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Post by Brone Van Estra on Jan 19, 2009 13:52:43 GMT -5
Brone rocketed out of the palace as soon as dusk was falling, running beyond the forest to the mountain ranges that separated the two kingdoms. he wasn't aware of where he was running, he was just going. he needed the world to blur by, and he almost wished he would run into something and it might kill him. But the rest of him wouldn't allow him to stop weaving between the trees. Serena was going to be killed, by his father no less, for something that wasn't her fault. Her blood line had a bit of witch in it, was that truly enough to kill her and her unborn child for? it made him sick, and even more determined to never be like his father, to be a better king than his father.
He caught a bear by the throat before his mind had even caught up to the hunt. Despite his old healing injuries, he tackled the animal forcefully, snapping its neck, ending the life so he wouldn't have to fight it. Brone drank his fill, leaving the body still warm, in case any other vampire needed a bit, without wanting a fight. The prince rolled up from the ground and walk along slowly now, unable to go back to the castle. His father would be waiting to keep him away from the dungeons. But his father didn't change a thing.
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Post by Keelin de Lune on Jan 19, 2009 14:13:45 GMT -5
I'm going to die in the cold, lonely mountain range - perhaps by a bear - ugh, that would be a brutal death. Are bears even awake now? Regardless, maybe it won't be a bear - maybe I'll actually run into a vampire. I've always wanted to see one. I guess I could call that some sort of sick fantasy - or maybe it's purely in the spirit of inquiry. Regardless, I'm doing to die, and I can hope that at least it won't be a bear ... or a vampire for that matter - unless they make the death quick. Would they? Or what if I meet no one and freeze to death? That can't be pleasant, unless I just fall asleep and never wake up ... that's an option ..."
Keelin considered all this as she trudged through the snow. It had never occurred to her that the journey to the mountains and back would take so long - or that the mountain range itself would be a natural maze.
And for what? Winter resistant berries for a pie. She was going to die trying to make a pie. She actually chuckled to herself, thinking of the interveiwer the other day, Who said pies couldn't be dangerous?
Her life was seriously some sort of cruel joke.
She was always aware that she would die someday - it happened all the time around her. War, disease, famine, cold ... all took the lives of people around her one by one. She always wondered how she would die.
Surprisingly, she was quite calm about this. At least there was no doubt it was coming. She would die soon.
That didn't stop her from wrapping her arms around her, trying to feel warm. Her face, as always (perhaps because all her life she was subject to cold) seemed tinted a strange blue/grey during the fall and winter mothns - otherwise it was just absurdly pale.
I don't think I've ever seen a bear either- she began, and realized she spoke all too soon. Right before her, lay a bear.
The blood seeping into the snow indicated that it was probably dead. By whom? Who out here could take on a bear? Kee almost shivered in delight when she made the realization. It seemed she would be getting all her wishes today - right before her death. The cold was making her delusional. She let her mind ask the unanswered question - the forbidden question. After all, she'd be dead soon.
She sat down next to the bear, only to find that it was radiating warmth. Slowly, she lay against it. Ahhh ... it felt nice - though the fur was a bit rough.
What are my origins? thought Keelin closing her eyes, when suddenly - perhaps because of the fur - she sneezed. Loudly - but with the mountain range it seemed to echo indefinitely.
Well, I'm not too conspicuous.
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Post by Brone Van Estra on Jan 19, 2009 14:24:54 GMT -5
Brone paused, stuttering for the first time with his steady steps. A sound had reverberated along the quiet nighttime air. The sounds bouncing from the rocks and through his delicately sensitive eardrums, making it so many times louder than it would have sounded to a human, or a witch. Brone paused turning back the way he had come. It was probably not a vampire, he could normal sense his own kind, most vampires could, and he had never actually sneezed in his life. So he started on his way back the way he had come, something pulling him, he wasn't sure what. Maybe he just felt like he needed to save something, since he was not sure he could save his love. He did not want more than one life on his mind, he did not want more than one life to be, in effect, his fault.
