There is a place where the village ends and muck begins, the mud slowly turning soft underneath feet and plants changing to something more foreign. This is the place where she goes, sometimes, waiting.
She isn’t sure what she’s waiting for. All she remembers is that she lost it and that it’s her fault.
Her son has entered this swamp too, she’s heard. He entered and disappeared, just like the thing she lost. She doesn’t mourn for him, because she doesn’t remember who he is.
They say the devil lives in the swamp.
Sometimes she hears them say that her son was eaten by the devil.
She wonders if the devil has her daughter.
Her eyebrows furrow. Daughter? Since when did she have a daughter? She thought she had a son.
Brown hair flashes in her mind, brown hair and a mouth that barely knows how to speak. Grubby hands and chubby legs covered in bruises and mud.
There is rustling and suddenly she realizes her legs are deep in mud. Fear fills her body to the brim and she runs.
There is a woman that comes to the swamp one day.
Aran stares at her as long as she can, but when she comes back home she can’t remember the lady’s face at all.
She’s eating at the table by herself (Bent and Prince don’t eat anything other than humans) and Prince is next to her, watching her eat with a rather bored expression. Bent is sewing something in a different room of the castle.
“Pwinwssth!” Aran calls out, and Prince winces as food sprays everywhere. At his rather pointed glare the little girl hurriedly chews at her food, swallowing it down before grabbing a quick drink of water.
“There was a woman in the swamp today!”
Somehow this seems to unnerve Prince, though Aran isn’t really sure why. (As a little girl one tends not to be sure of a lot of things, so it’s habit to just ignore it.)
“What did she look like?” Prince asks, and Aran pauses before frowning.
“I…I don’t know!” Aran mumbles, furrowing her eyebrows. Prince’s shoulders seems to relax, and he glances out the window with a tiny smile revealing the tips of pointed teeth.
“Remember to be careful around strangers, Aran.” Bent is at the door now, something like a dress between his hanging needles as he stares at Prince with bright eyes. “They say the devil lives in the swamp.”
“That’s no big deal!” Aran huffs, waving her hand dismissively. “I have Prince to protect me, y’know!”
Prince laughs outright at that, pointy teeth flashing.
 Siyaahi · Sun Sep 15, 2013 @ 09:49pm · 0 Comments |
