Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 4846941" data-attributes="member: 16069">Blimey, I was in a dark place when I wrote this...Turn 22. “The stars are beautiful.”A moment away from the narrative to introduce Fandango, for your delectation and gaming pleasure-The stars glitter, she’d never felt so… so… alive.Safe in his arms, twenty-one and in love, beyond love… already. She’d found her soul mate- the man that she would marry, raise children with, grow old with…“The stars are beautiful, when I see them, when I’m away- I think of your smile.”They dance on, the beat mirroring the beat of her heart, Fandango felt like she was in heaven, lighter than air, the tips of her toes barely brushing the ground.He’s eighteen, three years her junior, of the Rhenee folk, bargees, floating extended families content to ply the waterways of the land, sometimes in search of adventure, most times laden with cargo for faraway places. His high cheek bones are perfect, his face- well, an Adonis, his hair- silk, too good to be true, and yet here he is- holding her to him, his strong arms…They dance on.Until the sun comes up.Then it’s back to the fire, the music has stopped, it stopped an hour ago, but by that time they no longer needed the violin and the drum, the rhythm was within them.The drum.The Drum.DRUMDRUMDRUM.Fandango awakes, it’s raining outside, and on the thin and leaky wooden roof of the shack, she pulls the covers over her- cold. She shivers and coils her hair around her finger.Time passes, oh so slowly.Eventually hunger gets the better of her, she rises, tip toes across the sodden boards to investigate the cupboards knowing full well that there’s nothing to be found there- she looks anyway, even feigns annoyance for a while.Then heads back to bed.Pulls the covers up over her.Cold still.Hungry still.The rain beats on the roof, trying to get in.She lies down, closes her eyes, blocks out the light.The fire’s almost out now, they hold hands, gaze into the dying embers lost in the moment, lost forever.His hand feels warm in hers, and yet his touch is light, almost fading.He turns to her, stares into her eyes, eventually leans in to kiss.Kissssssss.HISSSSSSSS.She wakes again, the water has made its way into the shack, although the drum on the roof has ceased, it’s dark out.Droplets fall onto the still warm oven, bubble and hiss into puffs of steam.Fandango gets up again, in a rush this time- she dresses quickly, then leans hard on the door, it sticks sometimes, and bursts out into the night.A toenail of moon shines down illuminating the muddy lane, the other wooden shacks, and behind them the huge broken walls of Cillamar.She heads off in a crouch, warped like a crone, makes for the nearest gap in the wall, she’s soon there, nobody sees her, there’s nobody about. Although a hacking cough, emanating from one of the other rickety shacks, signals life, although fading.She’s through the gap and into the city itself, at this time of the night there’s next to nobody about, drunks in the doorways, a few watchmen doing their level best to avoid anyone’s attention, and the odd shadowy figure more concerned with their own business than the business of others.It takes her ten minutes to reach the Temple of Pelor, unheard and unseen.The main door is open- she goes inside.Finds a pew.Settles into it.And finally sleeps.Without dreams.Three days later she awakes.In a cell.Right on cue the cell door opens.“You can go.” The watchman indicates the direction of the exit, follows her out, to the front desk first for her belongings, then out into the cold light of day.He’s a young man, the watchman, not yet wearied of the job, he has some sympathy- he passes Fandango a handful of coins and nods his head towards the Drake.Fandango heads off.A second watchman exits the watch house, stands there- stretching his legs, stiff and tired after a long shift spent sleeping off yesterday’s hang-over.“Sad story.” The first watchman speaks.“Mmm.” The other acknowledges the effort, and yet remains uninterested.“Killed her man.”“Who did?” That’s got his attention.“That one.” The first watchman motions towards Fandango just entering the Drake across the way.“How come we’re letting her go then?”“He’d been bitten- Ghoul, he was on the turn when…”Silence for a while.“When she stuck him with a knife. Been shacked up with his rotting corpse for two weeks when we found her... found her- that’s a laugh- we found her asleep at the Temple of Pelor, it took two days with the Sarge to get her to tell us where she lived, where the body was.”“Mmm.” The second watchman sidles round to a side wall, unbuttons his flies and pisses against the watch house.“We found the dagger still in her hand at the Temple- knew she’d killed someone, just couldn’t work out who.”“D’ya wanna cuppa?” The second watch man is back.“Nah.”The second watch man ducks back inside, the first reaches out, grabs his arm.“Husband gets bitten, turns into some undead beast- tries to kill her, the place was a nightmare- blood everywhere, she stabs him to death and then, get this, drags him back to bed- sleeps with him, for two whole weeks, doesn’t eat- there’s nothing to eat.”The second watch man tries to free his arm, he can’t- the first holds tight.“Then we- we get her back here and kick the <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> out of her. For two days.”The second watchman shakes his arm free at last, enters the watch house without a backward glance.The first watchman turns back to the Drake.Fandango’s long gone. He hopes she’s sitting by the fire. With something to eat. And drink. And someone to talk to.The sun beats down.It’s a beautiful day.</blockquote>

Verification