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 Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:19 pm
.:The Wayfarer's Rest Inn:.
It was a freezing cold day, despite the sun shining vividly overhead. The little girl was nearly ready to drop with exhaustion. She didn't know where she was, she wasn't sure who she was or why she was trudging down a long road with muddy tire prints grooving the center and snow everywhere else. She was lucky to have boots on, and a tattered coat over her brightly colored dress, but nevertheless it was cold and she'd been walking for a long time.
As she squinted in the distance, a tremor of hope thrilled through her chest and into her throat. There was smoke up ahead, the thick white smoke that meant people and warmth. She didn't know how she knew this, when everything else seemed a blank. But she also didn't pause to consider the mystery. Instead she increased her pace, running towards the smoke. As she got nearer a long, low building came into sight. It appeared to have not one but three chimnies and a rather hazardous looking top floor over half of it. It was all old wood and riverstone and as the little girl approached she noticed that the snow was lighter here and there was the faint green of grass poking though as well as the gentle purple of crocuses. She didn't bother to wonder how she knew the flowers were crocuses or that the sign swinging above the door read "Wayfarer's Rest Inn". She merely pushed open the heavy wooden door with the last of her strength and stumbled inside.
Immediately she was assaulted with a variety of smells followed closely by a variety of sounds that all became still and quiet as every gaze turned to look at the raggedy girl with the stripe in her hair and the bright silver eyes. She smiled wanly at the hodgepodge mix of people as if she would have liked to greet them but couldn't muster up the engergy.
"Hey-ho, what have we here?" A boomingly cheerful masculine voice cut through the silence and a huge man approached the girl, kneeling down in front of her and peering at her with golden eyes. He lifted her chin with one massive index finger and stared into his face. Transfixed and exhausted, the little girl stared back. "And just where did you come, sweetheart?" The man asked, his voice softer now as if he could sense how tired she was and didn't want to scare her away.
"Dunno..." She managed, then coughed and cleared her throat. "I can't remember. All I remember is the road... and then here." She frowned at the big man. "Where is here?"
"Here is the Wayfarer's Rest. It's halfway between."
"Halfway between what?" She was confused and she didn't know if it was because she was cold and tired or if it was because the big man was just being confusing. "Who are you?" She added for good measure.
"I'm Wild Jack. Me an' my wife Sati run this place for the Travelers." He didn't answer her first question, but launched into a question of his own. "Say now, are you sure you're not just sleeping somewhere safely in your bed?"
"How could I be sleeping in my bed when I'm here?" The girl replied with a touch of scorn in her voice. "You can't be two places at once. I don't even know who I am but at least I know that."
Wild Jack's eyes flickered to someone who had come to stand behind the little girl. His expression was eloquent, but she still couldn't read it. There was an odd mixture of hope and confusion and resignation in that look. The little girl turned around to see who it was he was looking at and stared up at a tall and graceful woman dressed in a patchwork skirt. The woman kneeled down next to the girl just as the big man had done.
"My name is Moth." The woman said, smiling. "Are you hungry?"
It didn't take more than a moments consideration to realize she was very hungry indeed, and soon she was seated on a high bar stool wolfing down a bowl of rabbit stew, sopping up the gravy with heavy dark bread. Wild Jack and Moth conferred in a corner as they watched her eat out of the corner of their eyes.
"She couldn't possibly be the one." Wild Jack said, "she's just a little slip of a thing. How is she supposed to accomplish what we couldn't, after all this time?"
"She smells like peppermint." Moth said calmly. "The herb of prophecy."
Wild Jack's nose twitched. "I did notice her distinct aroma." He said dryly. He was a Canid - one of the Cousins who could shapeshift into a dog form - and he had a particularly sensitive nose.
"We haven't seen a prophet in ages." Moth said. "And the True Dreamers still haven't been able to cross over. I don't think they can until we have Galleai back."
"So?"
