same situation - and that it was his fault. Little shivers ran down his spine as her hands trailed down his arms. It felt like a blessing he didn't deserve. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 20:09 Post #1856 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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'But if I fall asleep, you must hold on to me and see what I’m seeing,' she continued, hardly heeding his reply. 'Feel the dreams I’m dreaming then.' |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 20:11 Post #1857 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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The tears had finally stopped rolling down his face and he found it a little easier to breath. He still felt like a pile of horse's shit, though. 'You'll have to come sit next to me if I am, then,' he said quietly. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 20:16 Post #1858 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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Essylt let him go, moving forward to take a place beside him. The fire was burning hotter here, breathing a blush on her face. Forcing hom to wake with her was selfish and telling him to share her dreams was a little cruel but she needed both. |
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| Sonja | 27 Apr 2010, 20:19 Post #1859 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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He had promised himself he would make it up to her afterwards, and this was the start of a road that would be long and difficult to take. But it felt like retribution, and retribution was good. He wanted to tell her he was sorry every minute of every day for the rest of his life, but he was afraid she might just consider it empty words. So Morcant kept his mouth shut and damned fate in silence. |
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| Marieke | 27 Apr 2010, 20:24 Post #1860 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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Silence. Essylt wasn’t certain this was a good thing this time. She longed for a balm on her wounds. ‘Talk,’ she said, not shifting her eyes from the flames. ‘I don’t care about what.’ |
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