Sand and Waves

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Brighteyes
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Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:09 am

Sand and Waves

Post by Brighteyes »

Sitting upon the cooling sand, on a beach somewhere south of Varshikar, watching the twilight fall over the waves, she could not help but reflect on the last month with some bemusement. Of all the places wind and wave had taken Ren, this island was the most diverse and yet suffocating. Elves, orcs, mages, warriors, a jumbled vibrant mix of people and new faces. Some strange, some playing the same roles she has seen time and time again. The secretive, the exotic, the bully, the hero, the completely useless fool. These things she knew and understood. The customs, those were stranger still. Banal laws the even some town guards break upheld to within an inch of skin while a woman attacked and helpless has her pleas ignored. Never seen in the streets of Gynk this behavior, nor the varied islands she had traveled, nor the cold halls of her forgotten village, Harisa, not Kjelti but not quite Karrasian.
Dark eyes, swirls of hazel and chestnut, like rare tigers-eye-gems scan the distant horizon for passing ships and contemplate. "What would you do if a ship did come?" Ren speaks to herself to break the silence more than answer the question. Shipwrecked and uncertain, in debt and out. At odds with her own thoughts, the morals she was once taught and the codes she now follows.
Smiling wistfully she lays back on the sand watching as stars come out. Recalling the nights before with some fondness. Intimate moments at hot springs. Dark figures like ghosts who haunt the living. The vibrant pulse of life as relationships twist and twine around her. The gypsy, the wolf, the mystery. Ahh life! The chaos and uncertainty this island rarely seems to know. To watch and measure conversations. To weight words as if they were coin. Mull over motives even while her mind relaxes in a haze of drink and the comfort of a warm body nearby.
Sitting up, hugging arms around her thin form, hands resting on narrow hips as she draws up her legs, locking a foot under one knee looking out at the now dark water. For a moment she feels the emptiness of the island around her. No tight holds, no press of bodies, none of the near claustrophobic closeness she had come to find soothing upon the ships. "Life is always different and the same." She smiles to herself as she recalls the words of a dear friend. At the thought she scans the horizon once more, if she washed up upon the shore... Ren sighs, shakes her head, stands with a jerk and with a frustrated sound pulls her boots on.
Back through the sand, back to civilization, there is no time here for dark thoughts of what could be or has been. There is work to do. It is the first of Tanos after all and spring only lasts so long.
Last edited by Brighteyes on Wed Mar 02, 2011 7:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Brighteyes
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:09 am

Sand and Waves

Post by Brighteyes »

Dark, the air heated and dusty, sand and rock and despair. Ren thought over the last few days while she lay on the grainy rock ledge her body exhausted from her attempts to climb out of this cave. Her mind skipped over thoughts lightly, as a butterfly visits flowers in a meadow. How she had gotten into this enclosed place. Why she had left to begin with. How she would get out again. If it would drive her mad before she was able to escape.

She had been walking back to Varshikar, reflecting still on the few days she had intentionally set aside during early Tanos near Kale’s birthday to think over her life as it was. She had tripped over the withered root of a dead bush. The fall was sudden, the cracking noise below her surprising, the second fall inescapable and perhaps the most painful thing she had ever lived through. The blackness complete. When she did wake, it took what must have been hours for Ren to drag herself out of the sand which half filled this hidden cave, its only entrance the newly opened chasm she had just fallen through.

She recalled now how she had spent what may have been days exploring with the dim light from above her surroundings, and when light failed with her hands, trying to find a way out. How she had finally decided on climbing up out of the chasm. With the pain still throbbing at her left ribs her first attempt and the fall that followed was still vivid, as were the hours laying still on the sand trying to breath. Fighting to not panic. Imagining the walls of the cave were closing in on her.

Ren had never liked tight spaces. A crowded city she could handle. The press of bodies was comforting not claustrophobic. A fully manned ship she was comfortable with. Like a second home. But this. Alone, only with her thoughts in a rock and sand cave. This was torture. This was a place where the mind wandered, twisted, concocted fantasies.

Would anyone even notice she was gone? Was another attempt to escape this natural prison worth the risk of another fall? How long could she survive down here? Alone.

She had told few she was leaving. Only two the reason why she would be gone and for how long. What if they decided she had simply left this island? Found a ship and sailed away without a farewell. Would it matter if she returned at all? She missed her ship. She missed the crew. She missed Kale. She had convinced herself they were all gone. Nothing else, no one else, no hope survived that shipwreck. She had come to terms with this, before the fall. She was prepared to start a new life here, before the fall. Now her mind wondered if she was being punished for this decision. If the ghosts of friends were visiting her and dooming her to ill fate for her choices.

Ren pushed herself up from the ledge. Enough. She would not dwell on thoughts of giving up. She would not let herself fall into a pattern of resignation. She was not some helpless girl now. She would find her own way. She did not need to be rescued.

Ren observed the next ledge, guessed its distance from her, prepared to jump. Her hands found holds. Her feet and legs worked to push her up. The sun was blinding, the air was hot, but it was fresh, the sands stretched on and on, but in the distance was Varshikar. As she stumbled up, began to walk, she tried to guess at how long she had been trapped below. Almost delirious as she reaches civilization she finds herself greeting the first day of Zhas, starved and badly needing a bath.
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