tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68859496534460854652024-02-02T17:50:00.462+08:00Grand lllusionsa life composed of accidental things. a world held together by nightmares and dreams. a collection of obsessions.The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-74515094512780918002012-07-13T22:04:00.001+08:002012-07-13T22:04:12.014+08:00Manipulator<br />
He slithers in the blue laboratory glow.<br />
His silver words are silent needles.<br />
No more seduction with your whiplash tongue<br />
Master manipulator,<br />
I'm your master now<br />
<br />
Lash out with your claws<br />
(No one can hear you)<br />
Grip me with your screams<br />
(Will they still fear you)<br />
Fingers like white worms<br />
And wrath electric in your eyes<br />
My prince of lies,<br />
your lies will bring you<br />
to your knees.<br />
<br />
He whispers smoke into the water<br />
He paints the pictures that you love<br />
No more twisting and deceiving<br />
Trapped by your own doings<br />
You're weaving your own pain<br />
with every word<br />
<br />
Tell me, are you still the hunter?<br />
(and where is your kill)<br />
Liar, magic bound with wire<br />
(have you had your fill)<br />
Now you're stifled, struggling<br />
with your tongue behind your teeth<br />
My lord of lies,<br />
You have no lies to hide beneath<br />
<br />
My prince of mischief,<br />
You're a thief without a steal<br />
And in the end, it is you<br />
who'll always kneel. <br />
<br />
<br />
~The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-33828502706898291132012-06-29T20:34:00.003+08:002012-06-29T20:34:31.339+08:00The Artist | 2<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Brrrr. Brrrrrrr.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The flimsy
Formica threatens to buckle in protest if I leave my phone unanswered, so I
pick it up and press the little green button.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Hey.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“I found
some of your records.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">My precious
old vinyls. Surely I’d picked them all up long ago. “The Ramones?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“The…the
old Cream ones. And some Jefferson Airplane, I think.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“I don’t listen
to Jefferson. Never did.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Oh.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Silence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Listen, I
gotta leave in ten. I’m working on something really big. You’d be blown away by
it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Ooh. When
can I see it?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Soon.” I
let a smile colour my voice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I should
finish around five, six. Six-thirty max.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Oh…okay.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“I’ll see
you then. Don’t… .”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I want to
say <i>Don’t do anything stupid,</i> but
it’s so clichéd, isn’t it? So I cut the call short. He would be hurt by this. Too
late; my thick oafish fingers had done the deed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It is
probably too late to reverse what I’d set in motion. All I can do is watch the
paint chips fall.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* * *</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">His tongue glides across dry lips, reminding me that it was as
wont to spin its own untruths as hide behind mine. Old memories curl ghost-like around us as we
sit with our backs to the dying sun.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“You’re
losing your touch,” I say as I take a swig of cold Chang. The Thai beer reminds
me of our balmy days in Bangkok; I’d been haunting my local shops for it ever
since. “Cream records my ass. I bought exactly one record, and it wasn’t even
one of their best.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He smiles.
“I <i>am</i> getting rusty. Perhaps I rely
on you too much.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Eight years old. Stolen candy and the neighbouring kid's
scraped knee. Our unruly scraped elbows versus flashy tricycle and Forbes 100
parents. Howling, high-pitched accusations. And in the middle of it all, a
fair-faced boy with buttery words running off his small pink tongue. While the
candy-smeared hand remained hidden and the big brother stood up for him. The
one who always stood up for him, and would continue to do so. Lies upon lies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We won the battle. We would win again ten years later, when
a few well-placed phrases and the signature of a teacher that did not exist
helped secure a place at a prestigious university. The kid with the Forbes
parents was not so lucky. Born with a silver spoon, but not a silver tongue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It was a life built on deception. It was a good life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Lying could save you from trouble. It could save you from
bullies. From getting skinned by a disciplinary belt. From the wrath of women you
were no longer in love with. From those whose delicate egos would have been
crushed by the blunt force of honesty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And was it so bad, in the end? If we were to count the
people we had actually hurt with falsehoods on one hand, we'd still have
fingers left.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So when is it alright to spare the truth?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And when are truth and lies equally cruel?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-19609637824780141592012-06-29T20:33:00.001+08:002012-06-29T20:34:57.833+08:00The Artist | 1<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">My blog is a confusing place, full of half-finished stories and random snippets.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Here's yet another tale (which is almost complete; or at least, I already have an ending. Which is comforting, because I NEVER know how my stories will end until they do.)</span></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Another
wake-up call. Another alarm piercing through the haze of what-hour-is-this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I pick up
the phone. “Yeah.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The broken
voice at the other end attempts to say my name properly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“What is it
now?” I ask, knowing I won’t get an answer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“I…I don’t
know.” (pause) “I don’t know why I called.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Right.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sighing. “OhgodI’msorrythisisstupid.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A long
pause.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“I think
I’m going to throw up.” He sounds raspy, used.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Go on.
I’ll still be here when you’re done.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“No…no
wait, it’s passed.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">My bed
calls me back, nice and warm. “You need me to come over.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“No, no.
It’s alright.” A discreet sniffle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Where are
you?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Home.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Right.” I
fumble for my pants in the dark. “Give me fifteen minutes.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Kay.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* * *</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">His
shoulders are thinner than I remember. My large, rough hands feel oafish on
this once-elegant frame, whittled down by a steady diet of Dunhills and
absinthe. It doesn’t make sense. Then again, few things do at 4am.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We were
both artists. I a painter and performance artist, he a poet and journalist. One
of us got into Yale and a promising career. The other got into trouble with
bankers and loan sharks.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">What can I
say? Journalism pays better than fine art.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Ours was a
family of clerks and bankers and quantity surveyors, when we weren’t barmaids
or shop-keeps or security guards. He had been our shooting star. He had been
our hope. At least, he was mine. My one link to redemption – that I am somehow
related to this brilliant, beautiful person.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And here he
is: still as brilliant, and only slightly less beautiful.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I should be
mad at him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I wrap my
arms around him and stamp out his cigarette, ignoring his faint protest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We stand
like that for an eternity as the clock ticks and the world drifts past in a daze,
ignoring us as it always does.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“You’ll get
yourself killed one of these days.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Mmm.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Ma called.
Asked about you.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“And what
did you tell her this time?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I grunt in
place of a reply.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“You told
me once that you’d do anything for me.” His feet swayed slightly; he leaned
into me. “That you’d fight for me. You’d lie for me.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“And how
many lies have I told already?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The head
droops, angular chin against a hollow chest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“You were
always good at lies.” I squeeze his shoulders once before letting him go. From
now on, you tell your own.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">When I walk
away, he is still standing there, still as a sculpture, a Michelangelo weathered
by wind and neglect. I would take a picture of him but the light’s not right.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Note: this story is ideally read as a whole, but for the purpose of easier screen reading, I'm breaking it up</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">-</span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-86250993393021747382012-06-25T18:50:00.001+08:002012-06-25T19:09:23.735+08:00Red In The Snow : 7<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>7.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Shattered</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Loki knows what
it’s like to be broken.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>He remembers.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Once, a fearsome giant challenged all of Asgard
with his might, promising to build an impenetrable wall around the home of the
Aesir gods in exchange for the hand of fair Freyja.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Loki had never liked Freyja. She was one of the
preferred – one of the tall blond children who had mocked him during play for
being strange and withdrawn, for preferring books to battle and quiet stables
to quaffing parties.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Later she outgrew her ways and even courted his
presence at her grand spring banquets. Freyja was mostly good-natured, if
careless with her blunt words. But Loki has never been good at releasing
grudges. Perhaps it was his greatest weakness. He urged the gods to take the giant up on his bet – if only to teach the brute some humility.
His silver tongue did its trick; the Aesir agreed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It turned out the brute was cleverer than he
looked. His secret: the mighty, indefatigable stallion Svadilfari, four-legged
builder of cities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Within a fortnight the wall was half complete.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">By the second moon, there was no chance of the giant
losing. Or a fair goddess escaping marriage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Loki and Freyja’s childhood rivalry leapt back
to life with a fury. Everyone loved Freyja; and so she won. And Loki was
threatened with a painful demise if he did not stop the wall from successfully
encircling Asgard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As always, he did the expected.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He made himself a beautiful mare.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The great Svadilfari stood no chance of
resisting the exquisite female, with her pale silvery coat, lush man and musk-laced signals dripping from every pore. Her graceful canter and melodic whinnying lured the stallion
through the depths of Mirkwood and across the plains of Alfheim, far from its
mission in Asgard. Finally, when they had wandered far enough, Loki stopped to
change back and weave a spell-trap for the stallion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But not fast enough.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Before he could morph, the unstoppable
Svadilfari leapt on top of him, crushing almost half the bones in his
mare-frame and impaling him with its impressive phallus. It rode Loki with a
terrible passion, further shattering his ribs, his chest, his hipbones. Loki
screamed. All that emerged was a shrill neighing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Again, and again, he was subject to Svadilfari’s
burgeoning male instinct. He should have known this was no ordinary horse. Why
had he not at least conjured a suit of armour for his mare-form? Damn it all to
Nilfheim.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Red-hot. Pain. Punishment. Rape. A clever ploy
turned disastrous. A voice that was not his own.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In the end he stopped fighting. It was better
that way.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Long after his screams had turned to whimpers,
the stallion’s seed was finally spent. Svadilfari wandered off to goodness
knows where as Loki the mare lay panting, broken – and impregnated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">For eleven months (the gestation period for a
horse) Loki would wander the plains and villages in animal form. Strangely
enough, he found a strange, simple, almost bovine peace. He did not like it at
first. But it was little use fighting; a horse’s mind is stubborn, strong, and
it constantly overwhelmed his being until it seemed he could have spent the
next ten years as a mare and lived content.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then his child arrived.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Loki knew the build of a horse. He did not know
(aside from basic bodily functions) how it actually <i>worked.</i> And he lacked a female instinct that might otherwise have
aided him. So he fought the contractions, the swelling pain, until finally he
could bear it no longer and wandered half-blind with panic into a breeder’s
farm and into the owner’s skilled, merciful hands.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Labour was long and painful. The emerging of the
foal – as strong and large as its sire – broke again the hipbones that had
healed months ago. There was blood; surely more blood than was possible. Loki
tried to calm himself. I am not really a beast, he reminded himself. I am not a
beast. I am me – Loki Liesmith, Loki Silvertongue, mischief-maker – <i>ahh – why was this so hard?</i></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The pain flowed over the silver-maned mare. Her
child burst out and nearly kicked her insides into ruin. There was warmth.