"So... in stumbles this little girl. Who reeks of prophecy. Who doesn't know who she is or why she's here or how she got here. And yet here she is... in flesh and blood. Not just a sending, but the whole of her. You're a fool if you don't see the magic in this. Can't you feel the manido-aki holding it's breath? Peppermint. Herb of prophecy. Aid in healing, love, purification. Sleep." Moth raised one eyebrow at Wild Jack, who sighed. "Don't be a fool, Jack. Just because she's little. Do you remember Galleai when she first came sniffing around?"
Wild Jack laughed. "Yeah, she was even less of a wisp than that one over there." He sighed. "I can't deny, you may be right. And we are badly in need of the return of the Goddess."
Moth snorted. "She wont like being called that when she does come back. She only took on a godhead to defeat Misery house and it's evil."
"Yeah, well, she's a goddess now regardless." Jack said, a mischevious gleam in his eye as if he knew just how much the unpresuming dreamwalker would dislike the added attention of worship, regardless of it's necessity to maintain her powers. And that was assuming, of course, that the little thing at the bar with the big glowing eyes could fill the shoes that Moth seemed intent on setting out for her. "Alright, the least we can do is keep the kid here and see what happens. She'll need a name, though."
Moth smiled, glancing out the window at the snowy expanse that glittered as far as the eye could see, broken up only occasionally by the stark skeletons of beech trees. "Noel." The woman said, turning her glance back towards the child who was peering around the dimly lit bar with interest now that she was warm and fed. "The birth of something new. Something worth celebrating."
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Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:10 pm
.:Two fishes are better than one?:.
Noel stared at the tiny wooden cage that Moth had given her. Despite the fact that it could fit comfortable in her two cupped hands, the thing was a marvel of delicate construction and elaborate carvings. Even the latch to the tiny round door was rendered of wood. Moth had said it was Elder wood. She had said that it meant finding the End in the Beginning and the Beginning in the End. Noel hadn't quite known what to make of that, but she wasn't one to question a gift, even if it came with a price.
The price didn't even seem that tall to the little girl as she sat on the stone steps in the front of the Wayfarer's Rest, her attention alternately switching from admiring the little cage to watching the way the faint green of the grass under the snow seemed to be spreading. There was a distinct grassy area all the way around the Inn now, almost a third of the way to the road. Some of the people going in and out of the Wayfarer's Rest had commented on the grass in low, excited voices. As if it meant something very important. But Noel hadn't heard why it might be important, and when she had asked Moth or Wild Jack about it, they'd just given her strange little smiles and said enigmatically that it looked like spring was coming.
Noel gave a little sigh and then stood up, clutching the cage in one hand and brushing down her new dress with the other. It was white with red stripes and she adored it. "All right." The little girl said. "Moth said I had to catch something if I wanted to keep the cage. I guess I should get to it." She gazed around the frozen fields and small bunches of winter trees with a little frown. "I wonder if theres anything around here to catch." She added, looking around for a likely source of something catchable. Ten minutes later found her across the road a short distance kicking through the ankle-deep snow with her boots. It was much nicer being outside when the wind wasn't so bitter and you had decent clothes to brave the weather in. She kicked at the snow again, her boot hitting something hard. "Ouch!" Something pink seemed to be sticking up out of the snow. The little girl knelt down and brushed the snow off the frozen object. "It's a fish." She said to no one in particular. "A pink fish." It was, in fact, a salmon but Noel didn't know that. "I think it must be dead." She added, still talking to herself mostly for the sake of hearing her own voice. "Does a dead fish count as catching something?" The fish would be too big to fit in the little cage anyways, Noel decided. It was longer than her forearm and heavy. She had to struggle to lift it. "I can't catch you." She told the dead fish. "But I dont think you should be out here all alone like this." Death was not something she apparently had much conventional understanding of.
