MoldaviteGreen
The world’s upside down here…
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2018
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The Promise of Silence (The Chemistry & MoldaviteGreen)
- Thread starter MoldaviteGreen
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OP
OP
MoldaviteGreen
The world’s upside down here…
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2018
A sprig was held between caramel forefinger and thumb, twirled softly. The native witch-hazel was beginning to fall, leaving the soft, damp earth cast in shades of a vibrant inferno; vermillion, amber, carmine and tangerine. They were bright against the landscape that lay dormant, afflux with deep brown, mouldering sepia, and dull, mossy greens. The end of fall was quickly approaching. The season of the caribou. A time for good hunting, but also a period of cold and harsh weather.
Sesi, kneeling with the damp of the earth seeping into her plain cotton trousers, wondered whether she'd be granted a cot within the communal hall to sleep. The alternative was to make camp at the edges, by a knoll and a felled tree, where she'd made her home the winter before. For men were cruel creatures, even in the face of a mutual adversary. Sesi was something other, something that did not fit their tight definition and mould, and they treated her with the same contempt as always.
The sprig was settled back down into the earth, gently poked into the damp soil in the hopes that it could take root.
For over four years, Sesi had survived on her own. Prior to that, she'd traversed the skeletons of the east-cost metropolis with her mother. Just the two of them, as it had always been. The pair against the world, and the abundance of monsters within it. It was eighteen months into the onslaught of the plague that she'd lost her mother. Lost, because Sesi had been faced with a choice no daughter should have to make. To watch her mother dissolve into something rabid and cruel, or to ease her mother's suffering before it was too late. Sesi still flinched at the distant sounds of a gunshot.
But there, kneeling upon the ground with the cold wicking up into her bones, there was only peace. The distant sounds of a murder of crows taking flight. The rustle of a chilled breeze through barren branches. The soft little thumps of a nearby rabbit alerting those within the burrows beneath of the nearby human threat.
Sesi lingered, tipping her head back to cast her dual-toned gaze to the low clouds above. Eyes of sea-glass blue and rich chocolate brown narrowed some. There'd be rain soon. She needed to get back.
Rising to her feet, the wind caught the ink of her long, sleek hair and tossed a tendril against her cheek. Her markings, set into the warm tone of her skin by her mother, had darkened in the years past. A diamond forged deep in the centre of her forehead between the dark of her brows. Rows of needled dots in geometric patterns along her chin and beneath her eyes. Her tunniit. Sesi's journey into womanhood etched deep into her skin.
She pulled the hood of her handmade coat up over her head to stave off the chill. Lined with rabbit fur, the soft of it tickled her ears. Sesi turned from the witch-hazel and began her trek back into the heart of the compound.
She didn't notice how the branch of witch-hazel bloomed again, thick, new roots digging deep.
"I don't understand." Sesi was standing barely a foot within the communal hall, her hood cast down upon her shoulders and her thick-socked feet still stuffed into snow shoes. She was standing before the compound's Charge; an astute woman with a bird-like nose and hair that had silvered early.
"What about that do you not understand? I said that you have been chosen to serve the appointed guardian, in anyway they deem necessary."
Sesi grit her teeth. "I don't understand how you came to such a decision, when I'm the one who kept this compound fed during the last winter."
She'd been dragged into the compound after she'd lain bleeding from an attack. Not by the creatures that stalked beyond the mountain range and beyond their barbed wire fence. But by the creatures that always believed everything to be rightfully theirs. Men. It had been one of the compound's scouts that had found her, and dragged her into this hellhole. Sesi bore a jagged wound across her stomach in the aftermath of it, a testament to the surgeon's field skills. They'd been using her as a hunter ever since.
"If you're going to palm me off to the guardian, then you can't expect me to be able to hunt," Sesi seethed. You can't expect me to be able to feed you.
She knew what was being asked of her. She knew that she'd be required to give everything in order to placate the being, in return for their protection. A sacrifice, she'd become. There'd be no time to check her traps, hunt the caribou and wander the edges of the district for fungi.
