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+---- Thread: [G] [C] 732.09.28 | Memories [one-shot] (/showthread.php?tid=1039)
732.09.28 | Memories [one-shot] - Ellaira - 14.Nov.12
The sands were warm. They were always warm, and if the shells of dragons past hadn't been crushed and mixed into the clean pale grains, they would have been infested with tunnelsnakes. But the sands were sterile now, carrying only the memory of lives that had briefly passed over them, shadows of loves found and blood spilled. Ellaira lay in the center of the sand, the heat radiating up through her, lacing through her blood and wrapping warm tendrils around the chill of her bones.
It was cold outside.
It had rained that evening, and the sands steamed slightly, releasing their moisture into the cold air of the early spring. Ellaira's breath plumed above her when she breathed through her mouth, the damp air from her lungs mingling with the effervescing mists that shifted in the nearly imperceptible breeze. Warbler was curled up on her chest, a spot of heat over her heart.
It had always been cold in the south for Ellaira.
He lay on the ground, his hair stirred by the warm breath of his beautiful green. Ellaira watched him with the sort of longing only first love can produce. The air tasted of spring, but there was still snow hidden in the shadows of the hills. Over them, the sky wheeled, a clear bowl of beaten metal. The sun shone, a golden coin gleaming between the fingers of a merchant.
"Do you ever think about home?" he asked suddenly, dark eyes flicking towards her. "Telgar, I mean. Do you miss it?" Ellaira looked away, embarrassed that he had caught her drinking him in. The clouds fled across the surface of the sun, dimming its warmth. The air was chill against her face, and she shivered, ducking her chin under the worn scarf wrapped around her neck.
"I don't know," the girl said at last. "I -- I don't know," she repeated, her words lost. Suddenly he was above her, blocking out the light of the sun. The clouds continued to slip across the sky, and the light of the star shone through his hair, limning him with a halo of cold fire. He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. She couldn't see his expression. She imagined it was love.
"Hey, it's okay," he said. He leaned forward -- he was going to kiss her, she knew it -- her heart raced -- she closed her eyes -- The sun shown against her eyelids, from a sky newly revealed. He flopped down next to her again. She could smell the bittersweet scent of crushed sagegrass as he sighed. "Ever onward, right?" Ellaira smiled for him, locking sorrows deep in her chest.
"Yeah," she replied, "ever onward."
Hot tears traced down her cheeks, leaking from between eyelids closed against the stolid stars. Ellaira could feel the knot in the back of her throat, tight as the day she had learned that he had never loved her, never could love her. The love of a little blue fire-lizard was tearing down a dam she hadn't remembered building, and it was agonizing. She opened gleaming eyes, staring up into the velvet darkness of the sky. It was as if the earth spun beneath her, the stars glinting through her unbidden tears in chill pinpricks, unmoving and unfeeling.
Why. She mouthed the word, as her mind raced through memories better left forgotten. D'jen laughing, Morelkyth between her thighs, her hands in the air, his hands on her ribs. Innocent, innocent, washed in blood. Morelkyth crooning with a voice that was all D'jen's. D'jen smiling, D'jen talking, D'jen dying.
Abruptly, Ellaira threw herself up off of the sand. The little blue screeched and clung to her, scrabbling for purchase before creeling at her, feeling her agony. She sobbed a laugh, then started walking away. Each heavy step came faster, until she was running, fleeing from the hot sands that might have healed her heart. There was no room in her south for warmth.