Yeah, well, I kinda got the order of the chapters confused for a while. I
wrote the one after this before this one, and now I'm really screwed up,
but I'll fix it, don't you worry. Anyway, here's this chapter, which *does*
come before the one after it.
If you understood that, you're a genius.
-Shawshank
Chapter 13 Out of the Shadows
The being clung to the neck of the horse that refused to slow down. Only a two second lesson in horse riding by his former instructor saved him from being pitched off. The horse was a wild one, but it was the fastest in the stables. The Wanderers had caught it grazing in an open field. It had taken every single one of them to get enough ropes around its neck to bring it down. It was a beautiful mare, strong, with amazing stamina. However, all the Tamers in the colony hadn't been able to get a saddle on her yet.
The being felt himself begin to slip. He tightened his hold on the mare's mane, shaking loose a whinny from her throat. He started to mumble an apology, but immediately stopped once he realized how much it upset the horse. He shook back his shock of white hair and held on tight.
If only the Destined could have waited three more years. Then he could have run through the spatial plane to get there within seconds. But nothing ever went right for him. So, naturally, he was stuck using the old techniques.
Not that he was complaining or something. The sensation of wind rushing past his face was new to him, and nice. Still, it would have been even nicer had he felt the wind of the spatial plane blowing back his hair.
All in all, this concept of *outside* was nice. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to miss those walls much. Even though he had grown up there, he had been one of the few who had always felt somewhat cloistered. Sheltered from the world, left in that place to rot. It was his destiny to be trained and to sit on the Circle; he had no desire to. Ever since he read the first book of culture in the library, wanderlust had burned its way like fire through his veins. He knew what he wanted out of life at an early age, but he was never allowed to have it.
Now, however, it was a completely different story.
His Scholar, knowing of his wish to travel and the punishment should he ever return, had actually forbade him to come back to those walls. She had ordered the gate guards to let him through, and they had obeyed, knowing the extent of her barely-contained temper. She had a tendency to explode on her young pupil, but he loved her anyway. His Scholar had been like an older sister to him; and she had told him more than once that he was as annoying as a little brother to her. They both knew that this kind of closeness was forbidden in Teacher-Student relationships. It was supposed to be cold tolerance and respect, nothing more.
But they loved each other anyway.
A tear rolled down his cheek, but it was blown away as the land rushed by.
***
Tyr's mind slowly came alive, and she opened her eyes to mere slits. It was a beautiful morning, and the sun was shining through the leaves, treating her skin to cool shadows intermingled with warm light. She smiled, and it felt like her face was cracking in two. For the first time in a long time, she was happy, surrounded by people she instinctively knew she could trust. Today would be much better than yesterday, and the day before, and the years before. Today, she had someone to talk to on her travels. Someone to share opinions and questions with. Someone besides her own anger-
Wait a second. What was she thinking? She couldn't trust these people! They were just stringing her along, making her *think* that she was a worthy friend. Nobody could stand to look at her face without grimacing!
She sat up straight, holding her head for a few seconds because of the sudden blood rush, then jumped upright, struggling to find her balance. She shook her head and opened her right eye, closing her left to ignore the bright red, yellow and green blurs she saw through it. She scanned her surroundings, seeing only leaves and branches. Where were those other two?
"Hey, you're awake! Come and have some breakfast."
She whirled around, glaring at Zelda, who had called her. Link was working behind her, trying to rotate some sausages with his bare hands, the idiot. She padded over, the toughened calluses on her feet affording her protection from the small twigs that were scattered all throughout the field. A muscle in her jaw was working, the only sign of her anger at being caught by surprise. She approached Link, struggling not to laugh.
"Here, Scrawny. Use this."
She unsheathed her thin saber and handed it to him hilt first, holding it delicately to avoid being cut on the palm. He took it sheepishly and began skewering the sausages, turning them over one by one. Tyr looked on in amusement. The opposite sides of the strings of meat were so burnt, they resembled lumps of charcoal. She actually snorted at Link.
"Who taught you to cook?"
He looked at her, placing a hand on his chest as if to say, 'Who, me?'
