Topic: Serenity

NightRunner

Date: 2007-09-24 14:17 EST
Serenity

"There is no former in a friend with strength."




He wasn't where he was supposed to be.

Wherever "here" was, it wasn't where he was supposed to be.

It was the kind of oblivion that forced one to wake up reluctantly, groggily and with a mountain of cotton inside one's head. It was the kind of waking that left a sense of detachment and distance in the mind.
Renne lay wrapped in his furs and holding his candle for a while to let the thick cotton in his mind let up.

Wen it did, it did so with the force of a squall.

He wasn't where he ought to be.

Beginning to panic, Renne squirmed out of his furs and let out a confused chirp. Testing the waters. Testing if his mind were playing tricks on him.
He heard a slight echo.

Prison cells don't echo.

It was then when the fear hit him cold in the face.

He put his candle into a safe place in his pocket and started crawling. Yeti furs draped over him, he crawled with two goals in mind.
Find out where in blazes he is and how to get back to where he's supposed to be.
And the Hunter started to chuckle in the back of his mind.

--------------

He was getting nowhere.

Unnerved, Renne kept crawling until he heard the steady lapping of water against something solid. It wasn't ideal -- far from it -- but it was as close as he could get for now.
It was the best he could do until he figured out where he was, how he got there and how to get back to where he was before.

Before.

The Hunter chuckled again.

Before what?

He shook it off and searched for something on the ground. He found it in a small pebble.
The rock went into his mouth to be pulverised by his teeth and a small addition of stage two venom. The rock became a hot paste, then a liquid.
A few breaths later, it became a growing bubble.

An hour later, it became a hardened, glass-like container.

It was desperation that drove him on.

For what?
To get back to before.
Before when?
Before.
To survive.

Before.

Another hour later, the container held a scrawled message of panic within its walls. That next hour later, the bottle was sent wherever it would go.
Rolling along solid ground or drifting out across the sea. It didn't matter.

It didn't matter as long as it got somewhere and the cry was heard.

It didn't matter as long as he was understood.

CaptainTapole

Date: 2007-09-24 16:18 EST
"It doesn't take much to show you care." ~ The Care Bears

All of the silver crowns were mostly gone. That did not matter to her.

She gave a small hole-turned-room all to Renne. There was nothing in it in the first place. Just a cot and nothing more than that.

Within one of the many tunnels under the City--and not far from one of the docks--laid a even smaller marketplace/apartments. Hole dug into the Grounds to make People-Made caverns with canvas/cotton flaps as the doors. Today, though, was not the day for the Smugglers' Market to be going on. That won't happen for another couple of days or so.

For the past three days, Johnathan has been going back and forth between Renne's cavern and back to the Powder Keg. And everyday, three times a day, she came with a small plate of bread and raw meat and a bottle of water. Though, granted, for both she never knew what Renne ate nor if he ever ate at all like her. But it was still a polite gesture all in all.

Walking back from the Pub, with aforementioned plate in one hand and bottle of water, in a rather awkward place to put it--in her shirt. Johnathan noticed the glass-like container roll along ever-so-slowly; as if trying to find a way out...or something to help. At first she thought nothing of it, but then noticed some formation of writing in it. Placing down the plate onto the ground, then picking up the bottle; she examined closer and knew the writings by heart. Out of shock, she was ready to drop the glass-like container, but fumbled over it; smashing the bread and the meat under her clumsy bootsteps in the meantime. Groaning and irritated at herself--though saving the container--the dark brown eyes shot up as Johnathan started walking in a fast pace towards the People-Made cavern.

What would usually take five minutes from the underground entry of the Pub to the little "complex" of caverns really only took two-and-a-half minutes for Johnathan. Flipping the flaps open; seeing Renne not there--along with his furs. Looking frantic like a child losing their favorite blanket; Johnathan nearly ripped the canvas flap off from the ceiling as she stepped out to the branched-off tunnel.

So many places. Where in the bullocks is he? Johnathan thought to herself, trying to keep herself calm...well, at the very least trying not to hyperventilate from fear and worriness. And there was only one thing she knew could find him anytime, anywhere.

Peering down at the frog charm at the base of her neck, she blinked; knitting her eyebrows a bit.

"Please help I."

And without another delay in thought, the frog charm started to glow. From its crystallized green to a bright green color, Johnathan sighed and looked up. She thought for a moment, then turned left; away from the Smugglers' Marketplace.

"I am going to find ye, again, Renne. Just please stay in one place fer once so I could find ye."

She knew no one but herself and all the pretty voices in her head would hear it; but she had to say it.

NightRunner

Date: 2007-09-25 17:48 EST
Serenity
Meaningless

"For no greater love hath any man, than he lay down his life for his friend."




It was a strange thing to find fear as his companion again. So strange yet so familiar.

He couldn't stop moving, couldn't risk being still.

He crawled through the underground passages until he had gotten himself lost. He had crawled and each pebble or rock he found eventually became a glass holder that bore the same message of panic inside.

He wasn't supposed to be here.
Wherever "here" was.

Renne crawled until he heard the faint, muted sound of lapping water.

One goal might be reached at least.

He sent every last one of his remaining containers rolling out and even resorted to hurling them forward. He hoped that eventually some might reach the water and spread out.
Maybe someone would hear his call.
*Hello, remember us?

Maybe someone would listen.

It wasn't likely, but it was still a shot.

---------------

Time lost its meaning to him. For hours, he paced along in a small circle like some caged animal near the sound of the water.
It comforted him in some small way.
The ones you left behind

He took out his candle and held it in his left hand.

You promised.

The Hunter laughed softly.

Humans don't honour promises.

He snarled back in his mind.

It must still be there. Some part of my world must still be there.

He silenced and refused to listen to the overlapping, whispered sneers. The Hunter loved this game -- playing like the cat at a mouse. Predator to unsuspecting prey.
Human guile to not-human innocence.
When half the earth was burning and all the sky was blind

He took out his journal a moment later and began to write. Amid the writing, he drew crude little maps of the paths he'd taken so far in this underground.
He drew faces.
He wrote names.
And he wrote theories, detached and clinical.
You lords of wealth and power, who made the missiles fly

Renne closed his journal and took out the spyglass. He thought of what once was. He thought of what could be. He thought of oaken walls and Ty'Rekh -- beautiful Ty'Rekh. He thought of thunder, fire and ashes.
He thought of an old question. Humanity. To be human.
He thought about Simon, Darren, Stacey and Vicfryn.
His furs were wrapped tighter around himself as he thought about underground.
Someone still believed in me.
Putting the spyglass and candle away, he searched the ground for another pebble. An hour later, he turned it into another container and placed his message inside it.
Closed, the container was but a hollow sphere. Open, the thing cried out in his voice and spoke what he wished to say.
Remember how you hid yourselves and left us here to die.
Hello. Hello. Hello.

He let it fly toward the muted sound of the water and dared to hope one more time.

He wasn't one to give up so easily.
He wasn't one to leave a man behind even if he was.

~<>~

*Hello. Remember Us?; Leslie Fish
Featured in Letters to the Dead XVII