There was wetness. There was something resembling…pride.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And love. Fierce, irrational love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then exhaustion swallowed everything.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Blackness.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Waking up in a stable on fresh hay – No.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>NO. </i>No waking
up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Limbs still; eyes closed; no. No NO </span></i><span style="font-size: small;">NO. Wake up, trickster, wake up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Where did
memories end and present begin?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Memories of shape-shifting. Of pain. Of a simple
animal’s mind.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Where was his
mind now?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Airless. Can’t breathe. Wait; no need to
breathe. He wasn’t really alive, anyway. Merely suspended.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Better to have
died, no?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Glass; ice; thick; unbreakable.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Magic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Behind lids frozen close, carmine-red eyes briefly
struggled like panicked butterflies to open. To see.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">What did I do?
What have I done?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;">Then there was a shrill white noise that drowned
out all thought, all hope, and he slipped blissfully back into silence.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-1355716943781575402012-06-25T17:47:00.000+08:002012-06-25T17:53:48.923+08:00Red In The Snow : 6<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>6.</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Raiders of Svartalfheim</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<span style="font-size: small;">Hreidmar, leader of the black elves, held out an arm
to halt his army. He approached the glimmering, half-buried object with the sureness of one who has been scarred by countless battles and come
out of each one stronger. The sinews in his arms gleamed ebony.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“Regin. What make you of this?” asked
Hreidmar.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">The treasure-keeper approached the casket
with his king’s consent and studied it carefully before running a light finger
down the frosted surface.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“Enchanted glass, masterfully worked.
Made by nothing more than pure magic and near impenetrable. A rare find.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“Good. Fjalar, Galar, help him dig.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">The swarthy siblings stood forth – but
Regin stopped them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“There may be an obstacle in the way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“What be it, pray tell?” asked Galar.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">Regin raised a thin eyebrow. “An Aesir
godling, looks like. Trapped within the glass.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">Hreidmar
strode to Regin’s side. “Let me see.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">As he
bent over the glass surface, an arm like a tree trunk shot out to grip his
wrist. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">In a
blink the black elves were in battle mode. Master archer Sindri aimed her bow
at the figure that just a second before had been stone-still.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“Let
it be, Sindri. I anticipated that it was still alive.” Hreidmar smiled.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">The
rock-like figure moved its moss-coated lips. “Break this casket, and I will
break you, dwarf. You and your sapling army.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">A
threatening murmur ran through the Svartalfar. Small they may be, but any
insulting reference to their size was often drowned out by brief shrieks of
pain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“I do
hope your muscles have not grown weak from stooping. For you tempt us into
battle, mouldering one.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">With
a great shudder, the mighty huntsman rose for the first time in nearly a year.
Vines tumbled off him; roots that had begun to dig into the ground were
uprooted. His once-golden hair was infused with grey-green moss.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“Try
me, elf. What brings you and your scavengers?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">Hreimdar
chuckled. “Aesir brutes. As diplomatic as ever, I see.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“The
gift of the silver tongue belonged to my brother, not to me.” Thor gestured to
the glass shell. “He lies now encased in his own spell. And I would try to
break the spell, if not for the fact that it may well be the only thing holding
him together.” He looked into the Svartalf’s obsidian eyes. “And I ask you
again: what brings you here?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“My
home has been over-mined,” the elf king replied. “The Dark Fields grow barren.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“Whatever
happened to your depthless caves of treasures?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“Our
industrious nature became our ruin; I will admit that much. We are greedy
creatures, black elves. Not as content to rest on our earnings as you are.
Dvalin here can tell you stories of our ancestors’ ancient boundless hunger. A hunger
we inherited. The same that has brought us here.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">Thor
moved slowly to shield the glass with his hulking shoulders. “You may take what
you want, if you do not harm my brother by even a hair.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">As
Hreimdar considered this dilemma, Dvalin spoke up. “If I may, my lord. Brokk
could possibly find a way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“To
prise enchanted glass from flesh and bone? That has never been attempted in the
history of our kind, Dvalin. Not even by the great Brokk.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“I would not underestimate him. He did craft the mighty hammer that our friend here wields,” Dvalin
said, pointing to Mjolnir.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">The
weapon was half-enveloped by roots. Thor grasped it by its handle and, with a
smooth tug, pulled it from its resting place and dislodging chunks of earth.
The silver head gleamed once more. He held it upward.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“I
swear by Mjolnir, gift of Brokk, that you may have every inch of this enchanted
glass if you swear to return my sibling Loki to me unscratched.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">The
Svartalfar collectively murmured.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“Loki, eh?"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">"The trickster."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">"Loki Liesmith."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">"Troublemaker." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">"The
deceiving Silvertongue?” Hreimdar chuckled drily. “This will be interesting.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">Thor
pierced them with his gaze. “Swear on it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">“We
swear, Thor son of Odin, on the deep graves of our ancestors and our dying fields, that we will not break apart the glass if it threaten the life of your so-called sibling." He gestured to the rest. "And so do my men."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">There was a chorus of assent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">Moments
later, Galar and Fjalar had freed the casket of its burial ground and hefted it
onto their broad, graceful shoulders. The Svartalfar marched toward home with
the huntsman as their shadow.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-25368683143086826392012-06-20T15:35:00.004+08:002012-06-20T15:36:31.009+08:0030 Days Of Writing: Day 7<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">~</span><b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>'Vessel'</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In the night of
the cinema, you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">poured yourself
down my throat</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">like electricity,
coursing through</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">my arms and wrapping
yourself</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">around my
shoulders like an</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">unwelcome lover;
infiltrating,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">penetrating, swelling
my veins</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">and stilling my
tongue except</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">for when it
speaks of you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Perfection in
the angle of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">your jaw line.
Perfection</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">in the curve of
your cheekbone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Perfection,
sharp and blinding,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">in the length of
your long fingers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">You crackle like
sex and magic;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">you rape me with
the force of your</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">invisible scent.
You are statuesque</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">and
impenetrable, six feet tall on</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">the screen and
six inches long as a</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">jagged shard in
my aorta, creeping</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">ever closer to
that vital chamber</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">where you will
finally tear my</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">left ventricle
and stop my blood,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">my breath, with
lust. You will</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">fill me till I
can be filled no longer,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">because you live
by alien rules that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">enable you to
transcend time and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">space so you can
crawl between my</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">legs when I’m
alone and suck me dry,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">make me cry,
make me hate you, make</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">me love you, make
me your hollowed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">vase filled with
withered blooms that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">vaguely resemble
what I used to be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I rue the day I knelt
willingly at the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">altar along with
the millions to worship</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">your ruthless
beauty and two-edged gifts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">that you scatter
for us to scramble over</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">like crazed
maenads. I am mindless with</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">a hunger that
can only be fed by your</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">silver tongue.
Deceiver, weaver of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">wayward thoughts,
fill me again with</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">your knife-like
eyes; pour out my mind</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">and fill it with
your smooth limbs and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">impregnate me
until I disintegrate and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">my bones melt
into yours and serve to</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">make you ever
stronger.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-36282278805861855622012-06-18T14:26:00.000+08:002012-06-18T14:26:02.238+08:0030 Days Of Writing: Day 6<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>'Fount'</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We are the
hungry ones. Alabaster skin and full of teeth. We feed on the hollow
chests of young not-yet-men; on the breasts of new mothers and old crones; on
the squalling red flesh of month-old infants. We feed on those with love to
give. Love enough to fill us and blunt the gnashing of our inner maws. Love.
What we cannot give, we need to live.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We are the last of our kind. We are the ancient gods kept
alive by fading faith. And in place of lost faith, we are driven to seek that which you give so generously.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Love. Such a soft, whispery word; yet so broad in its promise, falling so easily from human
lips. Want, need, lust, longing,
greed, childish craving – all these and more are confused with
love. Love in its distilled
form, as a singular emotion, is given by very few. Those who claim to own it do
not. Those who pour it out freely do not own it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Or perhaps, all roads lead to love. The fount of all sentiment – including
hate. The fount that we as gods must now drink from. Once, humans sought from
us an elusive elixir. Now we drink theirs from their backyards, their streets
and beds; in the dead of night, in the daylight, in the tender place between
their collarbones. We drink and drink. But our appetites are as immortal as we.
And so it goes on: the sucking, the dark, the great empty. Gnashing fangs in
our bellies. Hunger in our eyes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Faith,
once given freely,
is lost. Our temples lie in
ruin. Humans of today give their blind belief to an
invisible force. And we are left shrinking in the rubble.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They are so selfish with their faith now. It is exclusive; celebrated in congregations
and societies; it has rules, it has restrictions. But love!
