I got tagged by @cirianne to find the words wait, public and silence and by @romenna to find wet, happy, fear, and inside.
I’ll be doing these for Like Dragons of Old (and I would link this but since tumblr is a piece of shit.. >.< ugh) This is my NaNoWriMo story, as usual :)
These are sorted according to their places in the story :3 Also very first-draft-y. xD
"Oh, Timbre", the woman says, the relief obvious in her voice, "Oh, baby-girl..."
She kneels down and pulls her into her arms, and then she carries her away, stroking her back softly.
That's when Timbre feels the strange sensation for the first time — the strange pain in her back, the strange something, rough and unwanted.
"It's beginning", the woman says sadly. "I guess it'll be slowest for you and the other children, but we won't be here for that much longer, little one."
Timbre shifts uneasily, wondering what those words are supposed to mean. She has an inkling. She hopes desperately that she’s wrong, but she knows she isn’t.
The woman’s back is rough under the rough shirt, and Timbre can see the wood peaking through. Can feel the ridges of the bark.
The woman sighs.
“How are your… are they—”
But she doesn’t finish the question, and Timbre’s silence is answer enough.
“I like that”, the girl says, finally. “Yes. Friends… I think I should like to have a friend. I don’t know the word laugh.”
“Look at you”, the Observer says, marvelling at the way she speaks. “How did you even remember how to speak? What happened, little one? All the stories… there’s so much you know. Laughing is the sound people make when they’re really happy, and smiling is like laughing but less strong, without sound. You’ll learn — I’ll show you! There’s a little girl right your age living where I come from. She’s smart and funny and kind, and she has a lot of ideas in that head of hers. I bet she would love to be friends with you, too. Do you have a name?”
The Observer gets over her surprise quickly, she realizes. In fact, she’s much quicker at that than she would have expected.
“Timbre? Do you use this language still, from time to time?”
Timbre tilts her head again, and then she smiles, exposing too many teeth.
“Oh, yes. My family — they talk to me, inside my head. They’re always there. But I don’t know their language. I could use it, but they said no. Not safe to speak like them, or sing.”
The Observer nods, slowly, wondering how to untangle the deep net that has Timbre in its grasp. The Aunae… all of them?
“Is there more than one, Timbre?”, she asks carefully. “More than one voice?”
Timbre smiles again. “Oh yes, many voices. My family is very big. Some keep more to the back but most of them don’t. They keep me safe. They guided my guardians to me.”
Timbre looks around at the wolves, and she looks up at the trees. Her eyes are wide and desperate and full of pain and sorrow.
"It hurts", she whimpers, "it hurts so much."
The Observer nods, softly, crawls a bit farther until she's only two foot-lengths away from the little girl. Then she just waits, and sits. The wolves are close enough that they could kill her if they wanted to, and there'd be nothing she could do against it. Of course, that death wouldn't last long, but it's still a risk she doesn't want to take. Dying is painful, after all. Painful and senseless.
The wolves don't move.
Timbre moves at last, crawling forward until she's right in front of her. Her eyes are wild and her mouth is half-open.
The Observer wonders if she's going to lunge for her throat or not.
Timbre doesn't seem to know the answer to that herself, either.
"Come", the Observer says, and she opens her arms, slowly, as not to startle anything, or anyone.
Timbre hesitates, and then she crawls onto her lap, shivering and dirty, the remainders of clothes hanging off her small frame like a snake shedding skin.
“[...] I’m glad you’re here.”
Timbre didn’t say anything but Selandri could somehow feel that she was smiling in the darkness.
“Yes, me too. I’m also really glad that I’m here”, she said softly, and it could’ve been a joke if she hadn’t sounded so serious, so calm, so gentle. “I love being your friend.”
Onii clucked quietly, too, and Selandri felt her eyes get all wet and embarrassing. She was glad that the darkness hid it all.
“Are you crying?”
Dang.
“How do you know?” She tried to keep the sounds out of her voice but it did sound a bit more wet than usual, probably.
“I can see in the dark.”
“Daaang, Timbre! And you only tell me now? No wonder you never walk into bookshelves.”
“I apologize… I mean. I’m sorry. What does “dang” mean?”
“I... I was so afraid for so long”, a voice whispered next to her, half an eternity later, uncertain and a bit shaky.
Selandri looked up, almost startled to find the other girl directly next to her, maybe less than one foot away. There was so much fear in those eyes, though, that she couldn’t find anything but sympathy in her heart.
“You don’t have to be afraid anymore”, she said, and then she smiled.
The other girl looked away, but her face was less scared already and Selandri felt something opening up in herself, as if her soul was singing.
“We’ll keep you safe”, she said. “The monsters will never get to you again.”
I’m tagging both of you back, and also @necros-writings and @ragethewriter aaand also my usual LDOO tag crew? In hopes that you’re not cursing me for tagging you in these games all the time? xD
Also I’m vaguely sorry for how long these are but I .. couldn’t.. cut :’D
Your words are: small, cold, wood and find
@dramaticvoiceover @asttralhell @authordai @thereisnothingwrongwithbeingmad @importance-of-being-crazy @madmoonink @prismalicht @romenna @fynniana @sincerestaffect​ @writin-maaagic @random-stuff-thrown-into-a-pot @raiswanson​ @zekethegm @paper-shield-and-wooden-sword​ @stephrawlingwrites​
