invisible string || m, i, f. day 2.
Feb 25, 2024 8:30:02 GMT -5
Post by Cait on Feb 25, 2024 8:30:02 GMT -5
I shouldn’t have named them. That’s where the attachment starts. But like all habits of temptation, it feels impossible to change my ways even after one night of sleeping with protection.
We’re a strange pack, bunkered down in the snow. Maggie and I; Larsen and Lonora and a third unarmed companion. I’ve started calling the feline Fluffy in my head, obviously aware I couldn’t ever tell Maggie of the nickname. I’m already a juvenile to her, in every sense of the word. I don’t want to give her more of a reason to leave me.
The first frost breaks, and we’re still together. An unexplained corner of the Arena looms in front of us, where a pile of rocks and rubbles stands amongst a thicket in the forest. Larsen senses it, the unrest of the mines blocking our path. The threat of evil coming from within, despite the radiating warmth of the chasm. Even Lonora, too big for the entrance anyway, cowers away from it.
I look at Maggie, swallow the lump in my throat.
Most of her cuts from the Bloodbath were surface level, thankfully, and already starting to scab over, but I can sense her weariness despite the fact she’s a rapid healer. Neither of us had slept well, and the promise of shelter from the cruel weather is so close, tastes so sweet. But that’s how the saying goes: you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
So even though I know so deeply in my soul that it’s a bad idea to go into the dark, my heart is on a different page as it makes a promise to Maggie: “I’ll follow you, wherever you want to go.”
It’s just playing the game, I tell myself. Keeping her on side so she won’t leave me to fend on my own. I almost believe it.
Maggie nods wordlessly and takes a somewhat hesitant step towards the mines, but I reach out to her before she can go any further, clinging to the fabric of her parka. “Wait!” I let go and drop to the ground, swinging my bag over my shoulder and rummaging through it madly to find the rope lying in a tangled mess at the bottom.
“It’s too dark in there. We might lose each other.”
I tie a knot at either end of the rope the way Azure had shown me and loop one around my wrist, letting the other dangle in front of me. All the while trying not to feel guilty for the fact my chest doesn’t ache as much anymore when I think of the dead girl who saw something in me worth saving.
We’re a strange pack, bunkered down in the snow. Maggie and I; Larsen and Lonora and a third unarmed companion. I’ve started calling the feline Fluffy in my head, obviously aware I couldn’t ever tell Maggie of the nickname. I’m already a juvenile to her, in every sense of the word. I don’t want to give her more of a reason to leave me.
The first frost breaks, and we’re still together. An unexplained corner of the Arena looms in front of us, where a pile of rocks and rubbles stands amongst a thicket in the forest. Larsen senses it, the unrest of the mines blocking our path. The threat of evil coming from within, despite the radiating warmth of the chasm. Even Lonora, too big for the entrance anyway, cowers away from it.
I look at Maggie, swallow the lump in my throat.
Most of her cuts from the Bloodbath were surface level, thankfully, and already starting to scab over, but I can sense her weariness despite the fact she’s a rapid healer. Neither of us had slept well, and the promise of shelter from the cruel weather is so close, tastes so sweet. But that’s how the saying goes: you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
So even though I know so deeply in my soul that it’s a bad idea to go into the dark, my heart is on a different page as it makes a promise to Maggie: “I’ll follow you, wherever you want to go.”
It’s just playing the game, I tell myself. Keeping her on side so she won’t leave me to fend on my own. I almost believe it.
Maggie nods wordlessly and takes a somewhat hesitant step towards the mines, but I reach out to her before she can go any further, clinging to the fabric of her parka. “Wait!” I let go and drop to the ground, swinging my bag over my shoulder and rummaging through it madly to find the rope lying in a tangled mess at the bottom.
“It’s too dark in there. We might lose each other.”
I tie a knot at either end of the rope the way Azure had shown me and loop one around my wrist, letting the other dangle in front of me. All the while trying not to feel guilty for the fact my chest doesn’t ache as much anymore when I think of the dead girl who saw something in me worth saving.