Humans are generous with love. They give it almost carelessly. It is not an
ideal love – tangled as always with a morass of lust-hate-longing – but
it is beautiful nonetheless, and filling.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So we feed. We drink deep. We suck away like carnivorous babes who refuse to
release their mothers'
teats. Without this elixir, we would be dust.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We are the ancient ones. The hungry ones.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And all we need
is love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-56058538315701563432012-06-14T14:24:00.000+08:002012-06-25T17:50:41.693+08:00Red In The Snow : 5<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">5.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Beneath The Glass </span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Eyes as red as blood. Hair as black as night. Bring me your heart, my dear.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Mirror-keeper sees all. Past, present, future. Above all, he sees the Truth.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He
sees the thunder-wielding huntsman bring down a buck with an effortless
stroke and carve out its heart. Sees him come home and lay the
glistening organ before the ones who had demanded it. Hears the claim of
his half-brother's head being shattered by a last act of magic before
he could take it.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Heimdall looks out across the Bifrost and
wonders why the god of mischief had not escaped to Midgard, or to
another realm that might have hid him.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Silvertongue; Liesmith; the
dark prince. Always one for self-preservation. Always a survivor,
hidden cleverly in shadow. He could have turned into a gnat, a bird, and
flew with the wind. Why not, when it came as easily to him as breathing?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Why had the trickster's senses deserted him at the hour of his death?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Mirror-keeper is wise. But he does not have all the answers.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* * *</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>The love of his brother is blinding as the hammer comes into contact with his hardening flesh.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>- everything hurts - </i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Beneath
his enchantment of glass, Loki cannot tell if he is merely wounded, or
broken inside and out. Something about his body feels fragile; numb; not
quite there. The strength of his magic holds him together in a case
woven from both skill and instinct, and - yes - the terror of
destruction. Terror he had never felt in all his life.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Would he still be whole if the armor holding him were to come off?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In
the shadowy depths of Loki's subconscious, that last scene played over
and over. He had planned it; mulled over it before his brother had
emerged from the shadows to take him down. The decision was hardly
emotional (or so he liked to believe). It had seemed the only logical
way to neither live nor die. Or perhaps both.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Logical, and a dance with destruction.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It was the ultimate bet with himself: to see if he could cloak himself
from the blow of the invincible Mjolnir, gift of the finest dwarven smith in
all the Nine Realms. It seemed he had won. Or had he?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He remembered the thunder of its blow. Its first initial contact with
the side of his head as everything slowed to a sonorous heartbeat for the
briefest moment...and then - </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>- the world turned
to pain -</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It felt as if every bone in his body was being crushed by gigantic hands
determined to turn him into dust. Perhaps he screamed. Perhaps the screaming
was in his head and his lips, along with his whole frame, was already being
sealed in frosted glass.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">For days and months the scream would continue to echo in the recesses of
his mind, even as his mind slowly deadened beneath the unmoving glass. Finally,
as the skies changed and the sun rose and fell, the echoes grew softer and
faded into velvet black. Velvet like the cool damp earth that cradled his
self-made casket.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Two more seasons came and went. Loki's mind grew still as what life he
had receded deeper into the core of his being. Perhaps this was death. Fading
away. Growing smaller.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* * *</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Nightfall.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The golden-haired sentinel is suspended in vigilant half-slumber.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The woods and all its children are still.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The icy surface of the glass shell, half-embedded in earth, gleams
faintly in the moonlight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then something breaks the silence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Small sturdy feet march beneath the drooping boughs. A low rumbling
song, as ancient as the oldest trees, carry over the lands. Coal-black eyes
shine under helmets and hoods.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Svartalfar are hunting tonight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
NOTE:<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svart%C3%A1lfar">Some back-story</a> on the Svartalfar, the dark elves - or dwarves as they are also known <br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">.</span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-8646171669681186302012-06-14T00:40:00.000+08:002012-06-25T17:50:08.534+08:00Red In The Snow : 4<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">4.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>A Memory Of Red </b><i><br /></i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Do you hear that? It’s the sound of battles fought and lives lost. It pained me to know that I am the cause of such despair.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A flashing memory of two boys running through these same woods. Childish quarrels. Echoes of laughter.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Loki closed his eyes.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Mjolnir slammed into the curve of his cheekbone, into his head.
There was a sound like cracking glass. Then blinding light, reflected
hundredfold in each icy shard. The shattering screamed through the
silence and shook the forest to its very roots.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">When Thor regained his senses, he was on his knees, arms limp at his side. And his half-brother was gone.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The sun came in full force to break the shadows of Loki’s magic
wintry night. It shone on all that was left of the god of mischief: a
smattering of gleaming bluish slivers in the snow. And a memory of deep
red eyes, red as blood against the snow.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It was some time before Thor was able to pick himself up and lift the
weapon that had annihilated his sibling. He stumbled to the spot where
Loki had knelt, still as an ice sculpture, just minutes before.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“No words will ever express this moment, brother,” he whispered. “So I won’t try.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He gathered the fine shards in his large hunter’s hands; then watched
as they melted away, leaving nothing but a cold wetness in his palms.
He trembled. Roaring, weeping, he pounded the ground before him.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">That was when he felt the hard glass surface.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* * *</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>The great Mirror showed Heimdall the mighty warrior kneeling in
the snow, still as a sentinel himself. His golden hair and crimson cloak
were vivid against the white.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>The Mirror-keeper bowed his head. He knew the truth. Let it lie
with the hunter, and the hunted. Let the passing of time bring what time
may.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>He looked again into the swirling depths of the mirror to see an unchanging future.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">* * *</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Three seasons had passed. There were times when the hunter felt tiny
insects burrowing into the folds of his clothes, trying to make a home
on the vines that had begun to grow over him. He would not welcome them.
Neither would he budge.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He was a rock; relentless, soundless. A guardian awaiting the world’s
end, or the end of his life, whichever came first. Let the grass grow
and the beasts forage. They did not disturb him, nor he them.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">HIs abandoned weapon lay by his side. Roots and leafy tendrils had
locked it into place as they had locked him. Together they would ensure
no one violated that which he guarded.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Before him, encased in glass and magic, was the still figure of a
broken god. The very enchantment that had saved him now also imprisoned
him. Impenetrable magic. Truly, Loki’s last work had been his finest.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Thor closed his eyes and dreamt of shadow-realms where hope lurked still.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-10422163969139716482012-06-13T19:50:00.002+08:002012-06-25T17:49:28.677+08:00Red In The Snow : 3<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">3.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Why Do You Not Run?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>“You have eyes, huntsman, but you cannot see. He is the one. I see an end to darkness.”</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So said the great Odin Allfather. So said Balder of the prophetic
fever-dreams. Thor had doubted the Allfather before, but never his
gentle brother Balder. The promise was this: with the death of the
trickster Loki, and the events that his hand would set in motion, the
Nine Realms would be safe from the Great War.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">From darkness would come an end to darkness. In a way, it all made sense. But why must his hand be the one to wield that power?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He trudged on through the thickening snow. It didn’t take long for
his trained eyes to see the lean figure standing between two birch
trees. Even now his heart ached at the familiar silhouette.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Can you not see me, brother?” he called heavily.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Slowly, Loki turned around. The constant cold had brought out the Jotun in his eyes, which gleamed a bright carmine.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Thor walked up to him. “Why do you not run?”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“I cannot run from you.” Loki’s voice was a whisper. “I would much rather run <i>to</i> you.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“You don’t mean that.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Loki pulled his otter pelt closer around his slender shoulders. “Why? Because I am capable only of lies?”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Because I have been tasked to kill you. And with the eyes of
Heimdall upon me, who answers to our father and all the ruling Aesir, I
cannot walk away.” Thor hefted the hammer.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Then, my dear brother, we must part ways.” Loki moved away. Thor
paused, allowing him the few seconds it might take to flee- to fly - to
shapeshift and slip away like the wind, like he’d done so many times
before.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Instead his step-sibling knelt in the snow and shed his pelt. The
pale hands reached up to unfasten the hooks of the snug leather collar.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Just making it easier to remove my head as proof,” he said.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“No.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“If you must do this anyway, brother, why delay what is your duty?”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Loki…I…”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>“Thor.”</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“I…<i>I can’t.”</i> Thor’s massive shoulders shook as tears ran down his face.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The brilliant red eyes glittered like pools of blood. “Do it.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>“No,</i> Loki.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“I love you.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>I love you.</i> Such sweet words in times of joy. Such cutting words, ridged and flaying, in a time like this.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sobbing, Thor lifted the Mjolnir to his face and let his tears run
down the steel surface. Never had it felt so heavy in his hand. He
looked up to the skies - to all who might be witness - and cried out.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“See what you would have me do! What I will do to save you, cowards
who dare to call themselves gods and rulers; who send a brother to kill a
brother. I bid you bear witness!”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A thin shaft of light broke the dark skies as Loki’s frost charm
crumbled. It shone on the blue that crept up over the trickster god’s
neck and cheekbones, revealing his frost giant nature. The abandoned
Jotunheim runt, the lost prince who walked between two worlds and
belonged in neither, now to die as he was born.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Thor swung the mighty hammer.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-33897270510662029592012-06-13T18:07:00.000+08:002012-06-25T17:48:57.467+08:00Red In The Snow : 2<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">2.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Death In The Woods </b><i><br /></i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>He will bring you down without mercy.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Death, from the one person you cannot kill.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Norns had spoken. And the Norns never lied.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Loki looked up at the sky with a small smile. He liked the effect of
the snow against the dark, towering silhouettes of the night-time
forest. As far as a spontaneous trick went, it was pretty good.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He
hadn’t spent much time crafting the frost-fall. Ice came naturally to
him.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It was, after all, in his blood.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He closed his eyes and walked on, stretching a hand ahead of him to
feel ahead. Recently he had begun to practise this useful trick of seeing
with his senses, not his eyes. It was a trick Blind Hod had taught him.
