Soothsayer's Bones [unnamed v blighted hearts day 3]
Jul 2, 2023 23:30:39 GMT -5
Post by marguerite harvard d2a (zori) on Jul 2, 2023 23:30:39 GMT -5
m a g i
Gas, out of time, out of money
You're doing what you can, just makin' it run
(There's only so much I can)
"Were we here before?” Magi called out to Lara as they edged along the same trees and ferns they’d passed yesterday (or had hey?). Night had fallen just after breakfast, which would’ve been strange had they been anywhere but here.
Magi had first been afraid that the rolling mist that obscured the sun and shifted the blue skies to indigo was some point of poison. They failed to outrun it and in the minutes that passed, shrouded under the tree branches that hung high overhead, he had not choked to death or had his body covered in oozing sores, Magi was left to believe that this was some sort of trick being played on all of them.
Even he could put two and two together if given enough time.
There had been no cannons the first day or the second day, which meant that they were bound for some acts of bloodshed to appease the gamemaker gods. What better way to instill fear than to cast them all into a perpetual darkness and steal away the sun?
And yet he didn’t give in to the niggling fear, at least, not as much as he went about searching for what was needed. He hadn’t found any water in days, and if they didn’t find some soon, Magi knew that it wouldn’t matter whether or not they faced a single tribute or twenty-two, their bodies would revolt all on their own.
So, he’d set out from where they’d felled the deer and along the narrow path toward parts unknown. He paused now and again the stare at the symbols etched into the gnarled bark. He’d close his eyes and did his best to commit it to memory, as though the made-up language wouldn’t dissolve in his brain just as soon as he’d opened his eyes.
Whispers and giggles had echoed in every breeze. Now and again a branch would crack, and the wind would sing.
“This place is haunted.” Magi said to Lara as they came to a fork. “And ghosts only give you what you don’t need.”
When he edged left along the narrow path, he had to step over a set of roots and between bushes that craned too close. He did his best not to touch anything, no matter how slowly he had to tread through the dirt.
And then he heard it. Or, he thought he did.
A stream. The unmistakable trickle of water somewhere, not far.
“You hear that?” Magi whispered, “It sounds like – ”
But they were playing tricks on them, after all.
For no sooner had the path widened and the thicket of trees gave way to an opening did Magi come upon the girl he’d been speaking to yesterday and a boy that looked worse for wear.
“Stay back,” He said the words for Lara, arm extended as though he would do better this time than against the deer they’d faced yesterday. But also to the two in front of him. He held out his dagger as though all the courage he could muster didn’t have his heart racing.
“I didn’t want to see you today.” Another truth for Olete. She could’ve come for him and Lara if she’d wanted. At least now he knew they were even, instead of having to face three more. “But I know there’s nothing we can do about this now.”
He turned his dagger over in his hands.
“He’s gonna go before you do.” This time, he didn’t know if that was right – more what he planned to do.
When he charged forward, Magi prepared to sink his weapon into the other boy. He didn’t prepare for the fact that Olete would come between. A twist of fate that shifted him off balance.
He was beginning to understand that the truth of this place was that he could never have what he wanted. Not without violence that would leave him breathless.
[Magi Karp attacks Olete Bene with his knife]
M_Ej5L2zydknife
[result:miss]
accuracy day 3
knife
[result: +3.5]knife·knife
