07-28-2017, 07:44 PM
The pain is too much. This place is too much. The fog that still curls around the edges of the silent black lake sweep around her. Her dragon vision fades, she feels her muscles collapse as she falls on her side. The heavy sound of her ragged breath, the thickness of the air pressing back down upon her. Then suddenly nothing, blackness.
She dreams of the stars. She dreams of kingdoms of old, watches rulers rise and fall. Watches lovers fight and reunite, watches the birth of various children, watches them grow up. She dreams of blades of grass and the stories they hold as they slowly grow taller and then wither and die with each season. She watches the foxes teaching their kits to hunt, the hawks showing their young how to fly. Watches the Leshen in it’s secret heart of the forest, the way it’s twisted branches reach out and caress the rough bark of a gigantic oak. So many tales, so many lives. She is a faint gesture in each, the soft breath of the wind that blows through the lovers manes as they entangle with each other. That bends the soft blades of grass, the ripple through the lake that lays behind her. Connected most of all by the twinkling lights in the sky only outshone by the moon that watches over all of them as they sleep.
There’s a soft call of birds in the distance. She barely stirs, a slight twitch of the shoulder muscle. It takes her a second as her sluggish mind slowly awakens. The song of birds in a world so silent? Blearily her lids lift, revealing the swirling silver orbs within. It takes her a few minutes to adjust, the colors are so much brighter. The light burns her retinas and she blinks with pain, it takes her awhile to recover after being so long in the dark.
She lays sprawled on the banks of the lake, the same lake she had defeated the siren in. It’s calm waters lapping gently at her sore body. The world was normal again, she had returned from the cruel alternate underneath of Beqanna. A slow soft exhale escapes velvet lips, the tension fading from her, inhaling the sweet untainted air. Surely this had all just been a very terrible night terror? Yet she is so tired, her body hurts everywhere. The wounds the siren had left etched over her ribcage still bleed freely. The many talon scratches that mark her body simply burn and fester. It had been real. All of it. She knows that something had changed, she had changed. She now knows the forests dark secret, knows the Leshen haunts it even if they can’t see it. Knows where she came from, what she is. Why she is different.
There’s no reason to move, she can’t find the strength anyways. She stays where she is, closing her eyes to the bright sunlight as she feels the cold lake splashing against her backside.
I survived. I remember.
She dreams of the stars. She dreams of kingdoms of old, watches rulers rise and fall. Watches lovers fight and reunite, watches the birth of various children, watches them grow up. She dreams of blades of grass and the stories they hold as they slowly grow taller and then wither and die with each season. She watches the foxes teaching their kits to hunt, the hawks showing their young how to fly. Watches the Leshen in it’s secret heart of the forest, the way it’s twisted branches reach out and caress the rough bark of a gigantic oak. So many tales, so many lives. She is a faint gesture in each, the soft breath of the wind that blows through the lovers manes as they entangle with each other. That bends the soft blades of grass, the ripple through the lake that lays behind her. Connected most of all by the twinkling lights in the sky only outshone by the moon that watches over all of them as they sleep.
There’s a soft call of birds in the distance. She barely stirs, a slight twitch of the shoulder muscle. It takes her a second as her sluggish mind slowly awakens. The song of birds in a world so silent? Blearily her lids lift, revealing the swirling silver orbs within. It takes her a few minutes to adjust, the colors are so much brighter. The light burns her retinas and she blinks with pain, it takes her awhile to recover after being so long in the dark.
She lays sprawled on the banks of the lake, the same lake she had defeated the siren in. It’s calm waters lapping gently at her sore body. The world was normal again, she had returned from the cruel alternate underneath of Beqanna. A slow soft exhale escapes velvet lips, the tension fading from her, inhaling the sweet untainted air. Surely this had all just been a very terrible night terror? Yet she is so tired, her body hurts everywhere. The wounds the siren had left etched over her ribcage still bleed freely. The many talon scratches that mark her body simply burn and fester. It had been real. All of it. She knows that something had changed, she had changed. She now knows the forests dark secret, knows the Leshen haunts it even if they can’t see it. Knows where she came from, what she is. Why she is different.
There’s no reason to move, she can’t find the strength anyways. She stays where she is, closing her eyes to the bright sunlight as she feels the cold lake splashing against her backside.
I survived. I remember.
Ciri