Home is where the heart is.

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susitsu
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Home is where the heart is.

Post by susitsu » Mon Jul 16, 2018 1:47 pm

I have lost my way.

Dreams were like distant memories made from only things that were false. My righteous hate for this place was a candle that burned twice as bright and not very long at all. It taught me things like fear, to know it proper. My faith can't protect me from these feelings. Each time they took me I was lost at first, before I realized I was always in the labyrinth. Each time I see so many visions of far off places I'm not meant to be before I am seated at the tea table in my dark, sandy corner.

I am not alone.

Somewhere in the distant dream, a roaring sound washed over my senses and submerged me. All-consuming, my senses dulling as I felt him growing nearer. The Holy Man who would ask something of me. Then all was nearly silent again as he slowly pulled out the opposing chair, and sat down at the table with me. Truly he was dressed in illustrious yellow robes befitting his kingly status. What does he want, I wonder. But a nudging reminder braces me as I tense for his voice, that which will shatter my senses.

"Do you have a wish, Atharenaril?"

What a sublime sound I was not worthy of. The flashing of my first time seeing massive bells in a city flowed through me as my body faded briefly. Glory and awe inspired merely by their grandeur, their very presence coming with feelings not easily ignored lest it be by the cold and disconnected. I am not worthy. Thoughts choked at my throat, wanting out, as I struggled to rise up from the chair.

"Do not say you are lost...I can..." Though I could see him again, his voice was drowned out by waves of noise, buffeting and crashing into me. I could feel the noise consuming me, and I realized these thoughts were cutting off my air. He said one last thing that sounded nothing like him.

"I don't even know how you're still alive, Elf."

Then I woke up, kicking, screaming, and clutching at the metal collar around my neck as I struggled with a very alarmed fisherman who had just saved my life.

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susitsu
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Re: Home is where the heart is.

Post by susitsu » Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:08 pm

It felt like I had lost consciousness for very long time. The feeling of this shadow over my recent memory was like the very waters I had just been wrest from. Tumultuous. It may have been months I ran and screamed through the labyrinth for release.

"You'll never leave..."

This sudden statement drew a concerned look from the fisherman, though I was quick to explain in as little detail as I could, "I'm-remembering where I was...before I was in the water." The innocent look of a victim masked the truly lacking amount of sensations I felt now. I felt shut off, in reality. My feelings come back each time, then I must face the horror of these new images in my mind.

"Hell's, forget your boat ride, and luck for that matter. Must be you kept a tribute going to Umberlee because whatever happened to your ride, sorry to say, bet you're the only one to survive," He rambled on in a crass manner, though I didn't feel his intents were ill. Even then, his words meant nothing. A boat crash is a good excuse, but where was I before all this? The fisher kept talking, I stopped listening.

And the words struck me quickly. I had been with her.

How predictable, this timing. They have made me waste those precious words. You can't use a phrase like that so many times to just clean up a mess with someone. A terrible piece of me wished I could just forget she existed, anathema to the vows we made to each other. So many mistakes and yet I couldn't call it sin too deep. I had a cause. I have a cause.

These drowning thoughts were interrupted as the boat jolted to a sudden stop.

We had reached the sandy shores. He was a lonesome kind of fisherman judging from where we landed. A tree-line marked the end of the beach, as far as I could see. I suspected a longer walk to follow that boat ride.

"Where did you say we were?" I finally asked, breaking my silence. He gave me an odd look and asked back "Ain't you been listening? I said Alaron. You were headed for one of the Moonshae Isles, weren't you?"

"Oh, you must be joking."

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susitsu
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Re: Home is where the heart is.

Post by susitsu » Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:49 pm

I considered some form of possession likely. It would explain away all this lost time, to the darkness, to the dreams. I'm simply out of control of my body when these distances are traveled. I did not leave Arelith. I shook my head, sense is what I needed to find right now; this thought brought me back to the forest we were presently passing through. Fleet of foot and all-too-familiar, navigating this forest called to my tribal origins. It was natural for me. I bathed in the dripping sunlight that slipped past the trees, taking in a light that felt absent far too long.

"Aye, so. It's a bit of a walk into town. You're a ways off from the larger places too, but once we get you rested and fed, a guide won't be hard to find. Say, where were you headed anyway?" He killed the time with talk, something I was reluctant to deal with now. Still, he did just save my life. But my wandering mind found itself focused on the man more than his pointless questions for a few moments, that he filled with chatter before I could respond. The one known to be my master left a chilling feeling in the air as I pondered where she could be now. I might be out of her reach, spirited away into the deepest darkness beyond her reach. What was this, some joke about freedom?

"Ah you forest folk are real good at getting around. Took me years of gettin' to know the ins and outs of this forest, but look at you. Some tan skinned traveler skippin' through a forest he don't even know."

What a cliche. A sailor with piercing blue eyes. His messy head of hair was brown, kept cut short, though his thick beard was let to grow down his face, and almost half-way down his chest. I pondered how much warmth he needed, how much he spends out on the waters fishing.

"Hey, yer starin' at me now."

I blinked a few times, softly saying "My apologies...to, to answer your question, I wasn't trying to go anywhere. I'm just here."

Simple enough, right? Nothing an adventurer would bat an eye at.

"...You're not some foreign soldier, are you?" He cast me an extremely suspicious look, his posture looking subtly readied as his steps slowed down; he was watching where he would be going with a few cautious glances away. I took a deep breath, and answered, "No." Keeping things extremely simple was the best course of action here, and as his pace quickened, I could tell he found my answer sufficient. "Roight. Well, don't scare no one like that in my village. I'm showing you some grade A hospitality right now."

I exhaled a sigh as quietly as I could.

"I'll try my best."

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