|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:55 pm
 |
|
|
|
The sky was on the verge of sinking into nighttime.
In a town occupied mostly by female citizens, the stone tiled floors were brushed against by light, nymphic steps. Shoes and sandals, women and girls. The colours of the twilight sky casted an orange blush on their skin, and a midnight blue beneath their batting eyelashes. The colours --- they poured over the streets and alleyways like paint over a clean, white canvas. And in the painting, few girls --- and only girls, walked along the streets. It was time for women to do their chores, and for girls to return home from their mentors.
In the households, high, melodic voices chattered over dinner tables; they talked about the day, they talked about the night, they talked about other women, and they talked about men.
There were few men in the town of Undai, though their love was not scarce.
But oh, Helena was a sacred land, with many sacred women and many sacred traditions; so the talks of men were often a fine blend of infatuation and disgust. Amongst the whirlpool of visions and invisions, there were the quiet ones --- with a mind of the night, and a touch of unicorns.
And it's hard to tell whether they could be sacred, or that they should be demonic.
One small girl like such strolled slowly along the streets of the town.
Her pale skin glowed faintly in the swirl of paint, and her shoes clattered childishly against the stone tiled floor. She wore no expression on her tender doll-like features, and her movements do not communicate emotions. Her stone gray eyes stared ahead, sometimes touching the same stone gray floor, other times receiving the silk-spun sky. Other girls of her age ran past her, moving and laughing; but she walked, slowly and lightly, as though timeless.
Walking, walking... The quiet girl halted softly by the turn of an alleyway. Her gaze unlocked themselves from the stone floors and the twilight sky, and flickered through the narrow, orange-blue path. She stood still, eyes slightly widened, as though they had just caught the tail of a unicorn.
With little thought and much of instinct, the child turned into the alleyway. The quiet ones --- they are bound to follow the unicorns. Though where the unicorns would lead them, one would never know.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:56 pm
|
|
|
 |
The girl-child tugged at the bag that laid against her back,
neverminding the locks of her long silver hair that got caught in between.
Ahead she walked, and slowly she walked...
Oh no, she was not hesitant, or even doubtful. An apprehensive light shone from beneath the cold marble eyes, and her tender lips parted as her timeless pace caught up with her unicorn. The dark walls on either side of the path towered over her small presence, and the stone tiled floor illuminated before her. The sky was sinking, slowly, into the dark night; though there was still paint to spare.
A rusty smell tingled at the girl's nose. A rusty smell... Yes... A smell like paint.
Her timeless pace slowed down even more; and finally, she halted. She stopped in the midst of an evening-lit alleyway, with two dark walls stretching up on her sides, and a stone tiled path --- faintly glowing of gray, laid out in front of her.
She glanced downwards. A pool of thick, crimson paint was in her way.
The girl knelt lightly, her childish knees touching the rough stone floor. The rusty odour was not repelling to her, despite its bickering strength. With curious eyes and hands she sank her fingers into the thick, muddy red. She felt the paste between her fingers, and watched as it glowed a condensed dark light in constrast to the airy light on the stone path.
The darkness captured her mind. It sucked her in, along with her lightly coloured hair, skin, eyes, and clothes.
She felt through the dark, crimson paint, as if feeling for tracks from the hooves of her unicorn. Her hands ran through a thick red... Until her fingers found a solid object in the midst of the pool of paint. Fearless, she felt on the shape of the thing with her small hands. It was something round.... and cold. But sometimes, a flicker of warmth would creep up from inside it.
The girl scooped it out of the darkness.
She reached for her bag, careful not to stain the fabric with her dirty hands, and pulled out a small handkerchief. Slowly but steadily, the girl wiped the object free of the red mess.
The unicorn has left her a beautiful bottle.
She was not told that her father had been murdered on that day.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:58 pm
|
|
|
|
"Come back as soon as you finish school,"
the woman warned.
The little girl tugged on the straps of her backpack and nodded, her eyes bright with obedience. Fidgety on the balls of her feet, she peeked past the tall, frowning woman and waved goodbye to five other women in the dining room. Those women were all in their usual spots, being absorbed by morning papers, reading letters or being busy with kitchenwork; one of them hung across the sofa, as usual, with a bottle of liquor in her dangling grasp.
