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Roshinda

Roshinda

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Yes, it is true. I am finally posting a new story.
For those of you who don't know me, it is quite possibly due to the fact that I've been absent from the forums for several months. I first started out on the Stories Forum two years ago, and still have two living threads,
"A Selection of Shorts", and "Outlander", a finished short story of 29 posts.
Real life took priority for a while, mainly while I was getting married and setting up house, and starting a new business.
I still have a lot on my plate, but I feel it is time to bring a new story to the forum, and I hope to find the time to regularly add to it.

02-Sep-2008 03:37:25 - Last edited on 02-Sep-2008 04:29:35 by Roshinda

Roshinda

Roshinda

Posts: 6,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
~Prologue~

Silence filled the night with a palpable anxiety. Thick, impenetrable clouds wrapped themselves around the moon, obscuring it completely from view in the resulting darkness. No wind blew through leafy branches, not so much as a blade of grass rustled in the stillness, and even the night's creatures were silent and hidden away. The absence of noise was more eerie than the scampering of feet or the hoot of an owl. It was as if they sensed by instinct what no man can know; this night was not one to be out in. It was not a time to ignore what the strange silence shouted, "Stop and be still! Stop while you can!"
Tonight, all were tucked away securely until the Mystery had passed. All that is, but one. The young man walked on, carefully placing one foot after another on the perilous cliffside path, stopping periodically to peer over steep, rocky embankments, as though in search of something. Though there was still no wind he grew suddenly chilled, and drew his brown cloak closer around his shoulders, whistling an uneasy melody that floated through the night like a lonely bird in a foreign world.
The man was a fairly ordinary sort, tall of stature and slender of build. His features were indistinguishable in the impregnable darkness. He carried himself with the self-assuredness of youth, and his form moved with a determined courage that causes one to ask just what his past had been, or where his future lay.
At one point he paused and turned a full circle, peering uncertainly through the bleakness, but one can suppose he received no answer for he continued on the same as before.
"No lights." HIs voice was low and after so much quiet, made him jump. "And yet, I must be close. It has to be here."
The cloudbank shifted just enough for a faint outline of the moon to peer tenuously above the jagged clifftops. The man glanced up. "At last you smile on me," he mused. "That's a first."

02-Sep-2008 03:37:55 - Last edited on 20-Jun-2010 04:21:42 by Roshinda

Roshinda

Roshinda

Posts: 6,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
He continued a few paces and then stopped. A fierce wind picked up from nowhere, and shuddered through the trees with so much force that boughs began to loosen and fall. The very earth began to tremble, and the noise of the wind turned into an ambient hum. At first it was barely audible, but it grew steadily louder in both volume and intensity until the monotonous drone made even the rocks vibrate and loosen from the earth.
Hands were raised to his ears to block out the noise that threatened to pierce his sanity, but then with great force of will he brought them slowly back to his side. It would do no good, and there was not much time. The man spun around with wide eyes, trying to peer though the all-encompassing darkness. After several turns, he at last gazed up into the sky in perplexed awe. He then took one trance-like step off the edge of the precipice. A loud tearing sound filled the air, as old parchment being torn in two, and the droning stopped. No scream shattered the quietness.

02-Sep-2008 03:38:01 - Last edited on 02-Sep-2008 04:33:54 by Roshinda

Roshinda

Roshinda

Posts: 6,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Chapter One

A dull blade thudded against a wooden chopping block. She raised the knife and cut the potato again crosswise. Scooping up the quartered vegetable, Ava dropped it into the pot of water gently boiling on the woodburning stove. "Well, the stew's on," she announced, prodding the sparse carrots and potatoes with a wooden spoon, "if you can call it that."
A tall slender girl with flaxen hair pulled tightly into a severe bun appeared in the doorway. She carried a piece of drab, dark grey fabric in her hands. "Good. Then it should be done by the time I return with today's rations of bread."
"Oh, Ebony, see if you can't pick up a bit of meat as well. There was only a small bite left, and I used it in the stew."
Ebony sighed. "I'll see if they'll allow it, but use less next time. It's far too expensive to be frivolous with."
"Well, we would have more money to spend on meat if bread wasn't so expensive. It would be so much better if we could simply make it ourselves," Ava remarked.
"Hush Ava! Would you see the bakers put out of work?" Ebony glanced nervously behind her to the still open door, and moved closer. "You know how it is; some plant, some harvest, some refine the grain and others bake. That's how it has always been."
"And how it always will be." Ava lowered her eyes and examined the plain wooden planks beneath her feet.
"And it is right!" Ebony lifted the fabric to her face and donned the veil, letting it fall over her face like a shield, blocking out all reason. A minute passed and Ava was sure the conversation with her sister was over when Ebony spoke again. "It's not that I don't wonder about a different system," Ebony's voice was barely above a whisper, and she reached out to touch Ava's arm, "but I do it in silence. If one speaks, well, then one hopes. And hope and reason do not mix well." Her voice drifted into a sigh and neither girl commented on the thought. They were a people of silence, and now, that was best.

