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charisstomaTitle: A Copse of Corpses.
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 719
Did I say dark?
The clear blue sky echoed starkly, the air crisp with Fall’s approach in contrast with the warm fluid body of the horse moving under me. The gelding’s hooves thudded across the wide fields that rolled gently under the bristles of what was left from the harvested crops. A spinney stood in the distance, an island in the middle of this open ocean of land. Every journey needs a destination, the thicket of brush and trees crisscrossed with animals’ trails was ours; a place of life in the emptiness. I should have paid attention to the crows.
Above us black wings wheeled, lighting amongst the trees, their squabbling harsh and undeterred by the distance. The horse scented the tangy sweetness before I did. It was an arguing over a feast the crows were having. It must be a sumptuous banquet indeed, for as we neared the drawing in of more birds glinting blue on ebony continued unabated. ‘Please no.’
Pulling the horse up to stand, his flanks quivering, I leaned forward stroking and talking soothing words to calm him but it was me that needed calming. “I’m sure it’s just a cow sickened to death they’re coming to eat upon. We should go tell the landowner.” I laughed hollowly at the irony, for I am the landowner.
Briefly I considered calling the bailiff and not going to investigate on my own but I’d feel a fool if the body that tainted the air was bovine in nature. Still no one would blame me for my caution.
It was but a year, one year exactly, that the bodies had been discovered tied to stakes creating a small forest of corpses on a near neighbor’s property. There had been ten of them arrayed in a circle, empty sockets staring inward. They said that they were from the cities, people that no one would miss and it was a one time thing, they’d caught the serial killer. What they didn’t say was that it took time to gather that number of individuals, to drive in the posts they’d been affixed to, and that whatever had taken place in the center of that circle had been done long enough to wear areas of the ground there bare.
In trepidation I watched as Lyn rode to meet me, his body and his stallion’s beautiful in their power, their gait smooth over the ground as they moved as one unit. A shiver went through me as my childhood friend grown to manhood, smiled with that dark easy confidence that had been the bane to our youthful adventures.
“Beloved.” He nodded, his smile taking on that rakish look. “You’re going to have to plant more trees.” Lyn tilted his head considering, “There’s that area way to the north, a lonely place. Could use a few trees. Make them fast growing for me.”
Pleading, “Lyn, you can’t keep doing this.”
He reached to take the reins from me and I let him. “Of course I can, you belong to me.”
The smell was worse as we neared. My horse and I both didn’t want to be here. There was a small clearing that had been made at the center of the copse, the birds in a helter-skelter of wings and sound fleeing as we entered. Around us the witnesses stood staring towards the middle.
Numbly I stood feeling him work the buttons from their holes, long trained to this undoing of my will. The flask with its bitter contents pressed to my lips in unspoken command that I drink first. Like always I was led to my assigned position in the heart of the circle for I was his heart. The draught would burn in our veins, more potent than any modern aphrodisiac, and Lyn would thrust his hard stake into my core again and again before each of the ten bodies we bent before.
I was Arthur, he’d told me when we were young, and the king did yearly yield himself to the druids in offering to the old god for the fertility of the land. I was the king of his heart and he, as the last and greatest druid, offered my soul there in the circle spilling my seed into the soil before each of the silent corpses as he performed the ancient annual sacrifice.
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 719
Did I say dark?
The clear blue sky echoed starkly, the air crisp with Fall’s approach in contrast with the warm fluid body of the horse moving under me. The gelding’s hooves thudded across the wide fields that rolled gently under the bristles of what was left from the harvested crops. A spinney stood in the distance, an island in the middle of this open ocean of land. Every journey needs a destination, the thicket of brush and trees crisscrossed with animals’ trails was ours; a place of life in the emptiness. I should have paid attention to the crows.
Above us black wings wheeled, lighting amongst the trees, their squabbling harsh and undeterred by the distance. The horse scented the tangy sweetness before I did. It was an arguing over a feast the crows were having. It must be a sumptuous banquet indeed, for as we neared the drawing in of more birds glinting blue on ebony continued unabated. ‘Please no.’
Pulling the horse up to stand, his flanks quivering, I leaned forward stroking and talking soothing words to calm him but it was me that needed calming. “I’m sure it’s just a cow sickened to death they’re coming to eat upon. We should go tell the landowner.” I laughed hollowly at the irony, for I am the landowner.
Briefly I considered calling the bailiff and not going to investigate on my own but I’d feel a fool if the body that tainted the air was bovine in nature. Still no one would blame me for my caution.
It was but a year, one year exactly, that the bodies had been discovered tied to stakes creating a small forest of corpses on a near neighbor’s property. There had been ten of them arrayed in a circle, empty sockets staring inward. They said that they were from the cities, people that no one would miss and it was a one time thing, they’d caught the serial killer. What they didn’t say was that it took time to gather that number of individuals, to drive in the posts they’d been affixed to, and that whatever had taken place in the center of that circle had been done long enough to wear areas of the ground there bare.
In trepidation I watched as Lyn rode to meet me, his body and his stallion’s beautiful in their power, their gait smooth over the ground as they moved as one unit. A shiver went through me as my childhood friend grown to manhood, smiled with that dark easy confidence that had been the bane to our youthful adventures.
“Beloved.” He nodded, his smile taking on that rakish look. “You’re going to have to plant more trees.” Lyn tilted his head considering, “There’s that area way to the north, a lonely place. Could use a few trees. Make them fast growing for me.”
Pleading, “Lyn, you can’t keep doing this.”
He reached to take the reins from me and I let him. “Of course I can, you belong to me.”
The smell was worse as we neared. My horse and I both didn’t want to be here. There was a small clearing that had been made at the center of the copse, the birds in a helter-skelter of wings and sound fleeing as we entered. Around us the witnesses stood staring towards the middle.
Numbly I stood feeling him work the buttons from their holes, long trained to this undoing of my will. The flask with its bitter contents pressed to my lips in unspoken command that I drink first. Like always I was led to my assigned position in the heart of the circle for I was his heart. The draught would burn in our veins, more potent than any modern aphrodisiac, and Lyn would thrust his hard stake into my core again and again before each of the ten bodies we bent before.
I was Arthur, he’d told me when we were young, and the king did yearly yield himself to the druids in offering to the old god for the fertility of the land. I was the king of his heart and he, as the last and greatest druid, offered my soul there in the circle spilling my seed into the soil before each of the silent corpses as he performed the ancient annual sacrifice.
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no subject
Date: 2013-08-12 03:55 pm (UTC)When you write dark, you do indeed write DARK.
Dark that the poor stars no longer shine *sniffle*
Good thing I'm sandwiched between two warm, cute, furry, snoring, bodies - though no I don't really wish a nose at my bum or claws at my knee!
no subject
Date: 2013-08-12 03:56 pm (UTC)Good, just chilling.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-12 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-12 04:22 pm (UTC)What someone needs to do is connect the bodies, who haven't always found before their disposal in the past, to the killer. That can be done.
The stars still shine, it's that you can not see them because of the closest to us star. Perseids (spelling) meteor shower was suppose to be at its highest this morning but we were overcast earlier and then there's that we live in an area where there's a lot of light pollution.
Dark is that Arthur is caught up in this.
I've been up for 24 hours now. I need to be awake to read the next part of Everett. *hugs*
no subject
Date: 2013-08-12 07:06 pm (UTC)unicornhorse rushing to the rescue*24 hours! no wonder you're writing dark stuff. *sings lullaby* oh wait, no I like you! *does NOT sing lullaby*