Only the woman on the sofa waved back at the small girl.
The tall, serious one put her palms over the girl's shoulders, exerting physical pressure to emphasize her words. "Now, off you go. Don't you go wandering around," she said, not planning to explain the urgent tone that pressed her words. The girl did not ask, nor could one even tell that she had noticed. She simply nodded, the curves of her lips remained null yet her eyes attentive. She let the big woman's hands turn her about, and with a gentle push on her back, she left their home to meet the morning sun.
The little girl skipped down a small rocky hill to her mentor's house, thin legs whipping lightly through the air. She had six mothers, theoretically. She also had one father, theoretically as well. But the father was no more, the mothers said; and the last couple of weeks had proved truth to their promise. The little girl didn't care, however. She had no reason to believe that her father would be gone forever. Forever was not a valid concept to the child. No, not even if she eventually grows up.
The quiet girl does not need forever, for, she had unicorns with her.
And how bright the world seemed to her, at that instant when the folds of her skirt danced with the winds and the white clouds sang a chorus with the sweet azure sky! The stones beneath her feet lifted her presence as she took in the world with her light gray eyes. She sucked in a fresh breath of air, and suddenly ---
Almost too suddenly, she wanted to fly away like those white doves in the sky.
Though, her mentor's house was already standing before her. Without further thought she took off her little shoes at the steps and pranced through the open front door as she always did. But something was not in line with the familiarity... There was something new and strange tingling in the air around her.
For the first time in a long while, she wanted to be home already. She wanted to be back in her little room, on her little bed with her black rabbit doll in her arms. Since the day that the unicorn's bottle had started to glow a light in the colours of the setting sun, the child had decided to keep it hidden in the tummy of her favourite bunny doll...
Just so she could embrace her dearest unicorn to dreamland every night.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:59 pm
|
|
|
|
The other girl snatched her bunny doll away.
She blinked and stood there, watching the other girl laughing with a couple more of other girls. She can feel a burst of heat pulsing beneath her skin --- in her arms, her chest, her throat and her eyes. She felt that she should scream or cry and demand the other girl to give back her bunny doll, but she only stood there.
She didn't know why she brought the bunny to school.
"Young ladies!" She heard their mentor's quiet voice massacre the other girls' frantic giggling like a burning sun hovering over the lava of a volcano. The hot air burned to ashes, and then there was silence. The little girl watched the woman named Herissa scold the three other girls. She liked the teacher.
"Elyse," the woman named the pale-coloured little girl, and the stuffed rabbit was returned to her. Elyse locked the bunny in her embrace. She looked at Herissa's beautiful hands --- hands that saved her dear rabbit doll, and glanced into the woman's warm, apologetic smile. Big, round drops of lukewarm dews rolled down her cheeks and onto the dark fabric of the stuffed toy.
That night after she slid into her thin pajamas dress, she sat herself and the stuffed rabbit on their bed. Of course, even though no words were spoken, they were having a conference as to whether or not the bunny should still go to school with her. They had a small argument over the unicorn's bottle.
So Elyse unzipped the bunny's back and took out the bottle. She sat it beside the bunny, and the bunny was pleased that the object of their argument had joined their conference. The bunny asked it what it thought of the issue, but the bottle replied in a foreign tongue so that they could not understand. Even though the colours it glowed were familiar to the girl, the language it spoke was not like anything she has heard.
"Do you know where my father is?" She suddenly found herself asking. The bunny doll gave no answer, as always, and the bottle kept on babbling in its strange speech.
The room was very, very quiet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:00 pm
|
|
|
|
Her eyes flickered open just a second before dawn.
Suddenly, a clear light shot through the violet skies and ate away the silence, the peace.
Birds sang.
Like a goddess perfumed by the scent of honeyed grass, the gentle yet cruel morning laid her soft fingers on the girl's cheeks. The sudden warmth of the sun stirred a breeze out of cool air, and the tails of the silken curtains fluttered from her open window. She lay there, idle gaze and idle mind. It was a holiday. She did not have to leave for school.
