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EnigmaticSpirit
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Safety

Post by EnigmaticSpirit » Sun Sep 24, 2017 10:26 pm

I see hands. They crawl over my skin like a thousand tiny spiders. They grasp and pull me down and suck the air from my chest. But I don't want to flee. The cold is comforting. The embrace is welcome. But to close my eyes would be to feel the spiders for eternity.

I see shadows. They dance around me like puppets without strings, drift and glide, but even against the dark I see them before my eyes like smoke. Nor am I blind. I see all. Sometimes one brushes my arm and whispers that I will be alright, without pain, if I just close my eyes.

I feel pain. My home torn asunder, but mending slowly. My family shattered like a mirror, no one shard facing another. No voice unified. Some shards are missing completely. I am conscious that before my foes I crumble. The whispers tell me I am inadequate to the task, but they will embrace and comfort me, and my pain will end.

But I also see hope. Glimmers of light, dancing stars in the distance. And I feel... warmth. Comfort. Safety. But from different hands. I feel his eyes on mine. I remember promises I made, and I grasp those hands as if they were a cliff edge.

I see strength. I hear the voices of many others. I am reminded my pain can ease without the anonymity of oblivion, if I am strong enough to bear the ride. I feel the light of my faith burning in my chest. I feel tears running from my eyes as I fight to break free, grasping those hands.

I know love. I know I will wake and I will be safe once more from the pain of my nightmares. They are not a place I ever wanted to be. I am loved, wanted and needed by so many.

"I've got you," says a familiar voice.

And I simply reply, with a smile spreading to the furthest corners of my lips...

"I will protect you."


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Re: Safety

Post by EnigmaticSpirit » Wed Sep 27, 2017 5:16 pm

I see red. I feel the familiar fire prickling my skin, but it never hurts. I feel wings, but I know I have none. As always the creature within me wakes, stirs and sees what it desires. Normally I would hone this urge down the shaft of an arrow, but this is Quessir. Not a hostile.

She tells me of the beast within her. She speaks of a creature that never rests, with a hunger as unrelenting as her rage on the battlefield. And the beast in me knows another when it feels one.

I see betrayal. I feel her lips on mine, her skin on my skin and I know only pain can come of this. But the beast inside me cares not for that pain. In fact it revels in it. I am repulsed, I want to push her away but this only causes me to grasp tighter and claim that which is not mine.

I see shame. I cannot bear the sickness inside as this plays out. I watch helplessly as my body is held by strings and manipulated. There is only lust and violence here. And as the life slips from her body when I am done with her, torn asunder by hands now bearing scales and claws, blood pouring from so many holes in my body I am reminded that this is the antithesis of who I wish to be.

"I am yours," I say over and over, trying to break free but again I feel those hands grasp my body, the coldness creeping in and even the beast inside me is powerless to resist entirely. I try to cry his name but no sound comes out.

And I know that when I wake, the pain and shame will remain. But I will fight this. I will keep them safe from me.


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Re: Safety

Post by EnigmaticSpirit » Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:54 am

I see fire. I know I have to keep my head down, below the outcrop sheltering me from the storm outside. Overhead I can see arrows flying and spells lighting up the sky like stars in both directions. The sky turns green, amber, green again. Somehow I know this is a battle, and I feel that neither is friendly. If either side finds me, my life is forfeit.

I smell blood. But it is not unpleasant. Refreshing even. This disturbs me. But it is definitely blood. As another bright green spell comes all too close to my refuge I reflexively duck deeper into the mud, wet with the blood of the casualties. It's all over me, but for some reason my hands are stained orange. Why orange?

I feel faint. I want to sleep. But to sleep here would be to die. I cling to consciousness with both hands, pushing myself up slightly to peer over the outcropping. The deafening sounds of battle quiet for just a moment and I fixate on the nearest fire, the dance of the flames mesmerizing despite my better intentions to remain focused.

Then I see him. Just on the other side of those terrible flames, a warrior calls my name, only his outline visible but I know it is him. Foes seem to fall on him from both directions but I do not fear for him. Peerless swordsman as he is, he steps, lunges, cuts and then launches into a wide spin, seeming never to tire. I find my bow in my hands now and begin to send arrows into some of the now closing magi.

