The Sentenced, Chapter 2

Thread 3, Part 2:
Laurel

The Sentenced

(there) - thousands of year ago

Chapter 2

Laurel knelt in the shade of a fir tree. Her wrists were chained tightly in the small of her back. Her breathing was slow and she exhaled through pursed lips doing her best to ignore the buzzing insects, the pain in her shoulders, the growling of her stomach, and her growing need to urinate. She focused on her lover, Evvy, and the day she was sentenced to the Hollow Well.


     <>--+-

It was Summer and the sun was hot. Evvy and Laurel had cast off their tops and let the sun bronze their lythe torsos.

“I have something awesome to show you,” Evvy said as she pulled Laurel by her hand deeper into the forests outside their little town of Blint.

“What is it?” Laurel giggled stumbling along behind.

“A new technology that I have mastered,” she said. They broke into a small meadow and Evvy climbed up on a wooden stump.

Laurel had to admit that she felt a pang of jealousy each time Evvy achieved a new mastery. She tried so hard to catch up to Evvy, but for every step Laurel made, she found that Evvy had already outdistanced her threefold. Evvy was gifted and it worried Laurel. She loved her with the whole of her soul, but Evvy was so much more talented than she. Laurel worried that one day she would begin to bore Evvy. Still, each new technology that Evvy mastered left Laurel filled with awe and a deepening sense of love of Evvy and her incredible talents.

“Watch this!” Evvy said, as she tied long tresses of hair into a loose knot at the back of her head. Neither her enthusiasm nor her love for Laurel ever seemed to wane. Evvy tilted her head down slightly, unsuccessfully muting her mischievous grin. Her eyes narrowed and she gazed across the late-summer-green meadow. She extended her right arm out towards the open field, her palm opened to the sky. Evvy then snapped her wrist back, exposing her open palm and from it burst a white crackling orb of light that shot off across the field until it hit a distant tree, exploding in a clapping sound with bark and needles and light flying off in all directions.

“Oh Evvy!” Laurel exclaimed in disbelief, her mouth dropped wide open.

Evvy turned to Laurel. Her smile blossomed into a grand display. “I figured the fireball out two days ago while you were picking locks with Kel, but, now, I have mastered getting the trajectory right.”

“You are brilliant!” Laurel said staring at her and the distant tree which was now smoking with an open, dark wound.

“Do you want to try?” Evvy asked.

“Fuck, yeah!” Laurel exclaimed, but then paused. “But, Evvy, you are so gifted. There is no way I am ready to learn how to do that yet.” Laurel’s eyes dropped to the ground.

“It’s so fun, though,” Evvy said, grabbing Laurel’s arm and pulling her up onto the stump. Evvy tilted Laurel’s chin up and planted a quick kiss on her lips. “Oh! I know! You can use me as a trigger.”

“A trigger?”

“Here! Point my arm in the direction that you want the fireball to go.” Evvy held her right arm out towards the smoldering tree. Laurel looked down the length of Evvy’s arm and rotated the direction she was pointing toward a different pine.

“OK,” Evvy looked at Laurel with a flirtatious curve to her smile. “Now, pull my trigger.” Evvy grabbed Laurel’s left arm in her free hand and brought it up settling Laurel’s fingers in a cupping fashion around her left breast. “Squeeze…”

“Ooo! I like this!” Laurel gently squeezed Evvy’s breast and immediately a second bright flare shot across the meadow past the tree she was aiming for and into a small hillock with a muffled clapping sound and a spray of black dirt and green grass.

“Your aim sucks,” Evvy joked. “You need more practice.”

Laurel slid her hand from Evvy’s breast, letting her fingers tickle across Evvy’s abdomen until she cupped Evvy’s crotch firmly under her palm. “What happens if I pull this trigger?” Laurel asked.

“You might get burned,” Evvy said eying Laurel over her shoulder.

“I might like being burned.”

     <>--+-

“What are you all doing?” Taipan asked as she walked into the meadow a couple of hours later. By that time there were a number of blackened areas and one tree was nothing more than a scorched monument.

“I’m using my girlfriend like a weapon. Stand back and observe,” Laurel said.

They had set up several piles of pine cones. Laurel aimed Evvy’s arm towards the first, then squeezed Evvy’s breast rapidly a number of times, readjusting the direction of her arm after each shot to hit a different pile.