02-Sep-2008 03:38:09 - Last edited on 20-Jun-2010 04:23:26 by Roshinda

Roshinda

Roshinda

Posts: 6,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Ebony slipped outside to get the bread, leaving her sister alone to finish the inside jobs. Ebony carried herself with quiet resolve and proud strength that spoke of deep integrity and unshakable character. She gave the appearance of being severe, for she rarely smiled, yet her eyes showed a sparking intelligence that somehow made her beauty a secondary asset and her visibly keen mind the foremost intrigue. Her beauty, though, was rarely seen, for she faithfully wore the required dark veil in public, only removing it when she was safely indoors and unobserved by any save her sister.
Ava, on the other hand, was careless with her veil and twice had been reported to Darsian officials for entering a public place bare-faced and making herself a "degraded spectacle". A third offense would lead to severe punishment, yet outspoken Ava was quite unaffected and laughed off her forgetful blunders with coquettish remarks to the officials.
Fortunately, the girls lived in one of the quiet hillside settlements and rarely visited the city, where rules were much more strictly enforced. In the quiet solitude of the hills Ava often flaunted her bare head in silent protest, without receiving much more than a raised eyebrow for her behavior.
Nothing more was said on the subject for the rest of the day. In the morning, the sisters rose with the sun and began their daily routine of chores with extreme diligence. Ava remained indoors to wash their meagre laundry, make the bed, and scrub the unfinished plank floor while Ebony went to the barn to collect eggs as well as milk their solitary cow.
With five warm eggs nestled securely in a deep pocket, Ebony had just started back to the house carrying the heavy milk bucked when the solitude of the hillside was shattered by a terrifying scream.
"What in the world!" she exclaimed, and began running toward the house, slopping frothy milk all over her skirt.

02-Sep-2008 03:38:16 - Last edited on 06-Sep-2008 06:32:51 by Roshinda

Roshinda

Roshinda

Posts: 6,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The front door hung ajar, and Ebony ran inside, leaving the heavy pail on the step. "Ava!" she called, but received no reply. A pile of unwashed laundry was spread on the floor next to the washing tub, but her sister was nowhere to be seen. The two-room house took only a cursory sweep to ascertain that it was empty, and Ebony dashed back outside.
Ebony was terribly confused, and becoming slightly worried. While her sister had a careless spirit, she was always very diligent about her chores and seldom departed from her normal routine. Disappearing without mentioning where she was going was something she had never done. Ebony had reached the sloping field behind their house and could see nothing but gently waving grain, and beyond the green field, a few scattered cows grazing on the opposite hillside.
A loud bell began to toll across the fields, calling the hillside women to the factory to work. Ebony sighed and turned mechanically from her search, heading towards the large brick building nestled in the valley below. "Ava will turn up at work," she assured herself as the clang of the distant bell echoed through her head, "and after I will certainly scold her for giving me such a scare." Yet even as she calmed her thoughts, Ebony felt a twinge of worry. What about that scream? It hadn't sounded like a woman, but it certainly was ominous...
For years the women in the hill country had been employed by the factory. Long ago it had been to manufacture burlap sacks and generic clothing, but several years ago, after the Darsian occupation, it had been converted to its present use. Day after day the local women sewed army uniforms with such precision that a single stitch dare not march out of line, though at harvest time the women worked alternate days out in the fields. It was here that Ebony and Ava had been sent after graduation from the Inaril Academy for the Societal Benefit of Girls.

02-Sep-2008 03:38:26 - Last edited on 06-Sep-2008 06:35:35 by Roshinda

Roshinda

Roshinda

Posts: 6,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Ebony quietly slipped into her seat between two large, heavily endowed women who smelled of perspiration and grime. They were jolly souls who spent most of their working hours talking to each other around, and over, Ebony, who was very much in the way. Surprisingly Ebony had never thought of switching seats with one of them in the three years they had shared a bench, and now their raspy voices sharing the latest gossip were just as familiar to her as the hum of the factory machines.
Quickly she organised her supplies - scissors, needles and thread - and arranged a bolt of beige material for an officer's shirt on the table in front of her. Nervously she peered through the thick dimness to the empty chair five rows ahead and four seats to the left, where Ava should have been sitting, and then towards the door that was being shut by the factory manager. It would not be opened again for ten hours, when their shift ended. Ebony scanned the room again in hopes that Ava was sitting somewhere else. She wasn't.
"All right ladies," the factory manager bellowed, having regained his usual place atop a platform at the front, "we have a large quota to fill this week, but I will not tolerate shoddy workmanship. This shirt made by #143 is missing half of the collar. I suggest that #143 focuses more on her work if she does not wish to be replaced."
The woman seated to Ebony's right dipped her head and clasped her hands together nervously. 'So you're #143?" Ebony thought with a consoling smile, "poor soul."

02-Sep-2008 03:38:33 - Last edited on 20-Jun-2010 04:42:08 by Roshinda

Roshinda

Roshinda

Posts: 6,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
"And these three shirts were found with ripped stitching," the manager continued, the faulty clothing displayed before him at arms length, as if it was repulsive garbage. As he spoke, Ebony watched a man walk up and down the aisles taking attendance. He finished his circuit and approached the manager, whispering something in his ear. "What do you mean absent?" he spluttered in response, "look into it, I'll not let it slide." The manager gave his oiled mustache a thoughtful tug. "Oh, and Frukal, cut her rations for the week."
After the manager had started his day with his usual list of complaints and berating threats, the cramped room quickly filled with the sound of humming machines. "Day after day, always the same," thought Ebony with a tiny shudder, "only this one is different."
With her thoughts on her missing sister, Ebony's mind was not on her work, and she accidently added an extra buttonhole to the shirt she was making. She stared at the flaw with a mixture of horror and amusement, bound with a little bit of hope. 'Oh well, who counts their buttonholes anyway?'
The fine hairs at the back of her neck stood at attention, and Ebony raised her head to see one of the factory officials staring at her. A lanky man, recently moved to the hillside, he gave her a deep smile and lingered a moment longer before continuing down the aisle.
Ebony adjusted the veil that had slipped down from her face, and tried to ignore the spiny prickles that were creeping up her neck. "He's still staring!" she thought, "the pig!" and spun around on her stool. Her eyes locked with the cold grey eyes of the manager.

02-Sep-2008 03:38:42 - Last edited on 06-Sep-2008 06:46:06 by Roshinda

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