Now he was a greater master of it than Hod was.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He could run. He could rush through the woods like a whisper. But why
prolong the hunt? They both knew how this would end. With the heart now
beating within him in Thor’s hands and his head on a tray. How lucky
that he would be attending this year’s grand feast, after all. Albeit
not in the manner he’d have liked.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And how far could he go? And where? He, whose strength lay in magic and
manipulation; not in battle-rage or endurance. Once, when he'd collapsed
in battle, his brother (half-brother) had picked him up and continued
fighting. Loki had spent the rest of the fight slung over Thor's
shoulder, glad for the warm, well-muscled shoulders he clung to.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There was nothing to cling to now.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">His outstretched hands, an extension of his keen senses, called to
the wild. A fawn who had strayed from its mother gamboled up and brushed
against his knees. A grey-winged bird - Loki had a fondness for birds -
flitted through the boughs to hover above his shoulder.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Then something else came.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Heavy footsteps in the snow, the pace and gait all too familiar.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The huntsman had arrived.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Death, golden-haired and glorious, will come for you in the night.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A small knife-like smile broke the quiet of his face...</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-23869912184259284732012-06-13T18:00:00.000+08:002012-06-25T17:48:09.898+08:00Red In The Snow : 1<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
<b>1 .</b><br />
<b>Snow In Asgard</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Hair as black as night. Skin as white as snow.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In his well-lit chamber, the hunter kneels.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The mighty Mjolnir feels heavy in his hand tonight. It was forged to
be indestructible - one of the most-feared weapons of the Aesir. And
soon it will crush his half-sibling into blood and shards of bone. This
is his duty.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He has been ordered to slay the beautiful one who has wreaked much
havoc in the heavens. To annihilate all but his head and heart, which
are to be brought back on a platter. What cruel punishment that his
death must come at the hands of the one person he truly loves.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Even now he imagines all too strongly the final scene. Those
mischievous eyes widening as the head of the ruthless Mjolnir becomes
the last thing they see. The same eyes, now lifeless and glassy. The
twitching lips, so quick to slice with words, never to smile again. And the
red, the neverending red, seeping into the grass, the hide of his boots.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">At the end, all he will be left with is a warm heart and a river of black hair - black as night - spilling forth from a
severed head.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Outside, it is snowing softly.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It never snows in Asgard.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>So this is the god of mischief’s last act,</i> Thor thinks. To rain frosty tears upon a land that has never known anything but the sun’s gentle glow.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The hammer-wielding huntsman, the golden son, heir to the throne, rises and goes to slay his beloved.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ ~ ~</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>A Thor / Snow White crossover</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Yes, I am writing fan fiction. BECAUSE I CAN. Deal with it.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-24577487616239483472012-06-12T10:44:00.002+08:002012-06-18T14:28:37.931+08:0030 Days Of Writing: Day 5From a random challenge.<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Word:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>'Fall'</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
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<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">Let my
story end with yours.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">Let our
bones melt into the rocks,</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">reduced to
mortal earth and</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">skin and
dust.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">I will
catch each painful drop</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">of your
punishment;</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">I will bear
the weight</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">of the
world with you.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">I will hold
you until we</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">shatter
beneath the weight</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">of fallen
gods.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">Close your
eyes now, and hear</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">the hungry
frost-hounds call.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">They bay
for the blood of the Aesir.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">Close your
eyes against</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">the faded
cries of the</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">nerves that
bind you;</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">What has
been done cannot</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">be undone,
but it can</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">be paid for</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">in blood.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">Your
children are calling. </span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">The ocean
boils with the</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">serpent's war-cry;</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">the black air howls with the</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">baying of your wolf-son.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The beautiful wrath of hell </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">is our clarion call.</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">No soldiers from the nine realms</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">will override your vengeance.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Lead your army of fire and ice</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Ride tall as you exact your price<br />And I will ride beside you.</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">I will
stand with you at the end of days</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">I will rise
with you when your captors fall</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;">I will die
with you, and the great Valhall.</span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 130%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 130%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 130%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">~ </span></span></span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-35453004166834714182012-06-11T11:48:00.002+08:002012-06-18T14:28:07.053+08:0030 Days Of Writing: Day 4(From a random challenge of random words, from which we are to create a
story, a snippet, a poem, a ramble, a vignette...anything, really.) <br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>'Snow'</b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>~</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We found him –
her – in the snow. A mare with child, struggling to birth it, heavy with pain
and her unborn burden.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">My father raises
colts into show horses for a living, and he’d begun grooming me to do the same.
It was because of this that I managed, struggling, to guide the mare back to
our stables. Her high whinnying pierced the black icy air as I reined her in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">She lay taut and
struggling on the fresh hay I’d hastily spread over the stable floor. Here the air was warmer, moist with the remnants of past births (and a few deaths).
I sang to her childish songs my late ma had cradled me with when I was a babe.
Slowly she lost her strange fear; slowly she warmed toward me as I stroke
her back, her belly, coaxing out the foal within her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Even now
through the fog of age, her eyes pierce me. I remember her gaze too clearly.
The sharp, sentient, desperate eyes. She seemed to be helpless in her
pregnancy. Which is unusual; all animals are born knowing how to spill forth
life from their wombs. Humans wander into it fumbling and second-guessing, but
not beasts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I had barely a year of experience in my unskilled hands. So I did my best: I cradled her, sang beneath my
breath, held her firmly and reached between her kicking legs as the final
throes arrived and her neighing reached a crescendo.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I was not
prepared for what happened next.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
* *<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">For what seemed
like an hour I sat there limply as everything I knew – about horses, about birth, about life
– whirled dervish-like in the cooling air of the stable.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The mother’s
eyes fluttered close; the slender body curled up limp and exhausted on the
bloodied hay. Its</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">offspring looked up at me with limpid eyes. A single
snowflake landed on its perfectly formed nose.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It seemed there
was nothing left for me to do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I looked down at
my suddenly-useless hands. This was nothing I’d ever been trained for.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Finally, I got
up and wrapped the foal in a blanket. Whatever this creature was, it was a baby
and needed shelter. That was when I heard it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Leave him with
me.” A clearly human voice, heavy with post-natal fatigue and fading into slumber.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I knew better
than to do otherwise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They’d be gone
by morning. When daylight came, they would be swept away with the wind, like a
snowflake not meant to be caught by mere human hands. I had had a peek into
something I was not part of; that I and my kind would never be a part of.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So I left the
colt with its changeling parent. I stumbled blindly back to the familiar warmth
of home, leaving this dream-like vision behind: a beautifully formed man,
shivering just slightly despite his nakedness, embracing his newborn child – a
beautiful, dove-grey, eight-legged foal.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-26871169817470788102012-06-10T23:38:00.001+08:002012-06-18T14:27:22.652+08:0030 Days of Writing: Day 3<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
(From a random challenge of random words, from which we are to create a story, a snippet, a poem, a ramble, a vignette...anything, really.)</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>'Restless'</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB">“I’m telling
you, I DON’T sleep. Least, not till it’s nearly time to wake. I drag myself
from bed with every fibre of my being screaming for me to lie back down. I pour
searing coffee down my gullet in some faint hope that it will do something.
You’d think after three nights of the damn same I would drop dead from
sheer exhaustion. But no! Come nightfall, I have the energy of a million suns.
Who cares that the darkness beneath my eyes tell a different story? I am mad. I
am magnificent. I draw insanely detailed doodles and dance and debate furiously
over little things. Don’t try to tame me. I own the night. And the day will not
defeat me.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-56681045839838265702012-06-09T18:14:00.000+08:002012-06-18T14:26:55.309+08:0030 Days Of Writing: Day 2<a href="http://hawkwardeye.tumblr.com/post/24317456361/using-the-prompts-below-write-a-drabble-or">From a random challenge.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>'Accusation'</b></span><br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">He looks at his
captors with accusing eyes. A fallen messiah, an explorer of worlds, he speaks
of the emptiness before us and how we can save ourselves. He sings songs in alien tongues.
He touches your skin with graceful hands that have held unfathomable things.
But he is a stranger in a strange land. He is not to be trusted. They have
caged him without knowing that no cage can hold him. Already the planet is
disintegrating. With or without him, we are hurtling toward our doom. He has
come to warn us. But we will not listen. We never do. And so his accusations
fall like wilted petals at our ignorant feet of clay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Cochin;">~</span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-62997522769038487842012-06-08T20:07:00.002+08:002012-06-18T14:26:21.386+08:0030 Days Of Writing: Day 1<a href="http://hawkwardeye.tumblr.com/post/24317456361/using-the-prompts-below-write-a-drabble-or">From a random challenge.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>'Beginning'</b><br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: small;">In the
beginning, there was you and me. Raw and soft, we rose from the earth with craven
claws and half-blind eyes, racing toward the light to fill our empty senses. We
poured the sun into our nerves. We danced as joy ran down our face in cool
rivulets. Our voices broke the skies as we uttered our first words and sang our
first stunted melodies. Our untried fingers groped toward each other as we slowly
made sense of our faces. Our twitching noses. Our webbed feet. We didn’t know
what or who we were, but we were happy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Cochin;">~</span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-68241131507119775722012-05-28T15:46:00.000+08:002012-05-28T15:49:17.157+08:003 Poems, 1 Day<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<i>Because I occasionally suffer from writer's diarrhoea.</i></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
~</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO RULE</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
The frost was meant to rain upon your face.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
With all the poetry of human creation</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
transmuted into the curve of your</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
cheekbone as you stand watching the</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
world fall, each jagged piece reflected</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
in your still blue gaze.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
The stars were made to shine upon your brow.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Each shimmering mote of the nebulae</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
races at the speed of light across your</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
lips, which shiver for a second before</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
you fall back into shadow.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
The heaven that could be yours is here.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
You could have held the sun in your slender hands,</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
did ambition not pull you down into the</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
chasm that ate away your skin and turned you</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
into the thing you used to fear.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
The storm has come to chase you down.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
The lightning will follow in your fleet</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
footsteps and echo your desperate dreams as</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
you hunt them across the universe, trying</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
to rebuild your playground.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
The skies have closed upon your show.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
The rain would kiss away the wounds in your</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
eyes if you would but let them run over your</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
brittle shell. But it’s too late for redemption.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
This bridge was broken long ago.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
~ </div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
~</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>SPY, GLASS, MONSTER: A Love Song</b></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I want to dissect you</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Crawl beneath your skin,</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Rest my head against the</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
ice of your collarbone</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
and breathe you.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I want to fill you up.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Sink my words like knives</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
into your brittle shield</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
and leave you with<i> my</i> dreams,</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<i>my</i> nightmares.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I want to dance with you.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Break the glass of your</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
deception and make you move with me</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
and tear you down,</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
slowly, intimately.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I want to use you;</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
know what it’s like to</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
wear the skin that you wear,</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
to taint the same air</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
To tangle your silver tongue in mine</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
and suck you dry.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I want to become you.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Bring out the monsters;</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
it’s time to waltz</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Bring down the smokescreens,</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
we’re up in the air</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
And there’s nowhere for us to go.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Bring in your fears.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I want to See you.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
~</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
~</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE EXPLORER</b></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
If neither time not distance stood between us, I would</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
make a playland of your body and spend hours upon hours</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
tracing the fine lines of your smile, licking the tiny hairs</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
of your lashes as they flutter when you speak, and</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
catch your words like rare Asgardian birds before they</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
slip past the mortal coil, so that each gem spilling forth</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
from your mouth is immortalized within me.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
If I could shrink myself to a hair’s breadth, I</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
would spend each precious second traversing</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
the mountain of your cheekbone, pausing only</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
to simmer myself in the warm scent of your skin</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
and envision my ultimate goal: the divine electric</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
pools of your eyes that nestle in a valley of</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
beautiful bones sheathed in faint silken crinkles.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
If I were an animal, I would love you unreservedly</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
behind the mask of bestiality, lapping you up and</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
enveloping you against the howling cold of the wild</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
as every hair on my skin quivered with joy at the</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
intimate curve of your arm, your face, nestled against</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
my predatory sinew, and breathing the freedom of</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
giving myself to you as I never could before.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
If I were an explorer of strange worlds and new</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
galaxies, I would burn a trail across the universe of</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
your torso, your hips, your velvet tongue; each piece</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
of you a testament to God’s divine work, that such</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
beauty occupies our reality, and it is I—the fortunate one</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
—who has tasted the truth of your splendour, and now</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
shine a light upon it for all to see.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
~</div>
<br />The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-50755383308329084872012-05-18T19:12:00.000+08:002012-05-18T19:12:52.421+08:00Immortals<div style="color: white;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 25.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">. </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 25pt;">Immortals</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>a mini opera</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">~</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A man
walks into a world that is not his own. The violent daylight is reflected in
his hungry eyes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
woman slips into the backstage room. She pulls on her glitter-dusted nylons and
