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Mar 09

Vignettes: The Glade

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 The Glade

“This never was supposed to be about survival. It was supposed to be about exploration; about showing you a marvelous place and sharing what I knew of it and just, well, spending some time together in the wilderness…. ” The young man shook his head and looked out from under the dark branches of the hazel trees. There was no movement in the silvery glade.

The two children sat quietly. Jill was trembling slightly, but not because of the events of the past half an hour; she had hardly known what had happened from the time she had heard the first roaring to the time they had hidden together in the hazel copse. But she was an empath, so she couldn’t help picking up the waves of panic coming from Sam, as well as the deep worry of Mr. Luke.

But what about the creature that had been chasing them? She hesitated, but then let her thoughts reach out…out…past the copse, past the glade, and into the sticky blackness beyond.

And she sensed…what? A heartbeat, elevated, and a deep, raspy breathing. What was this creature? No…wrong question…who am I?

“Who am I?” asked Jill, aloud.

“What do you mean?!” asked Sam. He clutched his arm, which had been slashed by the savage claws of the creature.

“Who am I?” Jill repeated.

Sam shook his head, but Mr. Luke came up to Jill and touched her lightly on the shoulder.

“Yes, yes. That’s right. Who are you, Jill? And why are you chasing us?”

Jill sighed deeply. She breathed in and she breathed out, and then she smelled a strange scent. It was the scent of alien creatures. .and she was afraid. Her babies were near, newly hatched, and she had just seen the three alien creatures come into the glade. They were like nothing she knew. And she could not allow them to…to stay so close to her den….

“Drive them away! Drive them away!” Jill exclaimed. “My babies…..”

Mr. Luke paused for a moment, and then seemed to understand. “Sam, come with me. We need to get as far away from here as we can.”

“But…but what about Jill?”

“Jill?” Mr. Luke said. “Jill, will you let us go away now? If we leave quietly?”

Jill thought long and hard. She could still scent them all, and could even feel their heat coming from the copse. But now she seemed to remember that, perhaps, they might want to go away. Part of her wished to finish them off, but Jill spoke to that part of herself: “Let them go…as long as they do not come back toward the den.” And that part of herself, the part that had dragon scales and bat wings, grudgingly assented.

“We can go,” said Jill, “but only if we head that way.” She pointed in the direction opposite the glade.

“Then that is precisely where we shall go, dear,” said Mr. Luke. “That is precisely where we shall go….”

 

1 comment

  1. Anne Marie

    Great little glimpse here! I loved how integrated shall we say Jill was with the dragon mum. Gabriel is an interesting child too alright. Finished Seer yesterday and loved most the new chapter and the story of Niccolo and his wife and child. Hope to see more of the story started in The Watcher – that rocked. :)

    Namarie, God bless, Anne Marie :)

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