“Holy shit! You all are destroying all those poor trees!” Taipan screamed after the last collection of cone remnants finished raining to the ground. “Can I try? How do you do it?”

“Just aim my arm in the direction you want to shoot,” Evvy explained, “then squeeze my breast.”

“Squeeze your…”Taipan paused with her brows raised and her eyes wide. “That must cause a lot of trouble while you two are fucking.”

“It’s not really necessary to squeeze her breast for her to shoot the fireballs,” Laurel laughed.

“I can let you squeeze my shoulder, if you are uncomfortable, Taipan,” Evvy suggested.

“Oh! Fuck that! I want an excuse to squeeze your breast!” Taipan gently pushed Laurel out the way and snuggled up behind Evvy. “You two are so funny!”

     <>--+-

The sun was low as the three Wom made their way back into town, Laurel and Evvy had linked their pinkies and their arms were swinging as they walked. They came upon Harriet, who was guiding her horse out towards the stable as they passed. “Fireballs, Evvy? You all are going to burn down the town,” she sneered at them.

“We were very careful, Mother,” Taipan said.

“Hmmpf!” Harriet grunted. Laurel gripped Evvy’s hand a little tighter as Harriet watched them pass. And when they walked away, she saw a small hint of a mischievous smile play across Evvy’s lips.

Further towards the town square they passed Anya, a Generatrix of some notoriety, and her coffle of particularly happy slaves bound neck to neck by a heavy chain. Kel was second to last in this parade of submissives. She looked up at Laurel, shrugged her shoulders, and gave her a wink as she passed by. Not only were her wrists cuffed behind her back, but an additional chain connected her elbows which she, no doubt, took great pride in wearing. Kel was well known for her skill at picking locks. She escaped from her confines at least once or twice per moon, only to be easily caught again. People said that she enjoyed the punishments. She must have had some sort of arrangement with Anya - it was a game they played. Regardless, she had taught Laurel so much about lock picking.

“Look!” Evvy said. “There’s Apple! She going into the mausoleum. Let’s go spy on her!”

Laurel looked up to see a white robed figure descending towards a narrow cave under an arrangement of boulders built ages before, a dim lantern and a basket in her hands. Once Apple was through the doorway, they snuck up to the boulders where an old goat stood, bleating occasionally, ripping mouthfuls of dried weeds from between the boulders. The light from Apple’s lantern flashed across the threshold of the cave entrance below for a few moments, then settled.

“She’s just as crazy as her aunt,” Taipan whispered. “She’ll probably spend more time as a display in this mausoleum than she will walking among the awakened.”

Some Wom, Apple included, believed that leaving offerings of food for lovers and family asleep visiting the Shadowlands helped ease their dream lives. Apple was probably more obsessed than most. Perhaps she was simply lonely. Why else would she seemingly submit to a sleeping relative? “Maybe if she wasn’t so tight laced and pompous, someone in town would be more willing to wrap her in their chains and lead her through the streets like a respectful submissive,” Laurel whispered.

Evvy, Taipan, and Laurel crept down a set of roughly cut stone steps into the cool depths of the cave and slipped through the shadows amongst the tables of sleepers. The tables were arranged in a haphazard fashion, most occupied by an unconscious Wom visiting the Shadowlands. Most often the sleepers were wound in heavy cloth or stitched into tight leather wrappings, although not all. Some simply lay naked, their arms folded and crossed over their chests. Others were stretched spread eagle and chained to the corners of their bed. One Wom even had a heavy metal staple hammered into the stone bed pinning her by her waist.

These various bonds were mostly fortuitous and reflected the desires of either the sleeper or those to whom the care of the sleeper fell. Not all sleepers were fortunate enough to have someone to look after them and were covered in dust and cobwebs. Although, the state of the sleeper had little effect on the quality of sleep. All that awoke, quickly regained a common degree of vitality whether they had been wrapped, chained, or covered in dust. Neither Laurel nor her friends, who were just over one hundred years old had ever drifted to the Shadowlands, and likely would not for many, many years. The process was a bit of a mystery to them. Some of the sleepers had been asleep in the mausoleum much longer than the any of the girls had been alive.