prepares to open the show.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">VOICEOVER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">What dreams may come</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the midst of prayer</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">To save you, lift you,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Strip you bare</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">What dreams are brightest</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">can be deadliest</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unless you handle</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">them with care </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Brushing
the frost of the stars from his leather jacket, the man slides out a knife and
quietly kills a guard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fans
and friends accost her, but the woman pushes them away, adjusting her hair and
striding toward the stage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">VOICEOVER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dreams can feed you</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Day by day</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dreams can kill you</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As you sway</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When sweet obsession</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sweeps you away</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">On your feet, now</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s time to play.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
man looks to the skies and calls on alien gods.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
woman strips off her skin and reveals her sacred glow to her distant lovers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">VOICEOVER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And if you walk in the shadows</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of kings and queens</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You must wear their memories</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">On your mortal skin</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
man walks into a palace of cultured silence and unforgiving marble.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
woman bathes in swirling artificial rhythm and returns the love of her
devotees.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">VOICEOVER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you would have them remember</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your deeds and your glory,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then call to the gods</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And tell them
your story</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
man tightens his grip on his walking stick and steps up to claim his place as
king.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
woman slides into her first dance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The man
sinks into his second kill.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">VOICEOVER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Beware your dreams don’t overrun</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your mortal flesh and bones.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Beware your dreams don’t grow too large</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">For when you stand alone,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
woman twists and gyrates, hypnotizing the audience with her every move.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
man smashes a tall plaster god with his walking stick.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">VOICEOVER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You will rise and tower</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Above them all;</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You will be mighty</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And they be small.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You will guard your dreams</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">From being swept astray;</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But nothing is forever</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Anyway.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
show is over, and the woman dances on alone in a pool of neon light.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
man towers over the third body, bathed in a pool of blood and plaster dust.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">VOICEOVER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Beware the calling of destiny</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The great ambition of treachery</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Beware the sweeper, the deceiver, the
liar</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">- The lure of immortality.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
dance has ended. The woman walks to a gilded armchair and sinks into the
velvet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
kill is over. The man sits on a marble throne and covers his face with bloody
hands.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">VOICEOVER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The sweeper knows when your time has come,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When your days are numbered down to one</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even the greatest are reduced to bones.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And when they stand, they stand alone.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">~End~</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-90824243825912660042012-05-17T19:28:00.003+08:002012-05-17T19:36:10.597+08:00Paper Lover<div style="color: white;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 25pt;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span> </span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 25pt;">Paper
Lover</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">A
mini opera</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<style>
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/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">1.</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dusk descends on the desert. As the skies
dim, the Leather Lizard strokes his finely made coat, vivid and new from the
shedding. Its scaly beauty is strange and rough; full of tiny polished pebbles
and an alien gleam.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If
she knew my limbs were sheathed in leather,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
kisses like sandpaper</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If
she knew how I tilt my head</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">at
the sun and let it burn me,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lie
in the scorching grit and feel it turn me</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Into
scales and tail and terror, would she</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Still
love me?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If
she could hear my breath at night</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rattling
and whispering like bone-dust</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Full
of cold reptilian lust</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Would
she lie next to me?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
would rather hide my skin in paper</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wrap
my words in ink</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whisper
loving things and let them sink</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Into
her dreams of me.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lizard
love is what I give;</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
love on which you cannot live.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lizard
love is a mystery</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your
words lead to my destiny.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Across the land, the Restless Mole
responds to the Leather Lizard’s letters. She was born in darkness and, like
most moles, is half-blind. But her vision – and her desire – goes beyond what
she can physically see.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
eyes may be full of clouds</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And my
nights and days the same</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet I
would be touched by claws beyond the damp,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Beyond
the earth. A tongue untamed</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Speaks
to me through paper and promises</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sand-speckled
words formed into kisses.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You
feed me constantly</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
not enough.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
must see you, eventually;</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
love you. Believe me.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So
let me cross the land, and water too</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let
your paper trail lead me to you.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">___________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_________</span></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">2.</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Morning. The Leather Lizard watches the
dust motes rise early and begin their languid dance against the purple skies.
They mock him with traces of her scent.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
blind are brave</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
the brave are blind</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
one way or another,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
all shall find</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Those
we deserve;</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not
those we love.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am
not worthy of your bravery</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not
worthy of your grace</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not
deserving of the veil</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">That
clouds your childish gaze</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So
why do you crawl</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
swim and grow tall</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">While
my courage grows small?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why
do you seek me</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
love me and need me?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Meanwhile the Restless Mole inches her
way determinedly toward her final destination. She sniffs the air occasionally
and smiles when she hears a whisper, a rattle, that might be him.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
sandy lips will wound you</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your
strange, sweet tongue will woo me</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
sharp tail will repulse you</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your
every twitch will charm me</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
cool hard skin will make you</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wish
you’d stayed away</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why
should I not say</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">(TOGETHER):<br />
And you won’t be / That I’m in love</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So in
love / Yes, in love</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">With
me / With you.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">___________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_________</span></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">3.</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">High noon in the mountains. It seems
ludicrous for a soft-bodied, half-blind mole to be here; but here she is. She
clambers onto a ridge where a smattering of tough greens and wildflowers grow,
and looks to the unforgiving landscape before her.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not
far now. I hear you on the wind</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
susurrus of painted kisses soaking time and again</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Into
precious paper laced with sand and lined with love.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your
attitude, reptilian;</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your
poetry, full of passion.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Soon
I’ll be right behind you;</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
cannot see, but I will find you.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Somewhere else, on a dead gnarled tree,
the Leather Lizard perches and sighs, knowing he cannot stop her.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our
feelings were never meant to flee</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
borders of each letter.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here
beneath the arid wind, I</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cannot
be your protector.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">They
say my courage is misplaced</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
my dreams full of poison;</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Spineless,
crawling in the dark,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">They knew
I wouldn’t listen.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You
wish to die bravely</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
leave me to cry?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You
wish to live easy</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
blinder than I?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
wish that both of us live long.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
wish to live while love is strong.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’re
a child who thinks she can have it all.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You
are weak, and scared, and small.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ignorant
fool of the underground!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shrinking,
scaly, two-tongued clown!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I wish to the gods we’d never met.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’re
an idiot I should just forget.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As they fling their passionate insults,
they don’t realise they’re getting closer – until his head emerges from a
scraggly bush, and hers from behind a sandy dune.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Both stare at each other, then away, then
back again. The Leather Lizard blinks as if seeing with new eyes; the Restless
Mole breathes the air deeply.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
meet at last.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well,
that was…fast.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">How
does it feel now, letter writer?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Better
than expected, paper lover.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">They stay that way for a long moment, each
one out of words and searching for new ones. The sun starts to fall. Silence
descends.</span></i></span></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</div>
<div style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">___________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">4.</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Evening. The desert is bare save for two
small figures half-buried by the shifting sands, content in the curve of each
other’s bodies.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MOLE:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If I
died tonight counting every scale on your belly</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If I
spent my last few seconds recounting every word in every letter</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If I
breathed my last breath so it would mingle with yours</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
felt my last drop of warmth melt into your pores</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
would die happy.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIZARD:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If I lived my last hour with my face in
your fur</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If the last thing I felt was the curve of
your limbs</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If I made my last vision the moon in your
eyes</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And died with my tail in your deep dark
crevices,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I would leave blissful.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The edges of the
desert dune begin to crinkle. It seems two giant hands are folding and
tweaking the scene – which we realize is made of painted paper, like a most
intricate origami piece.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">~</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Transition into
the following scene. We see an old man, an artist, at his table making
creatures and stories out of paper. Leftover cuttings, stray shreds, paints and
various paraphernalia litter the cozy space. In the middle of all this is two
familiar origami figures: a handsomely made lizard and a velvety-grey mole.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">OLD MAN:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ah, what a fine thing it is</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">to tell stories through paper.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">To close gaps, cross continents and
travel through paper.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">To bring paradise closer, to make dreams
realer,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">To make happy endings for lovers through
paper. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ah, life is a foolish bet;</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve chased love only to exchange it for
regret</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve been through too many bad endings to
count.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But as a lover of paper, I can turn them
around.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He
smiles wistfully and gets up to turn off the lights. The room darkens until we
see the remaining lamp shining on the paper lizard and mole. Then the switch is
flicked. The scene goes dark.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: white;">
-</div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-43745278721942166642012-05-15T10:51:00.001+08:002012-05-15T10:58:32.905+08:00The Glass Cage<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">My third submission for ENO's Mini Opera contest.</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"> (First one <a href="http://serpentcharl.blogspot.com/2012/04/they-need-to-be-fed.html"><b>here</b></a>; second one <a href="http://serpentcharl.blogspot.com/2012/05/trickster.html"><b>here</b></a>)</span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18pt;">-</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18pt;">THE
GLASS CAGE</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13pt;">A mini opera</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">~ ~ ~</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Darkness. We hear only sounds and voices.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is the clip-clop of low sensible
heels, followed by the blunter sound of loafers.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Had
any interesting dreams lately, Doctor?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Not
that I recall. But I’ll let you know if I do.” (chuckles)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Oh
yes, do. Dreams are precious to us here. We keep them under lock and key.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lights flicker on. The scene is bathed in
a cold blue fluorescent light.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“By
lock and key, do you mean ‘shut in a glass cage’?”<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the centre of the room is a wide glass
tube. Inside it is a frail-looking girl of about ten years.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Pay
no attention to her, Doctor. She will twist the truth to suit her needs.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The
truth? You took me while I was sleeping and locked me up. Saying I’d infect people's heads."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She moves toward them. Her voice trembles
just slightly.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Are
you afraid of me?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
have dealt with worse than you.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Why
do you say such things to her? She is a child.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:<br />
“If you knew the havoc she has caused…”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It’s
not my fault.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I’ve
read the reports. But – “</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It’s
not my FAULT.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“She
knew perfectly well what she did.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It’s
NOT MY FAULT!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is a strange sound in the air as the
lights go out suddenly. The scene is cloaked in complete blackness.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">From the silence, we hear the child’s
anxious breathing emerge.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Are
you still there?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Where
is she? Has she – escaped?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I’m
here.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are successive echoes in the room –</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> “I’m here I’m here I’m here.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:<br />
“She needs to be stopped.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“How
can you stop me?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We
need to do something. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Some</i>thing. The
Department will hear of thi – “</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“What will you do?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“There. Did you hear that? …She’s to your left.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“She’s escaped?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“What will you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do??”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“There is a procedure to deal with this, Doctor. Do
not pa – “</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:<br />
“WHAT WILL YOU DO TO ME????!!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is a sound like an alien scream. Then the lights flicker back on.