Brone's cloak whipped around him as he walked. He was clad entirely in black, as usual, the skin on his hands, neck and face even paler in comparison. The cold did not bother him so much, his own skin was naturally cold, he'd be fine in the winter wonderland that surround him. The smell of the bear's blood caught in his nose, and he noticed a girl lying by it. He eyed her curiously. Too lost in his mind to work on acting any differently than he felt.
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Post by Keelin de Lune on Jan 19, 2009 14:39:34 GMT -5
Keelin's breath came out in slow, shaky intervals while her entire body was shivering so violently she looked like she was twitching. It was a sharp comparison to what was going on in her mind.
I get to die with a bear- that's such a romantic concept. Perhaps we could be friends in the other world? Keep each other company and all. I wonder if he had a name. Everyone has a name, even if it's not the same type as we do. Maybe my name would be a sort of mixture of my scent and skin color perhaps - in bear language.
Her mind was completely at peace while her body struggled to survive. Alas, too bad you couldn't control your most basic instincts.
Keelin opened her eyes to take one look around and found herself staring at a figure.
He was tall and grave, pale in sharp contrast to his simple, yet elegant, black attire. His clothes slightly billowed in the wind. His casual stance suggested he was at home rather than in a freezing mountain range.
It was so surreal seeing him stand there.
And he was the most beautiful thing Keelin had ever seen.
Keelin had to stop herself from grimacing, figuring even at the end she should retain some manners, but she couldn't help bitterly saying, "You're late."
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Post by Brone Van Estra on Jan 19, 2009 14:46:39 GMT -5
Late? Brone cracked a toothy smile. "Late for what witch?" He asked, his tone half mocking, half very curious indeed. Did she expect him to kill her? Was that what she wanted? "As you can see I've already had a meal, I have no desire to eat you as well." he motioned to the bear, the smirk still on his pale lips. Not to mention that if he drank her blood he was bound to have too much magic in his system, that would make him sick, he couldn't suck her blood dry without a personal risk. But he doubted she wanted to die.
Perhaps she thought he was some sort of grim reaper to come and take her away. that thought intrigued him. Brone furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at her, as if he could figure her out by staring. She was beautiful in a simple way, what was she doing so far out in the middle of nowhere? She hardly looked the rough type, her skin was smooth.
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Post by Keelin de Lune on Jan 19, 2009 15:02:20 GMT -5
The wind whipped around her, howling and reaching deep into the hollows of her ears and stinging her eyes. She was aware that his beautiful lips were moving, but she couldn't hear what he had to say. Such a shame, she imagined his voice was beautiful.
Unsteadily, she got up - instantly feeling colder now that she detached herself from the warm, furry animal.
"So how does this exactly work? Will there be a magical stairway? Or door? Or will you just hold my hand and carry me away? Will we be going up or down?" Keelin looked thoughtful for a moment before looking back at him. "Well I suppose that's not for me to decide. Is that your job?"
She walked over to him and stood about half a foot away, trying very hard not to fall over from the wind or unsteady, rocky surface. She looked up earnestly at his face.
"I cussed only on one occasion, but Betsy from orphanage gave me a good scolding for that. I don't think I've ever stolen anything. The only thing I've ever killed was a cockroach that I saw one night, and I felt so bad afterward that I buried it and even said a little prayer. I've never slept with a married man, or an unmarried man ... or anyone at all actually. I've never even been kissed." She whispered the last part to him before rolling her eyes, as if to say 'what can you do?'
Suddenly a thought came to her and her face turned to fear and she looked up at him and clasped her hands together.
"Do you think I'll still be able to make pie in the other world?" She asked him, her voice fraught with worry.
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Post by Brone Van Estra on Jan 19, 2009 16:14:25 GMT -5
Brone heard her every word over the wind, his hearing was acute as any other vampire's. He only laughed at hre words. He killed so many, slept with all kinds of people. prayers did not occur to him, why would he pray over the dead? They were gone? Death itself was a strange concept for him, he would only die by murder.
