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The Essence of Misery, Chapter 1 |
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Pitch black. That's as far as the eye could see. A thick black night that many have already gotten lost in.
Tales of a beautifully alluring woman spun wildly when frightened, stupid travellers made there way to the nearest tavern in sight.
Townspeople laughed and scorned them the first time. Then more and more people, ignorant of the forests ability to ensare and encampass one man and another and another, began to disappear.
These tales turned to reality, and ghost hunters and thrill seekers began to invade the once peaceful town.
The men, who had been fortunate enough to make it into town sat in a booth in the far corner of the tavern. They seemed to be at their wits end, mutturing prayers for hallucinations to go away. For the moon to once again rise and alight a path for them.
One man new the moon's absence was never short.
The moon's escape of the sun's unseen rays was a vacation for her. For her to rest and be at unlight luxury.
This man did not believe in the rubbish of ghosts.
Until he encountered one.
Esteranova was not just any ghost either. She lured men away from the absent paths of the traveller forest, away from everything else. The blackness snared them into the horror of being lost. Into the territory she knew best.
Esteranova was a spellcaster of sorts.
The man listened to the afeared men in the corner as they choked out their their jumbled words in hopes he could re-piece together their lost sentences.
"She had glowing blue eyes!" One said, still in a slight panic.
"That cut through the darkness!" said the second as he shook.
"She had the palest skin ever seen!" added a the third.
"Or not seen." Said the listener, "What you say is a myth."
They gave him coonish looks.
"Ghost are not real, fellows." he snorted, "They do not exist. Especially not ghost girls."
"She tried to kill us!" replied the last man.
"With what?" the listener asked in his smug, disbelieving tone.
It got silent in that corner, as the three men tried to remember, but couldn't.
"I got that impression." Said the first man.
The listener rolled his eyes, "Impressions are not everything, sir, nor are they very precise."
"Go out and see for yourself." Said the second, obviously more calmed down than his riled companions.
"Maybe I will. The moon is not out, and I'm afraid it would do me no good." He replied, leaning back and removing his hat to reveal greasy long brown hair. The shadow from his cap danced away from his stubbly face and dull, sun darkened face. His eyes were the deepest brown color that clearly stood out against the whites of his eyes.
He was over all very plain looking.
"Glowing blue eyes, sir." The second man stated.
"What about them?"
"They appeared first. Like willow wisps. But the closer we got to them we could make out a face in the dark illumination. Then she slowly started to glow. Her whole body, that is, and she was beckoning us towards her." The second man explain in a slight daze.
"That's not a ghost!" The listener man exclaimed, "That's nothing but a forest sprite playing tricks with you." The listener laughed.
"No, sir." Ths second man had the most serious face. He did not find the humor in this situation. "That could most deffinately not have been a sprite. I've seen them sprites frolicking in the moonlight. But this time there were no sprites at all."
"That's rubbish. Sprites are not friendly, and are mostly shy. Of course there not going to be around us humans, you fools."
"Go see for yerself, sir. We'll see who's correct." The second man ended the conversation. Which was a good thing, because the listener was tired of listening to that kind of nonsense. It was garbage.
Nothing but rubbish.
The man who never believed in ghosts exited the tavern, after giving the three men his name.
Halefir.
Halefir wandered aimlessly toward the forest. No ghost was going to keep him from his travels. None. No ghost could possibly change his mind. He was not a fool like the others, and he was surely not a coward.
So into the darkness he walked.
His tiny lamp lit only a pinch of where he was walking, and a thicker fog had set in, making so much more impossible to see, but he continued his way.
Before long, the lamp requested oil, which was tucked into Hale's leather bag upon his back. Of course he stopped to take the bag off.
Stopping was his mistake.
Since he stopped, he was open to Estera's tricks, and she began to appear before him.
First came her icy, glowing blue eyes which illuminated the fog around them. Then her face alit the surrounding low-laying clouds. Her black lips stood out against her skin in a wicked, sadistic smirk that made Hale's stomach turn upside down figuratively.
She was dressed like a normal forest sprite, only in more nightly colors, making her pale legs and arms seem like they were just hanging and waving around by themselves.
"Hello, traveler." She cooed in a duel toned voice that was eerily seductive, and she floated and leaned above Halefir to look him in the eyes, running her fingers under his scruffy chin.
Her touch was frigid.
Hale jolted and jumped away, spilling the oil and knocking the lamp over catching the oil covered forest floor on fire.
"Do not be afraid of me." She swirled around him and laughed so enchantingly.
"No!" He put his hands in front of his face and looked away.
She appeared back into his sight, mystically, and stared at him, "But I will not hurt you." Her voice betrayed her words.
"Your eyes..." He muttered like the very men he called fools.
"What about them?" She questioned and raised a perfect eyebrow, seeming only to smirk more and more if that was possible.
"They... They have no emotion."
Her eyes pierced him right to his soul and he felt her grasping onto his thoughts and mangling them while she flirted and danced in the air.
"This is not happening." He said, breaking eye contact with her and picking his bag and random twigs from the ground to use as torches.
"Oh?" She followed him as he walked in a fast walk from her.
"You're not real."
"But I am." She purred.
"Even if you are, you're nothing but a lously forest pixie playing tricks on me."
"Is that what you believe?" She questioned in her devilish way, "In all honesty, do you really think you can convince yourself that you are not tempted in the slightest way?"
"Yes." He choked out, but it was a lie.
"Traveler, you are lost, and you are weary-"
"No I'm not!" He fought with her trying to making her stop.
"why don't I show you the way, and give you a place to rest."
"No!" He repeated.
"Esteranova will tend to your every need."
"Esteranova?" He screeched and looked at her in shock and surprise.
"Yes. That is my name."
"But... But you died!"
She stepped through the air and looked at him straight in the eyes. Her face intimidatingly close to his, eyes narrowed and no longer blue, but fierce red, "How do you know this? How could you possibly know this? You humans think you know everything!" She hissed and disappeared.
 euya · Mon Dec 24, 2007 @ 11:11pm · 0 Comments |
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