CHAPTER 11: MARIEL
The Night was miserable. The Darkness was not a friendly one, but one composed of a chorus of elusive, terrified cries and preternatural rustlings. I had slept to sleep of the utterly exhausted with the dreams of shapeless pursuers and raw, painful colors. It could be expected. After all, I was sleeping in shallow scratches of sand with little or no cover from what waited beyond my limited night vision. I suspect it was mostly the forest. Her visage was cold and unyielding to an inexperienced trespasser. The unwelcome that I felt penetrated my undercoat in the form of the forest's frigid disregard for me. I felt it in the marrow of my bones.
I was becoming delusional with fatigue and the strain from the fear driven vigil was wearing me thin. The pull of the consternation I had become consumed by on my heart was the same as if I had run for miles. I was beginning to see the phantoms of animals moving closer to me in the dark. When I blinked all of my eyes to dissolve them, I was rocked by dizziness and would reel when I again opened my eyes.
The little scratches, cuts and moderate bruises were starting to take turns pounding on the drums of my all too sensitive nerves. What should have been a petty annoyance, to a normally conditioned me, was fastly becoming pang after pang of short-lived agonies.
I'm going to die before the sun rises, I thought bitterly. I was living my speculation that there was no mercy in nature for the hopelessly stupid.
But the sun did rise for me. I awoke freezing off the remains of a fever sweat in the early morning. Seeing more clearly that I had the night before, I cast my way out of the gloom of the woods, beyond the reach of spindly hands thrust forth by trees that meant to catch some other poor soul long before I had come.
Despite the absence of root snares and vine traps, I still stumbled. The glare of that first sight of the sun blinded me and I pitched froward. My body said that I should remain on the ground and my mind agreed that carrying on in my present state would only lead to broken bones. I ignored them both and forced myself up and continued to walk. I concentrated on keeping control and not falling anymore, but it was hard and I fell anyway. Frequently. I had no idea of where I was heading, and I didn't care, even if I was traveling back towards my home.
I had just regained my ability to walk without the drunken weaving when my fore-hoof sank into a recess and I hit the ground hard. This time I obeyed my body and lay where I had fallen. I hadn't the strength to pick myself up.
I was roused by a terrible thirst. I had lost consciousness that morning, now I was bathed in the sun's warm brilliance. I welcomed the warm yellow blanket I was being freely offered and waited some time more before deciding to move. When I did move, my head felt like it was going to explode. In the hour following my awakening, I had managed to sit up, but I had since then reclined and was panting furiously.
Through blurred vision, I saw a figure approaching. I didn't feel like dealing with anyone, especially the owner of this property, convinced of his own superiority. I shifted, rather painfully, so that my back faced him and obscured my face from his sight with my hand. I didn't even turn a stalk eye in my soon to be interrogator's direction.
No matter how tried to pretend that his wasn't there, the stranger continued to move closer to me. I was pleased to note that the man approaching retained a cautious step.
Are you all right? The question surprised me to the point that I didn't have a reply. Most people would demand my name and my business on their property or something to that extent. I coughed, which would sound more like a sneeze to human ears, and steadied myself with my hands so as to sit up as straight as possible.
Fine. My answer was short, like another cough. I was wary of the man.
Do you need help? He moved towards me a little bit more. Gradually he came to stand beside me.
No. I felt uneasy. He was familiar to me, but the fact that I couldn't put my tail down on who he was made me wary. I tried to stand… I couldn't let him see me struggling.
Turn around, he implored. Naturally, I tried to pretend not to hear him.
Turn around. This time, it had the air of a command. He put his hand out slowly to touch me, to try to force some kind of response. I leaned to the left to avoid his touch. He withdrew his hand and tried to slip around me. All I showed him was the top of my down-turned head. His step had become playful, almost.
Then he did something that I wouldn't have expected in a million years. His hand snapped out and caught me by the chin. I gasped. The gesture is one preformed on a common whore. He turned my face up.
His hand dropped quickly enough so that my face fell back to the meadow floor. He stepped back, quickly, clumsily.
