Thread 3: Burden of the Damned, Chapter 1

Thread 3, Part3
Laurel

Burden of the Damned

(there) - thousands of years ago

Chapter 1

On a distant, remote mountainside…

The sun was shining again, but it only appeared from behind the clouds long enough to tease Laurel with its warmth before sliding below the horizon. Laurel crouched shivering, soaking wet. A storm had formed and burst from overhead, at first with large freezing drops of water. The storm began to ravage the mountainside, and for a while, it continued to grow and the rain became mixed with small chunks of hail. Laurel scrambled as close to trunk of a small tree as her chain allowed, but it provided little shelter from the stinging pellets of ice.

Eventually the torrent of water eased to a steady slow rain. Laurel opened her mouth and let the drops fill her mouth, quenching her growing thirst. She thought perhaps she should avoid drinking so as to more quickly slip into Clairambulance. They said that once one achieves the state of Clairambulance the craving for physical necessities drastically numbs. But, Laurel cursed her lack of willpower and eventually drank as much rainwater as she could.

As the darkness drew in, the breeze began to chill Laurel, her clothes soaked through and through. Her spasms of shivers set her chains jingling occasionally. “That was unpleasant,” she thought to herself, though she knew that it was only a shadow of the weather extremes that she would see in the future, desperately bound, as she was, to the side of that remote mountain.

She closed her eyes and let her mind drift back to when she tried to save Evvy from the demons of the Hollow Well.

The Sentenced, Chapter 3

Thread 3, Part 2:
Laurel

The Sentenced

(there) - thousands of year ago

Chapter 3

The cumulous clouds had thickened and grown darker as the afternoon wore on. The wind had picked up and its roar rose and fell occasionally loosening a shower of evergreen needles to cascade around Laurel. She was rolling her shoulders back and forth to work the knots out of her muscles wondering whether this pain would be with her forever or if her muscles would conform to their restricted position. She contemplated her growing thirst, the grumble in her stomach. She thought about her need to urinate and the twisted knot that prevented her from pulling her leggings down. Slowly she slumped over to her right side, resting on the bed of soft fir needles, slowly drifting back to her thoughts of Evvy and her commitment to the Hollow Well.

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.

The Sentenced, Chapter 1

Thread 3, Part 2:
Laurel

The Sentenced

(there) - thousands of years ago


The morning sun was shining on Laurel when she opened her eyes. She pulled her face from the ground and spit chunks of earth from her mouth. The muscles of her shoulders were burning. She attempted to reach with her hand to wipe the dirt and small pebbles from her forehead, but her wrist quickly met with resistance and her arms remained as they were, behind her back. When she pushed her wrists down, she felt a relentless pull at her neck, a squeezing at her throat, which ignited a series of dry coughs causing her to bend forward until her head pressed into the ground. Her elbows were forced to bend a bit and she felt a line of hard, smooth weights press painfully into her back.

She let out a cry and struggled up onto her bare feet. Her leather boots had been taken. There was a cold rattling sound, heavy links of chain snaked through the dirt behind her, which after ten meters or less disappeared into a boulder half again taller than she and twice as wide.

Last Run

Thread 3, Part 1:

Laurel

Last Run

(there) - Thousands of years ago

Running through the darkness, with three or four of Axspaire's subjects in pursuit, Laurel cursed when she realized that she had turned up a canyon. She had hoped to stick to a ridge line. She wanted to get to higher ground as quickly as possible. She had to get to the forests. But now, she heard the trickling sound of water off to her left as she made her way, her mouth open and gasping for air, her legs burning. She noticed that the terrain to her right had steepened and in the fine light of the moon she caught glimpses of steeps walls of stone not far away.

She could not turn around now though. She knew that Axspaire's subjects were not far behind.