[Dream] The Sand Man (Solo)

by **Aello** on July 20th, 2012, 12:20 am

Timestamp: Summer 11, 512 AV

The first layer peeled back, a soft spray floating into the air. Citrus drops falling in a soft mist onto skin, as the scent itself lingered on the still winds. Pith torn away, the muddied flesh unearthed. Nails tore into rotten flesh, flicking away that which caught beneath their layers. Revealing the greying seed which lay beside the heart; having been carried from the womb. The seed seemed to rouse, wrinkles cascading down the length of hardened almond uncovering a core the color of coal. The coals smoldered, a glimmer of the fire held within simmering as they were prodded with sticks. Tendrils from the fount of blood, from which they drank. Turning the pool dry; a sickly white. A reflective surface which shone like glass, off which only a few streamers of light filtered through. It was enough to catch the central eye. Enough to make them linger a moment on the supple curve of what it saw. To trail down the length as one might the form of an alluring woman, following the lines of sunlight without a source.

Fingertips brushed up against a smooth surface. Cool; level, without blemish. The hand furling; drew across the glassy bed. Circling the transparent fixtures lazily, as though they were too tired to do anything more pleasurable to the flesh of a lover. The eyes grazed, noticing how everything that came in through the wall expanded, as everything behind shrank. Every limb seemed as though it were too slight to tackle the might of an insistent gnat. But what if she turned? Aello twisted her swan's neck. Blue and green rivers weaving through her paling flesh, coursing just beneath her skin. It made that cast against the bone pop as she took care to breath within the confines of the glass chamber. Her arms held out at each side, she peered over, against yet another curved wall. Her long, brown hair rippling beneath her; a cushion for such a stiff mattress. But it was the same. The emptiness outside seemed to grow as her body shriveled, dripping unpleasantly over ivory bone. Sinking into the center of the chalice without a stem.

A chalice atop which lay another, which the aurist had yet to notice. The slender spiral which connected each heavy with grain jostling angrily against one another. They could no longer hold. The first beads began to fall, cascading down in a fanned line to the girl that waited underneath. After but a few heartbeats, the first of the grains collided, dancing frantically across paling skin. Prickling her bare flesh enough that splotches of red appeared, and it rippled angrily over bone. Muscles continuing to bunch and flex as the funnel widened, releasing more of its burden. Sending the sand trickling up along the length of her neck. The grains sparkled in the fading light as the girl pressed her arms into glass. Some of the fallen grains settling into her skin as she pulled herself back but an inch before stopping. Having grown so tired she could no longer, keep going on.

Frightened and dismayed, Aello could only look up. Silently wondering how it was she came to find herself trapped in an hourglass. Whether or not she had shrunken to its size, or this one, in and of itself, was overgrown. But what did it matter? She was trapped, too weak to move as a mound of sand welled over her feet. Further pinning her in place. Petch, she thought, knowing it would eventually overcome her, unless something changed. "Oh Tanroa, what could this mean?"

by **Aello** on July 20th, 2012, 3:41 am

"What could such a prison signify?" she asked, as she watched the sand trickle down. "For surely, it is not something of simplicity? Something as mundane as this: an hourglass marks the passing of time, when turned onto its side. Each grain representing a moment. Thus, if the grains envelop this orb, along with the being in it, it must signify that time is taking over. Or perhaps, put more plainly, simply running out. But what is nearly up? What is there no longer time left to do?" Aello asked herself. "When Kiochi came to visit only recently. Surely there is more time to carry out the wicked will of his master. To report to the Druvin known as Silvas. Could it be something else then? The time that spans between us? The Kelvics and their mistress? The bird and her keeper? Could it be that time is running out when it comes to something as simplistic as developing the relationship between the lady of death and myself? For surely, if all the grains fall, they will entomb me. Bringing on a swift suffocation, rigor mortis as everything fails. Is this hourglass symbolic of my life running out of time?" Aello asked. "Slipping though my very fingers?" she wondered as she lifted a handful of sand, and then allowed to it fall back to the ground in a soft hissing wave.

