Natural Selection Samples

Sample #2: The Soft Beauty

      The girl had light tawny skin and a soft visage.

      She was stunning.

      Her features were perfectly symmetrical to each other, while her chocolate hair fell in tight curls framing her face. When she spoke, her voice seemed to resonate with the aura of a symphony. It was soft but strong, higher-pitched than Aydris's modulated tone but still pleasant to hear. She was calm and delicate but also steady.

      Her name was Kalon. Aydris and the soft beauty spoke their introductions quietly amid the roaring fire in front of them. Not long after did the question come up...

      "Why did you choose to stay?" Aydris asked as she saw something familiar in the girl's face.

      "My home was broken." Her voice rang in the style of an archaic lullaby, even as her eyes tried and failed to hide a twinge of pain behind her dark irises. "That's why I stayed here. There was nothing for me back home. I don't have anything to lose... not anymore." Aydris watched as shadows danced around the girl as she stared into the fire. She understood more than she could imagine.

      "I know the feeling," Aydris said. Her tone seemed rigid in comparison to Kalon's silken one.

      "I'm sorry." Kalon sympathized, her eyes still glued to the fire. "It's not a good feeling."

      Aydris swallowed as a weight seemed to press on her shoulders as she empathised with Kalon, the feeling all too familiar. "No... it's not."

      "My brother was the only real family I had... but one day, after he graduated, he just vanished. Didn't even bother to say goodbye before he dropped off the grid." Aydris swallowed again as a tear slipped from Kalon's cheek at the confession.

      "I'm sorry." Aydris didn't know what to say. She knew the pain of being abandoned - even if it wasn't her family's fault - the feeling of seclusion. Yet she still didn't know what to say... then she remembered that there was nothing to say at all. Nothing that could be said or done could ease a pain like that, she knew from experience. She knew what she saw in Kalon's eyes, because she saw it in her own... abandonment. But Kalon's was more raw, more angry, and more fragile. And Aydris realized why-

      Aydris had gotten closure, her family's killer was arrested and found guilty, while Kalon, it's unlikely she'll experience such things.

      "No I'm sorry," Kalon continued. "I don't know why I'm telling you all this. I just- I just feel like I owe you some truth to who I am after what you did for us this morning." There was a moment of silence as Aydris nodded.

      "My family was killed when I was 14." Aydris offered up her cantor, attempting to keep Kalon from feeling so lonely. There was no reason to hide their pasts here, everyone had lost something at a time, and Kalon perhaps knew where Aydris was coming from more than anyone.

      Kalons' eyes still didn't leave the fire as Aydris spoke but she knew the girl was latching on to every word. "It's hard... being alone." Aydris continued. "I was lucky enough to have a friend through it. But my family left a hole that no one has been able to fill."

      Kalon nodded as another tear ran down her cheek, but despite it she let a faint smile stain her lips. "It's tragic but also... freeing to have nothing left to lose."

      Aydris smiled as a tear ran down her own cheek too. "To freedom." She rasped, the raging fire still reflecting in their eyes, driving the shadows that resided there back behind their iris's.

      "To freedom," Kalon responded.