After Days and Nights of eternal watch, curled high within the monsterious boughs of one of the ancient Vallenwoods, he body succumbs to the ravages of exhaustion.
The visons fill her dreams, the future tense gives heed, the present clarity, but it is the past that haunts..
there was a man, walking alone by a river. His heart was dark and empty, and he looked deep down in the deep, dark water.
Down there it seemed to be, what he searched for so desperetaly, the darkness inside him took what was left of selfconcious and pride. Over
and over again, he saw the little face, the dark blue eyes staring up at him so desperately, the anxiety so strong in it. They followed him, hunted
him day and night with the question.. why?
He walked there alone, by the river, looked down the dark water, heard its rushing, so much alike the rushing in his ears. The flickering for
his eyes grew stronger and stronger, as he into every detail remembered.
The eyes.. the mouth opening and closening, the arms fighting him so desperately. The struggle about power! he fell to his knees and hid his
face in his hand, screaming quietly inside him.
Then suddenly came the night. Quickly it came, darkness lowering over him as dust, and in a long distance he could hear thunder. It was on its
way now, the thunder. In the air he could feel that special taste of rain soon to fall, and the wind blowing slowly getting colder. The man
raised his face to the wind and cried into the emptiness, his screams were filled with deepest fear and anxiety. The wind grew stronger, and
around him flew red and yellow leaves in a hornful dance.
In the wind he could hear her voice, the little child, her heartbreaking screams for help. He held his hands over his ears, but nothing seemed to keep the voice out. On the river, the waves threw themselves up closer to him, they got closer, as to bring him down in the wild tumult on the surface.
Though he was a man of the river, he knew that under the surface, it was all calm, only the streams held their power there. The streams. The
little girl's body. The blood in her veins that flew like underwaterstreams in a wild running water. The fearful look in her eyes. The screams.
He stood up and tried to find his way into the woods in a desperate try to save himself, but the trees closed his way, and he found himself
pushed back to the water. The wind blew in an unbelievable strenght, and he wondered to himself why he yet hadn't falled down the water and drowned.
He could hear her clearly now in the wind. The voice calling. It was calling him, calling, tempting. With a good grip of his coat he turned
around and looked to the water, the water hitting the walls and made huge clouds of white scum. The child's body. Her white skin. The water..
The man looked down at the water, and in the deep darkness he saw her. She laid in the water, calmly she floated, like if the hard storm wasn't
there, she smiled so softly at him. Her eyes shining, he didn't see they were shining by a cold fire, that is only to find in the halls of death,he could only see the light, and he ran to her.
He reached out his arms for her and cried out, with no words, how sorry he was. She lied in the
water, gupping slowly, her white cloth shining almost unbarable bright and he didn't see the marks on her throat, the wounds on her legs. All
he could see was the light in her eyes.
When he reached the edge of the river, she disappeared and appeared again a bit further out. Her eyes didn't burn anylonger, and she looked
like she was sinking. The man froze in fear, nothing in his head worked the way it should. He threw of his coat and his shoes, the hat he threw
into the forest, and then jumped down the ice cold water, where the darkness welcomed him with opened arms. First, he sank, but managed to
get up and get some air into his lungs, then started his fight to reach out to her. He could see her all the time, her eyes so frightened, the
tiny arms fighting so hard to stay over the surface.
He could hear her screams, the childish voice, from which one could hear short pieces of
screams for help. He tried over his physical strenght in his powerless attempts to try to reach her, and soon he felt how the strenght started to make his body senseless. The girl got longer and longer away from him, her screams weaker and weaker. Soon he didn't even see her.
The man started to panic when he realized that the edge of the river was somewhere far away, that he actually couldn't see it. The wated was dark and cold, and he was getting frozen, to move his arms got harder and harder. The clothes drew him down, he was thankful he had taken off his
shoes.
The water… the dark water, it pulled him down. Suddenly he felt so tired, so very, very tired. He had to rest for a moment, rest his arms
from the unbarable weight his shirt was. The man relaxed and let himself sink down under the water. There he saw her. The child.
The girl with the bright skin and the shining eyes. She smiles at him, and he didn't see how evil that smile was. He smiled back, closed his eyes when the water hid his sight. He felt something gripping around his foot, pulling him down, but it didn't matter anymore. It was so nice down here, in the water. He didn't freeze anymore, and he felt so light, like he was floating. That thing pulled his foot, slowly he was pulled down, and in a strange moment he thought that the water was so easy and calm down
here. No violent waves just calm streams pulling him down. He was satisfied.
Her voice… whispering in his ear, nonsense words, mumbling in the rushing water, he listened to it..a siren song, it reminded him of his mother's
voice, singing songs for him as a child. A child, just like that girl,young and innocent, unknowing of life. A child with white skin and trusting eyes, just as he once was. Once, but not anymore.
The voice whispered lovely words in his ear, the water rushed around him, her voice almost couldn't be heard over it. Soon it was heard less,
the rushing the more, but the man was happy and didn't worry much about it, because soon he would see her. Soon he should hold her in his arms
telling her how much he regretted it. She should smile and forgive him,and all should be well again...Soon.
She awakens with a start, her heart racing, pounding deep within her chest her face damp , wet with the tears of her dreams or perhaps the river of time. Expecting to see the face looming before her her hand already upon the pommel of her blades, steadying herself as she near slips from the high bough.
The screams echoing, wether in her mind or in the night she is unclear, but she is aware it be those that which awakened her form the haunting of the past.
Closing her eyes breathing slow hoping to regain herself quickly, her head rests back against the huge trunk of the tree that has supported her all the long days and nights.
