Prompt: Lost, found, magnificent things...
Title: The Cave of Wonder
Author: redleathercouch
Rating: PG
Prompt: Lost, Found, Magnificent Things in under an hour.
Fandom: again, my own 'verse as in previous cues challenges
Notes: how to describe without describing... that's what I'm trying to learn here, a way of curbing my verbosity and turning it to something useful... I'd be interested in people's feedback on this, considering what's going on here is quite obscure. :)
They’d all slipped through cracks in time, existing alongside of it but moving with it no more. They stayed the same, they didn’t change and people who should be a hundred years old remained nine and twelve and fifteen, their minds as unchanged as their bodies; mostly. Remnants of partially updated clothes told their tale and each new face was a snapshot of a certain time, a certain place and a certain way of life, all boys, young men, maybe once all beloved and missed by people; mothers, who might now be long dead. How did all of them lose their way, she wondered. How did they all fall out of the light, and was she now lost with them too?
Her eyes flicked from one ageless face to another as she passed them all, travelling deeper and deeper inside the cavernous dwelling. They stared at her silently, this thing, this intruder into their mists, this woman who did not belong, and she saw fear, hostility, suspicion, curiosity and hope; the whole gamut of human emotion in young male faces. Are you my mother, my sister, my friend, my lover, the faces asked?
She couldn’t bear to look at them anymore. As she walked she could feel every eye on her and that was more than enough to know she was still being watched. She held more tightly to his hand as he pulled her steadily forward, both hands wrapping around his one, clinging desperately. His back was always in front of her, worn black leather whispering through passages she was sure he could traverse in the dark if need be.
Candles lit the walls in places, casting strange flickering shadows, making each face like a strange painting, still and solemn, mellowed colours with eyes that stared out alive and disturbingly old. The candles ran with wax that flowed freely down the walls like frozen waterfalls. Each one flickered and shimmered like a sky full of dying stars. The passages opened out into a great cave, like the inside of a giant hive and the candles softly glowing at points around this enormous space made her think for a moment that they’d stepped back outside into the starlight.
In the faint light that her eyes were now becoming accustomed to, she could see dark openings leading off this vast space and he led her up stairs that wound around the walls of the chamber until he reached an opening and took her inside. She was met with a room, small and sparsely furnished, a bed cut from the stone and a chair with clothes strewn over it. But what grabbed her was the light. The room was lit with candles as with everywhere, but occasionally, they were arranged by pieces of glass or stone so that dim lights of many colours winked at her from around the room. A strange feeling overcame her as she took in the whole space. The vision of the stone and the faint glowing light of the many flames triggered a memory, a dream she’d once had of him and like that feeling you get where you’d swear someone had walked over your grave, a sudden realisation assaulted her that she had been here before, in her dreams, in her mind. She’d been here before with him, had watched him in her sleep lying on the very bed that she now stood beside.
It must have been meant to be then, that she should find him again, and on impulse she reached up and stroked the side of his face that was cast in shadow and he couldn’t help but turn his face and lips into the gentle touch as the light played havoc with her fingers.
Author: redleathercouch
Rating: PG
Prompt: Lost, Found, Magnificent Things in under an hour.
Fandom: again, my own 'verse as in previous cues challenges
Notes: how to describe without describing... that's what I'm trying to learn here, a way of curbing my verbosity and turning it to something useful... I'd be interested in people's feedback on this, considering what's going on here is quite obscure. :)
They’d all slipped through cracks in time, existing alongside of it but moving with it no more. They stayed the same, they didn’t change and people who should be a hundred years old remained nine and twelve and fifteen, their minds as unchanged as their bodies; mostly. Remnants of partially updated clothes told their tale and each new face was a snapshot of a certain time, a certain place and a certain way of life, all boys, young men, maybe once all beloved and missed by people; mothers, who might now be long dead. How did all of them lose their way, she wondered. How did they all fall out of the light, and was she now lost with them too?
Her eyes flicked from one ageless face to another as she passed them all, travelling deeper and deeper inside the cavernous dwelling. They stared at her silently, this thing, this intruder into their mists, this woman who did not belong, and she saw fear, hostility, suspicion, curiosity and hope; the whole gamut of human emotion in young male faces. Are you my mother, my sister, my friend, my lover, the faces asked?
She couldn’t bear to look at them anymore. As she walked she could feel every eye on her and that was more than enough to know she was still being watched. She held more tightly to his hand as he pulled her steadily forward, both hands wrapping around his one, clinging desperately. His back was always in front of her, worn black leather whispering through passages she was sure he could traverse in the dark if need be.
Candles lit the walls in places, casting strange flickering shadows, making each face like a strange painting, still and solemn, mellowed colours with eyes that stared out alive and disturbingly old. The candles ran with wax that flowed freely down the walls like frozen waterfalls. Each one flickered and shimmered like a sky full of dying stars. The passages opened out into a great cave, like the inside of a giant hive and the candles softly glowing at points around this enormous space made her think for a moment that they’d stepped back outside into the starlight.
In the faint light that her eyes were now becoming accustomed to, she could see dark openings leading off this vast space and he led her up stairs that wound around the walls of the chamber until he reached an opening and took her inside. She was met with a room, small and sparsely furnished, a bed cut from the stone and a chair with clothes strewn over it. But what grabbed her was the light. The room was lit with candles as with everywhere, but occasionally, they were arranged by pieces of glass or stone so that dim lights of many colours winked at her from around the room. A strange feeling overcame her as she took in the whole space. The vision of the stone and the faint glowing light of the many flames triggered a memory, a dream she’d once had of him and like that feeling you get where you’d swear someone had walked over your grave, a sudden realisation assaulted her that she had been here before, in her dreams, in her mind. She’d been here before with him, had watched him in her sleep lying on the very bed that she now stood beside.
It must have been meant to be then, that she should find him again, and on impulse she reached up and stroked the side of his face that was cast in shadow and he couldn’t help but turn his face and lips into the gentle touch as the light played havoc with her fingers.