Glimpses of Dusk

[Mirabai]

Here are some vignettes of Dusk. I may write regularly, I may write once in a while, I may get bored of it after a few posts and never write about her again. We'll see!


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No Going Back


She was pretty sure the tanner had cheated her. She didn't know what the pelt was worth, but she saw the eager glint in his eye when he looked at it, and could hear the contrivance in his casual tone when he made an offer. She thought she should try and get a better price, but fear of botching it altogether and walking away empty-handed - or worse - stilled her tongue. Besides, she didn't know what to say.

With the deal struck, the tanner turned away, already forgetting her. She took a last look at the pelt where it now hung in the shop, a wan echo of the creature it once draped but still glorious next to the dull browns and grays that filled the shop. The cat had been huge, it's fur the purest white flecked with silver...or at least, it had looked like silver when it was alive. With the life spark gone, it seemed more a shiny gray.

Something stirred within her and she heard herself growl low in her throat. She caught herself and pushed the rising feeling down, turning and quickly leaving the shop. What's done is done she thought. There's no going back. Only forward.

[Mirabai]

A Disturbing Encounter


She was almost to the city. She knew she was close because she could smell the filth.

She wanted to keep heading toward the city but the anguish was too much, she needed to see, to find the source. The feeling had been coming on for a while, a relentless nausea of jumbled voices and emotions. Now she was closer, and she could hear them. She tried not to hear, to block it all out, but that just brought on the headache, like always.

She crouched behind a boulder and knew she was very close.

The wolves came running, two of them. Terror and sadness radiated all around them, around the thing which chased them, hunted them.

She stayed quiet and still and watched the wolves come, watched the thing overtake them fifty paces from where she hid. The thing rolled and flowed over the ground, a towering mass of water, a wave that never came to shore. It rolled over the wolves.

Through the creature she could still see the wolves, wavering and indistinct in their watery prison. Their bodies thumped to the ground within the water, lifeless. But the creature wasn't interested in their flesh.

It took their spirits.

She hardly had time to dwell on this oddity because the creature was flowing her way.

She ran. Hard.

[Blindhamsterman]

very enjoyable!

[Friar]

I like Dusk, she is a good and interesting character.

[Mirabai]

Unexpected Allies?


She pressed her back against the tree and hoped they would forget about her and move on. Not that she wasn't grateful for their timely arrival, but the immediate threat was over and she felt certain they wouldn't be stupid enough to think she had just happened to lead the water creature right past them. Sure, her quick summation of their ability to deal with the monster turned out to be right, but they would still be angry at the presumption and probably dispatch her next.

She could hear two of them discussing the creature while another - the dwarf, from the gravely tone - called out for her, addressing her as "maiden". The woman joined in, calling her "dear". They announced it was safe to come out, but that was probably a ruse meant to lure her to them before they attacked. One thing that was clear, they knew she was there.

She weighed her options; stay behind the tree and hope they go away, try to make a run for it, or stand her ground and see what happens.

It didn't seem likely they would just go away, and considering their superiority of numbers and strength, her chances of escape by running seemed slim.

Steeling herself for whatever might come, she stepped from behind the tree.

The woman stood not twenty paces away. She smiled and spoke in soothing tones, tones not unlike those the girl herself used on snared creatures just before delivering the death blow. The tone registered and had its effect on the girl, but the words were lost.

She was too preoccupied with the woman's hair.

Red as the embers of a long-burning fire, the last of the day's sunlight sparked gold in the long strands that tumbled about the woman's face. She had never seen hair like that. She stared, the woman spoke, she wasn't sure for how long. The feel of a question brought the girl back to back to herself with a start.

"What's your name, dear?" the woman was asking.

"Why?" she blurted out in near-panic.

The woman answered with an almost apologetic smile, "Because it will make it easier to address you".

She cringed inwardly, feeling foolish. Of course, she knew people would want a name. She had just forgotten to think of one.

Casting about for inspiration, she took in the forest, the shadows growing long under the trees in the remains of the day.

"Dusk" she announced suddenly, just as the woman looked as if she was regretting the question. "My name is Dusk".

[johnlewismcleod]

Good stuff. Mirabai....more, please