"It's already been decided." Final, came the Charge's words. The two men, strapped with semi-automatics, bristled behind the silver-haired woman. "They're to arrive sometime this evening. I expect you to be there to greet them."
The invisible noose about Sesi's throat had begun to tighten.
The district was a sprawling, thickly forested thing. Set deep between lush, snow-capped mountains. The compound's heart was a gathering of log-cabins, shipping containers repurposed, and earth-homes. It had been the space of a wellness retreat, and the luxury of the main building sat nestled by a rocky river, steeped into the foot of the smaller mountain.
The retreat's main building was set aside from the main compound, far enough to create a sense of safe distance. The Charge had made the choice to reserve the luxurious, multi-level building should they ever be granted a guardian. That way the creature was set apart from the rest.
Sesi knew of this building. She'd wandered past it on occasion as she'd fished for rainbow trout in the river, trousers rolled up to her thighs. It was a grand, obnoxious thing. All slate, black metal work, and wood that had surely been imported. A freshwater pool sat off to the side, and the lawn was now overrun. Sesi had always found it ironic how a clean, flowing river right at the foot of its property hadn't been enough.
She stood now in the shadow of that retreat, gazing up at the low-angled roofing. Snow would sit there. She wondered whether the space beyond the door would be musty and damp.
The key she'd been given took a firm shove to slip into the lock. The door groaned as Sesi pushed it aside, breaking the seal of something that felt like a tomb. So eerily quiet, everything echoed, and Sesi felt the need to take off her boots by the door. She dumped her small rucksack of belongings beside them.
No one was there yet, and that was a blessing. How the fuck was she meant to navigate this when no one knew anything about whom was coming to guard them? What was she meant to say?
And when she felt the sudden crawl of something cold down the back of her neck, Sesi went rigid. This was how the rabbit felt in a snare. This was the chill that consumed the deer beneath a wolf's stare. This was how it felt to be prey under a predator's gaze, and Sesi's body knew this instinctively.
She was standing before the hall's long mirror, and she took a breath to raise her eyes into the reflection. It was hard to be afraid of what she'd find when she'd faced monsters so cruel and so terrible. Still, her heart beat like a hummingbird's in her chest.
Two, hot-burning coals glimmered there, and when Sesi realised that they were eyes, she jolted. She span, tripping in the motion of it and slammed back into the mirror. Her two-tone eyes met that fiery amber gaze.
"Fuck!"
She was probably not meant to say that.
Sesi, kneeling with the damp of the earth seeping into her plain cotton trousers, wondered whether she'd be granted a cot within the communal hall to sleep. The alternative was to make camp at the edges, by a knoll and a felled tree, where she'd made her home the winter before. For men were cruel creatures, even in the face of a mutual adversary. Sesi was something other, something that did not fit their tight definition and mould, and they treated her with the same contempt as always.
The sprig was settled back down into the earth, gently poked into the damp soil in the hopes that it could take root.
For over four years, Sesi had survived on her own. Prior to that, she'd traversed the skeletons of the east-cost metropolis with her mother. Just the two of them, as it had always been. The pair against the world, and the abundance of monsters within it. It was eighteen months into the onslaught of the plague that she'd lost her mother. Lost, because Sesi had been faced with a choice no daughter should have to make. To watch her mother dissolve into something rabid and cruel, or to ease her mother's suffering before it was too late. Sesi still flinched at the distant sounds of a gunshot.
But there, kneeling upon the ground with the cold wicking up into her bones, there was only peace. The distant sounds of a murder of crows taking flight. The rustle of a chilled breeze through barren branches. The soft little thumps of a nearby rabbit alerting those within the burrows beneath of the nearby human threat.
Sesi lingered, tipping her head back to cast her dual-toned gaze to the low clouds above. Eyes of sea-glass blue and rich chocolate brown narrowed some. There'd be rain soon. She needed to get back.
Rising to her feet, the wind caught the ink of her long, sleek hair and tossed a tendril against her cheek. Her markings, set into the warm tone of her skin by her mother, had darkened in the years past. A diamond forged deep in the centre of her forehead between the dark of her brows. Rows of needled dots in geometric patterns along her chin and beneath her eyes. Her tunniit. Sesi's journey into womanhood etched deep into her skin.