Apple was crouched by her aunt, Shonsay, pulling food from her basket and arranging it alongside previously delivered offerings which appeared to have descended into various stages of rot. Shonsay, who had been asleep for almost forty years, lay peacefully draped in light, white, loose sheets woven from tufts of soft cotton. Laurel could see Apple’s lips moving, but her voice was muted in the darkness of the subterranean cave.

For a minute or so, Laurel crouched in silence attempting to formulate a suitable prank, while watching Apple flick droplets of water across Shonsay’s sleeping form. Suddenly, Apple jumped straight up in the air with her robes pulled open, baring her chest, arms spread wide, and she emitted a strange inhuman sound - something that one might expect to derive from a sickly wolf perhaps. Then she bent over, shoulders hunched for a moment, before jumping again and repeating her strange cry.

Evvy and Laurel looked at each other, their hands plastered over their mouths to keep from laughing out loud. Evvy shook her head and raised her hand with her wrist bent back as though she was going to shoot a fireball at Apple causing Laurel to shake even more attempting to moderate her spasms of laughter. Taipan, too, was swept up by their amusement at Apple’s expense and in a fateful attempt to participate in the joke, reached over and squeezed Evvy’s breast.

What happened next, can only be explained as a result of the extensive afternoon games in which the girls blackened an entire meadow with Evvy’s fireballs. Evvy’s trigger had become so ingrained over the course of the day that it became reflex. For, when Taipan squeezed Evvy’s breast a fireball shot from her hand and flew across the tables of sleeping Wom, exploding with a bright flash and loud clapping sound right on Shonsay’s legs. The force of the blast threw Apple backwards to the ground and knocked Shonsay’s limp body over a pile of rotting cabbages and onto the stone floor of the mausoleum.

In utter shock and horror, Evvy and Laurel turned to look at one another. Evvy’s face had gone pale and her mouth dropped open. Her eyes were wide, shoulders slumped, and her arms hung loosely. It was not until Taipan said, “Oh! Shit!”, that Laurel suddenly jumped into action.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Laurel said grabbing Evvy by the hand. Evvy was still in shock, though, staring at Apple who was slowly pulling herself off the floor, whimpering in pain, holding her eyes as blood streamed down her face. “Come on, Evvy! We need to go! We need go far, far away! Come on.”

While shock continued to paralyze Evvy, it was apparently only now slowly working its icy fingers into Taipan. “Maybe… I mean… I’m sure Shonsay is still asleep… That wouldn’t have awoken her…” Tears were starting to fall from Taipan’s eyes.

“Come on!” Laurel said again, pulling Evvy towards the door. She knew that Taipan had no idea what it would take to awaken a Wom who was asleep in the Shadowlands. This type of thing did not happen. It was forbidden to happen. It was a Fundamental Crime to awaken a Wom from the Shadowlands. It didn’t happen.

Laurel dragged Evvy, stumbling up the stairs leading out of the mausoleum, running headlong into Harriet on her way out of the cave.

“What is going on here?” Harriet asked, her jaw set and throbbing with each heart beat.

Taipan looked up and fell to her knees halfway up the steps when she saw her mother standing there, wrapping her face in her hands.

Laurel lowered her shoulder and physically pushed Harriet to the side, yanking Evvy along with her.

Harriet quickly recovered her balance and grabbed Evvy’s arm. “Taipan, what is going on here?” she shouted.

“Everything will be OK,” Taipan said as she began to cry. “It was…” Taipan looked up at her Mother, fear stretching the corners of her face. The gravity of the situation seemed to settle upon her. “It was an accident. It was… Evvy.”

“Fucking liar!” Laurel screamed and pulled at Evvy’s arm again trying to release her from Harriet’s grasp. Evvy still seemed to be in shock, and flopped around like a rag doll as Harriet and Laurel fought over her.

Harriet stared at Evvy. “You didn’t awaken…”

Evvy shook her head, “No! No!”

All froze when a feral, piercing shriek tore from the cave below. The shriek gained structure. Words of some alien language spewing from below like hail, clipped and shrill.

Harriet began to take a step down to look into the mausoleum. That is when Laurel made her move, bending her arm and dropping her elbow with all her weight against the side of Harriet’s head. She collapsed down the stairs, grunting, with Laurel tumbling on top of her. They rolled into Taipan who was still crouched on her knees. Evvy fell down on top of them all.