"I taught myself. I like my food burnt. "
"Of course you do."
"Well, who taught *you* to cook?"
"I don't cook. I live off of the land. There is very little red meat in my diet; I find that it slows me down."
"So?"
"When you are as ugly as me, you need to be fast. People will decide you are to be slain for no reason and hold week-long hunts. If I was not fast, I would not be standing here and speaking to you right now."
Link's gaze dropped, and some slight colour rose in his cheeks. He started to mumble an apology, but Tyr cut him off by turning to Zelda.
"Do you know how to cook without turning everything to dust?"
She shook her head ashamedly.
"No. I grew up in a palace, and most things were done for me. I'm beginning to regret that now."
If Tyr had turned, she would have seen Link's smirk. Zelda only gave a slight smile over her shoulder. Her head dropped into her hands, if a little carefully. Her amazingly albino hair settled in a shimmer of light. She discreetly wiped away tears of hilarity before she looked up again.
"So you mean to tell me that none of us can cook?"
"Hey-"
Zelda cut off Link in his tracks.
"I'm afraid not."
"I can too cook! I just tend to, uh, overdo it sometimes."
Tyr turned back to Link.
"Of *course* you can cook. We have the evidence of that in front of our eyes."
"What?"
"Your sausages are burning, again."
Link turned back to his sausages, trying desperately to save them before they crumbled and fell off of the rock grill he had made and into the fire. He was too late. They broke into dust and were swept by a slight breeze, their charred remains left to be eaten by the flames.
Tyr could practically hear Link sobbing. She had to bite her lip to keep her laughter hidden.
Something dripped down her chin. When she put her fingers to it, she saw it was blood. A whimper escaped her throat.
She dashed off through the woods, ignoring the cries that came from her companions back in the clearing. She came to the pool of clear water she had seen through the Great Fairy's seeing pool.
She looked down and saw a monster.
Her eyeteeth had become longer, and pointed. The patch on the left side of her face had gained some ground. She hiked up her left sleeve, brushing the dangling cloth that served as a shield of sorts to her clawed hand. The scales had gained ground there too, and the itchy sensation was starting to creep into her biceps. Her left leg was changed too; the green colour was inching its way through her flesh, just past what was still recognizable as her knee. She stared into the shallow, still pool, wondering what she would look like tomorrow. Her anger boiled up in the depths of her soul, and she bared her teeth at her reflection. Her right arm came back, and she punched the water's surface as hard as she could.
A loud shattering noise echoed through the woods. The pool was not a pool at all, but a sheet of glass covered in a thin layer of water. She called out loudly for Zelda and Link, tossing away pieces of glass as she did. By the time they found her, the glass was scattered around the pool, and the water had sunk into the ground. Situated in the exact center of the hollow in the ground was an ancient stone tablet.
She and Zelda stared in wonder, but Link walked over to it and bent down, his blue eyes wide. He let one arm dangle down, his index finger tracing through the carved letters on the rock. Tyr knew it wasn't just any rock; it was black and shining. She had seen this kind of rock before; in fact, she had walked across it while she was journeying over what she took to be a mountain. Just as she left the base of the rock giant, lava had begun to spew over the edges. She had walked over a volcano and survived! Knowing her luck was running out, she had begun to run.
The rock she had walked on was just like this, and she had heard people call it volcanic glass, whatever that had meant. Also, it was called another name, something she couldn't remember that started with the letter o.
"Obsidian."
Link spoke softly, his hand still tracing the letters as if in a dream. He snapped out of it suddenly, looking up at the women.
"I can't read it. It's written in another language. Zelda, can you read it?"
She walked over, treading softly, and shook her head the instant she saw it.
"No, Link. Maybe Tyr can?"
She walked forward, feeling like she was cursing this holy ground just by standing there. She glanced at the letters; her eyes widened.
"No, I can't read it, but I've seen these characters before. I found an old book in our library back in the valley. It was old, and the binding was cracked, but it was readable. I saw characters like these, and there was a caption beneath them. In fact, it was a rubbing of character like these-"
She cut herself off and sat down at the edge of the pool.
