Teruro quietly nodded poking at the fire with a stick.
“So you asked about my last vision, I had it the morning of the day you appeared… It went like this…” and Takeko’s voice changed slightly as she reenacted her vision, and Teruro wondered if she was re-experiencing it as she spoke but refrained from asking any of the questions on his mind, choosing to save them for afterwards rather than to risk interrupting her.
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“...You're mad!” He tells me, I wonder why they all keep telling me this? Don't they realize that it is they who are insane? Can they really believe that their actions or values bear any sanity? Teehihi, I hear her cry at their folly.
“In the name of justice I, Akaimaru, must defeat you. Prepare to die, you foul unnatural creature!”
Justice? I tilt my head to one side quizzically before my laughter breaks out in waves that rack my body and brings me to my knees.
“You dare laugh at me? SILVER SPARROWS!” He shouts as he hurls half a dozen shuriken (throwing blades) at me and his big dog rushes in after them. Crouching I find myself chuckling, my forehead against the ground, my laughter mounts and my backs arches as I shriek my hilarity at the night sky, visible through the tops of the surrounding pine forest. Somewhere, smothered behind the mirth, the thought that I ought do something about the projectiles rushing at me. They thunk into my chest, sending shivers throughout my limbs that echo the exquisite pain that powers me. Teehihi, the pain I need that tests the chains of our love... I use it to shape the darkness that carries us since your death into shapes that they fear. Black immaterial bats scatter from where I stood an instant before, and six silvery shuriken fall to the earth with a muffled thud. From the within the darkness I see the wolf-dog yelp in surprise and return to his master's heel. Hii hii heh heh... The darkness flows as ever and I let it carry me within a few feet from him. He turns to and fro desperately seeking me out as he stinks of barely mastered fear.
"Where are you fiend? Are you dead or have you so little courage that you fly before me?"
Courage? Another vain word... I hold my laughter in check and my bone blade in hand. It carries her spirit and once was a part of her. He doesn't exist... I am beneath him now and from the shadows I surge, she rips through him and within the streaking flash of the blade her beautiful face in anguish... Her pain, my pain, the past... the present... The moon lights the blood as it sprays a beautiful dark crimson against the dark night air. The dog knows better than to attack me, it probably tried to turn its master from his madness. Folly for all that attacks me will taste the sweetness that I give. It howls beside the halves of its master's remains. I snap the blood away from her vessel, glimpse her shadow exiting the clearing and chase after her. Tonight is not the night and the splendid nightmare continues... ”
-
Her voice resumed in its normal tone as she continued “From there on the vision dissolved into laughter… but…”
Takeko looked up from the fire to find Teruro looking at her intently.
He raised an eyebrow and asked: “But it didn’t end there did it?”
What a vision?! I'm not quite sure what happened there. Her vision is more like a dream?
ReplyDeleteNo, I'll bet it didn't end there! While I must admit I got lost a bit when she slipped into re-enacting her vision, and I couldn't really make sense of what I was reading, I found it exciting nevertheless. This is so layered and complex, I can't wait to see how it goes. :-)
ReplyDeleteI like the vision bit even though I felt kind of like I was slip-sliding around in it a bit! I'm with Sangu - I want to see where it goes!
ReplyDeleteWhen I get confused I think that you're just so way more intelligent than I am that I'm not able to follow your thinking or use of foreign and archaic references. I get confused with I, me, he, they,...the dog? It's exciting writing, but hard to follow as the others have said.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Well... Folks. This is looking like my first bomb. : j
ReplyDeleteThough I have to tell you, I feel reassured that you find the ravings of an insane mind hard to follow.
Flip retort set aside, with such a unanimous response, I gotta question the writing. I was hoping that the next part would shed some light on any questions, but I guess I must have pushed it too far.
I must admit I'm surprised by this response: I've run this through a couple guys at work and they seemed to have gotten it fine. Answered my quizzing perfectly... And they were much less literate folk than y'all.
At any rate, sorry everyone. If it doesn't make more sense in retrospect after the beginning of next part, I'll rewrite this to be clearer. On the bright side the next part of the vision is super clear (already mostly written!).
In the meantime thanks for reading. : j
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And Kass, if you get too confused with my prose, you should definitely question my writing before you question yourself. : j
If I get confused, I always assume it's me, not you. Maybe it's because it starts in the middle of something, so I couldn't get a handle of who the speakers were in the vision.
ReplyDelete