The Ghosts Of Tranquility Crater Ch.7
By wingedpixie
Disclaimer: Well, my top secret plane to create a clone of Naoko Takeuchi and thereby claim all rights to Sailor Moon hasn't quite worked out. So alas, I still do not own the series.
AN: Aiya! People are still showing interest in this story?! Thank you uber much, folks. You've re-inspired me! Unfortunately this lists toward the short side, so bear with me.
Tranquility Crater plummeted downward in that heady, fearless way of isolated landscapes. For nearly three miles, its soft, crumbling sides poured an endless stream of weightless grey dust into the basin, where it hovered, a misty haze slowly roiling like a thousand gauzy veils. The bottom lay obscured, an intense secret that quickened the breath of those who perched on the edge and peered futilely at the upper swaths of smoky residue. Scrupulously avoided, unmolested: the crater tore into the placid face of the moon with sudden violence. Other than the foreboding natural to such remote and desolate places, no sign of its existence warned the rare trekker, and only half-remembered instincts inherited from her daunting, straight-backed mother caused Serenity to stop.
Her steps were silent. At the very lip of the crater her feet stilled, the one thousand and twelve ceremonial folds of her gown settling around her ankles, but the long tails of her hair continued to float about her ears, like ghastly pale fronds of seaweed in oceans whose surging currents had long since abandoned the barren moon.
With a hesitant flutter her heart urged her, invoking shadowed memories of frigid, murky water, where shadows thrashed violently against crumbling walls of obsidian, and scales of decomposing seahorses floated aimlessly. Voices hissed with what might have been cruelty, if any malice could have been found behind them, but only indifference rode the harsh sounds, and the hollow, metallic quality of them made her cringe.
Suddenly the noise coalesced, rushing into a mass of physical darkness. All of the rising, deafening voices twisted into a fist-sized sphere of spiked tar, that streaked toward Serenity. Against her chest the ball splattered, its unearthly speed crushing the ribs that enclosed her heart, and globs of the inky tar scorched through the flesh of her cheeks, as well as the slim fingertips which clawed at them.
"Soleil!" A sharp scream escaped her, as she found herself sprawled ungracefully, her nose buried in the ashen dust of the crater floor. With a strangled gasp, her hands clutched desperately at the bodice of her gown, embroidered with slivered moons and gauzy moths. No shards of bone gashed her probing fingers; no pain seared up her trembling skeletal frame.
"Soleil?" she whispered. No excuse or explanation for its existence in her memory accompanied the word. Around her the sheer gray walls of the crater soared upward, leant the illusion of motion by the eternally tumbling dust. Miles above, the miniscule pinpricks of distant suns glimmered malignantly against the vast, black velvet sky.
Gingerly Serenity rolled to her side, her ears buzzing tenderly in the aftermath of the mechanical howling. Only to find a pair of luminescent hooves, which glinted like the delicate insides of oysters, directly before her face.
"Amazing," their owner murmured, a low note of tender sympathy warming the sorrowful tone. The voice evoked an image of honey tears in her thoughts, and above the softly sloped nose, two wide gold-rimmed eyes gazed evenly into hers, with the glassy sheen of one who has forsaken all expectations, but, though well-accustomed to the world's sadism, cannot help a lingering twinge at its constant ministrations.
"Amazing, the sway a mere flicker of the past holds over the actions of the present. How domineering a memory can be."
A shining spiral of light rose proudly through the disorderly tufts of translucent hair. From the massive, snowy wings arcing over the broad shoulders, a feather which curled into an elaborate plume at one end, while tapering daintily at the other, drifted down to rest, an infinitely fragile craft rocking slightly on the crater floor.
By wingedpixie
Disclaimer: Well, my top secret plane to create a clone of Naoko Takeuchi and thereby claim all rights to Sailor Moon hasn't quite worked out. So alas, I still do not own the series.
AN: Aiya! People are still showing interest in this story?! Thank you uber much, folks. You've re-inspired me! Unfortunately this lists toward the short side, so bear with me.
Tranquility Crater plummeted downward in that heady, fearless way of isolated landscapes. For nearly three miles, its soft, crumbling sides poured an endless stream of weightless grey dust into the basin, where it hovered, a misty haze slowly roiling like a thousand gauzy veils. The bottom lay obscured, an intense secret that quickened the breath of those who perched on the edge and peered futilely at the upper swaths of smoky residue. Scrupulously avoided, unmolested: the crater tore into the placid face of the moon with sudden violence. Other than the foreboding natural to such remote and desolate places, no sign of its existence warned the rare trekker, and only half-remembered instincts inherited from her daunting, straight-backed mother caused Serenity to stop.
Her steps were silent. At the very lip of the crater her feet stilled, the one thousand and twelve ceremonial folds of her gown settling around her ankles, but the long tails of her hair continued to float about her ears, like ghastly pale fronds of seaweed in oceans whose surging currents had long since abandoned the barren moon.
With a hesitant flutter her heart urged her, invoking shadowed memories of frigid, murky water, where shadows thrashed violently against crumbling walls of obsidian, and scales of decomposing seahorses floated aimlessly. Voices hissed with what might have been cruelty, if any malice could have been found behind them, but only indifference rode the harsh sounds, and the hollow, metallic quality of them made her cringe.
Suddenly the noise coalesced, rushing into a mass of physical darkness. All of the rising, deafening voices twisted into a fist-sized sphere of spiked tar, that streaked toward Serenity. Against her chest the ball splattered, its unearthly speed crushing the ribs that enclosed her heart, and globs of the inky tar scorched through the flesh of her cheeks, as well as the slim fingertips which clawed at them.
"Soleil!" A sharp scream escaped her, as she found herself sprawled ungracefully, her nose buried in the ashen dust of the crater floor. With a strangled gasp, her hands clutched desperately at the bodice of her gown, embroidered with slivered moons and gauzy moths. No shards of bone gashed her probing fingers; no pain seared up her trembling skeletal frame.
"Soleil?" she whispered. No excuse or explanation for its existence in her memory accompanied the word. Around her the sheer gray walls of the crater soared upward, leant the illusion of motion by the eternally tumbling dust. Miles above, the miniscule pinpricks of distant suns glimmered malignantly against the vast, black velvet sky.
Gingerly Serenity rolled to her side, her ears buzzing tenderly in the aftermath of the mechanical howling. Only to find a pair of luminescent hooves, which glinted like the delicate insides of oysters, directly before her face.
"Amazing," their owner murmured, a low note of tender sympathy warming the sorrowful tone. The voice evoked an image of honey tears in her thoughts, and above the softly sloped nose, two wide gold-rimmed eyes gazed evenly into hers, with the glassy sheen of one who has forsaken all expectations, but, though well-accustomed to the world's sadism, cannot help a lingering twinge at its constant ministrations.
"Amazing, the sway a mere flicker of the past holds over the actions of the present. How domineering a memory can be."
A shining spiral of light rose proudly through the disorderly tufts of translucent hair. From the massive, snowy wings arcing over the broad shoulders, a feather which curled into an elaborate plume at one end, while tapering daintily at the other, drifted down to rest, an infinitely fragile craft rocking slightly on the crater floor.