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| Vale of the White Horse | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 5 Jan 2010, 13:03 (19,339 Views) | |
| Sonja | 30 Apr 2010, 18:50 Post #1951 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'I quite understand your situation my lady. I do hope that I might take as much burdens off of your shoulders as I can.' Rufus took the cup of mead that was offered to him by a servant and sipped it. 'There's also another matter that I'd like to discuss.' |
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| Marieke | 30 Apr 2010, 18:53 Post #1952 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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'No, I won't have more,' she muttered to the servant, placing a hand over her cup. It was barely past the breaking of the fast. She wouldn't be tempted into drinking with a Roman sitting beside her. She adressed him with another nod. 'Feel free to speak.' |
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| Sonja | 30 Apr 2010, 18:57 Post #1953 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'I will be absent for a couple of days. Probably a week, maybe a little more.' |
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| Marieke | 30 Apr 2010, 19:03 Post #1954 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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'Oh.' That was hardly as distressing as she had expected. The household could manage a week without him walking about, surely. She smiled again, politely this time. 'I take it you have duties elsewhere.' |
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| Sonja | 30 Apr 2010, 19:08 Post #1955 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'Indeed I do. Nothing pressing, but it is something that needs to be taken care of,' he said with a smile. 'I rather regret that I have to leave at such a time, but I'm afraid orders are orders, and I can't really ignore my superiors in Rome.' |
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| Marieke | 30 Apr 2010, 19:10 Post #1956 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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'I perfectly understand.' |
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| Sonja | 30 Apr 2010, 19:17 Post #1957 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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Rufus nodded his head and got up. 'Well, my lady, before I leave I shall give the necessary orders.' That wasn't much work. He only needed to give the word and everything was settled, as he'd taken the liberty to arrange everything in advance before talking with Briallen. He would have done this much anyway, whether she liked it or not. |
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| Marieke | 30 Apr 2010, 19:18 Post #1958 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She rose too. 'Good journey, my lord. I'll see you when you get back, I suppose.' |
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| Sonja | 30 Apr 2010, 19:20 Post #1959 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'My thanks,' he said, thinking that the minute he came back, he was going to attend to the severe lack of interest both ladies seemed to be displaying in him. 'Stay well, my lady.' Rufus bowed once more and turned on his heel. |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 18:54 Post #1960 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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‘Gwenllian,’ Briallen approached the other girl after she had secured the fact that Marcus Lentulus had left the caer, ‘I had a mind to go out riding today. Do you want to come along?’ She had a destination in mind, though she was not at all sure that she’d have the heart to approach that site on her own. ‘It might be a little foolish of me...I’d like your company.’ |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 19:00 Post #1961 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'Oh, of course I would,' Gwenllian said, smiling. She'd been getting less nervous about Higueid suddenly appearing with each passing day, and she wouldn't mind to be outside now that the weather still allowed it. It was a bit blustery today, with winds that weren't yet as strong as the autumn storms that would be picking up soon. She was also glad that she and Briallen could get along well. A friend had seemed an unobtainable luxury not long ago. |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 19:08 Post #1962 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She nodded. ‘I’ll have horses prepared for us.’ A while later, while her hair tossed about in the air despite her own efforts to plait it tightly in the nape of her neck, she rode close to Gwenllian past the settlement. ‘This is the Blowing Stone,’ she said. ‘I was warned not to blow through one of the many holes. Its sound is like music, but it parts the veils to Beyond, they said. And this must be our lady Epona.’ She steered her horse carefully around the chalk white lines that outlined the horse on the slope. ‘From Tudwrig’s window we have a magnificent view on it.’ When they came over the hill, the wind greeted her with the rustle of leaves and the scent of water. ‘There lies Wayland’s Smithy,’ she pointed, lifting herself out of the saddle for a moment. The cavern was scarcely visible, looming behind the trees like a treasure covered by a curtain of countless shades of green. Briallen felt like it was breathing into their direction, a silent, luring presence – inviting them to come nearer, to enter into the ancient depths and shadows of the stones. And whatever might lay beneath that. |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 19:19 Post #1963 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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Gwenllian looked at the Blowing Stone she'd heard so much about and which had been her initial goal. It was a peculiar stone, strangely appealing in its own way. She was frightfully curious how the music of the Stone would sound, but as she had heard the stories too, it seemed for the best to curb her curiosity. 'It's already amazing from where I'm standing,' she commented on Briallen's explanation of the white chalk horse. It had to be absolutely incomparable from up high. Then she gazed in the direction Briallen had pointed. The old stones of Wayland's Smithy seemed to emanate a strange something... It wasn't really a glow, but more of an atmosphere. Gwenllian found it very impossible not to steer her horse in that direction. |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 19:26 Post #1964 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She pulled at the reins, leaning back and staring at the place with narrowed eyes against the wind. The sun was low like a fire in the sky, spreading broad golden rays through the branches and trees, bathing the old cavern in warm light, still unable to keep the cool shadows away. ‘It seemed to have an unusual attraction on Tudwrig last time,’ she commenter, not moving her head to Gwenllian’s side. ‘He said he had to go inside. I had half a feeling he was being pulled by an invisible drawstring.’ She felt it too, even from here. It frightened her as it had the last time, but she would make up no excuses now. ‘Before our household got swarmed by Romans, I had made up my mind to find a cure for this curse.’ Briallen stuck out her jaw, looking an Gwenllian . ‘I want to go down there.’ |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 19:31 Post #1965 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'I can imagine that,' Gwenllian murmured. A strange pull, indeed. It was like the wind had turned directions, blowing them towards the cavern. 'You think you could find a cure, or at least a clue to one, down there?' |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 19:36 Post #1966 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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‘I...have no hopes for such a thing,’ Briallen admitted, bringing her horse closer to the low stone entrance. It lay inside the hill like an open mouth, but an primeval one; the mouth of a face so old, that it had turned to stone, conserving every crease and groove in the lines of hewed rock. ‘Not when I try to reason with this sensibly. But a curse –‘ she dismounted, thudding onto the ground and straightening her back, ‘a curse is not a thing to approach with your mind full of reason, I think.’ |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 19:39 Post #1967 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'That's certainly true.' Gwenllian licked her lips and got off her horse as well, walking up to Briallen and standing next to her, staring at the ancient stones. Only the gods knew how long Wayland's Smithy had been here. 'From an unreasonable point of view, I think we should go down, then.' There wasn't much that could go wrong, was there? |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 19:54 Post #1968 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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‘And so...I’ve brought these.’ Briallen let out a tense sigh, drawing up a small pouch from under her tunic. ‘The risks will probably remain, but it must show our goodwill, at least.’ She placed the dried fruits and a small jar of honey before the entrance. If the Good Folk had called her husband, willing him to enter, would they not allow his wife? Her hands were trembling. Still, this idea had been lingering in her head ever since she’d had to flee from her beloved’s chamber, just after he had stirred her craving for him to a point almost unbearable. ‘Yes. I will go in.’ She stuck out her chin, mustering every bit of strength she could draw from knowing who she was: Briallen of Shadow Well, daughter of Maelgwn and wife to Tudwrig, chieftain of the Vale of the White Horse. If she could not enter here after leaving appeasing offers for the Others, then who possibly could? She stepped in, feeling the coolness of the cavern touch her face as though tiny, small fingers brushed over her cheeks and brow, over her lips and into her hair. It smelled murky inside; it smelled of mosses and toadstools. Did she hear a faint whisper? She wasn’t sure; it could be her own blood rushing past her ears. |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 20:01 Post #1969 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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Gwenllian followed Briallen closely, stealing herself as she stepped into the damp coolness of the Smithy. It was rather unsettling; as if their own world disappeared when the shadows enfolded them, leaving them suspended in a world between worlds. Her mother had once told her to sing when she was afraid in the dark, but she couldn't find the heart to break through the earthy atmosphere. The cave seemed to ring with music of its own; a combination of the shadows closing in on them and the wind blowing past the entrance. |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 20:08 Post #1970 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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‘And now...for light.’ Briallen whispered the words, fearing that raising her voice might crumble a delicate thing, though she did not know what it was. Perhaps the veil that parted before them, allowing them to pass into something quite unlike their own world. Had she entered any other time, she doubted that the passageway would have been so deep, nor the strange silence so absolute. She extracted a beeswax candle from the pouch, halting briefly to grit two stones together, igniting the wick with a brief slash, a sudden blazing flame like fireflies in the night. It spread across the ground and the walls , broad as a foot. Briallen turned to face Gwenllian. ‘Look around, see if you see anything...anything at all.’ |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 20:14 Post #1971 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'All right,' she whispered and spread her hands against the moist stones, tracing the rough surface with her fingertips. It felt strangely alive, as if she could feel the breath of the ones who had built and been in this cavern on it still, throbbing as an age-old heartbeat. Then her fingers found something - a thin, shallow channel that wasn't a joint. 'Briallen,' she breathed, gazing at the carvings in the stone as the cave-music started to swell, 'look at this.' |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 20:22 Post #1972 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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She backtracked at once, swallowing away something of a lump in her throat. With the light of the candle to illuminate every single jut in the stones, she held her head to one side and peered at Gwenllian’s fingers. They were tracing a perfect circle, round like the sun. It did look like the sun too, with the flame lighting it up. It was clearly a carved figure; no water or insects could make something so flawlessly spherical. She touched it too, then had hand moved down, where her fingers felt another carved line. ‘Hills,’ she muttered breathlessly. ‘They could be hills. Then this is the sun...And this is the morning star. Then it must be east. A rising sun, then...’ She turned around suddenly, shedding the light on the other wall. As she had thought, the picture was almost the same. ‘Look! West – here is the setting sun. It is...’ But what was it, indeed? A map? A message? Decorations with a meaning long lost to her kin? |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 20:28 Post #1973 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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Gwenllian was about to speak when she thought she heard a faint, vaguely familiar singing. It gave her goosebumps, even when the sound ceased. She walked towards the other wall and traced those lines, too. Then she looked up at the ceiling above them, and the ground below them. There was nothing else that could be of any help there. '...Can you hear that, too?' she asked as the singing rang softly in her ears again. She thought she saw something moving in the corner of her eye. |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 20:30 Post #1974 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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'Only a melody,' she answered, casting glances around. 'I thought it was just in my head...a melody I know...' She swallowed. 'I don't...feel like going down further. Perhaps this was a mistake.' Her arms were full of goosebumbs. 'At least not with only one candle, Gwenllian. Let's...go back and think about what we need to do next. I feel too unprepared.' In heart, at least. Briallen shivered. |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 20:33 Post #1975 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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'Sounds like a great idea to me,' Gwenllian muttered and reached for Briallen's hand. For some reason she was afraid they might end up in two completely different places if they did not hold on to each other. The earthy air had become just slightly oppressive and she had to do her best not to start running towards the exit. |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 20:37 Post #1976 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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Had she failed Tudwrig? This was not exactly the courage as she had imagined it. Biting on her lip, Briallen made her way out as quick as she could without actually running. Her fingers felt cold around Gwenllian’s. But she would be back – this, she promised to herself, to Tudwrig and to the Good Folk. They had let them enter, and she would. Once she had braced her heart, she would go again. |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 20:48 Post #1977 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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It took Rufus about three days to make his way back to Two Lakes. On the evening before his departure he'd gotten word from one of the soldiers stationed there that the chieftain's daughter had disappeared. Since everything in the Vale had been pretty much taken care of, he'd decided to take a look for himself. Girls disappearing from the areas his people had settled was almost as bad publicity as the death of a legionair was. Especially if it happened right under his nose, so to say. Of course, he could've sent henchmen to do the work, but Rufus didn't mind getting his hands dirty. In fact, he rather enjoyed it. He reigned in his horse at the top of the hill, looking down on the caer nestled snugly against it. When he left, he hadn't bothered packing any official garments, simply because he didn't intend to make an official appearance anywhere. It was perhaps a little unnecessary, but Rufus had been dying for a good burglary and the adrenaline-rush that accompanied it for many months now. He was going to look for clues as to the girl's disappearance, and he'd do it in the middle of the night with naught but the stars and the moon to provide him with light. He dismounted, tied his horse to a tree and sat cross-legged on the turf, waiting until the sun would disappear behind the hills. It wouldn't be long. |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 20:57 Post #1978 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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‘Rest well, mother.’ She said it softly, closing the door of the chamber. It was likely that her mother was already asleep and no longer heard her words. She looked as pale and exhausted as in her vision. Essylt closed her eyes briefly, trying to shut out the memory. Her own disappearance had not done much good for her mother’s health. The baby might arrive any day now, and it left her family stretched like a bow string. Essylt could barely sleep at night, and if she did, nightmares would usually terrorize her till she woke up, trembling and alone with early sunrise. No one here to hold her like Morcant had done. No one to share her dreams, hideous as they were. No one even suspected what she could do. Her father had accepted her story of a kidnap, and that she had ever been blindfolded. She’d given him vague directions, nothing that would lead him to Gwyddien. She wasn’t even sure why she was protecting the little band of rebellious brothers. She left the hallway to make for her own room. It was already too late to go back to the great hall; besides, she hardly desired company. All she wanted was to be alone, to give her head space enough to think freely, worry without distraction. She bolted the door on the inside, sending her maid away. Her blue tunic, the one given to her by Morcant, lay folded up in her storage chest. For some reason it was impossible to do away with it. Now she freed herself from her tunic and dress, changing into night clothes and sinking on the edge of the bed. |
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| Sonja | 1 May 2010, 21:17 Post #1979 |
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Red & dangerous! Rawr!
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Hours later, when the night had cast her veil over the lands and all the caer's inhabitants had gone to bed, Rufus rose and walked down towards the castle. His feet, shod in soft leather sandals, hardly made more sound than the faint rustling of leaves in a breeze. He touched the stones of the caer, looking for an easy way in. In the end, he decided to climb through a window on the first floor with the help of the granary that was built against the outer wall. Once inside, he pressed himself against the wall and waited for some minutes until he was absolutely sure no one had heard him. Though of course, no one could have: he was Rufus, and the entire underworld in Rome trembled at the mentioning of his name. He made his silent way to the girl's chambers. He could sleepwalk through this caer after stalking around it for days, questioning and charming and nosing around much like he'd done at Caer March. Keeping an eye peeled for any inhabitants that might go for a midnight stroll, he touched his hands to the solid wood of the bedchamber. It was bolted on the inside, which put him on his guard immediately. It also greatly complicated things. In from the outside, then. Rufus made for the nearest window and poked his head through it. When he'd established that he could make his way to the window of the bedroom, he stepped on the windowsill and searched the wall for hand- and footholds. As the wind caressed his body, the warmth of excitement swept through him. This was the life. It reminded him of those countless burglaries in Rome, the fire in his body and the pure rush of ecstacy - the latter usually in more ways than just the one. Without making a single sound, he slipped inside the vanished girl's room - and found her sleeping. |
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| Marieke | 1 May 2010, 21:25 Post #1980 |
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Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
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They were taking them. Long arms, white as corpses, with bloodless hands and eerie fingers were pulling her mother away from her own reaching arms. Down into the earth – no, it was a cavern, with swirling spirals engraved into the ancient stones. The tunnels led deep into the hill, perhaps down to where the soil vanishes for spitting fire. Oh, mother, no! she tried to cry, but then she pressed her newborn brother to her chest. The hands slithered over her naked skin, digging nails into the baby, trying to tug it from her arms. No, my brother. Not my brother! She turned about desperately, feeling how her arms weakened. She had to release him; there was no power left...Oh, my sweet baby brother, don’t take him from me... Somebody must help her. Someone must hear her desperate cries! Surely someone would come... But the night was dark, and enclosed her like a pack of hungry wolves. Essylt fought for breath, struggling up, away from the dream. For a moment she longed for two arms that would hold her, rock her like she was a babe herself, mutter low words into her hair... Her room was gloomy. She lay rigid with terror, staring into shadows and....What? Her father? A manservant? Is it Morcant? Her heart began to beat. No.... |
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