Untying the red ribbon she had been wearing as a belt, she wrapped it around the fish several times and then slung it over her shoulder. Sure, the tail dragged in the snow but she didn't think the fish would mind. "Now I'd better find something to catch." Peering around the blinding landscape nothing stood out. No color except for the swathe of grass around the Inn and the brown mud of the road. Nothing to catch. At least, nothing that she could see. Noel let out a defeated sigh. "Nothing out here to catch but a cold." She said, kicking at the cold ground again and turning towards the road. For the second time that day her foot seemed to catch on something that shouldn't have been there. This time, though, there was nothing to see. Just... something hard like a rock that stopped the toe of her boot from going forward. Noel kneeled down again, reaching towards the invisible thing. It had substance, though she couldn't make out what it was. She heaved another self-pitying sigh and as her breath hit the invisible object two things happened at once. The object fogged up enough for her to make out it's shape, and the dead fish at her back twitched. Noel let out a little squeak of alarm but was over it quickly, leaning forward and blowing on the thing again. This time it stayed fogged and she could make out the misty shape of a fish. A shape that exactly matched the pink salmon she had hanging at her back. "Ohhh..." This clearly meant something, even if she didn't know what it was. She tied the other end of the ribbon to the misty fish shape and slung it over her shoulders so there was a frozen fish bumping either side of her. It wasn't exactly what Moth had asked her to do, but even it Moth wasn't happy Noel knew that something about finding the two identical fishes was important.
"Well then, Miss! What did you bring back?" Wild Jack boomed as she came back inside the Inn. He wore jeans and a frilly white apron that was liberally dusted with flour.
"I caught a fish." Noel said proudly. "Two fishes. And I didn't really catch them, I found them in the snow. But I brought them back anyways."
"Two fishes!" Wild Jack grinned. "Shall we put them in the oven for your supper? Lets see this fine bounty."
Noel gently set each of the fish on a nearby table for inspection, the bright red ribbon vivid against the scarred wood.
"Oh Consort be blessed." Jack swore under his breath.
"What? They were dead when I found them..." She replied, a trifle defensively. "And they wouldn't fit in Moth's cage anyways." She added, crossing her arms over her chest.
Wild Jack grinned. "Why girl, this isn't just any old fish. This is Orion! He dissapeared ages ago when Misery house fell and we thought him lost forever. You've found him! And his spirit too, I'll be damned!"
"His...huh?" Noel blinked up at Jack, confused. "The fish is your friend? But it's dead..."
"Nah, he's not dead. Just sleeping. Looks like his spirit slipped out of his body while he was sleeping and he couldn't wake up without it. All we have to do is pop the spirit back in and he should be good as new!"
"You can do that?" Noel asked, silver eyes wide as dinner plates. "You can just... put someone's spirit back in their body and they'll come back to life?"
"Don't be stupid." Jack scoffed. "He's not dead, only sleeping. And anyways, he's a Cousin. He's like me and Sati, different."
"I'm different." Noel felt compelled to point out. "Moth is different too."
"Ah, well, Moth is Moth. And you're different, but you're no cousin. Now, enough of that pouting look." He gave the child a winning grin. "How'd you like to bring those two fishes to the kitchen and help ol' Jackie make some magic?"
Noel's eyes gleamed and she grinned brightly. Somehow she was certain he wasn't talking about the kind of magic you did with delicious tasting herbs and wine.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 3:00 pm
.:Overture:.
"See how it bleeds..." The pale-skinned figure of a woman was reaching forward, her fingers spread wide and grasping. "See how it bleeds..." The dark whisper came again and Noel saw the gaping wounds in palms of the woman's hands. They were deep and black, and bloodless. The little girl took a step backwards as the figure continued to reach. "Seee... see..." The woman entreated pitifully.
"There isn't any blood." Noel whispered back, and her world shifted.
"She must be having a nightmare." Jack observed, looking to where Noel was sleeping. In front of the big fire there was a little ledge and the girl had climbed up on it to get warm and had promptly fallen asleep.
"Maybe..." His girlfriend Sati replied, her eyes gleaming yellow in the dim light of the Inn. "Maybe she's gone away somewhere."
Jack gave the woman a sideways look before slipping off his ancient leather jacket and walking over to the child, draping the jacket over her sleeping form. It covered her almost completely from head to toe. "Find her for us." He whispered in Noel's ear before straightening up.
