Thread: The Havens

The youngster stood there for hours alone staring repentantly at the flames. Her final moments flickering over her minds eye. The sun began to rise over the sloping hills of her homely village. Glowing tendrils of light sprang forth around her. Excruciating pain shot through her tiny body as if each pore was expanding into a chasm before tightening and shriveling on itself attempting to shield itself from the warmth of morning. Withering in pain against her post she shut her eyes against the pain. The villagers had yet to set fire to the stage, but it felt as if she would combust any moment into a blaze that rivaled any earthly eruption. As she tried to focus darkening blue eyes she saw a figure approaching. In all likely-hood a jeering neighbor. But, as the screams caught chokingly in her throat her vision faded. Nodding to clear her head of pain she gave one shaky glance towards the rising spectacle. Only for a moment did that brown figure enter her fading sight before darkness consumed her. In the darkness she swam where there was no sense or concept of time. Deep in the subconscious where memories of recent child hood swept along with echoed laughter. A haunting remembrance of what once was, but what would never be again. When the dim lit shelter finally came into being around her the girl moaned. Confusion, agitation and loss were the many emotions that choked her sobs. Something unidentifiable had been lost an undeniable presence in each mortal being. Without definition the spirit had left a soul gone with each morning light. The hollowness was almost as unbearable as the pain of death itself. Still came the rough, strange voice. Soon darkness gave her yet another peaceful slumber. Months passed before she awoke again, in the same hobbled hut. Edgar was the local plantation slave. He had more of a position than the others, she had come to find, due to his ways of adaptation and obedience. Obedience that was broken when he harbored an unnamed monster in his corridors. As long as she remained dead and hidden during morning hours there was no suspicion. But, within those heated evenings she would whisper to her companion in the candle light. An old medicine man of his foreign land he had little to no communication skills, but a friendly smile and warm brown eyes. Eyes of a friend. The young woman would often whisper to him in the darkness as he smiled knowing he would never understand but merely enjoyed the company. Well, old man she would say with a giggle every night. They say without suffering there would be no compassion. Shed paused as he blinked slowly, a depth of desire asking her to continue, Tell that to the suffering she would whisper as she compared the difference of their hued flesh. Mice eat seeds, snakes eat mice, birds eat snakes, while the birds are eaten by Humans. So, why should those that eat Humans be punished? Shouldnt mice be punished for eating seeds? A child like logic mixed within a lesson of nature. One part of nature can not be punished without harming the others. So, why Then Edgar would smile and tap his chest thoughtfully. His large weather beaten hand would caress the silkiness of her cheek before he would lay her down, covering her on the cot as if she were his child. Edgar shed call as he turned to banish the flame of the candle. Must I be punished for something I cant even acknowledge as a flaw? Im still me As if understanding her situation perfectly hed sooth the ebony bangs from her forehead before the whisper of hay indicated his intention for slumber Soon she left his ministrations, feeling stronger yet still naively without. As if she were always sick. She would visit her friend often, until one night when she returned to the hobble he was gone. The tales of a horse-thief whispering through the plantation If only to be human once again. Even to die and suffer in years to come with sickness or age. Without anything left but a memory of a friend Neferys had traveled. Never wishing to return to a land so corrupt.