That was a mistake. They begin to scatter from him and spread out in search of me. I duck low again, more of the orange and green spells lighting the sky and the ground beside me shaking. Death will come before he finds me. My warrior. And I do not wish to leave him alone here. The indecision paralyses me as I feel the prickle of fires and the stinging of blood on my skin.

"You are a child of two."

I hear thunder.

"You are a daughter of fire and crimson."

I hear my warrior cry, howl above the pandemonium. Pain? Or was he calling for me?

"But, overall, you are one of the Green."

I peer over the outcropping again. He is closer now, but still obscured by the smoke and dance of the flames. The corpses are all around him in a circle and he has moved, but not much. As if he knows I am near.

" See through veil of the Dream world."

I blink. I cannot place the voice I can hear. But I know it. It feels familiar. When my eyes come into focus again, not only can I now make out the individual links of the deep silver and green chainmail, but I can see he is not alone. The thunder I heard was not thunder, but... hoof beat.

"And see the fire..."

The corpses on one side are elven, I realize in horror, in resplendent green leathers and plate.

"... The breathing fury and torment that haunts you."

The others are red and black-clad dragonkin. Those that are wearing anything, anyway.

"You are so much more."

I am. This I know. I see a mage readying a fireball to fling at my warrior and my arrows tear his body to shreds in a blistering volley as I leap from the ground and to the nearest patch of clear ground. I start to run in the direction of my warrior. I must aid him.

"Today you will know other things."

And the battlefield is gone. I cannot see my warrior, nor the fires, corpses, spells... all of it. Though the blood remains on my skin, and my bow in my hands. I squeeze as I turn to behold a world of green that defies my imagination in all directions. I see the plants continuing to spring from the ground in a circle outwards from where I stand, my boots still slick with mud and gore. I do not know the names of a good many of these plants, trees and ferns. But I am reassured. I know where I am.

I hear thunder once more. I turn on one foot and spin to look behind me and I come face to face with a red mask of bone, painted with a good many vines and twisting patterns. I step back and see antlers, etched with suns and moons but in a blocky, geometric style all along those enormous things.

"You know Her now. She knows you."

I am afraid. But I reach out in defiance of reason, sense and fear. I reach out with faith, with courage, with all my wish to be whole and reunited with my warrior. I grasp those antlers with both hands.

"We are Arion," I tell it. I don't know what that means. But I feel my warrior close by now and I know he is not far. The four-legged creature before me seems to approve, lowering its head and allowing me to take hold.

"To love you. Hold... Protect... Share a life with you. This is what I swear."

Tears fill my eyes even as I feel the antlers vanish from my hands and the world slip back to nothingness.

"All my heart," I say in answer the new voice without body, "I give to you."


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Re: Safety

Post by EnigmaticSpirit » Sat Oct 28, 2017 12:46 am

"You deserve so much more than I can give..."

"Who are you?!" I cry into the cold. It is dark and as is seldom the case when I take to reverie... I see nothing.

But I know this voice like I have known only one other in my life. It is my own.

"All my dreams contain you. What happened to that, Arion Necator? You continually allow the darkness to creep in, your weakness to consume you."

"How many wars are won with a single battle?" I answer, turning about but the darkness is oppressive, and even now I feel the hands creeping up my ankles, rooting me to the ground.

"All my days, I want with you. And yet you strung that arrow and fired at that phylactery knowing it would likely be your end."

Resolute, surprisingly so, I cry back into the dark. "I want that, but I am not selfish. I put my people... his life... before my own. What I did was right and my duty."

"I have, all I am and ever will be, I share with you. And yet you conceal a part of yourself from him, whole. You hold back and it will only damage your union."

I turn and find myself facing... an elf, of my size and build, with my hair, but clad in a mask of a deer skull, complete with antlers and paintings of twisting vines and ivy. The voice comes from within the mask, golden eyes judging me with a stare meant to penetrate my chest and drive into my soul.

Is this the power I could wield if I tried?

"You swore an oath. A bond. You swore to stand by this elf. And without even trying you are betraying him with your heart. Ask yourself if you meant those vows. Let him in and let him see."

"They hurt me," I whimper. The sound is pathetic.

She squares off with me, barely an inch from my head, and glares. Challenging and urging me in kind. I cannot help but look back, drawn by her charisma. There is an intense, powerful aura to her.

"I know, but before you can change hearts and minds, you must master your own."

"All my heart, I give to you," I mumble in shame. "All my heart."

"All my heart," she answers, and disappears.


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