NaNoWriMo ~ 2

“You’re not looking at me.”

I sucked in my breath. My head lowered, I thought she wouldn’t notice. I didn’t want her to notice. I prepared to open my eyes . And I prayed for a miracle.

My sight focused on her feet. Small enough, in leather shoes with those damn bells on the toes. I could always hear her coming. I’m sure she did that on purpose. So that people would know she was coming… so they could look away, or hide, or get really busy and not be able to talk. Her long brown tunic stretched across her legs and torso. She was such a small woman, yet she filled a room with her presence.

I knew she could feel my hesitation. I knew she didn’t like it. I could feel her gaze on the top of my head, drilling into my brain. I could feel her breathing there. Coating my thoughts with dew of her lips.

I lifted my eyes to hers.

Those liquid eyes. No pupils, no color. Just liquid, clear, cloudy, sparks twitching and spiraling thru them. Her face had no clear definition. It seemed to pulse and throb, shifting and bubbling right beneate the surface. Her nose seemed to sway, the nostrils flaring as she took each breath. Her lips were blue… thick and coated with a glossy layer of saliva. Her tongue, greenish with bumps and forked on the end, slithering out from time to time to replenish the moisture on her mouth. Her teeth were brilliant and white, extremely sharp and menacing, they seemed to grow when she smiled, until her grimace became like a wolves right before it snapped it’s jaws down on it’s prey.

She was smiling at me now. I tried not to draw back in fear.

“That’s better.”

Her voice seemed to sooth me. I could feel myself breathing again. My chest collapsing in on itself, it almost hurt to breath the air all of a sudden.

“I’m sorry Maseele. I just…”

“No need for explanations, but you know that when we speak I need you to look at me so that I know you understand. Often people are distracted by my presence and lose the most important details. Now come closer, you must take this with you.”

She held out her porcelain hand. It was beautiful like her voice. Flawless fingertips draped with a fine silken fabric.

“what is it?”

“It’s for the child…”

I stopped breathing again. The child. I had almost forgotten.

She lay amidst the sheets breathing deeply. Her legs shook and her fingertips were dazzled with pins and needles. She couldn’t seem to get a grasp on her thoughts. Words and images swirled through her head, pictures painted in wide strokes and then erased before she could focus on the. She felt things, touches, textures, pain. Her eyes wouldn’t open. Her body wouldn’t move.

Her heart began to pound in her ears. It felt as if it would shatter with each beat. As if it was wearing down, the energy it needed being diverted downward. Her blood slowed. She could feel it lingering in her veings.

Something was happening.

She could feel it… in her abdomen… moving, starting to spin. She coughed a little, the movement paused and then flurried ever faster. It was tiny, fragile… but held such a menacing power, it was hard to comprehend. Her focus shifted to her arms as she willed them to move. Her finger tips buzzed as she lifted her limp hand to her body. She slowly slid it down her bare stomach to her waist. Energy began to surge upwards like a wave. It burned into her skin and she jerked her hand up to her lips almost involuntarily. She could taste it. The energy. It was almost like blood but seemed to force itself back into her body and surge downward where it was sucked up eagerly.

She willed her eyes to open. She stared down at her body. The sheets of the bed seemed to have been thrown off, the edges smoking from the heat of her body. Her body which was turning a deep red… illuminating outwards in a fan shape. Her skin seemed to be changing, spreading and liquefying, the ripples like the bubbles of boiling water.

She began to shake. Fear rising in her throat, building up pressure behind her lips. Her eyelids fluttered and stuck to her eyes.

She could feel her hair shifting. The long black tresses twisting up over her head in reaction to the changes in her body. It seemed to fight with itself, jerking her head back and forth. She tried to reach her hands up, but they seemed frozen on her lips, her breath moistening her skin, reminding her that, yes, this WAS real.

As her thoughts began to sharpen, she searched the room with her eyes. It was dark, only soft glimpses of light coming from a few candles on the wall to her right. There wasn’t much to the room. No decorations, no feeling of home. It was a room just for this purpose, and not used often. The smell of earth tickled at her nose suddenly as her eyes traveled to the end of the bed.

He was still there. Leaning against the wall. His face furrowed in a sort of puzzle, but knowledge flowed like fire from his eyes. She wanted to scream at him, to tell him to make it stop. He had done this to her. He had had begun this. Couldn’t he do SOMETHING?!

The pain began. The fire and energy seemed to filter through her nerves like razor blades. She began to scream. Her voice escaping her throat and fleeing through the air like dazed phantoms from pandoras box.

And he began to smile. His blue eyes glittering in the faint light.

It had begun.

I felt the silk between my fingers. It was weightless and seemed to tickle. It held the warmth of my body though, and I knew that it was perfect. It was the shade of night. Dark, black and blue seeming to melt together. Stars splashed across the surface… an almost flawless replica of the night sky.

“Well take it,” Maseele whispered as she let the rest of the cloth fall from her hands. “Do not let it touch the ground. Do not let it be used for anyone else but the child.”

I shivered as I gathered it up, trying to fold it neatly. It seemed to breath, moving and changing size as if it were in transition. Maseele laughed as I struggled. I wanted to stop and listen to the crystalline quality of it, but continued to fight with the enchanted cloth.

“Stop trying to force it into a shape. Just allow it to be so.”

I looked up at her. Her eyes flashed brightly and her wolfish smile spread across her lips. Fear involuntarily leapt into my throat. I could never get used to it. That smile that seemed to long to devour me. My eyes wouldn’t move though, her face drawing me into a daze.

And as I stared, I felt the cloth shift in my hands. I looked down and it was intricately folded, small enough to store in my satchel.

“I should have known it would be magical”

“Nothing less for the child. You know this. Please do not say that my time has been in vain. You came to me, Asha, now you must make sure you retain what you have been tought and complete that which you have been called to do.”

“I will Mistress Maseele, I will. I just… it’s just so much, so soon. I’m not sure how I’ll do it. Why was I chosen? I’m not ready. I don’t understand.”

“You’ll NEVER be ready.” The room seemed to darken. My hands shook and I looked nervously at the floor. She continued, “No one is ever ready to fulfill their destiny. That is why so many heros seem to come from humble beginnings. You do not choose your destiny, destiny chooses you.”