Figments
She was home again. Grandmama was sat in her chair, and Papa was coming through the door, smiling. She looked around, for the first time in weeks feeling at peace. Everything here was familiar, even down to the smell of food from the kitchen, and the smoke rising from the candles at the family shrine.
“Tiersu dear, it's good to see you,” Grandmama said, but the moment she spoke something in the atmophere changed. It wasn't...wasn't right, somehow. Tiersu felt sick of a sudden, and turned anxiously to see her Papa's expression contort suddenly to one of anger.
“Get out of my sight!” he yelled, striding forward. He raised his hand to slap her. “You bring disgrace upon this family and it must stop now!”
Tiersu ducked and ran, the house dissolving into a dark mist around her. Behind her, his voice echoing, she could hear her father shouting: “I have no third daughter!” again and again until she fell to her knees sobbing, her hands over her face.
The voice stopped and she looked up. She was standing in a wooded area, the sound of water close by. She stood, taking in her surroundings, the strangest sense of deja vu coming over her-
A hand clamped over her mouth, and an arm wrapped around her, pinning her own arms to her sides. She kicked out with her feet, but they felt sluggish, as though she dragged them through tar. Hot, foul air rushed past her face and she gagged, the hand over her mouth not budging a millimetre. Something wrapped tightly around her legs, pinning them in place and she struggled harder, terrified. What would happen next, where was her staff... her staff!
There in front of her, but a shadowy figure held it in oversized hands. It was bending it, bending her staff and as her eyes widened in horror it snapped it in two, the crack echoing around her like a clap of thunder. She moaned deep in her throat with despair. Not the staff; not her one link with her ancestors!
With renewed vigour she struggled against her captor, writhing against that which held her helpless. She searched deep inside her for something to fight with and felt the hot, sharp heat of lightning simmering and cracking there. Well, if it killed her she would fight back. What had she to lose now, after all?
CRRACK! The bolt flew and Tiersu's world exploded into light. Bright and electric, it burned through her eyelids, illuminating the veins. She opened her eyes and saw wood above her, fabric around her, and felt, scant moments later, the pain of burning. Shocked to wakefulness she rolled, fumbling with her magic to draw water out of the humid air. A few more seconds of rising agony and a burst of water sprayed out across the room, dousing the flames and drenching her in one. She gasped, finally free of the traces of sleep which had clung on past waking.
Her hair hung damply across her face, and she had rolled out of her bed onto the floor in a tangle of blankets which were now both singed and sodden. The tiny room with its leaky roof and draughty walls was a small comfort to wake to, but at least it was real.
No comments:
Post a Comment