The Scorpion's Tail
Jul 9, 2018 15:30:38 GMT -5
Post by ELIRA on Jul 9, 2018 15:30:38 GMT -5
The edges of The Last Desert - Uttermost East of Rhûn
1667 Third Age
“Elira, stay near the sedges. I shall return before soon,” Afërdita instructed, her voice cool and firm as it cut through the light hum of insects that was beginning to rise in the steppes just beyond the fringes of the desert.
“Yes, Mëmë, the white haired youth answered. The instruction given to her a thousand times in the thirty short years of her life, and she found no reason to disobey in this, for Elira had everything she needed, and soon the crown of stars would shine overhead to keep her company through the long night. Everything she needed, though perhaps, not everything she could wish for.
Once the great inland sea of Helcar had extended to this land, though now it was only a wasteland of sand. Her mother had told her that there were yet remants of the sea remaining. They had once walked the fringes of the sea of Rhûn. Elira had been very young; though she remembered the water had tasted stagnant, and thick of salt. The last remnant of Helcar lay to the southlands, where her mother dared not venture for fears of which she would not speak to her young daughter. It was called now the sea of Nurn; though that was all Elira knew of the world. The inland seas; and the sea that once was. Though their sweet bay of Cuiviénen had drained away, leaving only the sands behind.
Elira lay on her stomach upon the sands now, the burning heat of day had drifted beyond the horizon with the setting of the sun, though the sand still held a glimmer of warmth as the cool evening came upon her, the sandstrewn wind sifting against the nape of her neck. Elira trembled at the sensation as she crossed her arms before her, and rested her head upon them.
Her blue grey eyes caught fast upon a movement beneath the nearby sedge. A scuttling motion as dusk settled upon the land. Lured by the coolness, and the search for insects, the hard shelled scorpion began to stalk forward; the stinger on the end of it's curled tail gleaming in the waning light.
“There you are, Akrep,” Elira crooned, a pale skinned hand reaching slowly toward the creature as she admired it's pale armor. “Do you seek for food?” she asked aloud, as it continued to stalk forward. Her hand rested palm up on the sand as she listened the the smooth husk of it's skeleton scrape toward her.
Pinchers raised in defense, as Elira pressed the back of her hand into the sand, making it level with the scorpion's walk way. His pale body crept forward, bracing itself, until one bony leg landed upon her soft fingertip, then another, feeling it's way along until it rested, tail still curled, in the palm of her hand. Elira's lips curved upward in amusement.
“Shume i pashem,” she voiced warmly. So handsome. Elira rolled slowly in the sand so as not to frighten her new friend. Graceful and smooth she turned until she had risen to sitting. The sand creased in her blouse rippled down over her skin, and her white braid fell across her shoulder as she beheld Akrep.
Afërdita had always warned her of the Akrep which prowled the shadows during the day, and the desert sands over the nighttime. The creatures which they trapped and extracted venom, to use upon Afërdita's arrows. Elira had seen her Mëmë' stung, sucking the venom from her own wound. A single sting was not enough to bring down one of their kind, her Mëmë told her, though indeed Afërdita had been taken unwell for several days, taken by a paralysis of limb almost instantaneously. The threat of venom was nothing to Elira, for the idea of the company the creature could give her was more welcoming than solitude. When she finally gazed beyond the shrublands to take sight, Afërdita was no more than a distant form on the horizon of desert land.
She watched her go, the white hair of her Mëmë streaming behind her as she tread up the sand dune on the horizon. Her mother searched always for sign of Cuiviénen, for memory of distant places which Elira had never seen. The stars were peeking bright overhead, a hum on the night air that came not from the insects, yet... something else. Something dreadful, as if in warning, and Elira looked to them as an apprehension filled her. She knew better than to call across desert sands and let her voice carry, yet she had a sudden urge to follow. To warn her mother that something was amiss.
Elira sucked her breath through her teeth and looked behind her at the rolling shrubland where she had been told to remain, and then ahead at the darkened hills of sand. Her fingers moved at her side, as she thought of disobedience. This time she would follow her Mëmë. She steeled her reserves and began after her. One step; two. She moved her hand, forgetting the curled tail of the creature she had been handling so delicately before.
“Ai!” Elira cried out at the sudden sting against the palm of her hand, and she looked down to see the pale scorpion scuttling away from where it had fallen upon the sand. A faint pink mark grew on Elira's skin, darkening as moment passed, and her hand trembled.
“What did you do, Akrep?” Elira voiced, low and wavering as a nausea came over her, though the scorpion was no longer present to hear her, and upon looking, neither was the sight of Afërdita's white hair swaying. She was gone from sight.
Pain was beginning to shoot up Elira's arm, and her fingers had turned from tingling to a numbness. She looked in wonder at them, but hand no control as she felt the venom moving up her her wrist, passing her elbow, to her shoulder. She felt already weak at the knees, though she knew the venom had not weakened those as yet. It was merely her fear; of what she knew would soon happen. She wondered how far she could run if she started after her Mëmë and called, but she feared it would not be far enough, and if she came paralyzed on the desert sands when the sun rose, the carrion birds would have their way with her even while she was yet breathing.
“Shelter...” she mumbled to herself, fumbling over the sedgeland until she found a shrub large enough to tuck herself beneath. Her mother would come, and look for her here, and find her. If it took three days for the feeling to return to her limbs as it did for Mëmë, surely she would be safe here, and her mother would seek where she had left her. Elira's ears felt numb, and she whimpered to no-one as she curled against herself beneath the bush, feeling the strangeness of... not feeling... as the venom shortly swept over all of her.
She could not hold her body erect, and let herself fall to the earth where she remained, watching; her eyes alert, though she could barely move. She wiggled her fingers in the sand in front of her as long as she could to assure herself that one sting would not incapacitate her.
Another hard shelled creature ran across the sand near her, and Elira's eyes widened, then she glared upon it. “Do not touch me, Akrep” she whispered, reaching and bidding her fingers to clench a rock. She would crush it if it came near. She would smash it. Yet as the scorpion approached with curled tail she could do nothing. The hum behind her, the sound of scuttling feet scraping over sand told Elira that she had settled herself in the same seclusion that the Akrep had found suitable for it's young. Tiny creatures with eyes that suddenly seemed harsh, and curled tails.
The second sting came shortly, followed by others, though Elira could not count them as her breathing slowed and her vision blurred. Her ears were ringing louder than the sound of the stars, and though the small creatures had all departed for other shrubs in fear, and Elira lay alone in pain as she awaited the return of her Mëmë.