Cookies n' Cream #2 , FotM Red Currant #3
Author: Lunafeather
Story: Meld
Title: Darkness Discovered
Challenge: Cookies n' Cream #2 - Fall, FotM Red Currant #3 - Distant Thunder
Toppings/Extras: None
Word Count: 843
Characters: Dakota
Rating: E for everyone
Summary: Dakota finds the Void gem in Ora's bags.
Author's Note: Dakota's POV. Still deciding if this story will be from everyone's POV's, or just Ora's. ConCrit is very welcome =)
* * *
There's a chill in the air, it's cold fingers tickling their way up Dakota's arms and legs. Orielle has staggered off to the river to gather water for boiling the roots they found earlier. Dakota hugs her robe closer, shivering. The clouds she can hardly see through the tree canopies roll slowly, lazily towards the east; a loud rumble sounds somewhere to the west. A storm is coming. She isn't sure how she knows this, but she recognizes the certainty with which she feels it.
It's been so difficult, these past few weeks, to push away the events of the recent past. She is unsure how to deal with the pain, the loss, the dread. Her family murdered. Her home destroyed. All the bad things that happened in her favorite books are now unfolding in real life, and Dakota hates it. She wonders if her wishes to live among those stories caused this. Is she somehow at fault? Even at her age, she knows its not that easy.
She was happy, in the sky. Lonely, maybe... well, definitely lonely, her only friends being the gallant and heroic pirate captain Beauregard, the quiet and mousy yet undeniably regal librarian Moira, and the countless other characters she spent her days with. She had even begun to fall for Colin, for his sweet smile and calm demeanor... But now...
Something is coming. Dakota shivers again.
She feels as though she is sitting in the eye of the storm, a false calm settling on their shoulders. Soon, things will change. Soon, everything will fall apart, even more so than before.
On the outside, she knows she looks complacent and reserved to her sister. But inside... feelings and doubts and fears are swirling like a hurricane. How can her tiny, frail body contain this turmoil anymore? She's cracking, her carefully crafted facade tightening in preparation. Dakota wants desperately to tell Orielle, but the two of them have never been close, not until now. And even though they have become good friends in the past months, she hesitates to tell her older sister what is boiling in her mind.
Finally acknowledging that she must do something about the frozen air accompanying the setting sun, she crawls to Orielle's bag to find the lighter for their small supply of branches. Maybe if she warms her skin, her heart will follow... As she shoves her hand into the front pocket, she feels something... something strong. Her fingers still, confused. What is that? Something is humming, beckoning... she searches deeper in the pocket, finding and ignoring the lighter. When she looks down, the pocket is glowing the deepest purple-blue, almost black. The strangest light she's ever seen... And then her palm wraps around the source, a round rock-like thing, smooth as glass. In the same instant, her vision shatters, and she yelps in pain.
She can see only darkness. Something is crawling up her arm... no, it's in her blood, in her soul. It moves so fast, and then its in her head, probing, clawing, seeking. Dakota collapses to the dirt of their camp, writhing.
"Orielle," she gasps, but her voice is gone.
She scratches at her own scalp, vainly trying to find the intruder. Its in her mind! Sliding through the crevices, the cracks threatening to break and let her pain flood into the world. She pants and growls, her head feeling heavy and light at the same time. She's falling, falling, her soul is tearing open and she's falling into the hole. Her back arches, and then a triumphant feeling of discovery explodes in her mind and then it's gone. Gone, but not gone. It's melded with her mind, this parasite thing. Dakota's vision returns; she looks down to see that she is still holding the rock. She lies still, breathing heavily, and panic washes over her in waves, before sliding away.
Standing, she looks around, then back to the rock. No, a void gem. She knows its name, somehow. And she also knows that she now possesses a strength she didn't before. A dangerous strength...
"Dakota?"
She turns to see Ora standing cautious and curious at the edge of a tree.
"Why are you covered in dirt?"
Dakota looks down at herself and shakes her head, unsure how to answer. She never was a quick thinker. Her mind swirls with the knowledge of what just happened, of her new powers, her new self. She stutters for a second before saying, "I--I thought there was something on me." As she speaks, she inconspicuously tucks the gem into her shirt sleeve. She hates hiding things from her sister, but something won't let her reveal to Orielle that she's taken it.
Ora quirks her eyebrow, disbelieving, but lets it go. Thunder crashes again, closer this time, and it startles them both. She grins wolfishly; the sky is a part of her soul, after all. The sisters begin assembling their tent in preparation for the rain they can already smell.