Mariel, he said softly, disbelieving. Mariel, he repeated my name twice over, once pleadingly and the last in as if in dulled pain. What happened to you? He demanded of me suddenly. He kneeled down to be eye level with me (main eyes, that is). You look awful, he said lifting one of my arms to inspect a shallow wound that had become badly infected. He gingerly replaced my arm by my side.
He took a chance and brushed the backs of his fingers against my face. He smiled when I didn't reject him. Come with me. You will need help and quickly. I can take you to the base… it's not far from here…
I began to speak, but my mind reeled and I fell short of words. I forced myself to find words again, I…you can't. They will know where I am… I sighed, They will take me back…make me… I trailed off, unable to explain myself.
Who, what? He prompted me and made to touch me again.
I stood shakily and moved away, My family. They have a marriage arranged for me…I can't go through with it. He is horrible…and all I hear is how lucky I am…how every other girl would be ecstatic…but they don't know! I couldn't stand it! Now I have shamed them all…I didn't think of them… If I could have I would have cried. I caught myself though and apologized for the outburst.
So, you ran away? Els…I'd love to feel sorry for you…but you have to go back. You know that. You belong to your father…
I am not property! You tell me, am I such a thing that comes with a title deed?! My rage made me falter and I began to fall. He caught me and put back on hoof. Don't touch me. I glowered at him.
Being angry with me does not change fact, he said.
I looked at him pleadingly. I can't go back. I grasped one of his hands. Karrass…please…. It was an act of desperation; he could have struck me for touching him without his expressed permission. I was lucky-- any other male would have, if only to remind me of my place.
He looked at me indecisively. He looked at me for a long time, and then he sighed, giving up. You don't have to go right away, but you can't stay for long. For the time being, you will have to come home with me. I have a friend whose mother is a field nurse; maybe she will help you. Come on before it gets to hot and the neighbors come to see what you're doing out here.
Thank you, I said. I was so relieved and overjoyed I was trembling. Why I could have…well, nevermind what I could have done to him.
The Night was miserable. The Darkness was not a friendly one, but one composed of a chorus of elusive, terrified cries and preternatural rustlings. I had slept to sleep of the utterly exhausted with the dreams of shapeless pursuers and raw, painful colors. It could be expected. After all, I was sleeping in shallow scratches of sand with little or no cover from what waited beyond my limited night vision. I suspect it was mostly the forest. Her visage was cold and unyielding to an inexperienced trespasser. The unwelcome that I felt penetrated my undercoat in the form of the forest's frigid disregard for me. I felt it in the marrow of my bones.
I was becoming delusional with fatigue and the strain from the fear driven vigil was wearing me thin. The pull of the consternation I had become consumed by on my heart was the same as if I had run for miles. I was beginning to see the phantoms of animals moving closer to me in the dark. When I blinked all of my eyes to dissolve them, I was rocked by dizziness and would reel when I again opened my eyes.
The little scratches, cuts and moderate bruises were starting to take turns pounding on the drums of my all too sensitive nerves. What should have been a petty annoyance, to a normally conditioned me, was fastly becoming pang after pang of short-lived agonies.
I'm going to die before the sun rises, I thought bitterly. I was living my speculation that there was no mercy in nature for the hopelessly stupid.
But the sun did rise for me. I awoke freezing off the remains of a fever sweat in the early morning. Seeing more clearly that I had the night before, I cast my way out of the gloom of the woods, beyond the reach of spindly hands thrust forth by trees that meant to catch some other poor soul long before I had come.
Despite the absence of root snares and vine traps, I still stumbled. The glare of that first sight of the sun blinded me and I pitched froward. My body said that I should remain on the ground and my mind agreed that carrying on in my present state would only lead to broken bones. I ignored them both and forced myself up and continued to walk. I concentrated on keeping control and not falling anymore, but it was hard and I fell anyway. Frequently. I had no idea of where I was heading, and I didn't care, even if I was traveling back towards my home.