What would she do today? What is worth doing today?
Suddenly her bed seemed like the most comfortable place in the universe.
She snuggled the bunny doll close to her. It never really did have a name, for she did not speak enough to refer it to anyone. She felt the ends of her lips lift into a smile as she tried to squeeze the stuffed toy's tummy. It used to be full of cotton. It used to be soft. The shape of the bottle sparked a flame in her heart. Maybe she should go look for a unicorn today. Maybe a dragon, or a fairy. Or perhaps a priestess. A priestess would certainly know where they are --- the unicorns, the dragons, the fairies. But who was she to enter a temple?
That said, she's never been in a temple and never knew how things worked there. She imagined that inside ivory palaces, sacred women walk in an ever stretching pool of sweet shallow water, with silver kois dancing by their ankles. The ceiling would be as high as the moon, and each woman a glittering star amongst the darkness that had embraced their priestesshood.
A calm, white flame would burn from their feet, and their steps would serve as their candles.
Elyse rose from her bed, letting the blanket fall off from her small body. She was sure that most of the women in the house have already waken, maybe even gone out. She descended from her room, located high up in the attic, and headed for their piano. It sat in the midst of a large room, accompanied by no other furniture but a vase with a bouquet of dried flowers bursting out of its mouth. The child sat and let her tender fingers kiss the black keys, although her first note came out of a white one. A soft, soothing rhythm soon overflowed.
The bunny doll sat beside her. It enjoyed the tenderness and the melancholy, two things both of them had not yet the names for. It told Elyse that it loved the song, and that she should play it again. So she played again, then again, and again. It was a song that she'd memorized. It was a song that she kept playing. It was a song --- her song, her singing secret. The stuffed toy smiled as a bright full moon hung over them. The room fell dark, and a white flame burned beneath them, illuminating the sweet-washed kois. The shallow water twirled and danced, just like her hands. And it was drowning her... Drowning... Drowning...
Then she heard the tingling of a golden bell. Her eyes snapped open, and there was that light from the windows again. The overtly sweet smell of dried blossoms made her daze linger. But it was already breakfast time.
Yet another day of nothing but piano playing.
She wasn't allowed out of the house. She didn't know why.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 6:22 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:56 am
|
|
|
|
Re: Rabbit Race
There was a knife. A long, well-sharpened and shiny one which little twilight wisps danced upon. The handle was made of wood...And it had strange carvings on it which Elyse couldn't see. A woman's hand was wrapped around it.
And there was her father. He was dressed in a crisp brown suit, with matching jacket and trousers. His shirt was black, and so were his shoes.
Their presence was a splash of the evening palette. The mix of the tangerine skies and midnight blue was most romantic with a touch of lavender and the airy gray tone of the stony streets. Beautifully bright and lurid, the flashing blade of the knife was the center of the world's attention.
In her vision she caught a glimpse of her father smiling. It was his gentle trickster's smile, the one that he always had on his face when Elyse learned to do something cunning. It almost seemed like he was enjoying the beauty of it all-----the evening, the colours, the knife.
And then she woke up.
Opening her eyes slowly, she found a droplet of sleepy tear clouding her left eye, and she squinted to make it go away. Another strange dream, another cold morning. But she didn't usually dream of knives, or her father. Nostalgia swarming up her throat, she found herself parting her lips to whine just very lightly, her cheeks turning pink and stony eyes warm and moist. She missed her father. The little girl reached over her shoulder for her black bunny doll for comfort. Her hand felt it, skin touched fabric.
But it pulsed and slipped away.
Eyes suddenly wide, Elyse flipped up from her bed. The world suddenly seemed muted as the girl-child's stare followed the movements of her stuffed toy.
Movements.
Without a warning, the thing quickly slipped down from her bed and out of the half-opened doorway with the speed and nimbleness of a true rabbit. Elyse felt her heart and breath stop for a split-second. Then, without further ado, the girl scrambled out of the sandwich that was her bed and blankets and ran---no slippers, no change of clothes, just straight after her little friend.