She was stading in a huge stone room, deep underground. It was lit by torches and the round walls were punctuated at regular intervals by tall niches into which something had been wedged. Noel couldn't tell what was in them, though. They were shrouded in the shadows and she wasn't sure she wanted to move forward.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
The sound of her own heartbeat was deafening and she swallowed her fear. "This is stupid." Her small voice echoed off the stone walls. "This is a stupid thing to be afraid of. It's just a stupid room." The scent of peppermint that always surrounded the girl flared for a moment, stronger, and then receded again. Noel took a deep breath and immediately felt better.
THUMP. thump. THUMP. thump.
Her hard earned calmness jolted as she heard a pounding noise seeming to echo from somewhere in the room. "Whats that?" She asked no one, for there was no one there to ask.
THUMP. thump. THUMP. thump.
It took a moment before she realized what she was hearing. Another heartbeat, faint and echoing her own. And it was coming from one of the niches in the wall, but she couldn't tell which one. With a reasonable amount of foresight she tried to take one of the burning sconces off the wall so she could carry it with her for light, but they were too high for her to reach. With an irritated sigh, Noel moved towards the nearest of the niches. It didn't make sense, she could just leave this place. There was no reason to go through all of this hassle.
...Except there was. It was as if a compulsion had been laid upon her that she couldn't shake and couldn't pinpoint. She only wished she weren't alone. The first niche was empty and she moved on to the second. When she saw what it contained she choked back a scream.
A coffin. A coffin, bound in chains. It was standing upright leaning slightly against the wall. But no sound came out of it, this wasn't what she was looking for. "Wrong wrong wrong." Muttered Noel under her breath as she went to the next niche. Empty, as were the two following that. Then she found three in a row that also contained coffins bound in chains. But they were silent.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
The other heartbeat was growing stronger as she made her way through the room, coming to the last niche. The coffin that stood here was made from paler wood than the others though it bore dark mineral staining that made it look like someone had painted a rorschach test over the front. The chains were different too. While the other coffins were in gleamingly well kept condition and the chains that bound them shone with attention and care, these were rusty. Thick dry chunks of red rust clung to the links, gumming them up. Without being able to help herself, Noel reached up to touch one of the chain links. A little rust flaked off, falling to the floor like an ancient rose petal and staining her fingers orange.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
Noel could hear both the heartbeats clearly now, her own and that of whoever - or whatever - was in that coffin. Strangely she didn't feel afraid. She felt eager. The chains were old and there was no way she would be able to pry them off. Then she caught sight of the lock. It was heavy and rusted over the same way the chains were, but something inside Noel knew that if she could find the key to that lock she could release whatever was waiting for her. And something inside Noel knew that she had to release it, whatever it was.
The little girl jerked awake with a start, banging her head against the warm stone of the fireplace. "Ouch!" She rubbed the tender spot on her head before noticing she was being watched. Wild Jack and Sati were standing in front of her, strange expressions on their faces.
"Did you have a bad dream?" Sati asked gently, sitting down next to Noel. Her words were soft but her eyes were hard and eager as if Noel's answer held in it the meaning of life. In a way, it did.
"I don't know..." The little girl frowned. "I can't really remember. There was a sound... I could hear my heart beating." She shrugged and smiled wanly at Sati. "Thats all I can remember. Sorry about falling asleep."
"It's alright." Sati said, stroking the girl's hair while exchanging a dissapointed glance with Jack. "It's just fine honey."
Noel nodded and snuggled drowsily into Sati's comforting embrace. She liked Sati. She didn't understand why the dream she'd just had was so important. And she didn't understand why, when she'd opened her mouth to tell Sati about it, something had stopped her. It was like she wanted to keep the dream for herself. She didn't want to share it with anyone, even though it was a dream. And you couldn't hoard dreams, they didn't work that way. Noel let out a soft sigh, her heart still pounding and fainter, as if from a great distance, she heard the echoing pound of another heartbeat.
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:17 pm
. razz rophecy:.