Her muddied eyes kept the sand within sight for quite some time, the breaking mound, until it settled back in with the others. Lost to her. "Or are you simply growing impatient with me Tanroa?" Aello asked. "Unwilling to wait until everything is perfected. A time in which you may be served? Is that why time is running out? You have grown tired, and disappointed, wary in that you already know the end? Seeing as you have already made your choice." Aello spat. "You find this life pitiful, and long to have Dira embrace it, don't you?" she went on, her eyes growing clouded with tears; distinctly pained. She shook her head. Her neck barely moving. No, no. "You are a patient mistress, as is the lady of death. You would wait. You have always waited. So why should this be any different? Why would my case be any different?" Aello sighed. It cannot be. This whole conundrum must be occurring because of something else.

"But what could that be?" Aello inquired. "Just what is being forgotten?"

Fireflies seemed to buzz about her head. Their lamps glowing in the soft light that filtered through. The ends glowing against the glass as the girl lost herself in thought. The metaphoric world of her magic, which oft, turned itself on. "Unless..." The girl's voice was lost to the hiss of falling sand. Her eyes cast to the sky, where the emptiness gave way to the grain. "You're trying to show me something else. Patiently going about some important lesson from afar... Could this be some sort of test? A quiz consistently met with failure?" Aello fell silent for a long time as she racked her brain. "But why? What lesson could this be, pertaining to time running out? If it is even that? After all, there is no way out of this place; this mess. Could time be trapping me then, somehow?" she asked. "Is the mounting obsession in studying it so as to garner favor destroying this feeble body? This singular mortal life? Could this be a warning? Some sort of suggestion to let time pass, allowing the fire to burn out, and make way for ashes? To cool, before life, born anew, rises from whatever is left?"

Aello shook her head. Nothing made sense. The mounds rising over the far ends of the jar. Why didn't it make sense. Why couldn't it make sense? Was it a warning? A lesson? Or just a stupid dream? And how could she know one way or another?

Until it was too late.

by **Aello** on July 20th, 2012, 7:48 pm

"You are a patient mistress lady Tanroa," Aello whispered. "It would not be beyond you to teach, and then wait until your pupil is ready to be accepted in your open arms. But still, how could this life be anything but slowed? Dulled after the storm? Even the form itself is no longer running from all those that chase. But turning back to face them all head on. Defiantly..."

Suicidally.

"Because there is a debt to be repaid. Perhaps you are simply reminding me that time is running thin between now and then. The moment the lake wells up before us, and we cross its threshold. Stepping foot in the city, and then Rhysol's servant himself." The aurist shrugged. "But why go through all this trouble to deliver such a simplistic message? Surely there is something more to this than the likes of that?"

The girl sighed. "There has to be more to this than that. Something more within the grains," she insisted as they filtered through her fingers. "What if one of these grains is supposed to represent a single being. And all of these beads together, comprise every bead within the entire world? Every one that has ever come to pass, and is currently being brought into it. Every person that has existed for the past several years, even centuries. The blackened ones the those who have come and gone. The beige those who have been. The whiter, the lighter, those who are just being born." The girl paused. "And this, elaborate hourglass, is meant to signify how each grain tramples and supports others. How feeble each of their lives is. How each one's time ebbs and flows; but rarely lasts throughout the ages. For each, time is running out." There was a long silence. "Just as time runs out for me?"

The sand ran over head, causing Aello to shut her eyes as she was overcome. But which one is me? she wondered, as the last of her air was stripped away by the sand, and everything went black. Everything became silent, and still. Save for the footsteps, lost to her ears, echoing in the chambers outside. The footsteps that grew closer, as did the sweep of fabric that swished about them. A moment of silence before a soft click, as nail was brought to the edge of the glass, and then a hammer was brought against it. Lightning bolts shot across the glass, before it shattered. Falling at the man's feet as a tidal wave of sand crashed against the room about him. He ignored this, his eyes were only for the girl that followed. The narrow wrist which the sand framed; a dead eye.

The man walked over the sand, like a god on water. A soft smile shadowed by by his cloak as he bent and retrieved her. Tearing her away from the shards. The remnants of time's piece.

by **Paragon** on July 30th, 2012, 2:32 am

Adventurer's Loot

Aello's Loot :

Lovely writing again! - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.