[Open Post] "On the branches, in the ditches, it's now silent and without life"
The shortening days and lengthening nights are adding to the gloom that has fallen like a pall over Titus recently. He's grown restless as well, staring out the windows overlooking the lawns on days when the rain lashes the windows and prowling the forest when the sun at last conquers the clouds. The colored leaves on the trees glow in the sunlight, yet their scarlet and golden hues make him think of Fuschia and how she used to bring in branches of them into the castle, despite how much Nannie Slagg used to fret about the mess they'd make when they dropped.
Finally one unsettled day, with a rising wind sending several dark clouds scudding across the sky, he decides he has had enough, that despite what he has been told, he is going to seek out a road out of this place. He's already tried paddling his boat up a stream he found running into the Lake, but it lead into the hills and grew too shallow to navigate. Now he's decided to test the forest trails.
And so he saddles a white horse he'd found in the stable and packing the saddle bags with a day or two's worth of provisions, he sets out on a narrow, rocky path he's found leading to the house.
Only a few hours out, the sky becomes overcast, the scudding clouds collecting and weaving into a lead-colored cloak. The horse grows skittish and harder to control, as the wind grows into a gale, lashing the branches of the trees so that they whip at his head and shoulders and at the horse's head. A dagger of lightning stabs across the sky and striking a tree. The horse screams, rearing up and throwing him before the beast bolts into the woods. Titus lays sprawled in the leaf mold, stunned, as the sky opens up and a torrent of rain pours down.
At least another hour has passed before the ringing in his head lets up enough, and by then it is so dark that lights can be seen in the distance. And where there is light there are likely people or at least perhaps a warm fire. He pulls himself onto his feet and slogs back along the now muddy track, his clothes soaked and spattered with mud and bits of dead and dying leaves.
But the lights he saw prove to be only the lights of the Mansion. Sighing, he trudges up the steps to the porch, collapsing onto a bench, where he sits huddled, shivering violently, his head still aching...
So... His Emoness has gotten himself a bit of a chill. First one who tags is the one to drag him into the house and dry him off (I'd really love to see Helen(M2) fussing over him), while subsequent taggers can visit him as he's curled up under the covers of his bed, sniffling (I'd love to see 11-12 and possibly Brian Moser [!!]). Entry title lifted from Rammstein's "Ohne Dich [Without You]", which has been stuuuck in my head since I watched this almost Gormenghastian vid
Finally one unsettled day, with a rising wind sending several dark clouds scudding across the sky, he decides he has had enough, that despite what he has been told, he is going to seek out a road out of this place. He's already tried paddling his boat up a stream he found running into the Lake, but it lead into the hills and grew too shallow to navigate. Now he's decided to test the forest trails.
And so he saddles a white horse he'd found in the stable and packing the saddle bags with a day or two's worth of provisions, he sets out on a narrow, rocky path he's found leading to the house.
Only a few hours out, the sky becomes overcast, the scudding clouds collecting and weaving into a lead-colored cloak. The horse grows skittish and harder to control, as the wind grows into a gale, lashing the branches of the trees so that they whip at his head and shoulders and at the horse's head. A dagger of lightning stabs across the sky and striking a tree. The horse screams, rearing up and throwing him before the beast bolts into the woods. Titus lays sprawled in the leaf mold, stunned, as the sky opens up and a torrent of rain pours down.
At least another hour has passed before the ringing in his head lets up enough, and by then it is so dark that lights can be seen in the distance. And where there is light there are likely people or at least perhaps a warm fire. He pulls himself onto his feet and slogs back along the now muddy track, his clothes soaked and spattered with mud and bits of dead and dying leaves.
But the lights he saw prove to be only the lights of the Mansion. Sighing, he trudges up the steps to the porch, collapsing onto a bench, where he sits huddled, shivering violently, his head still aching...
So... His Emoness has gotten himself a bit of a chill. First one who tags is the one to drag him into the house and dry him off (I'd really love to see Helen(M2) fussing over him), while subsequent taggers can visit him as he's curled up under the covers of his bed, sniffling (I'd love to see 11-12 and possibly Brian Moser [!!]). Entry title lifted from Rammstein's "Ohne Dich [Without You]", which has been stuuuck in my head since I watched this almost Gormenghastian vid