Diary
See disclaimer in Entry #1
:Skipping Stones:
We've stopped to rest for a little while in one of the newly-cleared areas of Mireno's underground lake, and the girls have all wandered off to amuse themselves by their own devices.
The lake is so wide that it's hard to believe that it can all be contained here in the underground labyrinths. It seems to stretch for miles in all directions, though I can just see the walls and the higher ground we're hoping to reach.
For myself, I've managed to keep my restless mind entertained with testing the edges of the lake by sending stones skimming as far as I can throw them over the surface. So far, I still haven't heard the end yet… the perfect rocks littered along the ground always seem to sink out there, as I'm sure they all have to eventually.
I used to do this in Asgard, when I was still little. There's a trick to it—a certain flick of the wrist when you throw—that I spent months perfecting. It was one of those simple pleasures of childhood that still feels calming, like eating comfort foods or finding one of your old possessions and retreating into the memories it brings up. There was a clear spring in town, and when the other kids weren't there I would try to drag Ledah out into the open so that I could practice.
He seemed to think that playing skipping stones was below his dignity, so he would sit in the shade and read while I went. Sometimes Malice would come too, and if she got annoyed with him she would find a really big rock to throw straight into the water so that water would splash everywhere. Gods, it used to make Ledah shriek—he was always worried about getting his books or his reading glasses wet, and that made Malice laugh. Okay, so I laughed too. It was a mean little kid thing to do, but his overreactions were funny to us.
Cierra has come to join me, and she puts little charms on the stones I throw so that they can keep skimming endlessly if I throw them right. It's one of those sweet little gestures that just seem to come naturally to her, and it's something that I can't help but be grateful for at times like this, when everything I see or do seems to remind me of Ledah once again.
It's dark here, and I don't like the humid feel to the air. I can tell that if we were a few hundred more feet below ground, I would be having trouble breathing in the thinness of the atmosphere, though the girls would probably be okay. Angels don't like being close to Niflheim, the dark realm beneath all the others, just because it's too far down from our natural climate. Even this is pushing it, and I know I feel uncomfortable because of all of that, too.
We need to get out of here. I want to see the sun again, I want nights when I don't lose sleep over Riviera or Ledah anymore.
Until then, I'll be resorting to skipping stones whenever I can't keep my hands busy with the active defense of this land.