Dakota says nothing, her mind filled with one thought.
Something is coming.
Story: Meld
Title: Darkness Discovered
Challenge: Cookies n' Cream #2 - Fall, FotM Red Currant #3 - Distant Thunder
Toppings/Extras: None
Word Count: 843
Characters: Dakota
Rating: E for everyone
Summary: Dakota finds the Void gem in Ora's bags.
Author's Note: Dakota's POV. Still deciding if this story will be from everyone's POV's, or just Ora's. ConCrit is very welcome =)
* * *
There's a chill in the air, it's cold fingers tickling their way up Dakota's arms and legs. Orielle has staggered off to the river to gather water for boiling the roots they found earlier. Dakota hugs her robe closer, shivering. The clouds she can hardly see through the tree canopies roll slowly, lazily towards the east; a loud rumble sounds somewhere to the west. A storm is coming. She isn't sure how she knows this, but she recognizes the certainty with which she feels it.
It's been so difficult, these past few weeks, to push away the events of the recent past. She is unsure how to deal with the pain, the loss, the dread. Her family murdered. Her home destroyed. All the bad things that happened in her favorite books are now unfolding in real life, and Dakota hates it. She wonders if her wishes to live among those stories caused this. Is she somehow at fault? Even at her age, she knows its not that easy.
She was happy, in the sky. Lonely, maybe... well, definitely lonely, her only friends being the gallant and heroic pirate captain Beauregard, the quiet and mousy yet undeniably regal librarian Moira, and the countless other characters she spent her days with. She had even begun to fall for Colin, for his sweet smile and calm demeanor... But now...
Something is coming. Dakota shivers again.
She feels as though she is sitting in the eye of the storm, a false calm settling on their shoulders. Soon, things will change. Soon, everything will fall apart, even more so than before.
On the outside, she knows she looks complacent and reserved to her sister. But inside... feelings and doubts and fears are swirling like a hurricane. How can her tiny, frail body contain this turmoil anymore? She's cracking, her carefully crafted facade tightening in preparation. Dakota wants desperately to tell Orielle, but the two of them have never been close, not until now. And even though they have become good friends in the past months, she hesitates to tell her older sister what is boiling in her mind.
Finally acknowledging that she must do something about the frozen air accompanying the setting sun, she crawls to Orielle's bag to find the lighter for their small supply of branches. Maybe if she warms her skin, her heart will follow... As she shoves her hand into the front pocket, she feels something... something strong. Her fingers still, confused. What is that? Something is humming, beckoning... she searches deeper in the pocket, finding and ignoring the lighter. When she looks down, the pocket is glowing the deepest purple-blue, almost black. The strangest light she's ever seen... And then her palm wraps around the source, a round rock-like thing, smooth as glass. In the same instant, her vision shatters, and she yelps in pain.
She can see only darkness. Something is crawling up her arm... no, it's in her blood, in her soul. It moves so fast, and then its in her head, probing, clawing, seeking. Dakota collapses to the dirt of their camp, writhing.
"Orielle," she gasps, but her voice is gone.
She scratches at her own scalp, vainly trying to find the intruder. Its in her mind! Sliding through the crevices, the cracks threatening to break and let her pain flood into the world. She pants and growls, her head feeling heavy and light at the same time. She's falling, falling, her soul is tearing open and she's falling into the hole. Her back arches, and then a triumphant feeling of discovery explodes in her mind and then it's gone. Gone, but not gone. It's melded with her mind, this parasite thing. Dakota's vision returns; she looks down to see that she is still holding the rock. She lies still, breathing heavily, and panic washes over her in waves, before sliding away.
Standing, she looks around, then back to the rock. No, a void gem. She knows its name, somehow. And she also knows that she now possesses a strength she didn't before. A dangerous strength...
"Dakota?"
She turns to see Ora standing cautious and curious at the edge of a tree.
"Why are you covered in dirt?"
Dakota looks down at herself and shakes her head, unsure how to answer. She never was a quick thinker. Her mind swirls with the knowledge of what just happened, of her new powers, her new self. She stutters for a second before saying, "I--I thought there was something on me." As she speaks, she inconspicuously tucks the gem into her shirt sleeve. She hates hiding things from her sister, but something won't let her reveal to Orielle that she's taken it.
Ora quirks her eyebrow, disbelieving, but lets it go. Thunder crashes again, closer this time, and it startles them both. She grins wolfishly; the sky is a part of her soul, after all. The sisters begin assembling their tent in preparation for the rain they can already smell.
Dakota says nothing, her mind filled with one thought.
Something is coming.