"What's going on?" A woman's demanding voice called from somewhere in the house. Small bare feet that padded against the wooden floors of the corridor were too hurried for a hush-hush. Her oversized pajamas fluttering with movements, the girl ran through hallway and down the stairs, trying to not lose the stuffed toy. Too startled by the chase, a thoroughly bewildered expression replaced what would have been a frown on the little girl's tender face. Her legs weren't quick enough to catch up to the little blur! Flying with speed, the black rabbit pranced forward and took a sharp turn into one of the empty rooms on the main floor.
"W-Wait!" Elyse called out, first reluctantly and then--- "WAIT!!"
As she ran into the room, heart pounding and breaths heavy, she found the black rabbit crouching there and waiting for her upon the open windowsill. A cool breeze accompanied by thin morning light busted in from the outside. Silk curtains fluttered, and the little girl paused, bewildered by the sudden halt.
And then the stuffed toy leapt out into the town streets.
"STOP!" Elyse cried decisively as the chase resumed once again. Leaving behind a stirred populous of women in the house, the little girl quickly climbed over the windowsill and jumped out to chase after the black bunny doll. Both determined and exasperated, she landed her bare feet upon their lawn. The bunny was her friend, and inside the bunny was her treasure. She will not lose either of them. Pushing feet against grass, she fled the house and chased the black rabbit into the streets.
Feet against rough stony floors they ran, and curious strangers watched as the strange chase whipped past them. A running black thing, and a little girl in pajamas dashing after it---what a morning! Elyse blushed heavily from all of the attention, panic and exercise. The bunny was still fast and and light upon its stuffed limbs, but Elyse was quickly losing her stamina, nevermind pain from the scraped bottoms of her feet.
"B-Bunny! Wait!" She tried to call upon her friend, but soon realized that she had given it no name. "Wait!!" She wailed and, losing faith, felt an urge to cry.
Then the thing took another sharp turn in the streets, and Elyse suddenly realized something. They were going to school.
Breathing in deeply, hope and wit filled Elyse once again. The little girl dashed to take a sharp turn as well, not into a big street but the alleyway where she first found the unicorn's bottle. She ran past the spot where the pool of red paint was (now completely cleaned and cleared), and rushed out into another open street. Catching a glimpse of the black blur making another turn along their usual route to school, Elyse ran on into another alleyway. Finding herself a little quadrangle court in the back of various resident buildings, the girl jumped up metal staircases three steps at a time, four limbs scrambling to achieve maximum speed.
Breathless, she arrived on a flat open rooftop two stories tall, and ran to the side that faced the street. She can see it already. The bunny was just coming this way!
Without a second thought, she threw herself into the air.
Pajamas and silver hair fluttering, she was falling into the winds-----
It was less than a second before she rolled onto the hard stony floor with a black stuffed toy ramming into her embrace. Surprisingly, she was not hurt badly. Only shallow bruises, scratches and tattered pajamas.
Oh, and the scolding, of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 10:13 am
|
|
|
|
She buttoned up his shirt.
He doesn't know her, and she doesn't know him. But that was what she did when she first saw him.
Curious eyes glanced around the small, dainty room. Their hues changed like ornamental stones as the boy turned --- the bright morning light played through the lace curtains, past his short violet bangs, and made a smooth azure silver in his eyes as he glanced out the window at the streets of Undai. He turned back to the girl then, and those same eyes shone a liquid gold in the shadows.
The boy could see himself in that mirror beside the door, and he wondered at the sight for a moment. It was rather pleasing, he decided. He also noticed the girl and him were the same height.
"What is your name?" The young boy started with a charming smile, inquisitive with his first words. He had a nice voice.
"...Elyse." Soft lids blinked over stone-grey eyes. With that last button tucked through the hole, the girl finally finished dressing up the other child with her clothes. The simple shirt and shorts fit just right.
"Elyse." He practiced the name as he looked down at the clothes put on him. "What is my name?"
The girl blinked quietly. "...I don't know." She doesn't even know how the other kid got into her room all naked to begin with.
"Well then," he gave an easy laugh and flopped backwards onto her unmade bed. "Pick one that starts with E, will you?"
---
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
