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Thorns And All 1
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Thorns And All 1 |
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UNTAMEDelegance Member
since 2009-05-30
Posts 222Oregon |
Thorns and All Tae had never believed the stories. A stranger to the town of Ziia could ask anyone inside the village walls and they would get the same answer. The mayor’s daughter, Taelyn Adia, didn’t believe one single word of the stories that plagued her hometown. And who would believe stories of monsters of the shadows, black-skinned, faceless people that would eat your heart right out of your chest, and the reigning vampire Lord Sylvio. “Childish campfire stories.” She would flippantly say with a roll of her eyes. “Anyone could go out into the fields in the pitch black dead of midnight and come back perfectly fine…and sane.” The fields. They were the setting in all of the stories. To the west of Ziia, was a vast stretch of overgrown, hectic fields where chaos ran rampant that had been void of any care for supposedly one thousand years. The stories said that those fields were the birthplace of Lord Kuro. The villagers weren’t afraid of this. On the contrary, they would be more than happy to cultivate the fields as long as they were back inside the village walls by nightfall. Nothing would grow in the fields. Nothing at all, except giant thorns and thick, ugly weeds that covered the fields in a stifling blanket of green malice. Supposedly, the birth of Lord Kuro had left a curse on the land ‘because of the evil that lays festering in the cesspools of his heart.’ But these were the words of fools to Tae’s ears Which is exactly why she was going there tonight. To the fields. She would prove the stories wrong. Tonight…in the dark, looming fields. Tae took a deep steadying breath to calm her nerves. She had already packed a small bag with a couple of tools and a packet of dried meat, climbed out of her second floor window, and down the old, paint-flaking trellis. Currently, she was inserting the old, fancy, weathered key that she had ‘borrowed’ from her father into the keyhole of a small, forgotten door in an obscure corner of the wall. Tae winced as the rarely used door gave a horrendous, grating screech that wrenched Tae’s insides and sent shivers splintering down her spine. She anxiously looked around to ascertain that no one was deciding to be nosy or neighborly. Then she slipped out into the night. Once quietly away from the wall and the door, she took up a swift canter and ran to the fields in loping—if ungraceful—strides. “Woah!” Tae shouted , the fields coming into view as she crested a hill. She gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth, dropping flat and rolling behind a bush. Stealthily, she peered out. ‘The thorn brambles are a lot bigger up close.’ She noted wordlessly. Well, not really…brambles per say. The unkempt plant life had grown beyond being appropriately called bushes, thickets, or anything in that smaller category. They were now closer to a thorn forest growing in the fields; shadowy, dark, and rather scary…or really terrifying. Tae squeezed her eyes shut tight, took deep breaths, then ran into the tangles before she could convince herself that there might be a little bit more of the truth hidden in the stories than she cared to admit. Inside the forest of thorns it was even darker than the surrounding night. All around Tae were twitching, ebony shadows out of which rose tangled masses of thorn-covered vines. Tae shuddered as she took in the gloomy surroundings. She was fifteen minutes into the thorns and the forest had gotten creepier and scarier with every passing step. Tae’s brow furrowed as her pant leg caught on a thorn. She roughly pulled it away only to find that her other pant leg was stuck on yet another thorn. Tae growled and pulled this one off as well. When she had extracted herself from the thorns, she took several deep breaths. Then, ducking and weaving her way, she climbed further into the thorns; twitchy and jumping at every sound. “Taelyn.” The whispered voice sang to Tae. “Aaughh!” Tae’s scream came out as a pathetic little squeak. Her heart-beat spike and her breathing turned into to heaving gasps. Frantically, she looked around searching for the source of the voice. “Taelyn.” Tae breathed out heard at the sound and tried to calm herself. “Taleyn.” As she relaxed, the voice was like a warm bath; a rolling wave of luke-warm water washing over Tae’s senses. The soft, soothing sound caressed Tae’s ears and calmed her racing pulse. “Taelyn, dear. Come to my nocturnal palace, child.” The voice drew Tae in; entrancing, tantalizingly tender and deep. It was pulling on her heart-strings and leading her deeper still into the pitch dark of the fields. An hour—and many steps—later, Tae’s eyes were greeted by the friendly glow of an open fire. Breaking out of thorns she stopped, marveling as the heat of an enormous campfire washed over her skin. On the way to the campfire, Tae’s arms and legs had amassed a great number of smaller, superficial cuts and scrapes—several of which were still slightly oozing crimson liquid—courtesy of the thorns. The heat from the fire stung the wounds, but the healing warmth felt good at the same time. Tae froze. There were people dancing around the fire. Strange people. Black-skinned people… Just like the stories, except… Nothing is more painful than realizing he meant everything to you, but you meant nothing to him. (Unknown) |
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| © Copyright 2010 Melissa Reneé Axtell - All Rights Reserved | |||
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fractal007 Senior Member
since 2000-06-01
Posts 1958 |
Nice start to a dark serial. I have to admit though that your spelling (of per se for example) and your wording ("...courtesy of the thorns") did make it a bit jarring at times. You've picked a common motif and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it as your tale progresses. |
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