Demelza’s body ((Closed RP))

[Drathe]

Demelza’s broken body left Hal’s grip, cast into the river and left to float with its current, a swift and respectful affair by those that saw the young lifes end. The body half submerged and wrapped in a blood stained cloak made its way in the rivers care then vanished beneath the surface, either to wash up in lake Adron or follow the dark underground tunnels and cold spring water channels to the rivers.

~*~

The mud was thick around his boots, trousers wet to the thigh as he squelched through the reed thick bank. The sun having shown its face for the day had set its sights for the horizon, the navy sky streaked with clouds of burnt gold and purple. The marsh flies scatty in their flight bit and tormented the man as he pulled and struggled his way along the river bank. This is where the fisherman had said he saw the carrion birds circling over head, a marshy bank thick to the water’s edge with reeds along the river Fairys Tears. He stank of foul mud and sweat, his brow mottled with beads of it as he paused, leaning back to take stock of the surroundings.

So far it had cost him a whole day of searching, two silver coins to help the fisherman remember the spot and a button from his shirt, a bull reed now the envy of all others with its prize. His head flopped, weary of walking, legs aching from the weight and work of treading soft mud. No good deed goes unpunished, while the bad are rewarded. It was the natural balance of things he had learned a long time ago. So why had he agreed to Deanna to find the body for her, Eva’s persuasion, that’s why. A good deed for nothing other than it’s worth to lift the soul of those that asked it, so much for his own. He swatted at a fly on his stubbled cheek, pacing his skin and just about to bite. He should have just told her the spot, not traipsed all the way here to see if it were true. His eyes narrowed in the fading light, hand reaching out to pull aside a clump of reeds. There was something, muddied and on the edge of river.

The body was half wrapped in the cloak still, the trailing end flitting in the flow of the river as she lay face down in the water, hair matted and slick to her head save for the strands that waved in the water. A buzz of flies zipped past his ears, angry at the disturbance as he squelched closer. The river mud had coated her in a slick grey slit covering cloth and skin to cast her like a statue, the fingers chewed and missing from one hand as if smashed from the stone she was carved. ‘Well... I’ve found you Demelza,’ he whispered quietly as if not to wake her. ’Now it’s for Deanna to come get you.’ He pulled at fist full of reeds and made his way from the river bank.

~*~

The walk back was hard, his shoulders ached, knees complained and skin chaffed in the wet and muddied trousers. In one hand the torch burned bright against the dark, the trees and bushes casting shadows that danced and flitted in the flickering light, in the other the cold dead hand of an Elven girl, slung over and along his shoulders wrapped in what was a clean sheet of grey cloth, now foul with death and river mud. Demelz’s head and legs bobbed in time with his stride. ‘You owe me for this you know.’ He said wearily then chuckled briefly. ‘What do you mean you don’t!’ He bickered with the silent body chuckling again, the moment of stupidity lifting his cold, worn spirits. At last the sight of the North gate came into view, torches flickering in their holders.

The medico complained furiously at the prospect of holding the body, standing in the doorway to the hospital only to be barged out of the way. Drathe lay the body on the bed and pulled the sheet over. ‘I’m to bloody tired and worn and cold,’ He replied quietly, weary to the bone. He handed the medic a handful of silver coins for the inconvenience and left. ‘That’s the last good deed I ever do.’ He whispered.