A Dance in the Dark

A Dance in the Dark

Postby CherryStatic » Sun Jan 24, 2016 7:17 pm

Cassie wasn't sure how much further she could run. The frigid night air stung her lungs with each breath she sucked in, and her legs burned as if they had been set aflame. She ran with one arm over her face, some small measure of protection against the thin branches and twigs that blocked her way, slashing her soft skin and leaving welts wherever they struck her as she careened past.

"Mama! Mamaaa, help meee!" Her shrill scream echoed plaintively off the trunks of the tall trees that comprised the forest, as lost in the darkness as she was. She could hear the thing barreling through the leaves behind her, making as much noise as ten men as it came, snapping branches and kicking up loose showers of dirt. She didn't dare look back, or she knew it would have her; not that she wanted to, anyway. One look had been enough to give her nightmares for the rest of her life. "Maaamaaaaa!"

It was whispering, she realized. Not in the way that you whisper in someone's ear when you tell them a secret, but in the way that a room full of people whisper, individually quiet but like a roaring wind as a whole. It was a mindless string of disjointed thoughts mired in laughter and the distant humming of children.

chasing running leaping calling for maaamaaaaa but mama is behind you she wants to hold you and keep you and protect you but you have to stop running and let her find you and you can run as far as you like but it doesn't matter it never matters she found the key and now theres nowhere to run nowhere to hide nowhere to be but at mamas side

A scream of utter terror was ripped from Cassie's lips at the incessant words that tumbled through the night, growing closer with each second. She wanted nothing more than to drop to her knees and squeeze her eyes shut and shut the monster out, but she knew in the back of her mind that if ever there was a time to be a big girl, it was now. She pushed herself to run even faster than she already was.

With a flurry of inky feathers and a cacophony of caws, a handful of large birds appeared seemingly from nowhere and sailed past her, narrowly missing her. The whispers behind her turned to an earsplitting roar, and she risked looking behind her to see that the thing had drawn up and was flailing at the birds that circled it, diving in and out of reach to tear viciously at its face. She used the distraction to put distance between herself and the nightmare--

--and promptly ran into something soft and warm. She fell onto her backside, scrambling madly away from the new threat, screaming once more, before the person she had run into cleared their throat impatiently.

"Little sparrow, whatever are you doing in the middle of the forest at this hour?" The person leaned forward, one gloved hand leaving the handle of her closed parasol to offer it to the girl. "You'll ruin that dress if you continue rolling in the dirt for even a second longer. Come now."

Recognizing her as the lady that had given her and her brother the gold piece in the alleyway by the market, she took the hand and climbed quickly to her feet. She wasn't sure if she was more relieved or surprised, but she knew that the thing behind her wouldn't have offered her a hand.

"It took Kell!" she cried, pointing. "It grabbed him and took him somewhere! When I went after him, it tried to grab me, too!"

The woman's golden irises flicked towards the monster, full of distaste. "I want you to get behind me, little sparrow. Do not attempt to run, or it will come after you. Get behind a tree and stay out of sight. Have I made myself perfectly clear?" Cassie stared dumbly up at her for a moment before nodding slowly. The woman gave her a brisk pat on the head and stepped forward, towards the enraged monster, while the small girl did as she had been instructed, rounding the trunk of a tree and huddling near the base.

The crows that had descended upon the beast scattered to the surrounding trees, some with broken wings, some with gouged eyes. Some lay twitching on the ground, other still as statues. The monster drew itself up to its full height, towering a good four feet over the witch that approached it, stopping a stone's throw away, parasol planted squarely between her feet. In the dim moonlight, the outline of the creatures seemed to swim like a diaphanous mist as it took on a more recognizably human form. Eyes that burned like coals leered at her with a deep rooted hatred.

Vaya always Vaya meddling crow bitch hate hate hate HATE HATE

"You flatter me, dog." Vaya said with an indulgent smile, as if they were exchanging niceties. "And where exactly would your mistress be this fine evening? I've felt her skulking about Myrken of late, but she hasn't made an appearance yet. I would so love to have a nice, long talk with her."

The shadow beast hunched its shoulders, eyes narrowing. Vaya will never speak to her Vaya will never even get close enough to speak to her Noir will tear Vayas pretty throat out with his teeth if Vaya goes anywhere near her NOIR WILL KILL VAYA

"Oh, come, Noir. We've had this discussion several times already." She donned a haughty expression, managing to look down her nose at something twice her height. "This song and dance has grown rather old, wouldn't you agree? I happen upon you doing something naughty, I ask you where that miserable woman is, you threaten to claw my tongue out or some such nonsense..." She gracefully opened the parasol, laying it against her exposed shoulder. "...and I send you back to her with your tail between your legs."