"It was a rubbing of *these* characters. These exact same letters!"
Link looked at her with something like hunger in his eyes.
"What did the caption say?"
She squeezed both her eyes shut, ignoring the alien sensation of wrinkling scales on her left eyelid.
"Uh, let me see. It was a long time ago, but I think I can-Oh, right! I remember that! It said, 'Freedom lies within these words.' Yes, that's it!"
Link grabbed her shoulders, fighting the impulse to shake the information out of her.
"Was it a translation of the runes?"
She closed her eyes mournfully.
"No. It was a quotes from a Scripture which mentioned something about a stone tablet hidden within a glade. Someone found this a long time ago, and somehow covered it up again, I guess. I don't know how they could have gotten the mirror off in one piece-"
"Neither do I. The important thing is, we're getting somewhere. If we could just figure out who wrote these here, everything would begin to fall into place, I just know it!"
"The book didn't say anything about that."
They sighed in unison and sat down to think. Zelda paced around the hollow, mumbling to herself.
***
The mare refused to stop.
Even though she had been running since daybreak, the red mare he was clinging desperately on to refused to stop and rest. He knew that if they went much farther, he would fall off. She was panting and sweating, and her heart was pounding too quickly. She would die if she pushed herself much farther.
Just as he thought of this, the mare slowed to a walk. She dragged her snout through a puddle they sauntered by, slurping in some water without stopping. The boy wished desperately for a drink too, but he knew that if he got off, she would leave him behind in an instant.
He hung onto her mane and hoped that she would need to sleep soon. The trees came up suddenly around them, a surprise to his tired eyes. He thought he heard voices, but he knew it must be his exhausted mind dreaming things. The mare plodded steadily on as he slept contentedly on her back.
***
Well, I'm sitting outside. Its gotta be like plus 25 Celsius at least (I don't know what Fareneit that is), and I think I'm going to get tan lines on my face from my glasses. The wind is running through my hair and my toes. It's a very nice day today.
Anyway, that's my little 'nice day' blurb. You all have a nice day too.
By the way, here's my brother's advice for the week:
"Get a life."
That advice is for me, just to let ya'll know. Yep. I'm done.
-Shawshank
If you understood that, you're a genius.
-Shawshank
Chapter 13 Out of the Shadows
The being clung to the neck of the horse that refused to slow down. Only a two second lesson in horse riding by his former instructor saved him from being pitched off. The horse was a wild one, but it was the fastest in the stables. The Wanderers had caught it grazing in an open field. It had taken every single one of them to get enough ropes around its neck to bring it down. It was a beautiful mare, strong, with amazing stamina. However, all the Tamers in the colony hadn't been able to get a saddle on her yet.
The being felt himself begin to slip. He tightened his hold on the mare's mane, shaking loose a whinny from her throat. He started to mumble an apology, but immediately stopped once he realized how much it upset the horse. He shook back his shock of white hair and held on tight.
If only the Destined could have waited three more years. Then he could have run through the spatial plane to get there within seconds. But nothing ever went right for him. So, naturally, he was stuck using the old techniques.
Not that he was complaining or something. The sensation of wind rushing past his face was new to him, and nice. Still, it would have been even nicer had he felt the wind of the spatial plane blowing back his hair.
All in all, this concept of *outside* was nice. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to miss those walls much. Even though he had grown up there, he had been one of the few who had always felt somewhat cloistered. Sheltered from the world, left in that place to rot. It was his destiny to be trained and to sit on the Circle; he had no desire to. Ever since he read the first book of culture in the library, wanderlust had burned its way like fire through his veins. He knew what he wanted out of life at an early age, but he was never allowed to have it.
Now, however, it was a completely different story.
His Scholar, knowing of his wish to travel and the punishment should he ever return, had actually forbade him to come back to those walls. She had ordered the gate guards to let him through, and they had obeyed, knowing the extent of her barely-contained temper. She had a tendency to explode on her young pupil, but he loved her anyway. His Scholar had been like an older sister to him; and she had told him more than once that he was as annoying as a little brother to her. They both knew that this kind of closeness was forbidden in Teacher-Student relationships. It was supposed to be cold tolerance and respect, nothing more.