She found herself standing in front of a great wrought-iron gate with a long pale gravel driveway that wound itself up to a huge tumbledown estate. Raising her hand, she reached forward to push the gate open noticing as she did that it wasn't really her hand, it was someone else's. Noel's pale skin held a kiss of golden warmth and this skin, while similarly pale, seemed to glow with moonlight.
The gate swung open obediently and the little girl moved forward, noting in the calm, sedated way of a dreamer that her feet were bare and also not really hers. The feel of the rocks on her tender skin hurt as if they were real and Noel found herself struggling for a moment, trapped between what she knew and what was happening. This wasn't real. None of this was real. She struggled for a moment, seeking escape from whatever this place was but she couldn't find it.
THUMP thump THUMP thump
The sound of another heartbeat calmed her as soon as she heard it, she could feel the steady vibration echoing in her chest in rythm with her own. Somehow it was comforting and urged her to walk forward, towards the great house.
It was as if one moment she was walking towards the estate and the next moment she was in the stone room again. "Okay." She said to herself in a voice that was utterly foreign. "Okay. I know this place." Taking a deep breath, Noel walked forward towards the last niche, the niche that held the coffin that held the heartbeat that matched her own. "I dont have the key yet." She said aloud as she made her way forward. Someone was already there, though, standing in front of the coffin. A child with silvery white hair turned around and Noel recognized herself. The body that she belonged in. The other-Noel looked up at her with a solemn expression.
"The Queen needs her Castle." The other-Noel said, holding out both of her hands, palm up. In one hand was a shining white chess piece shaped like a castle. In the other hand was a broken fragment of a mirror. Noel reached out and took the items, watching as the other-Noel dissolved into mist. Seconds later, the rest of the room dissolved into mist as well and Noel found herself standing outside somewhere in a fog that was too thick to see through.
The chess piece throbbed with faint warmth in her hand, but she ignored it, holding up the shard of mirror instead and looking at the reflection it contained. There was a young woman staring back at her with night-dark eyes that seemed as if they contained a whole universe of stars. Delicate wings protruded from her head and there was a symbol like a highly stylized eye on her forehead. The woman in the mirror spoke softly. "The Queen needs her Castle." She whispered and the chess piece grew suddenly hot. Hot enough that Noel was startled into dropping both the mirror shard and the chess piece. Bending down, she picked them both up again and looked into the mirror, but it was her own reflection that stared back at her wild-eyed. She tucked the chess piece into the string that belted her dress and felt the world begin to tilt.
"Noel? Noel, wake up honey." Sati shook the small girl gently. "It's supper time, sweetheart. Wake up."
Obediently, Noel's eyes fluttered open and she let forth a great yawn, stretching her arms above her head. as she did, something fell from her dress onto the floor. Sati bent down and picked it up, turning it over and over in her hands. "Noel, where did you get this?"
"I dunno. What is it?"
Sati handed the white chess piece back to the little girl with a strange expression on her face. "Did someone give this to you?"
"I can't remember. I mean, they must have. I dreamt about it so I must have been given it before my nap sometime."
"....ah...." Sati said, taking a deep breath. To mess things up now, with such a clear sign of things to come would be disastrous. "Did anything else happen in your dream?" She asked carefully.
"Not really. I mean, I don't really know. I can't remember. Except that someone told me that the Queen needed her Castle. And I looked in the mirror and it wasn't me, it was a lady with wings on her head." The little girl shrugged, turning over the white piece in her hands. It gave off a comforting warmth. "What is this called, anyways?" She asked.
"It's a chess piece called a rook." Sati answered. "Have you ever played chess?"
The little girl shook her head.
"I'll have to teach you sometime. Jack is terrible at it, he's too impatient. Now come on, it's time for dinner."
Noel rose and followed Sati towards the inn's kitchen where delicious smells permeated the air. She turned the rook over in her hands distractedly before she noticed, inlaid on the bottom of the piece as if it had always been there, the eye symbol from her dream. "The Queen needs her Castle." Noel muttered to herself. "I wonder what that means."
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Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 12:00 am
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:42 pm
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