The warbling chirping chatter in the air was incessant.
Aniola was the primary culprit, but even the violet winged Reiz was guilty for some of the noise. The two Fae had been chattering along nearly non-stop for the last two days like long lost friends.
M paused, wiggling her toes in the warm sand. Things between her and the elf had been much quieter. She didn't mind though, he was still generally pleasant and smiled whenever she spoke. Occasionally he'd even reply in his exotic sounding tongue. And better than all that, was the fact that they were getting closer.
A light breeze picked up hundreds of tiny grains of sand, bouncing them along the surface of the warm dunes. It looked like a constantly shifting light brown mist, hovering above the rolling hills and dunes that defined the landscape. It was an odd feeling, having the sand blow around her ankles, roll across her feet. Almost like standing in a grainy ocean and feeling the tide glide past.
Sighing, M lifted her eyes to the sky and resumed trudging. The sky here wasn't so much blue, as a deep shade of lavender. Like nighttime was lingering, unwilling to forsake the sky's vast embrace. Behind her, a jagged obsidian wall of mountains rose like teeth, reaching for the faint crescent moon that hovered above them. The elf had led her through a hidden cleft in those mountains, and they had spent the day moving through a world of sharp black stones, and swirling specters that had danced about them in the thick fog. M had hardly been able to see the black-clad elf as he had slipped through the fog a mere meter ahead of her.
They had left behind the jungle and the stream the day before, and with the help of sign language and crude images drawn in the dirt, the Elf had demonstrated that he knew where she wanted to go. Or, at least, that's what it seemed he had. And they were definitely getting closer. M could feel it.
Like a heartbeat running through the landscape, there was a feeling that pulsed through the world, and the closer she got to the source of it, the stronger the feeling became. She could feel hints of it in the steady breeze that kept the sun above from being too hot. She could taste it in the strangely succulent thick-leafed plants that the elf had offered her for food. She could even hear it in the whispers of the breeze and the constant chatter of the Fae.
So she kept trudging through this trackless desert, trusting her heart and hoping the Elf really did know where he was going. In the distance, huge sandy clouds began to loom. It looked like the desert itself was leaping into the sky, rippling and boiling across the horizon.
A light touch on her shoulder. The elf's fingers were cold, but his smile and touch were reassuring. His eyes said more than words ever could have.
M didn't worry about the storm.
~
Trey leaned forward, fingers outstretched towards the silvery flame. It danced and wreathed patterns like a living creature, flickering about the small silver stone he had produced from his belt. It wasn't as warm as natural fire, nor as full colored, but the silvery radiance was also more calm than a regular flame. The light patterns that played across his ebony features and glinted off his silver jewelry seemed more like those underwater, at the bottom of a pool, than the harsh shadows cast by a fire. The air was dark, obscured by the storm.
He had never been certain why he helped them. Time after time. It had been different every journey, and some things changed. Sometimes her hair was raven black, other times her skin was a golden brown. She had been alone once, and once she had been followed by a crowd of pale-faced children. But her eyes were always the same. Trey didn't understand it himself, but it had always felt like the right thing to do. And whenever he had met those black eyes, he had recognized her. She never recognized him, and Trey occasionally wondered if she was the same person.
The sand whirled in a strange vortex around them, as if it wanted to be near the bright silver flames, but was afraid to come too close. The air was calm and still where Trey sat, but even a meter further from the flame, and the hushed roar of the sandstorm would consume him.
The girl slept, or at least lay quietly near the flame facing it and away from him. The tiny slumbering form of her Fae was curled under her chin, and all Trey could see of it was the slow flutter of its scarlet wings. Reiz also slept nearby, curled into a violet ball with glowing silver streaks.
Trey wished she were awake. Not that it would do him any good, he wanted to ask her name. But he didn't have the words. And perhaps she didn't have a name. Trey propped himself up against a stone, enjoying the warm glow of the silver fire against the chill calm air of their soundless little sanctum. Somewhere out in the raging black storm, a massive desert creature began to sing. Then another.
Leaning back and letting his softly glowing eyes fall closed, Trey smiled.
He loved the song.
Contexi Community Member 
|
|