The man and lady scramble to their feet, their knees still weak.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The girl is still in the glass tube.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">(slowly regaining control) “You see, Doctor, she is
not to be trusted.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Even when she’s caged?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Especially when she’s caged.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The man looks uncertainly at the girl child, then at the lady, back and
forth. He licks his lips and discreetly wipes his forehead.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:<br />
“I’ve…heard of an…equally dangerous creature. A man.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">(slowly turns to face him) “The Sweeper?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“They say that to see him is to lose hope. Like butterflies
blown into dust. Shredde…” (swallows) “He had shredded butterflies inked next
to his dragon tattoo.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I’ve only ever seen him in paintings and pictures.
Some say he is as ancient as time itself.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I’ve seen him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Yes. He is your kin, isn’t he?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“He is neither my kin nor my friend. He is ancient,
yet young. Terrible and beautiful. I’ve seen him – in dreams of glass and blue
and steel. He comes for you. For all of us.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Shush, little girl. There's no need to make threats. No one will harm you. Isn't that right?” (looks at the lady for support)<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The lady seems not to hear him. Her gaze is transfixed on the girl.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Tell me more.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She crouches down so she’s at eye level with the girl.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Tell us about him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“…It crawls…”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Crawls?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“His skin. His skin crawls with the dreams of others. Sometimes I
see my dreams in there.” (She bites her fingernails for a bit, then stares
off into space.) “Pink roller skates… I used to hate them, until he took them
away. Then I missed them. Now I see those skates on his left bicep. My first
roller skates.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“You sound…older than you look. I mean, you sound
different from other children. Is that – “</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“That’s what happens when he steals your dreams. (pause)
You change.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Are you still changi – ?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The lady motions for him to be quiet, but the girl has heard him. She
fixes an icy gaze on him.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Am I changing?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Silence as they – man and child – face each other down.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“What do you think?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She opens her mouth then, and long wet things, terrible and deep blue, start
to crawl out. The man and lady flinch; they press their hand to their lips to
stop from crying out, or throwing up.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">(trying to compose herself) “Stay calm. She does this
occasionally. Makes you see things.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is the sound of crying. It seems to come from the girl, even
though her eyes are cold and the oozing blue things undulate like grotesque
anemone from her mouth.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:<br />
“Come now, child; stop it, there’s a dear…”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“She won’t hear you. She’s too far gone.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Child, please. Stop crying.” (Cringes, turns to the lady) </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Does she make you hear things as well?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Despite its pitiful mewling, the girl’s wailing is becoming more
unbearable as it swells in volume. Especially as her eyes remains free of
emotion.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It seems as if the wails are coming from the squirming deep blue things.
In between the mewls, one can almost hear words, phrases. Like a toddler’s
garbled speak or an old man’s toothless pleas, each one more disturbing than
the next.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Enough! You will cease this right now.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">(clamping hands to ears) “Child. STOP!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The lady goes up to the glass and slams her fist against the surface –
once, twice. She is becoming quite enraged; her composure is melting away.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“You listen to me, you little harlot. I can have you
put down and dissolved right now, hear? I can – (slam) do away with you (slam)
before you’re halfway through your pathetic (slam) little bag of horror
tricks!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The wailing reaches a shrill pitch. The man and lady are forced to clasp
their ears tightly. Then there is the sound of shattering glass, and everything
goes black.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now the cries, instead of emanating from one place, is everywhere. Every
corner of the room seems to have a hurt or abandoned baby, a terrible helpless
squirming thing, a ghostly kitten… And in the midst of it all, the girl’s
voice.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">(in a sing-song voice)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I am him and he is me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am what your eyes can see</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m not what I seem to be</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am him and he is me.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Slowly the complete dark becomes a velvety dimness, casting just enough
light on the girl’s limbs as she walks toward the lady and man. As the faint
light grows, we realize she is naked.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">GIRL:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">(continues)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“They tried to cage me; they were wrong</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I ate their minds out all night long</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the end, he is with me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I with him, forever free.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A sliver of light falls on her bare arm. Several tattoos snake up her
forearm right to her shoulder. One of them is a pair of pink roller skates.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">With dreadful realization the two grownups try to rise, to run. But
their knees are weak. The man shivers like a great heap of pudding. The woman’s
fingers, white with quiet fear, press against the floor.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“My chil – my…my dear one.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She rises to a kneeling position.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Will you spare us?” (tilts her head in appeal for
sympathy) “I…I know I was…somewhat harsh. But I provided for you. I…They wanted
to put you down. But I fought for you. I alone fought for you.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The lady holds out her hand, and the girl takes it. They move nearer as
if to embrace.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">LADY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“My dear. My darling child.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Dreamsweeper’s lips slowly soften into a smile as the icy glaze in
her eyes become a warm wetness. A hungry wetness…</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Blackness returns. The last thing we hear is screaming, and small sharp
teeth tearing into flesh.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">~ ~ ~</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">. </span></div>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-57038326206030204272012-05-07T18:06:00.001+08:002012-05-17T18:16:05.785+08:00Trickster<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">~ </span></span></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">TRICKSTER</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
mini opera</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">SUMMARY:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A fading
widow has been exchanging love letters with a stranger – letters laced with
poison. Slowly the paper romance takes over her body, causing strange dreams
and hallucinations. Yet with each exchange she feels herself becoming younger
and more alive, even as she marches toward death.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">____________________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Prologue</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
scene is completely dark. We hear only voices – a youngish man, and a woman of
about sixty.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">WOMAN:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“So
it's you.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Yes.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">WOMAN:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
one she claims wrote those letters to her.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:<br />
(perplexed) “I’ve met her only once. Never even knew her name.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">WOMAN:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Never?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAN:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“She
said I wrote her letters.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She
said that I’ve been writing to her for three years.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">____________________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>1: Dancing</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The darkness parts from the scene to
reveal a dusty street, and a fifty-year-old lady walking down it. Her lush wavy
hair is slightly askew from neglect, her pale lips smiling dreamily. Her
fingernails are painted blue.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Who
knows which one of our thoughts are true?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Who
knows who writes which words to whom?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Love
and life is a tangled loom</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">When I
catch myself dancing with you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her hands are fiddling and caressing an
envelope. It is made of good paper – thick, textured, and sensual to the touch.
She holds it to her nose and sniffs the last of its scent with half-mast eyes.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Why
walk to your fate when you can leap</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Why
talk to those who cannot understand?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Why reach
for reality with eager hands</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">When
the price is much too steep?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I’d
rather swim in the endless blue;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I’d
rather dance to your words and your wit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Each
word between us is candle-lit</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">As I
catch myself dancing with you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As she continues into the next stanza, a
melodious male voice joins in.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">TOGETHER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I’d
rather exist through me and you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">And
play with words like they’re raindrops and paste</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">And
post each exchange with delicious haste</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Till
I catch myself dancing with you…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Till
I catch myself dancing with you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Despite the gloom, the scene seems to end
on a light and cheerful note. She disappears into the mist with a spring in her
step.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">____________________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>2: Counting Days</b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The lady reappears, this time in a rather
cluttered bedroom. Her back is turned to the viewer. At the wall corners are streaks
of colours like dried spilt paint.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">My
misfortune must seem strangely intriguing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">The rather-too-polite will say “How very interesting;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">What
a tragic malady is this so terribly unlucky</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Careless
yet so plucky poor twice-widowed lady!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She turns around. The edges of her eyes
are streaked with smeared bluish makeup, and it appears she has been scrawling
sentences on her arms.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Will another one come</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Before eight thirty-one?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Will his ink touch my lips</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Or my dreams be undone?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">From a moth-eaten discarded mattress in
the corner, a figure emerges. It is vaguely feminine and its skin that appears
to be of the same pattern as the mattress.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MATTRESS
FIGURE:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Has he
written today?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Has
he been as persistent?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">No,
not then nor today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Why
can’t he be more consistent?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MATTRESS
FIGURE:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Be
patient my love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She goes to the walls and absently brushes
the streaks of crusted colour with her fingers. The paint begins to peel in strips of its own volition. The effect is that of the walls crumbling down.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">He
colours the edges,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">The
lifeless grey edges.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">He
spins life into me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Paints
light into me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">But
now it’s been two days</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Yesterday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Greyday…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">TOGETHER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">…Neither
Thursday nor Friday will be</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Appropriate
for this completely</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Clandestine
affair that we must</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Live
through paper laced with lust</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">And
scented with our hopeless breath</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">And
carried forward until death!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She throws herself back on her sagging
bed and sighs, closing her eyes. The mattress figure disappears into dust.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">____________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_____________________</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>3: Paper Lover</b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When she wakes, she is in an empty field.
Tendrils of fog surround her. As she rubs her eyes, an eight-legged horse runs
past her and mysteriously disappears into the fog.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The blue of her fingernail polish seem to
have crept up her fingers, so it looks as if half her hands have been dipped in
blue ink. She holds a letter and a crumpled envelope in her hand. A male voice
(the same as heard in the first scene) is heard:</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Your
fingers are well-shaped, but bitten</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">They’re
painted blue with my ink</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Your
nose makes me think of a kitten</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
once had when I was sixteen</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finally, we get to see him. Her lover
emerges from the fog. He looks about thirty, thirty-five; there is something
indefinably ageless about him. He has finely made bones and strong, graceful
hands.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">You’re
lonely, but not anymore.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Touch
me with paper and pen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">That
perfume you wear is distracting</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">And
you wear it for no other men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Breathe
me in,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Breathe
me in</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Let
me into your skin</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Let
me touch you where you touch me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Where
no one can see</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The glow of what looks like aurora
borealis casts them in a lovely multi-hued glow as they embrace.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">TOGETHER:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Let
me in,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Let
me in</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Let
me breathe into you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Lick
you shut, tear you open</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
love you; it’s true.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Till
the end of our time together</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I’ll
be your faithful paper lover.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He holds her, then seems to melt away
into the fog, out of sight and out of reach of her grasping hands.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sighing, she drops as if to sit on the
ground – but instead hits a bed; the same worn bed in her own cluttered room. The
surreal misty landscape has disappeared.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Your
words could be lies,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">and I
would never know</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Piercing
me with satin envelopes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
await your reply;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Goodbye.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She sprawls on the bed, holding the letter
close to her. </span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">____________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><b>4: I Will If I Want To</b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The lady is walking through the same
street in the first scene – but it is not the same. The road appears to
pulsate. The walls throb and grow lips, all of them singing a haunting song in
perfect harmony.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">LIPS:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Don’t
go where you can’t see</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Don’t
swim where you can’t wade</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">The
water’s getting deeper</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">And
you’re a little bit afraid</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Stop!
