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 Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 11:45 am
I’ll tell you no lies – Growth Quest Pt 3
Rhael watched as Erasin closed her journal with a snap and stood, a determined almost-grimace set on her lips. Rhael was curious as to what Erasin was writing, but she knew far btter than to ask. She would know when Erasin wrote in her journal that it was better to simply avoid her. She got into weird moods when she wrote, Rhael never knew what to expect.
“Rhael, we’re going to try and answer that question you asked me the other day.” Erasin said shortly, walking over to the bookshelf on the wall and running her finger along the titles until she found the book that Rhael supposed she was looking for. It was a large tome, with writing on it that Rhael did not recognize.
She stood up and made her room across the room to stand next to Erasin. “That’s not in English,” she said lamely, as though stating the obvious would make Erasin not seem so… odd. Well, odder than usual.
“No, it’s in Greek.” Erasin said, taking Rhael’s hand and pulling her towards the comfy chair next to the radiator in the corner. The thing wasn’t on, but the pot of flowers that they’d picked at the public park brightened up the corner far more than the lone electric light swinging from the ceiling. It was getting close to Rhael’s bed time. She wondered if this was Erasin’s new tactic to prevent her from falling asleep at all.
Rhael was starting to become afraid of sleeping. She knew perhaps better than anyone else that she was not capable of staying awake to prevent the burning sensation that plagued her while asleep. She did not how to control it, but not sleeping helped her avoid the adverse effects of sleep.
“What’s the story about?” Rhael asked, settling down in Erasin’s lap as her guardian opened the book. Rhael very quickly decided that Erasin would have to teach her the language because there was something oddly beautiful about the script.
“The creatation of fire.” Erasin said shortly. “I believe that to truly know why things burn around you, you first have to know the mythos of the event.”
“Mythos?” Rhael questions, frowning as the word was unfamiliar to her.
“It’s like a story. The Bible, to some extent is a mythos. It’s the mythos of Christianity. There are a lot of myths that were used in the old days to explain things that they did not have the science or technology to explain.” Erasin pointed to the picture on the page she was holding. It showed a tall man stepping down from what appeared to be a mountaintop with a torch in his hand.
Rhael leaned forward, intrigued by the picture. The man with the fire looked kind, like someone who could help her if she ever did find a way to attempt to control the fire. “What’s his name?” She asked, peering at the picture. Why was he so big?
“He was a titan named Prometheus.” Erasin said. She propped the book up and began to read, translating, Rhael guessed, as she went along.
After the end of the Great War between the gods and the Titans, Zeus gave Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus the job or repopulating the earth because all living creatures on the planet had been killed during the early battles of the gods. Prometheus made man in the gods’ own image, bestowing the honor and gifts of the gods as sparingly as he could.
Epimetheus made animals far more rapidly that Prometheus made man – and he quickly went through most of the gifts that Zeus and the other gods had been willing to bestow on the new creatures. There were very few gifts left for man. Animals could run faster, they had thick fur coats and better senses to help keep them alive. Prometheus’ humans were left in the cold where they suffered greatly.
Prometheus asked Zeus to help his creations, to give them the gods’ gift of fire, and Zeus said no. Fire belonged to the gods alone.
Prometheus, however, could not bear to see his creations suffering the way they were. He decided that he would risk Zeus’ wrath to make life better for the humans. He went to Olympus and stole an ember from the sacred hearth and spirited it back down to earth. He impressed upon them that with the gods’ gift they would have to honor the gods with it. He hoped to impress upon the people that this new technology would help them to become more pious in their faith.
It seemed to be working too, Zeus was very angry at first when he discovered that Prometheus had disobeyed him; but then he smelled the sweet fires of sacrifices to the gods. He was stated…
Rhael frowned, “So Prometheus decided that it was a better idea to disobey the gods because he thought that humans shouldn’t suffer?”
Erasin smiled, “That’s the basic point, yes.”
Rhael blinked thoughtfully for a few minutes, staring off into space. The story, though it wasn’t done, was not really answering her questions in a logical way that would make sense. She hated things that were illogical. Everything about her very existence was and she didn’t like it when things were explained to her in an illogical way. “But why do things burn around me?”
Erasin turned the page and frowned down at it. “I believe that you’re some sort of fire-spirit, reborn. The train that you arrived on was charred which suggests to me that you came from someplace that was very violent and dark.”
