Sunday, 1 December 2013

Prologue: Part 3




© Ron




She had been travelling for a long time, the man could see that much. The life had run out of her, and even by the warm glow of firelight she seemed to flicker and fade like a shadow. The woman glanced up, her wild, animalistic eyes catching the light. She sat, huddled, a thick blanket pulled up across her frame. Still she did not speak. The only sound was the hissing and spitting of the fire, releasing sparks into the infinite night. The man cocked his head slightly, surveying her. She may have been beautiful, in the past. A striking beauty. Coming in out of the cold she had seemed majestic and defiant, striding despite her exhaustion. Now, she had collapsed, deflated and shrunk back into her shell of terror. Her skin seemed pulled taught across her bones, and though she must have been in her middle years it was as if death were a moment away. He narrowed his pale blue eyes, and unfolded his limbs to reach out to her.  He too had suffered. Once dark-haired and handsome, with midnight blue eyes that flashed with passion and malice, he had been reduced to a mere waif. Pale, bleached limbs, hair the colour of cold ash, and eyes misted as if with cataracts. His strong build had been grotesquely deformed into something else, something with arms like legs and a thin, narrow chest. At least he wasn’t dead. Yes, he grinned, at least he wasn’t dead! The same couldn’t be said for the others. Their bones lay frozen , suspended in the thick grey mud. First, there had been psychosis. Driven mad, they were, by the hellish land. Slowly they died, unwanted by their Creators, suffering the terrible fate of Forget. They were outside the sphere of consciousness, and no longer needed. So they were Forgotten, and in time simply - died. He grinned broader. Not him, though. He was still here. He still had his wits about him.  It was him, after all, who had brought his little band of followers out here, it was he who had had the will to defy. He may have all but forgotten who he was (his name had disappeared long ago) but he was alive! He had done it – he had defied his Creators
The woman would end up the same way. Unable to leave, she would surely die here. Already he could see she was forgetting herself, lapsing into semi-consciousness and jerking back awake. He touched her shoulder and she pulled away, eyes widening. Temporarily, she was fully awake. She remembered what she was here for. Slowly, out came her cargo. The reason she was here, condemned to certain death or else madness. He deftly scurried round, eyes large and smile wider. He plucked it from her hands, and she stiffened, fighting the urge to take it back. But no, this was its fate. This was why it was here. He gently removed the swathes of cloth, and laughed: a short, abrupt laugh that echoed into the night. It almost sounded… sane. He swung his head round to face her. He nodded., A silent decision was made, a decision that echoed louder across the plain than any other sound that night.

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