She pulled the hood of her handmade coat up over her head to stave off the chill. Lined with rabbit fur, the soft of it tickled her ears. Sesi turned from the witch-hazel and began her trek back into the heart of the compound.
She didn't notice how the branch of witch-hazel bloomed again, thick, new roots digging deep.
𖤓
"I don't understand." Sesi was standing barely a foot within the communal hall, her hood cast down upon her shoulders and her thick-socked feet still stuffed into snow shoes. She was standing before the compound's Charge; an astute woman with a bird-like nose and hair that had silvered early.
"What about that do you not understand? I said that you have been chosen to serve the appointed guardian, in anyway they deem necessary."
Sesi grit her teeth. "I don't understand how you came to such a decision, when I'm the one who kept this compound fed during the last winter."
She'd been dragged into the compound after she'd lain bleeding from an attack. Not by the creatures that stalked beyond the mountain range and beyond their barbed wire fence. But by the creatures that always believed everything to be rightfully theirs. Men. It had been one of the compound's scouts that had found her, and dragged her into this hellhole. Sesi bore a jagged wound across her stomach in the aftermath of it, a testament to the surgeon's field skills. They'd been using her as a hunter ever since.
"If you're going to palm me off to the guardian, then you can't expect me to be able to hunt," Sesi seethed. You can't expect me to be able to feed you.
She knew what was being asked of her. She knew that she'd be required to give everything in order to placate the being, in return for their protection. A sacrifice, she'd become. There'd be no time to check her traps, hunt the caribou and wander the edges of the district for fungi.
"It's already been decided." Final, came the Charge's words. The two men, strapped with semi-automatics, bristled behind the silver-haired woman. "They're to arrive sometime this evening. I expect you to be there to greet them."
The invisible noose about Sesi's throat had begun to tighten.
𖤓
The district was a sprawling, thickly forested thing. Set deep between lush, snow-capped mountains. The compound's heart was a gathering of log-cabins, shipping containers repurposed, and earth-homes. It had been the space of a wellness retreat, and the luxury of the main building sat nestled by a rocky river, steeped into the foot of the smaller mountain.
The retreat's main building was set aside from the main compound, far enough to create a sense of safe distance. The Charge had made the choice to reserve the luxurious, multi-level building should they ever be granted a guardian. That way the creature was set apart from the rest.
Sesi knew of this building. She'd wandered past it on occasion as she'd fished for rainbow trout in the river, trousers rolled up to her thighs. It was a grand, obnoxious thing. All slate, black metal work, and wood that had surely been imported. A freshwater pool sat off to the side, and the lawn was now overrun. Sesi had always found it ironic how a clean, flowing river right at the foot of its property hadn't been enough.
She stood now in the shadow of that retreat, gazing up at the low-angled roofing. Snow would sit there. She wondered whether the space beyond the door would be musty and damp.
The key she'd been given took a firm shove to slip into the lock. The door groaned as Sesi pushed it aside, breaking the seal of something that felt like a tomb. So eerily quiet, everything echoed, and Sesi felt the need to take off her boots by the door. She dumped her small rucksack of belongings beside them.
No one was there yet, and that was a blessing. How the fuck was she meant to navigate this when no one knew anything about whom was coming to guard them? What was she meant to say?
And when she felt the sudden crawl of something cold down the back of her neck, Sesi went rigid. This was how the rabbit felt in a snare. This was the chill that consumed the deer beneath a wolf's stare. This was how it felt to be prey under a predator's gaze, and Sesi's body knew this instinctively.
She was standing before the hall's long mirror, and she took a breath to raise her eyes into the reflection. It was hard to be afraid of what she'd find when she'd faced monsters so cruel and so terrible. Still, her heart beat like a hummingbird's in her chest.
Two, hot-burning coals glimmered there, and when Sesi realised that they were eyes, she jolted. She span, tripping in the motion of it and slammed back into the mirror. Her two-tone eyes met that fiery amber gaze.
"Fuck!"
She was probably not meant to say that.