But they loved each other anyway.
A tear rolled down his cheek, but it was blown away as the land rushed by.
***
Tyr's mind slowly came alive, and she opened her eyes to mere slits. It was a beautiful morning, and the sun was shining through the leaves, treating her skin to cool shadows intermingled with warm light. She smiled, and it felt like her face was cracking in two. For the first time in a long time, she was happy, surrounded by people she instinctively knew she could trust. Today would be much better than yesterday, and the day before, and the years before. Today, she had someone to talk to on her travels. Someone to share opinions and questions with. Someone besides her own anger-
Wait a second. What was she thinking? She couldn't trust these people! They were just stringing her along, making her *think* that she was a worthy friend. Nobody could stand to look at her face without grimacing!
She sat up straight, holding her head for a few seconds because of the sudden blood rush, then jumped upright, struggling to find her balance. She shook her head and opened her right eye, closing her left to ignore the bright red, yellow and green blurs she saw through it. She scanned her surroundings, seeing only leaves and branches. Where were those other two?
"Hey, you're awake! Come and have some breakfast."
She whirled around, glaring at Zelda, who had called her. Link was working behind her, trying to rotate some sausages with his bare hands, the idiot. She padded over, the toughened calluses on her feet affording her protection from the small twigs that were scattered all throughout the field. A muscle in her jaw was working, the only sign of her anger at being caught by surprise. She approached Link, struggling not to laugh.
"Here, Scrawny. Use this."
She unsheathed her thin saber and handed it to him hilt first, holding it delicately to avoid being cut on the palm. He took it sheepishly and began skewering the sausages, turning them over one by one. Tyr looked on in amusement. The opposite sides of the strings of meat were so burnt, they resembled lumps of charcoal. She actually snorted at Link.
"Who taught you to cook?"
He looked at her, placing a hand on his chest as if to say, 'Who, me?'
"I taught myself. I like my food burnt. "
"Of course you do."
"Well, who taught *you* to cook?"
"I don't cook. I live off of the land. There is very little red meat in my diet; I find that it slows me down."
"So?"
"When you are as ugly as me, you need to be fast. People will decide you are to be slain for no reason and hold week-long hunts. If I was not fast, I would not be standing here and speaking to you right now."
Link's gaze dropped, and some slight colour rose in his cheeks. He started to mumble an apology, but Tyr cut him off by turning to Zelda.
"Do you know how to cook without turning everything to dust?"
She shook her head ashamedly.
"No. I grew up in a palace, and most things were done for me. I'm beginning to regret that now."
If Tyr had turned, she would have seen Link's smirk. Zelda only gave a slight smile over her shoulder. Her head dropped into her hands, if a little carefully. Her amazingly albino hair settled in a shimmer of light. She discreetly wiped away tears of hilarity before she looked up again.
"So you mean to tell me that none of us can cook?"
"Hey-"
Zelda cut off Link in his tracks.
"I'm afraid not."
"I can too cook! I just tend to, uh, overdo it sometimes."
Tyr turned back to Link.
"Of *course* you can cook. We have the evidence of that in front of our eyes."
"What?"
"Your sausages are burning, again."
Link turned back to his sausages, trying desperately to save them before they crumbled and fell off of the rock grill he had made and into the fire. He was too late. They broke into dust and were swept by a slight breeze, their charred remains left to be eaten by the flames.
Tyr could practically hear Link sobbing. She had to bite her lip to keep her laughter hidden.
Something dripped down her chin. When she put her fingers to it, she saw it was blood. A whimper escaped her throat.
She dashed off through the woods, ignoring the cries that came from her companions back in the clearing. She came to the pool of clear water she had seen through the Great Fairy's seeing pool.
She looked down and saw a monster.
Her eyeteeth had become longer, and pointed. The patch on the left side of her face had gained some ground. She hiked up her left sleeve, brushing the dangling cloth that served as a shield of sorts to her clawed hand. The scales had gained ground there too, and the itchy sensation was starting to creep into her biceps. Her left leg was changed too; the green colour was inching its way through her flesh, just past what was still recognizable as her knee. She stared into the shallow, still pool, wondering what she would look like tomorrow. Her anger boiled up in the depths of her soul, and she bared her teeth at her reflection. Her right arm came back, and she punched the water's surface as hard as she could.