Laurel recovered first and stood, regaining her hold on Evvy’s arm. As she started up the stairs, she glimpsed across the room. Shonsay’s eyes were open wide. She grasped at the corner of her bed trying to stand. Her left leg was blackened, bloodied and bent unnaturally. She was awake. Laurel pulled Evvy back up the stairs, but several other Wom had arrived to investigate the ruckus and when Harriet let forth an accusing scream, three quickly knocked Laurel and Evvy into the dirt and held them down.

“No! Let us up!” Laurel screamed.

Evvy was howling as well. “It was an accident!” Tears of fear were pouring from her eyes.

Laurel bit someone’s wrist and rolled out from under Ulla, using knees and elbows to scrap her way to her feet again. She pushed her way, limbs flailing, into the knot of Wom holding Evvy down and started to pull her back to her feet. Unfortunately, Harriet had recovered, her nose bloodied, probably broken. She swung her fist. Laurel’s head snapped around and she stumbled back into the dirt slowly collapsing onto her stomach. After Laurel landed, Harriet started to kick her in the ribs.

More Wom were arriving to see what was going on. Someone finally pulled Harriet back and Laurel struggled to regain her breath. It was Anya who eventually pulled Laurel to her feet.

“Evvy!” Laurel screamed and tried to push Anya away.

Anya grabbed a handful of Laurel’s hair and twisted her around to look into her eyes. “Stop fighting!” she yelled. “You’re just going to make this situation worse!”

Harriet slipped in a fist around Anya, landing a second glancing blow on Laurel’s cheek. Anya, with Laurel’s hair still knotted in her hand, pushed Harriet off with her foot.

Down in the mausoleum, there were shouts as several were trying to subdue Shonsay who was still emitting a nonstop stream of alien words.

“They’ve awoken Shonsay! Evvy awoke her with one of her fireballs!”

“I knew that it would come to this,” Harriet screamed in Laurel’s face. “You stupid girls! It’ll be the Hollow Well for Evvy.”

“Calm down, Harriet! No one’s going to the Hollow Well. Not until we sort out what is going on here!” Anya screamed as she pushed Laurel’s head down until she had to drop to her knees.

Somewhere down in the mausoleum there was a cracking sound and Shonsay’s screams abruptly ended.

“No doubt! It was a fireball!” someone screamed from the stairwell.

Maria, the current overseer of Blint, had arrived. “Take Evvy to the council hall!”

Anya pushed Laurel down into the dirt and when she tried to get up she felt her hair being pulled. Someone was standing on her hair. Laurel rolled over and found herself looking up at Kel. Kel had been unclipped from Anya’s coffle and her neck chain dangled down to her waist. Still, her arms were locked behind her and there was something wedged in her mouth. When Laurel tried to get up, Kel shook her head and grunted, trying to form words, seemingly trying to calm Laurel down.

“Kel! Let me up! I have to stop them! It was an accident! They are going to commit Evvy to the Hollow Well!” Laurel was finally able to push Kel’s foot off her hair and struggled to her feet once again. Kel bent over and pushed her head into Laurel’s chest, screaming unintelligibly into her gag and shaking her head.

A group of Wom had Evvy, whose head was lolling to one side as though she were unconscious. Laurel saw them dragging her towards the council hall. She realized there was no way she would be able to fight them all off.

When Kel realized that Laurel was not about to throw herself into the growing collection of Wom, she stood up straighter, urgently attempting to communicate something.

“What!?” Laurel screamed at her. “What!?”

Kel looked around frustrated. Her nostrils flared as she breathed.

Laurel reached for Kel’s mouth, determined to pull whatever prevented her from speaking from behind her teeth. She slipped two fingers between her lips revealing a solid metal barrier where her teeth should have been. Kel pulled away shaking her head back and forth confirming Laurel’s dawning realization that she would not be able to free Kel’s tongue.

Laurel thought perhaps she could pick the locks on the cuffs holding Kel’s arms behind her, but when she reached for her, Kel used her shoulder to nudge Laurel into the dusty path where she began trying to use her bare heal to write something in the dirt.

“Fuck! I don’t have time for this!” Laurel screamed and turned toward the council hall. She had not taken two steps before Anya came running out the door.

“What are you still doing here, Laurel?” she screamed. “You have to go tell Flint what happened. Tell her they are going to sentence Evvy to the Hollow Well!”