Re: The Great Belligerency [Round 3: Eternity Plateau]
05-30-2012, 07:57 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.
Fingers brushed aside shards of ceramic, sent them tinkling to the hard earth below, revealed more of her face. All that remained of the mask – where had it come from? – was the curved beak and glassy red eyepieces. It covered the upper half of her impassive face, and at the same time she felt this was exactly as it should be, that it had once been an entire headpiece and had been savaged by shotgun fire and that she'd never had a mask to begin with, what was this. She stood, eyes still closed, and a village's worth of lungs exhaled a reverently wordless paean to her. She finally looked at the world around her, and something in her snapped; she threatened to collapse again, but a dozen hands caught her and steadied her.
"Amala," one said, "you must take care. You have been weakened by your time in the Dark Beyond."
Who was Amala what was the dark beyond why was this man touching her speaking to her she should kill him kill them all She smiled gently. "Yes." No! "It has been too many moons since I have stepped in the soil of my domain." Not since I burned it, not since I destroyed it, stop looking at me, stop talking to me, see you all, see you burn too "I have lost much without my land, without my people. But I have returned to you."
One of the ancients that held her arm opened his mouth to speak. "What has happened to you in the time since–"
She shook her head, still smiling, and put an ungloved finger to his lips. "There will be time, later. Time for the stories that have gone untold since Crow's attack, time to repair the blight we left behind us. But before that time can come, there is a time for strife."
She took several shuddering steps, and those around her backed away to give her space. She gestured with both hands, spreading them in a wide circle in front of and behind her, turning again to face her congregation, the Children's children.
"You see, when I returned, thinking the time for hiding had passed, thinking of those I had to forget, I did not come alone." Insects, worms, pathetic mounds of flesh and fear, clinging to me, reaching for me, using and fearing and loving me. "I was not the only one who yearned for my home, for all that I had lost when I fled. And those who found the trail I left, they remembered what they had forced themselves to forget, and they followed me. We must find them." Find them, kill them, slaughter them and the one who let them follow me, who brought me here. "They would forget what we learned at the point of Crow's sword and return to the old ways. We must remind them. Teach them the peace you have so long enjoyed." The peace of death. "The peace of reason and contentment."
The plants that had once again begun growing under her feet continued spreading as she spoke, and she turned to the horizon and they sprang up under her gaze as well. It was... Hard for her to think. Somewhere in the darkness, there were voices. Uncountable, unceasing voices. The more she tried to hear them, though, the more they fled and dodged and whispered. There was also a louder one, sinister and upfront and grappling for her attention and control, but it was weak and easily ignored. In front of all of them were the voices of her followers, the simple folk of the Plateau that had hopelessly waited for her return for endless days and nights as time stagnated and crystallized around her. It didn't occur to wonder why she had no voice even in her own mental soundstage, so she simply continued staring at the horizon, eyes scanning farther than they should have been able to see.
"Already, in the time it took me to awaken from the dream the Dark Beyond trapped me in, they have begun fighting. They have truly learned nothing, or discarded their knowledge. We must teach them." Cease them!
She began to walk wabblingly to a battle only she could see and a smear on the sky that all could. Plants crawled up in her wake, spreading out and revitalizing a land that had long been waiting for her attentions. Or some like it, in any case. She would see that this pointless battle ended, one way or another.
Fingers brushed aside shards of ceramic, sent them tinkling to the hard earth below, revealed more of her face. All that remained of the mask – where had it come from? – was the curved beak and glassy red eyepieces. It covered the upper half of her impassive face, and at the same time she felt this was exactly as it should be, that it had once been an entire headpiece and had been savaged by shotgun fire and that she'd never had a mask to begin with, what was this. She stood, eyes still closed, and a village's worth of lungs exhaled a reverently wordless paean to her. She finally looked at the world around her, and something in her snapped; she threatened to collapse again, but a dozen hands caught her and steadied her.
"Amala," one said, "you must take care. You have been weakened by your time in the Dark Beyond."
Who was Amala what was the dark beyond why was this man touching her speaking to her she should kill him kill them all She smiled gently. "Yes." No! "It has been too many moons since I have stepped in the soil of my domain." Not since I burned it, not since I destroyed it, stop looking at me, stop talking to me, see you all, see you burn too "I have lost much without my land, without my people. But I have returned to you."
One of the ancients that held her arm opened his mouth to speak. "What has happened to you in the time since–"
She shook her head, still smiling, and put an ungloved finger to his lips. "There will be time, later. Time for the stories that have gone untold since Crow's attack, time to repair the blight we left behind us. But before that time can come, there is a time for strife."
She took several shuddering steps, and those around her backed away to give her space. She gestured with both hands, spreading them in a wide circle in front of and behind her, turning again to face her congregation, the Children's children.
"You see, when I returned, thinking the time for hiding had passed, thinking of those I had to forget, I did not come alone." Insects, worms, pathetic mounds of flesh and fear, clinging to me, reaching for me, using and fearing and loving me. "I was not the only one who yearned for my home, for all that I had lost when I fled. And those who found the trail I left, they remembered what they had forced themselves to forget, and they followed me. We must find them." Find them, kill them, slaughter them and the one who let them follow me, who brought me here. "They would forget what we learned at the point of Crow's sword and return to the old ways. We must remind them. Teach them the peace you have so long enjoyed." The peace of death. "The peace of reason and contentment."
The plants that had once again begun growing under her feet continued spreading as she spoke, and she turned to the horizon and they sprang up under her gaze as well. It was... Hard for her to think. Somewhere in the darkness, there were voices. Uncountable, unceasing voices. The more she tried to hear them, though, the more they fled and dodged and whispered. There was also a louder one, sinister and upfront and grappling for her attention and control, but it was weak and easily ignored. In front of all of them were the voices of her followers, the simple folk of the Plateau that had hopelessly waited for her return for endless days and nights as time stagnated and crystallized around her. It didn't occur to wonder why she had no voice even in her own mental soundstage, so she simply continued staring at the horizon, eyes scanning farther than they should have been able to see.
"Already, in the time it took me to awaken from the dream the Dark Beyond trapped me in, they have begun fighting. They have truly learned nothing, or discarded their knowledge. We must teach them." Cease them!
She began to walk wabblingly to a battle only she could see and a smear on the sky that all could. Plants crawled up in her wake, spreading out and revitalizing a land that had long been waiting for her attentions. Or some like it, in any case. She would see that this pointless battle ended, one way or another.