I had just regained my ability to walk without the drunken weaving when my fore-hoof sank into a recess and I hit the ground hard. This time I obeyed my body and lay where I had fallen. I hadn't the strength to pick myself up.
I was roused by a terrible thirst. I had lost consciousness that morning, now I was bathed in the sun's warm brilliance. I welcomed the warm yellow blanket I was being freely offered and waited some time more before deciding to move. When I did move, my head felt like it was going to explode. In the hour following my awakening, I had managed to sit up, but I had since then reclined and was panting furiously.
Through blurred vision, I saw a figure approaching. I didn't feel like dealing with anyone, especially the owner of this property, convinced of his own superiority. I shifted, rather painfully, so that my back faced him and obscured my face from his sight with my hand. I didn't even turn a stalk eye in my soon to be interrogator's direction.
No matter how tried to pretend that his wasn't there, the stranger continued to move closer to me. I was pleased to note that the man approaching retained a cautious step.
Are you all right? The question surprised me to the point that I didn't have a reply. Most people would demand my name and my business on their property or something to that extent. I coughed, which would sound more like a sneeze to human ears, and steadied myself with my hands so as to sit up as straight as possible.
Fine. My answer was short, like another cough. I was wary of the man.
Do you need help? He moved towards me a little bit more. Gradually he came to stand beside me.
No. I felt uneasy. He was familiar to me, but the fact that I couldn't put my tail down on who he was made me wary. I tried to stand… I couldn't let him see me struggling.
Turn around, he implored. Naturally, I tried to pretend not to hear him.
Turn around. This time, it had the air of a command. He put his hand out slowly to touch me, to try to force some kind of response. I leaned to the left to avoid his touch. He withdrew his hand and tried to slip around me. All I showed him was the top of my down-turned head. His step had become playful, almost.
Then he did something that I wouldn't have expected in a million years. His hand snapped out and caught me by the chin. I gasped. The gesture is one preformed on a common whore. He turned my face up.
His hand dropped quickly enough so that my face fell back to the meadow floor. He stepped back, quickly, clumsily.
Mariel, he said softly, disbelieving. Mariel, he repeated my name twice over, once pleadingly and the last in as if in dulled pain. What happened to you? He demanded of me suddenly. He kneeled down to be eye level with me (main eyes, that is). You look awful, he said lifting one of my arms to inspect a shallow wound that had become badly infected. He gingerly replaced my arm by my side.
He took a chance and brushed the backs of his fingers against my face. He smiled when I didn't reject him. Come with me. You will need help and quickly. I can take you to the base… it's not far from here…
I began to speak, but my mind reeled and I fell short of words. I forced myself to find words again, I…you can't. They will know where I am… I sighed, They will take me back…make me… I trailed off, unable to explain myself.
Who, what? He prompted me and made to touch me again.
I stood shakily and moved away, My family. They have a marriage arranged for me…I can't go through with it. He is horrible…and all I hear is how lucky I am…how every other girl would be ecstatic…but they don't know! I couldn't stand it! Now I have shamed them all…I didn't think of them… If I could have I would have cried. I caught myself though and apologized for the outburst.
So, you ran away? Els…I'd love to feel sorry for you…but you have to go back. You know that. You belong to your father…
I am not property! You tell me, am I such a thing that comes with a title deed?! My rage made me falter and I began to fall. He caught me and put back on hoof. Don't touch me. I glowered at him.
Being angry with me does not change fact, he said.
I looked at him pleadingly. I can't go back. I grasped one of his hands. Karrass…please…. It was an act of desperation; he could have struck me for touching him without his expressed permission. I was lucky-- any other male would have, if only to remind me of my place.
He looked at me indecisively. He looked at me for a long time, and then he sighed, giving up. You don't have to go right away, but you can't stay for long. For the time being, you will have to come home with me. I have a friend whose mother is a field nurse; maybe she will help you. Come on before it gets to hot and the neighbors come to see what you're doing out here.
Thank you, I said. I was so relieved and overjoyed I was trembling. Why I could have…well, nevermind what I could have done to him.