Post by exmeralda on Mar 12, 2009 10:48:59 GMT 1
Walking slowly through Nighthaven, wrapped up in her cloak, she still felt cold. The heavy weight of the ring around her finger, with its dull blue gem, felt as if it was doing to drag her to her knees. Her Naturalists’ staff, smooth and even, was not as much a support as lone prison-bar in her hand. The cloak, made from scales from the dragon, was made to fit her, but felt heavy and cumbersome. She slowed her steps and wiped a tear from her eye.
Slowly Nighthaven grew to its end and she left the path, stepped in the long cool grass, and passed the spirit of the bear in its hollow. She smiled at it as she continued on the round, slowly making her way to her destination, her final destination, which felt so alien to her now.
She lifted from her pocket the Tactical badge she had been given in Silithus, tracings its outlines with her long pale fingers. Soon, any thoughts of tactical duty against the Twilight Hammer would fade from her, and she would fall into the Dream, drift into its depths and away from the shores of the grove. Soon she would be out deep, deeper and further out than she had ever been before, and her only regret in this was that she didn’t have time to finish what she had begun. She had just gotten started, but the duty of the Sleepers was to attend the Keeper in all things, and now she was being called.
She walked under the high arch and up to the spectral form of the Keeper. She bowed before him, and she heard the leaves whisper as he inclined his head to her as well. Beside him, in the grass, a hollow opened, a round hole where the grass bent to the sides, like a flower opening, and the dirt fell into itself to create a space for her. She reflected that this was a burrow more than an oubliette, although some would think it more the latter, since it was so easily a tomb, where one was lost forever. She left her staff by the Keeper’s feet and pulled her cloak tighter around herself as she stepped into the hollow. She settled into it and curled up into a little ball, the warmth of the acolyte’s robes quickly fading in the cold of the dirt. In a moment of claustrophobic clarity she looked up and saw the sky shrink above her as she hollow filled itself in over her, burying her. Darkness and cold damp dirt closed in around her, and she immediately felt the tug of the Dream all about her.
She closed her eyes to the darkness, filling herself with the light of the horizon of the Emerald dream, and she dove, freely, into it, flicking aside the small swirling lights on the very edge of reality to fly, fall, dive, rush into the vastness of the Dream, to start her new task.
And so, with the grass slowly settling over the spot, Exmeralda was gone.
Slowly Nighthaven grew to its end and she left the path, stepped in the long cool grass, and passed the spirit of the bear in its hollow. She smiled at it as she continued on the round, slowly making her way to her destination, her final destination, which felt so alien to her now.
She lifted from her pocket the Tactical badge she had been given in Silithus, tracings its outlines with her long pale fingers. Soon, any thoughts of tactical duty against the Twilight Hammer would fade from her, and she would fall into the Dream, drift into its depths and away from the shores of the grove. Soon she would be out deep, deeper and further out than she had ever been before, and her only regret in this was that she didn’t have time to finish what she had begun. She had just gotten started, but the duty of the Sleepers was to attend the Keeper in all things, and now she was being called.
She walked under the high arch and up to the spectral form of the Keeper. She bowed before him, and she heard the leaves whisper as he inclined his head to her as well. Beside him, in the grass, a hollow opened, a round hole where the grass bent to the sides, like a flower opening, and the dirt fell into itself to create a space for her. She reflected that this was a burrow more than an oubliette, although some would think it more the latter, since it was so easily a tomb, where one was lost forever. She left her staff by the Keeper’s feet and pulled her cloak tighter around herself as she stepped into the hollow. She settled into it and curled up into a little ball, the warmth of the acolyte’s robes quickly fading in the cold of the dirt. In a moment of claustrophobic clarity she looked up and saw the sky shrink above her as she hollow filled itself in over her, burying her. Darkness and cold damp dirt closed in around her, and she immediately felt the tug of the Dream all about her.
She closed her eyes to the darkness, filling herself with the light of the horizon of the Emerald dream, and she dove, freely, into it, flicking aside the small swirling lights on the very edge of reality to fly, fall, dive, rush into the vastness of the Dream, to start her new task.
And so, with the grass slowly settling over the spot, Exmeralda was gone.