The TwiceBorn

Breath and Bone

"In the stillness of his breath and the water-like way he moves."—Kehoe

Abigor's blood, mixed with her own, caused a protracted beat in her chest, a low echo she could hear inside herself.  The ache in her side seemed like some kind of hazy memory.  Perhaps a bad dream, one she knew she'd had but couldn't quite remember the details of.  She laid back and watched, grinning, as Abigor passed a hand over his arm and closed the gash.  He smiled at her as he got to his feet. 

With a grand gesture, he bowed low, turning her grin into laughter.  Night hags, excited by what was about to occur crowded around but quickly shrank back as Abigor bared his teeth at them.  One of the hags wasn't as quick as the others and a bleating sound erupted from her as Abigor snatched her by the wrist.

"Allsyen!"  His voice boomed over the clearing.  "You've served me well.  Now you'll serve The Twiceborn!"

Ignoring the gaping mouth and widened eyes, he pushed the hag towards Alora.

"Take the bandage off and keep her still." He instructed and Allsyen, her eyes servile and adoring, bobbed her head in answer.

Alora watched all of this with delight.  On some level, she knew whatever Abigor had planned wasn't to be trusted.  But she didn't care.  Somehow,someway, she had reached a safe harbor and she felt good. Great, in fact.  Whatever it was that had troubled her heart earlier...

Something about love and all of her days...

...didn't matter because it could be gotten back.  The numb-sweet fruit of everything was within reach and as soon as she could...or maybe later...she would get up and go fix whatever needed to be fixed.  But for now, she was content.  Her heart was full and she was glad to simply draw breath and be surrounded by all the activity.  There was so much to watch!

Alora glanced at the woman who suddenly appeared alongside of her and gave her a wide, infectious grin.  She had no idea who the woman was but, again ,it didn't matter. She watched as the woman drew a thin, lethal looking blade from the folds of her robe.  The inlay decorating the hilt was beautiful.  Entranced, Alora reached out, wanting to hold the blade and inspect the curious stones.

"Don't let her have that!" Abigor called over to the hag, his brow darkening.  The blade was suddenly snatched from her grasp and Alora frowned.  She started to reach for it again, but her attention was suddenly diverted by all the scurrying of the night hags as they dashed about. 

On some level, she realized she felt drunk.  But not as though she'd drank too much ale.  No, this feeling was different in that her "self" had been distanced somehow but everything around her had cranked up a notch in color and sound.  There was a deep and mellow richness to all the activity around her and the colors had a weight and texture she'd never noticed before.

She lay back, fascinated by the sight of the sun as it dappled its way through the trees. A cool breeze across something wet and open brought a slight frown to her face and she easily propped herself up on her elbows and watched as the hag peeled the bandage away from her skin.

And yet it wasn't her skin.  Not really.  Alora viewed the torn flesh and exposed bone from a distance and felt a small twinge of sympathy for the poor unfortunate who'd been so cruelly torn open by someone's blade.

The ripping of cloth seemed abnormally loud to her and as she turned her towards the sound, she felt she could actually see the flutters of cloth in her mind as they tore.  Her eyes settled on Abigor who smiled at her again, and gave her another gentleman's bow.

As he leaned over, he caught the edge of the sack the goblins had dragged back to camp.  He straightened up with a flourish and upended the bag.  A small boy tumbled out onto the ground.