A loud shattering noise echoed through the woods. The pool was not a pool at all, but a sheet of glass covered in a thin layer of water. She called out loudly for Zelda and Link, tossing away pieces of glass as she did. By the time they found her, the glass was scattered around the pool, and the water had sunk into the ground. Situated in the exact center of the hollow in the ground was an ancient stone tablet.
She and Zelda stared in wonder, but Link walked over to it and bent down, his blue eyes wide. He let one arm dangle down, his index finger tracing through the carved letters on the rock. Tyr knew it wasn't just any rock; it was black and shining. She had seen this kind of rock before; in fact, she had walked across it while she was journeying over what she took to be a mountain. Just as she left the base of the rock giant, lava had begun to spew over the edges. She had walked over a volcano and survived! Knowing her luck was running out, she had begun to run.
The rock she had walked on was just like this, and she had heard people call it volcanic glass, whatever that had meant. Also, it was called another name, something she couldn't remember that started with the letter o.
"Obsidian."
Link spoke softly, his hand still tracing the letters as if in a dream. He snapped out of it suddenly, looking up at the women.
"I can't read it. It's written in another language. Zelda, can you read it?"
She walked over, treading softly, and shook her head the instant she saw it.
"No, Link. Maybe Tyr can?"
She walked forward, feeling like she was cursing this holy ground just by standing there. She glanced at the letters; her eyes widened.
"No, I can't read it, but I've seen these characters before. I found an old book in our library back in the valley. It was old, and the binding was cracked, but it was readable. I saw characters like these, and there was a caption beneath them. In fact, it was a rubbing of character like these-"
She cut herself off and sat down at the edge of the pool.
"It was a rubbing of *these* characters. These exact same letters!"
Link looked at her with something like hunger in his eyes.
"What did the caption say?"
She squeezed both her eyes shut, ignoring the alien sensation of wrinkling scales on her left eyelid.
"Uh, let me see. It was a long time ago, but I think I can-Oh, right! I remember that! It said, 'Freedom lies within these words.' Yes, that's it!"
Link grabbed her shoulders, fighting the impulse to shake the information out of her.
"Was it a translation of the runes?"
She closed her eyes mournfully.
"No. It was a quotes from a Scripture which mentioned something about a stone tablet hidden within a glade. Someone found this a long time ago, and somehow covered it up again, I guess. I don't know how they could have gotten the mirror off in one piece-"
"Neither do I. The important thing is, we're getting somewhere. If we could just figure out who wrote these here, everything would begin to fall into place, I just know it!"
"The book didn't say anything about that."
They sighed in unison and sat down to think. Zelda paced around the hollow, mumbling to herself.
***
The mare refused to stop.
Even though she had been running since daybreak, the red mare he was clinging desperately on to refused to stop and rest. He knew that if they went much farther, he would fall off. She was panting and sweating, and her heart was pounding too quickly. She would die if she pushed herself much farther.
Just as he thought of this, the mare slowed to a walk. She dragged her snout through a puddle they sauntered by, slurping in some water without stopping. The boy wished desperately for a drink too, but he knew that if he got off, she would leave him behind in an instant.
He hung onto her mane and hoped that she would need to sleep soon. The trees came up suddenly around them, a surprise to his tired eyes. He thought he heard voices, but he knew it must be his exhausted mind dreaming things. The mare plodded steadily on as he slept contentedly on her back.
***
Well, I'm sitting outside. Its gotta be like plus 25 Celsius at least (I don't know what Fareneit that is), and I think I'm going to get tan lines on my face from my glasses. The wind is running through my hair and my toes. It's a very nice day today.
Anyway, that's my little 'nice day' blurb. You all have a nice day too.
By the way, here's my brother's advice for the week:
"Get a life."
That advice is for me, just to let ya'll know. Yep. I'm done.
-Shawshank
