Under the Blood Moon, the Fitheach Sings
Prologue
The serenity of the inky soup of night was shattered as I leapt into the night. My uncooperative arms screamed with each jarring step, laying useless and unnatural at my sides. With each gasping breath, the air pulling into my burning lungs like hellfire and brimstone, I pushed myself further and further into the blessed cloak of darkness. My feet had long since started bleeding, my legs a bruised and aching mass, but I ran on unmindful of the pain. My long hair, dirty, tangled, and wild, whipped across my face with the bitter breeze of the autumnal wind. had to get away, this was my only chance, the only chance I would ever get.
Glancing up, I frantically scanned the skies, only to see that Rhiannon had heard my plea and hid herself deep within a silvery veil of clouds. In my moment of distraction, a root caught my foot and I was suddenly slamming into the ground with jarring force. An inhuman shriek of pain was wrenched out of my lungs as I landed on my damaged right arm, channels of agony running up and down it with the speed of lightening. I huddled within myself, dazed and shaking from the pain, desperately trying to collect my waning strength to make an attempt to stand and be on my way once more.
A howl in the distance froze my heart, ice dumping directly into my very soul and I was up before I even realized. As the haunting sound died away, I strained my ears desperately, listening, hoping, praying to see if it had been an anomaly, an awakened hound baying at a passing stranger. Dread dropped into the pit of my stomach as the sound picked up once more, now a chorus of dozens more, voices ringing out like the death knell of the damned, the Cwn Annwn coming to drag my soul to hell.
Like a shot, I was off once more, pushing my battered body to the very limits of it endurance. I could not stop, could not, would not be captured again. I absolutely refused, I would not survive it. The forest worked with me, aiding my escape at every step. The ground was littered in soft moss, muting my hurried steps and giving me an extra spring with every galloping step. The reaching branches of trees and bushes seemed to sway out of my path as I passed. The moon's silver face remained hidden deep behind the black sea of night and the animals of the woodland watched my desperate escape with passive eyes, silently willing me on.
My heart was pounding against my thin ribcage, smashing into it so hard I was afraid it was going to burst out of my chest, the sound of my ever approaching doom being washed away in the din the filled my ears. I ached with every passing moment, but fear and desperation pushed me onward, ever onward.
A break in the trees caught my attention and I launched myself forward frantically. I panicked when I realized I had ran head long into a briar patch, its grasping thorns hooking into my torn and filth-stained petticoats, into my hair, into my pale skin. A bay, closer then ever before, sounded through the night and my fear lended inhuman and frenetic energy to my failing limbs. With a violent lurch, unmindful of the damage I was giving to my already injured form, I wrenched myself out of the patch and into the brisk night air.
Realization hit me as I stumbled into the free air of the night and for the first time in days, joy filled my heart. I had made it! Thank Danu, I had made it. Stumbling forward, I basked into the salt drenched breeze that wafted over my wearied face. Tears gathered in my eyes and fell unhindered down my battered and aching cheeks. Walking across the rocky ridge, my staggered, uneven steps echoing in my ears loudly after the silence of the woods. Coming to a halt at the ledge, I surveyed the beauty before me, drinking it in like an addled man from the desert, desperate for water.
The silence of the night, once shattered by the sounds of my ever closer pursuants, was now washed away under the roar of the crashing waves below. The sea was a dancing, frolicking entity at my feet, alive and joyous in its wild freedom. Confident in its own power, it demolished all in its path if it so chose, or provided life, if it so chose. No one would dare tell it how to be, who to be, or judge it for living by its nature. It was loved, it was feared, and by all that was true, it was respected. Entranced, I stood on the edge, soaking up the raw power around me, fortifying my resolve.
"Mistress Sorenson, please, step away from there."
My heart suddenly in my throat, I twirled around to face my unexpected visitor, giving pause when I saw who stood before me. Taking in his solemn face, perfection in every line and angle, my eyes locked with his silver gaze. As if such a meeting at this place and time was clandestine, the moon chose that moment to stop hiding her luminous face and broke through the clouds, bathing us in her pearlescent glow. His eyes seemed to glow with an inhuman light in the moon's delicate rays, ethereal and vibrant. The moon also revealed the growing panic that lay within. Taking pity on the man, one of the few who had given me any kindness in the last few weeks, I addressed his earlier command.
"Master Blackbourne...I cannot do that, kind sir. You know it in your heart that I cannot do that."
"I implore you, Mistress Sorenson, please, step away from the edge. I promised you that I would aide you, that I would save you and I meant it. Please, step to me and we will flee from here. The others are awaiting us just this way hence. We shall leave this place and go somewhere where you can be safe, happy and whole. We have to time yet to fly nigh, I beg of you."
At this impassioned plea, I felt my heart quake in my chest as he reached a strong hand in my direction, his eyes alight with reassurance and passion. For a brief moment, I closed my eyes and imagined the beautiful and achingly impossible reality he painted with his musical voice. A world in which I was free to be myself, surrounded by those I had come to love. But as I opened my eyes, fresh tears escaping, I looked up and regarded the celestial body silently, calmly watching the scene play out before her. Through my tears, I noticed the faint ring of red around the moon's full face, cementing my resolve.
"There's blood around the moon...," I whispered to myself quietly.
"Mistress Sorenson...?" Master Blackbourne asked, concern underlying his voice as uncertainty grew on his face.
Turning my attention back to his lovely, perfect face, so alive with emotion at this moment that it broke my heart, I addressed him once more. "You are right, Master Blackbourne, there is yet time to fly nigh."
At my words, relief so strong flew across his features and the start of a heartbreaking smile crossed his face as he took a step toward me. Pain stabbed through my heart at his sudden guileless and entirely too open expression as I took a step back, away from his advance. He froze instantly at my actions, his eyes frantically scanning my face, confusion painting his eyes, realization coming so painfully slow, oh so tortuously slow. At the last second, he launched himself forward, terror and raw pain alighting his fine features as I stepped backwards once more, into the abyss. And with my name torn from his throat, pure agony sounded, I flew.
As the man crashed to his knees in disbelief, his hands grasping nothing but air, under the blood red moon, a raven sang.