a gold starred sky
The waves have raised their sharpened beaks, foam-capped heads spread taut against the blue-black of old hates left to fester beneath the silt of the tidal pool. Stribog's charred clouds meet the edge of the endless deep in a ragged line torn from beyond the farthest shore of sanity...and the beast closes in, it's bloated pulsing form alive within the ghostly grey tapestry left by the wind god's malignancy, it's movements quick and sure.
With little time to ponder alternatives I jump to the rear edge of my little bronze boat, battered leather heels putting enough weight and pressure to flip the tiny craft right out of the water...and in the space between air and water, before the boat is once again resting comfortably, I push my will into the small ship, asking it to remember it's old form. And without pomp, without a flash of light or even a slight crackling sound, the tiny boat is gone, it's roughly beaten bronze hull replaced by the familiar heft of Perun's glinting axe. My off-hand raised defensively, I turn to face the searching blackness of the nightmare beast.
One final urgent pouncing jump and it is upon me, surrounding, enveloping, suffocating...a glass covering a small dwindling flame who's light is calously denied the precious air that feeds it's growth.
For a few brief moments all is chaos...a mad struggling for air, for survival, for lost glories. Perun's axe glows pale gold and sings a song it has not sung in countless ages, not since it sunk it's teeth into the great coiled one...it sings the song of death. And where the light of Perun's blade cuts deep it pierces through the murky flesh of the nameless midnight creature until it fades into a night sky full of stars, invisible against the celestial canopy. Slinking back to the hidden places between worlds to gather it's strength for another attempt to pull me far below the angry darkened face of the sea.
Beneath the silvered rays of a new moon I can see an island in the distance, silhouetted against the horizon and growing slowly as I make my stony way in it's direction. Leaving no footsteps atop the ocean's now calm countenance I make my way onwards, the diamond tear in my pocket shining through the loose weave of cloth.
With little time to ponder alternatives I jump to the rear edge of my little bronze boat, battered leather heels putting enough weight and pressure to flip the tiny craft right out of the water...and in the space between air and water, before the boat is once again resting comfortably, I push my will into the small ship, asking it to remember it's old form. And without pomp, without a flash of light or even a slight crackling sound, the tiny boat is gone, it's roughly beaten bronze hull replaced by the familiar heft of Perun's glinting axe. My off-hand raised defensively, I turn to face the searching blackness of the nightmare beast.
One final urgent pouncing jump and it is upon me, surrounding, enveloping, suffocating...a glass covering a small dwindling flame who's light is calously denied the precious air that feeds it's growth.
For a few brief moments all is chaos...a mad struggling for air, for survival, for lost glories. Perun's axe glows pale gold and sings a song it has not sung in countless ages, not since it sunk it's teeth into the great coiled one...it sings the song of death. And where the light of Perun's blade cuts deep it pierces through the murky flesh of the nameless midnight creature until it fades into a night sky full of stars, invisible against the celestial canopy. Slinking back to the hidden places between worlds to gather it's strength for another attempt to pull me far below the angry darkened face of the sea.
Beneath the silvered rays of a new moon I can see an island in the distance, silhouetted against the horizon and growing slowly as I make my stony way in it's direction. Leaving no footsteps atop the ocean's now calm countenance I make my way onwards, the diamond tear in my pocket shining through the loose weave of cloth.