The smoky monster bared vicious, dripping fangs. Bringing wicked claws up over its head, it roared. NOIR WILL EAT VAYAS CROW HEART

She rolled her mascaraed eyes and pulled a long suffering expression to no one in particular. "All this talk of eating crows of late. Honestly."

The black hand came down as the parasol went up, knocking the blow aside effortlessly. The creature hissed like a viper and dove for her with its other hand, its claws glinting as they closed in on her corseted middle. She stepped to one side at the last moment, swinging a dainty arm up towards the sky in his direction. A barrage of inky feathers made the short journey from her fingertips to the side of its ribcage, their sharp quills sinking several inches into the roiling ebony flesh.

Noir reeled back with a deafening cry, grabbing at the exposed feathers sticking from its side. With a growl coming from low in its throat, its head snapped forward like a viper, neck stretching. Its razor fangs closed down on the witch's torso, lifting her high overhead before clamping together and tearing her cleanly in half. Vaya's lower body fell to the forest floor as the monster continued to shred the rest of her to pieces, ribbons of flesh and blood spattering the leaves all around it. The chewing grew gradually slower, and the beast began spitting feathers from its mouth in frustration.

The remnants of the witch's body dissolved into pitch colored down, pulled into the air as if caught in a powerful wind and moving short distance away, where they swirled violently together, forming a bipedal shape as they clumped together. Vaya stepped from the storm of feathers with a nonplussed expression, looking more bored than anything else. The parasol came to rest neatly on her shoulder once more.

"Always so direct." she mused, clucking her tongue in reproval. "When dancing with a lady, one should place tact above all else. I'll hazard a guess that you weren't raised properly. Unfortunate, really."

The massive creature charged her with a huff, lowering its head as it came, twisting horns coalescing atop the head of its shadowy form. It was feet away when she simply lifted away from the ground, carried into the air on magnificent black wings that seemed to sprout from the dress she wore. Noir brought itself up short, confused by the lack of collision, and let out a bestial cry of pain as her wings dissolved and she dropped straight onto its back, parasol first, stabbing deep into the monster with its shining silver tip.

It shook violently, throwing her off with a heavily muscled arm. She held the parasol aloft and seemed to drift to the forest floor, high heels touching down gently one after another. Her smile was gone, her patience worn thin.

"We know how this ends, beast." A frown tugged at the corners of her burgundy lips. "Make yourself scarce before I am forced to do something that you will undoubtedly regret more than I will."

Noir glared heatedly at her from across the small clearing, holding its side. Oily black liquid oozed sluggishly from its wounds, dripping to the leaves beneath it as it contemplated rushing her once more. It's glowing eyes slid to where Cassie crouched behind the tree.

"If you move so much as an inch towards that child," Vaya said, leveling the tip of the parasol with the shadow creature's heart, "I will be most displeased."

The monster growled at her, the sound lacking the ferocious quality it had possessed only moments before. Without a sound, it seemed to melt, collapsing upon itself into a puddle of shadows that slipped away through the trees.

"Foul creature." Vaya watched it go, frowning, before turning to the tree behind which the girl hid. "Come now, little sparrow. Our friend has gone for the time being."

Tentatively, the small head poked around the trunk of the oak. Cassie haltingly stepped from her hiding place, stopped to survey the forest, and then ran towards the witch. Her tiny arms closed around the woman's thigh as she sobbed into the velvet material of her dark dress. Startled, Vaya poked and prodded with a gloved hand, attempting to dislodge herself from the onslaught of tears and human fingers.

"That is quite enough of that, young lady. I will not allow you to ruin this outfit with your tears." She pried the fingers from her leg and quickly put a foot or two of distance between the two of them, visibly gathering herself and sighing. Looking at the girl in apprehension, ready to sidestep any further attempts to show gratitude, she allowed herself the tiniest of smiles.

"Well. That was rather exciting, if I do say so myself. What say you, little sparrow?"

Cassie stared up at her, tears still tricking down her cheeks as her face crumpled. "It still has Kell. It has my brother."

Vaya leaned forward, shaking a finger at her to cut off the waterworks before they truly started up again. "We will find a way to save your brother, if and only if you cease that horrid crying this instant. There are two things in this world that I will, under no circumstance, tolerate: serpents and tears." She paused, glancing at the leaf strewn ground warily. "Although a crying snake would be a truly abhorrent thing."

The absurdity of the statement ushered a giggle out of Cassie, who wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her dirty cotton dress. Vaya offered her and arm, and Cassie gingerly took it, the two of them leaving the clearing together.

"Never fear, little sparrow." she said softly, looking ahead into the darkness between the trees. "Things are always darkest before the dawn. Even so, I fear that things are about to get very, very dark in Myrken."
User avatar
CherryStatic
Member
 
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:01 pm
Location: Tennessee

Return to The Forest & Lake



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests

cron