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">You’re
holding me back now</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Stop!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Don’t
you dare tell me how</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
should live and breathe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">My
life has been lived beneath</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Those
who ruled me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Now I
start to see</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">You
were only ever here</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">To
feed off me and my fear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
will kneel to whom I want</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Don’t
tell me if I can, or can’t.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The lips on the wall sink back into the
brick surface. The bricks turn into slips of paper that flake off, flying all
over, some landing at her feet. She catches a few intermittently as she strides
on.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
will talk to strangers, so don’t tell me not to</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
will dance with danger if I bloody want to.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Living
means dying with every breath</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">So
let me live. I do not fear death.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">From afar the echoes of her mystery man’s
voice beckon to her. As this happens, the eight-legged horse from the misty
landscape gallops past.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I’m
cold.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
feel you burn</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Lend
me your fire.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">As
the world and its roots</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">grow
deeper,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">You
and I will remain</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Together.</span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">____________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_____________________</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>5: Liberation</b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The street and its walls are drowned in
murky dimness. The man’s voice cuts through the dark, full of longing and
conviction.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
see the lady sitting in the pool of blackness; around her are ever-moving
tendrils of pink and electric-blue. More blue runs down her eyes, her lips are
stained green, and her arms bear bruise-like shades.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Let the fire run through your veins</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Let the ink run and colour your
dreams</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">You will return. You will wait for
me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">In the end you will see </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">All I can be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Overtones
of contempt infuse his voice. She is confused, but no less attracted to him.
She seems to acknowledge the truth of his words, her desire for abandon and
loss of control.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">It's a natural state.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">You chase degradation</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">It's not weakness, just want</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">You crave subjugation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">It's freedom from fear and from
trembling joy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">It's the liberation of being someone
else's toy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
the background, figures in multi-hued prismatic clothing dance and writhe as if
trapped by invisible bonds.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">The terror and tears you left behind</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">The hidden box of cats in your mind</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">They’re in you. They’re in me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">They’re mine now, your secrets,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Mine to see.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">This is the price you pay for
release.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">The vivid escape that would set you
free.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
the midst of his harsh words, he bends down to clasp her hands in his tightly.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I did not force you to be here</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">You came on your own;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Now we are wedded</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Never alone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now
he sinks to his knees and cradles her close to him. His previously cold, fierce
face softens in a blink as his voice becomes low and tender.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">My ink, my words</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">They turn your lips blue</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">My form of love, I give to you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">How sad that you must fade so fast;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">But paper lovers aren’t meant to last.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He lets her
go. Her body sinks to the ground as the poison finally overcomes her. The
blue-lidded eyes close. Slowly, the pink and electric-blue tendrils of light
darken into grey lightning.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He
watches her for a long moment. Then he bends to kiss her lips. As he stands, sheets of paper fall from
the folds of his coat to rain over her.</span></i></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><i>She is alone now.</i><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We hear her fading voice – her final
thoughts – as the scene gradually fades to black. She looks at her fingers, her
blue-green veins.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">WIDOW:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Living
means dying with every breath</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Living
is but one long-drawn-out ending</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
chose you to bring my end to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">It’s
too late, but I finally see</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I see
what you did to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I
love you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her blue-tinted face appears as a ghostly
apparition in the air. It smiles, and sinks into the dark.</span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">____________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">_______________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">____________________</span>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>Epilogue</b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A funeral home. The lady lies on the slab
with a sprig of mistletoe in her hands at her wake, as a few close friends and
family members gather for goodbyes.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A few feet away, we see the nameless
lover. But he does not appear to be intimate with the dead lady, keeping his
distance in polite mournfulness.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">An elderly woman – a doctor – approaches
him as he stands pale and still.</span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">DOCTOR:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“So
it’s you. The one she claims wrote those letters to her.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“Yes.
Yes I am. It’s unfortunate.” (he sticks his hands in his pockets, then digs
them out again) “She really believed all of it.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">DOCTOR:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“Whole-heartedly.
I have reports that state she is in a loving relationship. With you.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:<br />
(frowns) “I’ve met her only once. Never even knew her name.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">DOCTOR:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“Never?”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“She
said I wrote her letters. She said that I’ve been writing to her for three
years.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">DOCTOR:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“They
were laced with several deadly substances. Do you think she did this herself?”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“I
don’t know; perhaps. Why she’d want to die slowly of poisoning, is beyond me.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">DOCTOR:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“Maybe
she liked the hallucinations. Maybe they made the romance – everything – real.
Maybe she didn’t care for living anymore.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“Yes.
Perhaps. Nothing to lose, eh.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The doctor gives him a long look.</span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">DOCTOR:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“They
found her personal articles at the scene of the death. There were drawings of a
man who looks like you.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“Well,
her memory must be sharp. Made vivid by the visions, the poison, no doubt. Like
I said, we met but once. <i>(lifts shoulders
sympathetically) </i>I’m sorry that she chose me as the subject of her
fantasies. I never intended to… .”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">DOCTOR:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“Well
then. <i>(Sighs)</i> Sorry. I’ll leave you
in peace.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“No,
no. Not a problem.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">DOCTOR:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“What
a strange case. Full of…tangles.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Really.
Who knows what tricks the mind can play on us?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">She leaves. The friends and family
members say their farewells and slink away. The scene goes dark save for a
shaft of light on the dead lady’s body.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The man walks up to the body and lays a
kiss on her forehead.</span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">MAN:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">“Goodnight,
Madam Sigyn.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">I’ll
see you in Hel.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">His delicate mouth curves in a knife-like
smile.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The scene goes dark.</span></i></span></div>
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~The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-48438782889243837132012-04-19T14:10:00.005+08:002012-04-20T15:37:47.937+08:00They Need To Be Fed<style>@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-GB">~</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:20pt;">THEY NEED TO BE FED</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:15pt;">A mini opera</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><b style=""><span style="color: rgb(127, 127, 127);" lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><b style=""><span style="text-transform: uppercase;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><b style=""><span style="text-transform: uppercase;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" ><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><b style=""><span style="text-transform: uppercase;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><b style=""><span style="text-transform: uppercase;" lang="EN-GB">THE CAST</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><b style=""><span style="text-transform: uppercase;" lang="EN-GB">(in order of appearance):</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><b style=""><span style="text-transform: uppercase;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman">The Cannibal Choir</p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman">A dead young man</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;">A government official</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;">A street musician</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;">The Muffin Man</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;">Aminta</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"> ____________________________________________________________________</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"> </p> <span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:12pt;" lang="EN-GB" ><br /></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">1: Meat!</span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">The night is lit in red and yellow. A choir of singers come forth, gliding angelically in humming in perfect harmony, while one of them recites –<br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><br /></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""> </i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">WOMAN:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“On the sixth day, our Maker said:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let there be war.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let there be passion.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let there be dreams and ambition.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let all of humanity consume one another</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let one man aim to kill the other.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let the biggest eaters hold</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">the people’s dreams in their bellies.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let there be – ”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">MAN:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“– MEEAATT!”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">The Cannibal Choir breaks into a lively tune over the hearty chords of an old church piano.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><br /></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">CHOIR:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Which red-blooded lover doesn’t love a pound</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">of medium-rare over the fire?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Who hasn’t indulged in the flesh fantastic,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Just to stoke their desire?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">To immortalise your victory,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">It takes the meat of your enemy</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let this be our ode to the glorious flesh</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let this be our tower;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Praise our makers, our warring leaders</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">For the foes that we devour!”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">As they celebrate their dark gods and their joyous feasting, a dead young man wanders into the scene, singing of his murderer. His tragic tune is interspersed with the Cannibal Choir’s.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><br /></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">DEAD MAN:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“She sees them in flowers</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">She sees them in dreams</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">She sees them drowned</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In sirens and screams</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">She has little raw things</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">that she lured away</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">with her motherly song</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">And her hungry ways…”<br /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">CHOIR:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“A Beacon of Boldness, An Eater of Dreams</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Is the ultimate position</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">To conquer hearts and to cut off heads</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Is the height of great ambition</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We line up to slay them and feast on their sins</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We share the spoils with our kith and our kin”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">DEAD MAN:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“She chews up their shadows</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">She chews up their skin</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">She chews up their wishes</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Till they’re dry and thin.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">CHOIR:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Aminta, Aminta! Goddess of the hunt!”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"> </p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">DEAD MAN:</span></p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Aminta, my Aminta! Your teeth are shining bright”</span></p><p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">CHOIR:</span></p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Aminta, our lady! You’re a lean and lovely sight”</span></p><p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">DEAD MAN & CHOIR:</span></p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">“Aminta, oh Aminta…Tonight is cannibal night!”</span></p><p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">The music ends on a big rolling note. Then the scene drops into darkness.</i></span></p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><br /></i></span></p> <i style="font-family:times new roman;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;"><br /><br /></span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:times new roman;">____________________________________________________________________<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></span> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">2: Do You Know The Muffin Man?</span></b></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">A portly, middle-aged government official is sitting at a coffee shop.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">He’s getting up and brushing off crumbs, when a scruffy thirty-something man sitting just beside his table greets him with a raised hand. He tips his hat in return. Then the man (who is a street busker) asks him a strange question.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">BUSKER:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Do you know the Muffin Man</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Who lives on Drury Lane?”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">OFFICIAL:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“I do not know the Muffin Man.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Though I’ve heard he is insane.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">They both get up from their seats, with the official trying to look nonchalant. The labourer senses his curiosity, however, and jabs him lightly in the arm, continuing –<br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">BUSKER:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Do you know the things he eats</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">and what his oven holds?”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">OFFICIAL:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“How should I know what’s to his taste?</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Jelly, perhaps, and rolls.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">His eyes glaze over a little as he says this – the look on his face says, “Mmmm, jelly rolls.” The labourer jabs him again, harder this time, much to his annoyance.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">BUSKER:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“It is not jelly; it is not rolls;</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">It is the meat-crunch of their bones.