She was shaking slightly, the cold obviously too much to bear. He pulled off his cloak in a ruffle of blackness and slung it around her shoulders fluidly. "Little witch," He said, amused. "Have you been listening to me?" he asked her, but obviously she was not hearing anything but what she imagined, was she past hope for life? was there nothing he could do to warm her? To keep her alive? There were too many deaths he could not prevent.
"I am not hear to kill you, not here to make you one of the dead. I'm trying to keep you alive," Brone said, keeping his voice loud so even she could hear him over the wind. "I am not a spirit to take you from this world."
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Post by Keelin de Lune on Jan 19, 2009 16:28:48 GMT -5
The cloak was not nearly heavy enough to be considered adequate winter wear, but the fabric must be something exotic (thereby something either expensive or magical) because despite it's weight, it kept a good deal of the chill out. The beautiful angel didn't seem to need it though.
It smelled absolutely wonderful as well. If this was death, Keelin could only be grateful - it seemed wonderful thus far.
He spoke and this time she could hear - and she was right! His voice was rich and deep. As he spoke, she smiled pleasantly up at him. Because she was so taken with all his being, it took a few moments for the meaning to sink in.
Keeling furrowed her brows and thought. After a moment she spoke, regaining all her previous glee, and seemingly unfazed by how wrong she was.
"Well, you're still something very special. Considering you're out amidst that beginnings of a blizzard trying to keep me alive." Keelin argued logically, smiling at her hero before she frowned and asked curiously.
"But why are you bothering? I assure you I'm nothing special." She explained earnestly. The words she spoke jostled her memory - it seemed as thought she had been explaining this to people a lot lately.
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Post by Brone Van Estra on Jan 19, 2009 16:35:39 GMT -5
Brone cracked another smile, teeth blazing white as the snow. "Just because my heart doesn't beat does not mean I wish ill to your race." he said. How could he tell her that his fiance was about to be murdered by his father for who she was? How could he say that he just couldn't take anymore death? That he was against the war? She hardly seemed to believe anything he said at all. Brone still doubted that she realized that he was a vampire at all.
"You will die one day," Brone said. He would too, since he was a prince, his heir would kill him for the throne, or keep him on as a council--so concievably, he could never die. But Vampires, for all that they were bad with emotions, had fights and deaths of passion all the time. "But now is too soon." He felt sorry that anyone who only had so little time on the earth to die before they were old.
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Post by Keelin de Lune on Jan 19, 2009 16:57:45 GMT -5
Too soon ... but it had been too soon for a lot of people she knew ... had known. The universe didn't seem to understand concepts such as fair. Things happened without reason - often time it seemed cruel, but that was only your opinion, and in the grand scheme of things it didn't matter.
Keelin clenched her jaw. How unfortunate that was, that her beautiful angel was denying her death when she was so ready. But she unclenched her jaw and breathed out; her breath rose like smoke up into the grey sky. After all, he was trying to keep her alive, and that was a noble intention. Besides, she couldn't fathom being angry at him.
Of all the things he said, one thing caught her attention. "Your heart doesn't beat?" She asked, half with worry, half in curiosity. She lay her hands on his chest and leaned her ear to where his heart should be. It worked out perfectly, because that's where she stood heightwise. She shivered, at first, because even in comparison to her freezing body, he was cold.
With expectant eyes she waited.
At one point she almost thought she heard something, until she realized it was her own heartbeat.
Her heartbeat ... the sound she fell asleep to every night; the one that echoed in her dreams; the one she woke up to and that kept her company all throughout the day. It beat all the time - it would beat all the time- until she died.
Until this moment, Keelin had considered herself the loneliest of creatures, but now she slowly detached from his body and looked up with sympathetic eyes.
"You must feel so alone." She said softly - almost tearing up on his behalf.
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Post by Brone Van Estra on Jan 19, 2009 17:11:43 GMT -5
"No, it doesn't," Brone said, flinching only slightly when she touched him, her head pressing to his chest. he didn't need her getting any colder. If she thought for a moment, it wold make more sense. They drank blood, and even then, they did not need enough to fill their entire body, so no heart beat. The heart pumped blood around the body. its use was not needed. Brone stood still as a statue as she stood there, listening for something she would never hear.
