06-10-2022, 04:53 PM
i need you like a heart needs a beat
but it’s nothing new --
Their home was often quiet, and at first she did not notice the hush as it began to settle. The fog that snaked its way through the trees was not a cause for alarm, and Briseis did not slow her pace as she made her way to the heart of Taiga. For as long as they have been here she and Ether have always called the darkest parts of the forest home—a place where the shadows were abundant, and few others had interest in exploring. Here, the redwoods grew so thick that the moonlight never touched them, and even the sun struggled to make its way beyond the networking of limbs that criss-crossed over top of one another. She had grown accustomed to the dark, even if she had not been born for it; her heart and soul belonged to a part of it now, belonged to him.
She expected the fog to begin to thin the closer she got to their home, for the trees and the shadows to overpower the silvery mist, but instead it only seemed to thicken.
Fear begins to prickle along her spine, and in the eerie hush that settles she swears she can hear her own heartbeat begin to echo off the trees. The sense that something is wrong stirs an age-old desire to flee, her bones and muscles calling back to a time when she would run until her legs ached and lungs nearly bled, as if she could ever outrun her nightmares.
But she thinks of him and she stills, and somewhere over the fearful pounding of her heart she reminds herself that she is not alone, and she just needs to find him.
“Ether?” his name is a tentative whisper, searching for a shadow that might produce a familiar pair of glowing yellow eyes, but everywhere she looks there is only the ever-thickening mist. Willing the panic that she can feel swelling in her chest to steady, she continues forward with cautious steps, calling out Ether’s name into the hazy dark.
but it’s nothing new --
Their home was often quiet, and at first she did not notice the hush as it began to settle. The fog that snaked its way through the trees was not a cause for alarm, and Briseis did not slow her pace as she made her way to the heart of Taiga. For as long as they have been here she and Ether have always called the darkest parts of the forest home—a place where the shadows were abundant, and few others had interest in exploring. Here, the redwoods grew so thick that the moonlight never touched them, and even the sun struggled to make its way beyond the networking of limbs that criss-crossed over top of one another. She had grown accustomed to the dark, even if she had not been born for it; her heart and soul belonged to a part of it now, belonged to him.
She expected the fog to begin to thin the closer she got to their home, for the trees and the shadows to overpower the silvery mist, but instead it only seemed to thicken.
Fear begins to prickle along her spine, and in the eerie hush that settles she swears she can hear her own heartbeat begin to echo off the trees. The sense that something is wrong stirs an age-old desire to flee, her bones and muscles calling back to a time when she would run until her legs ached and lungs nearly bled, as if she could ever outrun her nightmares.
But she thinks of him and she stills, and somewhere over the fearful pounding of her heart she reminds herself that she is not alone, and she just needs to find him.
“Ether?” his name is a tentative whisper, searching for a shadow that might produce a familiar pair of glowing yellow eyes, but everywhere she looks there is only the ever-thickening mist. Willing the panic that she can feel swelling in her chest to steady, she continues forward with cautious steps, calling out Ether’s name into the hazy dark.
-- briseis.