</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">The bones, my friend, the bones he plants</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Beneath the earth when he’s alone.</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Do you hear his piper’s song</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">That brings the bacon home?</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And how hastily the children come</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">to meet him in his truck?”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">The official’s curiosity is replaced by irritation – and an awareness that his break time is well past. He brusquely brushes the busker off.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">OFFICIAL:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Dear man, I’ve better things to do.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And I do not give a fuck.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">The official leaves. The busker throws up his hands up and says to himself, “Stupid ignorant pouf!”</i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></b></p> <b style="font-family:times new roman;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt;"><br /><br /></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:times new roman;">____________________________________________________________________</span><br /><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">3: A Humble Man</span></b></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">A large, hungry-looking man takes her place. His lips glisten in an almost obscene manner. His eyes shine with glints of desperation.</i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">MUFFIN MAN:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“It’s a new day, a good day</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">To take a child and dance the night away</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And breathe the smell of untried flesh</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And meat that is red, and raw, and fresh.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">He walks along the road, and comes to a large colourful truck hawking ice cream, cupcakes and lollipops. The melody becomes perky, jaunty.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">MUFFIN MAN:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“What else can a humble man ask of you?</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">I give muffins and candy to those who are good</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">I give nice, sweet things to those who are my food.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">I take no cash from any of you.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">All I take is a bit of blood.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">A bit of warmth. A bit of this,</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">A bit of that</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">From the brains you keep</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Beneath your hat.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">He sighs, apparently misunderstood. He takes off his hat and hangs it on the truck.</i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">MUFFIN MAN:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“No one uses hope except when hopeless.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">No one sees their dreams except in dreams.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">No one needs their souls, or so it seems.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">So why</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Can’t I</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Have some?”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">The Muffin Man hops onto his truck and rings his bell. “Muffins, cakes, ice cream! Candy and other sweet things!” he calls. He drives off and his shouts fade away.</i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" lang="EN-GB">____________________________________________________________________</span></p> <span style="font-size:130%;"><b style="font-family:times new roman;"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /><br /></span></b></span> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">4: Ballad of a Streetwalker</span></b></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Dusk is falling on the sleepy town. As the crowd thins and people head off home, a lone street musician is playing a sweet, simple tune on his harmonica.</i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">BUSKER:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Well, the dust settles into the road again</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And the cafés are ready to close</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And it’s all so sweet and yet destined to die</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Like a wonderful, withering rose</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">I see that young woman has just been kissed</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">By the man that’s she’s loved for so long</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Will they ever get out</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Of the trap that’s about</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">To feed on the young and the strong?”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">More harmonica, playing a variation of the opening tune.</i> <i style="">A young boy passes by and drops some coins at his feet.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">BUSKER:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“I say, Child, can you sing me a melody</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">But don’t sing it so loud they can hear</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">For they’ll sweep off your spirit</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And do bad things to it</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Then they’ll feast and grow fat on your fear.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">The young boy’s eyes widen; he decides to move on. The busker nods at him and continues singing.</i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">BUSKER:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Those who dream fullest</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Will disappear soonest</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">While those who think small will survive</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And you think it’s unfair,</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">But do you really care</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">As long as you wake up alive?</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">My time may come later than others.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Well, these skinny arms don’t bear much meat.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">For I’m just a street-walker</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Whose daydreams grow smaller</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">With each day I sing on the street.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">He plays a brief closing melody; then puts his harmonica away, gathers up the day’s earnings and leaves.</i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";" lang="EN-GB">____________________________________________________________________</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times new roman;"> </p> <span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:12pt;" lang="EN-GB" ><br /></span> <p style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span lang="EN-GB">5: Lullaby</span></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">In the shadows, a lean and beautiful young woman (Aminta) appears. Her eyes are heavy-lidded, dreamy. Her lips glisten like one who is fresh from feeding.<br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">AMINTA:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Hi-i-i-i-igh</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Hi-i-i-i-igh</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">High on the blood of yesterday</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Sweet wishes, sweet sleep."</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">We see her cradling a child who appears to be slumbering deeply against her chest.<br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">AMINTA:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Sleep deep, for there are no more</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Nightmares to be had</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">I’ll cradle you close to my chest.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Dreams will not turn bad.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">When she lets the child fall back into bed, the little girl’s face has grown slack and grey.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">AMINTA:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Dreams will be devoured</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Digested and drowned</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Never to be found.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Babies and boys, women and girls</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Men and halflings of the world</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Close your eyes and open your hearts!</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Red, dripping, beautiful hearts</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">I love you. All of you.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">My love is unconditional</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Full and ripe, irrational</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">I am your dark mother.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Come and I will smother</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">you softly.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Aminta is joined by the Muffin Man – who, like her, looks full and sated. He licks his lips and sings with her.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">MUFFIN MAN:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“We hunt in the dark,</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">We hunt in the day.</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">We hunt the hopes”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">[TOGETHER]:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“...That you lock away.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Let them sing, let them breathe</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Don’t keep them beneath</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Your skin where they’ll die.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">AMINTA:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“What you don’t use”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">MUFFIN MAN:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“We will;”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">AMINTA:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“What you don’t need,”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">MUFFIN MAN:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“We’ll kill.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">[TOGETHER]:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Precious, dark, sweet.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Feed us with meat.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Precious, dark, sweet</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">In dreams we will meet</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">In dreams we will meet.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Aminta and the Muffin Man clasp hands, grow wispy, and start to levitate. Finally they appear to fade into the air, vague and light as a dream.</i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <b style="font-family:times new roman;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:13pt;"><br /><br /><br /></span></b><span style=";font-family:";" lang="EN-GB">____________________________________________________________________<br /><br /><br /></span> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">5: They Need To Be Fed</span></b></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">As they melt away, the dead young man reappears. He is with a small, curvy young woman who – like him – has left the mortal coil. Their hands are clasped. They enter the scene like a boy and girl making their first appearance at a debutante ball.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">The scene lights up to reveal a ballroom decorated with silver bones. Music swells as the Cannibal Choir appear. The young man and woman begin to waltz.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">CHOIR:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“They need to be full</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">with baskets of meat</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And sweet, plump things</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Tied up tight and neat”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">The chorus of voices grow clearer as four undead people join the waltz. One of them is the fat government official, who looks especially bloody (while the rest merely look grey and drained).</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">CHOIR:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“They need to be brimming</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">with blood and bones</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">till they’re bloated and big</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">and heavy as stones</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Clothed in your skin</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">As the song goes on (and grows in volume), more and more people stream in. They all pair up and fall into the dance, waltzing away in this grand purgatory.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">CHOIR:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“They must harp on your hopes</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They must swallow your dreams</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They must be cloaked</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">in your cries and your screams</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Decorated in death</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed.</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">When all else is silent,</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">When all else is gone</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">The Devourers of Dreams</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Will rise and reign on</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Meat-eaters, dreamsweepers</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">They need to be fed.”<br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">The dark, shadowy edges of the scene brighten to reveal a dark splendid ballroom. At the top of a grand stairway is Aminta and the Muffin Man, holding hands as they descend upon their ghostly monarchy.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">AMINTA & MUFFIN MAN:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“Keep us near or keep us far</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Think us alive or think us dead</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">But remember that we are never full.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">When dreams go astray, we Will Be Fed!”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">This grand finale sees everyone frozen in mid-dance. Then the lights go off until only dim outlines of the still bodies are left.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">In the midst of this suspended scene, the busker comes down the stairway and weaves between the undead waltzing couples.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">He strikes up a tune in a reprise of his earlier Ballad.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">BUSKER:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“My love,</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">don’t let others steal your thoughts</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Or your sweet, careless, flung-about lives</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And watch out for those strangers</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Who smell sharply of danger</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">For their teeth and their hearts are like knives.</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">So this is the story</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">An overblown melody</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Of music, of meat, and of dreams;</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">And our lives are too brief</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">To be singing of grief</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">So let’s close up and sew up the seams.”</p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">He plays his harmonica one last time. As he reaches the final lingering note, the last few lights go out.</i></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""> </i></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB">-END-</span></b></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:13pt;"></span></b></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><br /><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:13pt;"></span></b></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:13pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;">~</span><br /></span></b></p>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-16538793951547354182012-03-05T12:51:00.001+08:002012-03-05T12:53:52.692+08:00First paragraph of a new novella<style>p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What beautiful diamonds you have," he said before slicing off her head. The necklace dropped neatly into his waiting hand, the one not holding a knife. The head thudded quietly onto the ground. Its cushion of black hair was still immaculately coiffed.<br /><br /><br />~ ~ ~<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br />a story of the rise and fall of two characters over the course of ten nights</span><br /><br /><br />.<br /></span>The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6885949653446085465.post-44944077829146734762012-01-27T20:38:00.003+08:002012-01-27T20:57:41.914+08:00Drawers<span style="font-family:times new roman;">We all have secret lives.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Secret parts of ourselves, kept in secret places, like drawers that reach into the dusty dark and keep your fingers grasping like knobbly ghosts.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">People are so surprised when we show these parts of ourselves. But why? Don't we all have hidden sides? Stories to tell that are never told?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Sometimes, these places are not very secret at all. Now we can stow them away all over the web -- where strangers may peruse your pictures and words in the safety of anonymity, while we do the same with theirs.<br /><br />There is comfort in not knowing each other prior to this instant. There is wonder, delight, disdain, disappointment, nonchalance, ignition, mutual passion -- but <span style="font-family:times new roman;">we remain strangers. We can enjoy each others' company free of baggage; free of the past. In the moment, nothing else matters.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Secret lives are lonely lives. But in some ways they are also a joy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">To invite someone you know well (in your main sphere of life) into your hidden places is to extend the friendship to intimate new levels. But you don't always have to extend the invitation.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">At this secret party, people can invite themselves. They can pop by unnoticed, surprising you, surprising themselves; by thinking that they knew you and finding out they were wrong.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">So who leads the party? Who holds the key to the drawers? Was there ever a key? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">And who do we trust with it?</span><br /><br /><br /><br />~The Serpent Charlemainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15580554735633386814noreply@blogger.com1