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Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:21 am Post subject:

None of them respond to her self-doubt. Rather, they simply nod when she thanks them, all of them smiling and beginning to disperse from the huddled group with April at its center. Horns continues to hold and care for April. She has wiped her brow and cleaned her wounds with a bit of cloth April had torn from her shirt.

"We do," says Harp. "Most of us, anyway. The Pit is where we spend the Winter, but I recall the carelessness of Spring, the strength of Summer and the wisdom of my Autumn. Then the end of Autumn, marked by the fall... That is, or was, our cycle." He taps his temple with his index finger and says, "I remember when I was... Marcus Perozzi... And when I became Thorns, and my travels as I counted them in the cave... But now I am Harp!" He smiles broadly and proudly.

Some of the others look at him as if he had done something Taboo. And April can guess that he has. They had no names in the cave until April gave them freely, after all. They had been too amazed with her to protest, but April begins to understand the power of names with this strange tribe, clan, or whatever they were. What they are now is something unwritten. We're not supposed to leave, Harp had said.
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TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

"Thank you," April says. "You've helped me see. What you were is past now. I don't need to know more."

She leans gratefully against Horns, then disentangles herself and stands. "I don't like these mists," she says, "and we all need food as much as rest."

As they gather around her, April says "I value your help, and more I value your kindness. I will need your strength and your courage in the coming days, for the way of the worlds is darkening and I will stand against darkness and worse."

"The first thing I will need of you, always," she says intently, "is that you stay strong and stay alive. I know each of you has gathered the strength to meet your end." She glances at Claws, but tries not to make it more than a fleeting glance. "What I need is for you to find the strength to start again. If you see a chance to sacrifice yourself gloriously for my sake ... don't."

She smiles, dissolving some of the gloom of the last statement. "And what I need right now is for you all to be my eyes and ears. We'll head down, out of these mists, and I will need to leave you for a time. There is a task I must do alone. I hope that you will gather food, regain your strength, and stay alert. When I come out again, I will need to know the lay of the land."

[ .... ]

April leads them down the slope of the mountain, gingerly applying her power to call up a wind. She has a sense now, having taken the hard trip through the inside of this shadow-trap, of its structure. She feels the nearby pull of flickering strobe-reality, and firmly holds their course steady.

"Damn it, Freaky," she mutters. "You've left me awfully short on answers."

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:06 pm Post subject:

Harp says, "Very well. Everyone! Let's go!" They all get mobilized quickly, ready to leave.

Prune suggests, "We should... give this well... a marker of some sort."

...

April and the eleven elders in tow travel onto the black rocky mountain.
Winds clear the mists and the horizon opens to April. She is close to the pole of reality that is Windborne, she can feel that. But Shadow is Shadow and anything can be brought at this point. She recalls the features of Windborne. Forests, strong steady winds, a black rocky mountain range and windmill structures at the top of hills.

What she sees now is mostly a slope down the black rock mountain.
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TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:43 am Post subject:

TonyLB · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 494

April smiles a little to see the Circle happy once again. With a reluctant sigh she turns back to her task.

"Okay," she says, "I'm off to track down a mess of burning lines and make sure nobody's setting up shop on it. Shouldn't take more than two days at the outside, probably much less. Gather what you need, find out things worth knowing, stay safe. When all is done I'll keep looping by that windmill, the one with the bent vane, until I bump into some of you, and we'll go from there."

[ .... ]

April walks through the woodsas they darken in twilight. They are firm, resisting the least suggestion of her mind, but after a bit of effort she finds a few moss-covered blazes leading to an old, old cache of supplies in the hollow of a tree. Even the hardest of the foods is long since gone to rot, but she has hopes for the small lantern, and the candles and matches packed with it. She gathers them up and continues on her way.

Letting the sense of solidity lead her, she makes her way around the base of the mountain. Her exhaustion starts catching up with her, and more than once she finds herself rousing from a resting sleepwalk ... a useful trick for long-term runs in a single direction, but a real time-waster when she's actively seeking something. She has no idea what time of night it is when she finally makes her way to the opening of a cave.

Three rocks line up, pointing to the entrance, and from the closest of these a chain stretches down into a long diagonal crevasse. April drops reluctantly to a squat, grimacing at the protests of her muscles, and surveys the ground for recent tracks.

[ .... ]

"Great," she says with heavy sarcasm. The moonlight has been enough for her travels here, but the cave is pitch black more than a few meters in. She strikes matches and lights the lantern. Grasping it with her right hand, she takes a handful of chain in her left, and starts descending into the cave.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:19 pm Post subject:

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:34 pm Post subject:

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