Alone?
Brone laughed, a soft melancholy sound. "I am not alone because I have no heartbeat." he said with a small smile. he had never missed the sound, it had never been normal, he wasn't often around people who had one. He felt lonely because his love was a prisoner in his own house. And because he longed to have something he never would, a reflection, he always wanted to look into his soul through his own eyes. he'd never seen his own face in anything but a painting. "Other things make me lonely."
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Post by Keelin de Lune on Jan 19, 2009 17:21:51 GMT -5
Kee shook her head slowly while smiling sympathetically all the while, "We're all lonely for something we don't know we're lonely for." She quoted softly, swaying back and forth like a child.
Learn to be lonely ... learn to be your one companion. Never dream, out in the world .... there are arms to hold you. You've always known, you're heart was on it's own.
Her reactions were becoming increasingly confusing because she herself was losing consciousness - it was hard to do so now, because cold tended to keep you awake. There was no doubt, though not in Kee's darkening mind, that her body was giving up.
She seemed to sense this on some level, and smiled. "Good night angel." she mumbled, leaning her forehead against his chest. Not a moment afterward, her body went limp and began falling.
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Post by Brone Van Estra on Jan 19, 2009 17:27:16 GMT -5
Brone watched her curiously until she started to fall. He groaned slightly, but he caught her before she fell into the snow. Her heartbeat was still audible to him, so he knew she was alive for now anyway, so he materialized her to a small cave he knew was in a nearby peak. That was the only choice he had. he couldn't harbor witches in the palace. Not even partial ones, much less a full blown witch. Not that he was at all worried about the girl. He laid her near the back of the cave, wrapped in his cloak still.
After breaking off parts of the walls to create a circle of rock, he tried to light a small fire in the cave, his back to the mouth, the cold air did not both him. There was limited fire wood, so he ripped off the sleeves on his shirt, tossing them into the blaze. He wouldn't be cold. now he just started at her, waiting for her to wake up. Brone started to wonder if maybe he were crazy and thats why he was doing this.
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Post by Keelin de Lune on Jan 19, 2009 18:40:45 GMT -5
Remaining motionless was not a good sign - it meant Kee's body had given up shivering to stay warm. Thankfully, minutes later, after the fire started, she began shivering again.
An hour later, due to something in her deep subconscious, Keelin began to cry as she shivered, twitching across the stone floor. While she sobbed, she cried out a word she had never uttered. "MOTHER!" Why mother and not father? ...
The crying only lasted twenty minutes.
Afterward, the cave filled up with enough warmth for her to stop shivering and her breathing evened out and she dreamed. She dreamed about heartbeats and about being deep underwater. Her own echoed in her mind so loudly, she figured it was showing her its honest effort to keep beating. But there was another sound in the far off distance, and she swan to it. The water she was swimming in had a strange red tinge to it. Where was it coming from? When suddenly Keeling realized it was her mother's. Even before her own heartbeat, there had been her mother's. Always there was a heartbeat.
She didn't remember her mother at all, but now at least, she heard the memory of a heartbeat, and that, it seemed, was the most important thing.
Keelin woke up, with tears, though these were silent this time. As soon as she took in her surroundings, the dream was promptly forgotten.
She looked around curiously, while trying to sit up.
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Post by Brone Van Estra on Jan 19, 2009 18:54:08 GMT -5
Brone watched her as she slept and shivered, and cried. His face was screwed up into a look of utter concentration, the flames bouncing off the dark walls, and off the chiseled white features of his face. He could hear the snow outside, the crackels of the fire, her cries and her heartbeat. It was all so loud, he had to focus to try and cancel them out, breathing with unreal regularity, trying to concentrate only on that.
And then, finally, she sat up.
He heard her movement and flicked his eyes up from the flames in front of him to her face. It looked as if she did not remember much at all. At least, not much about the meeting by the bear, so Brone stayed quiet, waiting for it to sink in. But maybe she would still think she died. Maybe she'd be just as annoying and amusing. How could he prove to her what was going on here?
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