084 Chapel Days · Scene 2


Chapel Days

Chapel Days · Scene 2 · Bed b
The Chapel ~ Interior ~ Bed and guest quarters
Early Autumn ~ Morning, Clear and breezy
I



f not for her hips and fine bosom, both on full display due to only wearing her chainmail, Chain due to her slender, long limbs and slight frame might have been mistaken for an underdeveloped child. Again, if not for her chainmail putting her figure on display, as well as the sheathed sword she held slung over her right shoulder, she might have been mistaken for a tall friend of Finch. She was taller than Finch though and thus not short, but she was most definitely not tall either. The way she walked slumped over in dismay though did nothing to represent her actually height and required her sword and chainmail to visually separate her from being a child.

“I’m still so upset.”

“This one of us is as well. The softness and ease with which sleep came… A mattress is terrifyingly powerful.”

“You two really need to get over the bed. It’s not like it’s going anywhere.”

Having managed to finally get Chain and Drop out of bed, Finch joined them as they walked the halls and stairwells of the pipe filled interior of the Chapel. It was not necessarily the most successful of attempts to relieve them of the stress afflicted them due to the bed though as there was more than just being awake eating at them. Turning tearful eyes onto Finch, Chain expressed that earnestly.

“But it just might! Didn’t you see how tattered those sheets were⁈ I know nunneries don’t make a lot of money, and since this one moves it must have even less than most. There’s no way I’ll be allowed to sleep in a bed again after leaving it like that! This is what I get for waking up the Beast!”

As she spoke, chain was assailed by her own memories providing her image after image of the shredded sheets and even mattress. The damage made it seem like the bed had fallen victim to a swarm of hungry moths, yet Chain was obviously blaming herself and her actions.

Knowledge of the Beast was only afforded to Finch from secondhand accounts so she could not say anything in particular to relieve the upset Chain. From what she did know, the Beast being the name that Chain gave to Foreigner infection that made her a Sa·B·er, there wasn’t likely anything she could say. As it was, Finch was only a girl of ten springs, though perhaps more mature than Chain in that moment, and said something regardless of whether or not it was appropriate.

“Well you’re a Sa·B·er, so I guess you could look at it like training to better control your infection. I’ve heard that Sa·B·ers can still become monsters if they’re not careful, even after receiving Lady Cardinal’s Light. Wha–⁈”

Chain’s eyes were completely watering over now, and Finch nearly fell backwards as she backed away from Chain. Chain didn’t seem to notice and simply kept pressing up into Finch’s face until the younger girl was backed up against a wall. With nowhere to run, Finch had to deal with Chain’s bawling.

“That’s just the thing, I can only keep the Beast from eating me or anything else while I’m awake! Once I’m asleep, I can only keep it from eating me!”

“Well… um… maybe if you ate bigger meals… It is a part of you, right?”

“That still wouldn’t work! If I tried to eat for me and the Beast, no one here would be able to eat and being able to sleep in a bed again wouldn’t be the worst of my problems!”

“The Beast does have a horrible appetite that will make our life difficult.”

As Chain burst into tears and incoherent bawling, Drop, who swam in the air beside Chain, answered matter-of-factly. Despite her directness, Drop could not hide her disappointment either. Desperate to get out of the way of Chain’s tears and to stop regretting waking Chain and Drop, Finch hinted at a solution to Chain’s dilemma.

“Well, if getting better at controlling your infection will take too long, I might have another suggestion…”

“Really⁈ What⁈ What⁈”

Presenting Chain with a possibility to continue enjoying the comforts of a bed was perhaps not the best idea. Finch felt like she was being pressured even more as both Chain and Drop leaned into her personal space with pleading eyes. She had stopped Chain’s bawling for an instant at least, though she could only hope that her idea would give her back her personal space.
.


Copyright © 2019 Joshua D Tarwater

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

114 A Journey's Beginning · 4

Image
  A Journey’s Beginning · 4 Pit Gaol ~ Interior The frailty of the ruin was but an illusion If not for magic and an impossibly loud shout it was sturdy as the earth Within its walls that was difficult to tell for trap after trap    Every trap evaded led to another Boulders, arrow traps, pitfalls, and a plethora of more mechanical deterents “T HIS BETTER BE WORTH IT YOU IDIOT‼” “Please don’t yell Master! We never know if your voice will bring this whole place down on us!” “Come on you two! This is so much fun!” Where Squawk and Maye were scrambling for their lives, Chain was laughing every step of the way. She even had her notebook out and was sketching down every symbol she saw on the walls of the ruin. It was not that she took the danger presented by the traps as unimportant, even for Sa·B·ers who the traps were too ancient to have been designed for, the traps presented plenty of life-threatening danger. On more occasions than she could
Read more

113 A Journey's Beginning · 3

Image
T he first Lucifalz to appear was one that spanned over the sky and distorted the world in incomprehensible ways before it vanished as mysteriously as it appeared. Everyone alive on the Face of Icarus could recall the day it first appeared, but for some it was merely yesterday, while others it was a tale from their childhoods long past. Some who walked the Face of Icarus discovered that old friends had seen many springs more than they had leading to a confusion of the actual age. Making matters more convoluted, every community knew well the Cardinal Church and blamed them and the Saint Cardinal, who unified the Sister Goddesses and Father Icarus, for the appearance of the reality distorting trees of Light. As Light was a necessity of the world however, more and more people who turned their backs on the Cardinal Church sought Light not from Cardinal, but from Vaerseal, the Spirit Lord of the Sun. Spirits themselves however were taboo knowledge before the appear
Read more

115 A Journey's Beginning · 5

Image
  A Journey’s Beginning · 5   “W hy is it I have a bad feeling about this?” It would be sometime until Varen Elcourt, an icaran man of some twenty something springs would have a chance to introduce himself, but as bad as his situation was, it felt fairly routine to him. It was perhaps because his near two-meter height and lanky build naturally made him a lightning rod for trouble. Maybe it was his olive hued skin and steel blue eyes that drew him unwanted attention, or the tendency of his hip long braided black hair to snag on trouble behind him. In reality, it was more often than not the gauntlet that encased his left arm with a surface covered in large, geometric, red runes resembling a circuit board. At least the runes were normally red, but as he dangled over the abyss the runes were dead and his arm hung lifelessly at his side. Somehow, the straight sword he held in it managed to stay in his lifeless hand even as it made it even more impossible tha
Read more