“Like the world was before Prometheus decided to bring the fire?” Rhael asked. She’d turned around in Erasin’s lap to really look at her, because it was all that she could do to truly hope to gain any understanding from what was going on.
“Exactly.” Erasin said. Her face was distant and Rhael frowned. She didn’t want to think that Erasin wasn’t telling her everything, but that look usually meant that she was leaving part of the truth off. Rhael was used to it by now, for Erasin was almost never honest with her when it came to some matters. “I think you go back there in your dreams and the only thing you can think of doing is creating light – so you burn things.”
Rhael nodded slowly, for the distant look in Erasin’s eyes had yet to vanish completely. It was unnerving the way that Erasin was avoiding looking at her. Her frown deepened as she watched Erasin.
“I don’t remember my dreams.” Rhael said. “I never can.”
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Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 11:43 am
Entry Log #10 –Growth Quest pt 4
Dear Journal –
I don’t know how Rhael can manage to remember her dreams, but I think that that might be the key to getting to the bottom of whatever it is that’s going on with her psyche. She took well to the mythos – I think that I might be correct as to why she dreams of fire. She wants to light up the dark of the hell that she falls into when she dreams.
I think that I’m going to see if there’s a way for me to try and control Rhael’s dreams. Dreams a reflection of the unconscious mind. The issues that we dwell on and all that jazz – there’s gotta be something that I’m missing.
She doesn’t really talk that much, but when she asks questions I forget how old she is. She’s like an old soul – all the knowledge and wisdom of someone far older occupying the mind of a child. Her questions are such that even I cannot think of the answers to them. I don’t know what to tell her more than half the time. How can I?
She looks at me with these pained eyes and I feel my heart breaking a little bit. I desperately need to help her, to make these nightmares stop.
It’s best not to dwell on things like this – my mother says. She would know, but this is exactly when I refuse to ask her for help on matters such as what Rhael’s dealing with right now. Rhael’s problems are her own, I doubt she’d want some wayward goddess messing with her business. Goodness knows that mother would try.
Rhael’s not quite awake yet, but last night was quiet. I doubt that it can stay this way for long, but as long as it takes to get these dreams under control is long enough for me. Rhael has to know that.
Erasin Cypress.
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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:41 pm
Entry Log #10 –Growth Quest pt 5
Mommy was off. Digging in the garden and trying to get the flowers to grow bigger, better, yummier. Rhael loved them that way, crunchy and tasty and maybe just a little bit spicy...
She was lying, she loved spicy food with a passion. It reminded her of flames that she sometimes saw when she was asleep, and while they were terrifying, she thought that they'd be quiet good to eat if she could ever figure out how to make them stay still. Rhael didn't remember exactly when she'd realized that she liked spicy food. Mommy said that it was after a particularly bad nightmare when she'd nearly set her bed on fire once more.
Flushing with embarrassment at the thought of causing more trouble for her mother, Rhael adjusted her position into one that made it easier to write.
Rhael sat on her bed with crayons and crumpled papers strewn around her, her toes interlocked and a large sketchpad propped up on her knees. Mommy wrote so much in her journal, Rhael thought that it was only natural that she do the same. There were so many thoughts going through her head that it sort of only made sense that she should try to write them down, to process them.
Deer juurnal -
Mommy is a lyar. She wont tell me why I dreem like I do. fyre is skary and I dont like it.
I wish that mommy new the anser but i now she dos not. she is skard, and is triing not to show it.
I am jus mad. I want to now. I want to now naw.
Rhael
She couldn't help how upset she felt. She wanted Mommy to have an answer for her, and the story of how fire was brought to humans sort of made sense - the great god-man, Prometheus, tried so hard to save the people, to make them better, that fire was a good thing.
But fire wasn't a good thing. Rhael knew that. It was terrifying and scary and totally not a good thing at all. Fire made things disappear, it was the eater of everything, even good things.
Look into the fire, tell me what you see...
Rhael set her sketchpad down on the bed beside her, her eyes fixated on a point off in the distance beyond Jeffery the jellyfish's tank. The gurgling water of his filter seemed to grow louder and louder as she stared.
What was that voice?
I see nothing.
The voice in her head was pained, and Rhael clutched her head as she saw the flames beginning to rise up from her interlocked toes.
"Mommy!!!!!!" She screamed, staring with a horrid fascination at the flames that were slowly enveloping her feet.
It didn't burn.
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