(Flashback) Poetry Can Be Telling

[Blythe]

Finally, Lucius moved, he slowly got up and poked the fire with a stick. His eyes seemed lost in it, and so very far away to Blythe. "They sent me away," Lucius said.

"Pardon?" Blythe replied.

"They sent me away," Lucius said again, a little more loudly this time.

Happy to have finally broken the long and drawn out silence, Blythe asked, "who did?"

There was another long pause as Lucius poked the fire and an ember jumped out at him. "My master," he said, his eyes never leaving their intent gaze upon the fire.

Blythe sat quietly by the fireside, allowing his words to sink in. His master? *A flash across Blythe's brain, which appeared in her mind's eye- Lucius' elongated teeth, his anger, the fury in his eyes. How he seemed so savage.* She shook the memory away. This man must be a Kelvic, she thought to herself, how interesting. I couldn't imagine serving another being.

"Who's your master?" Blythe asked, but Lucius never replied, he simply poked the fire some more with a stick, and then decided that it needed more wood. So he went over to his pile and threw more kindling on the fire, before bending down and blowing on it. Flames shot up into the air instantly. Satisfied, Lucius sat back down.

[Blythe]

Blythe and Lucius sat in silence some more. Blythe vaguely remembering the rest of her poem having something to do with fire, but she didn't remember the words exactly. What about the fire, specifically, did her poem have to do with? Was it the heat, how it was built? Something else entirely, she just wasn't sure.

"Why'd they send you away?" Blythe asked, after realizing that chances were, no matter how hard she concentrated, the words just weren't going to come to her right now.

Lucius looked up at her suddenly, and said simply, "I disappointed them." Blythe nodded, she felt rude prying, but for whatever reason, she felt it necessary to do so, and asked "how so?"

Lucius' eyes stared into her own, as if saying, "what's it to you?" Sensing this, Blythe felt the need to add, "you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I understand... it's private."

Lucius gave a stiff-sounding single laugh and a wide smile crept across his face. "I just wasn't good enough for them, is all," he said, as he turned his hands into two angry fists. Blythe pretended not to notice.

"You do something wrong?" she lightly prodded him, hoping it would get him to open up a little more, and allow her to eventually head back home as soon as he had finished talking.

"No, not exactly," Lucius replied.

"What is it then?" she asked. Lucius sighed. Well, that can't be too good, Blythe thought to herself, he must be growing impatient with me...

[Blythe]

"My master was a hunter, who had a little boy named Raymond. He decided it was time for his son to come with him on a hunting trip. As always, I went as well."

"What were you hunting?" Blythe asked. "Anything we could find," Lucius replied, "there isn't much around this time of year." Blythe nodded.

Lucius continued, "anyway, we had just killed a deer, and my master was going to collect it when a boar sprang out of the woods, and attacked him before turning on his son. I managed to protect my master, but his son was too young and inexperienced; I couldn't save him."

"Master crumbled onto the floor by his body and wept for a long time. We buried him in the woods before we went back to his wife with the deer and the boar." There was a pause. "Master's wife was upset too," Lucius said, tears welling in his eyes.

"They were mad at me because I couldn't save Raymond," Lucius said as he stood, his arms held out towards the sky.

"But it wasn't your fault!" Blythe cried, getting up hurriedly, her journal in her arms. She stood near Lucius, she felt so small next to him.

Lucius simply looked at her and grunted. "It's not your fault," Blythe whispered again.

[Blythe]

It seemed to her that Lucius didn't understand her reaction. After all, they weren't exactly what you'd call friends, were they? They'd just met, in not the most pleasant of circumstances, or at least, not the most friendly anyway. But as a Konti, Blythe felt things that other people in mizahar didn't. She felt things very very deeply in ways which she could not even begin to fully comprehend or explain.

Blythe put her hand on Lucius' shoulder-blade, her head resting softly against his shoulder, well, not really resting, brushing against it, accidentally at times. He tensed up at her touch, and then seemed to relax a little, but he was still tense, he didn't seem to want her standing beside him, touching him, but she wasn't about to move. She felt like as stiff as he was, as much as he silently seemed to protest, it was exactly what he needed right now; a silent reminder that someone was there, listening to him. With him, he wasn't entirely alone.

They stood like that for awhile, watching the fire, before he turned his head slightly to her. Their lips just inches apart, a deep-seated sorrow in his eyes. "Isn't it?" was all he said, before turning back to the fire. Blythe simply rested, fully rested, her cheek against his shoulder-blade as she held him. It wasn't his fault she thought to herself. It's not your fault, Lucius, that he died, she thought.

As much as she knew this, and could see this as plain as day, she had the notion that no amount of repeating it to him would make his pain go away. She wasn't sure she could even begin to convince him of the way she saw things, thinking perhaps, it was best, to simply hear him out, his thoughts and feelings, and simply be around to listen, to each and every one.

[Blythe]

They were silent for a long while. Neither of them really moving. Blythe's legs soon grew stiff, and tense. She wanted to move. Wanted something to slice through the silence that surrounded them. But nothing truly did. Just the occasional cricket, and a lonely little firefly that buzzed around both their ears before lighting off, and flying away into the distance.

Finally, she broke the silence, "you ok?" Lucius remained quiet for a while, before he replied simply, "no."

Blythe turned his body so that they were facing each other head-on. Her lavender eyes met his. "Tell me what I can do to help you," she said, before he looked down at the ground again. He didn't seem to be able to look at her. Her eyes desperately searched his face, trying to get him to connect, but she found that no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to.

"I'm beyond help," Lucius said.

"No, no you're not. Don't think like that," Blythe said as she tilted up the man's chin so that he would be looking at her. His eyes always moved away, but she said it anyway, "it'll be ok."

[Blythe]

Yet no matter what she said to him, nothing seemed to seep through into his thick skull. As she let go of him, letting her arms fall slack against her sides, he stepped in the flames.

"and a fiery heart
will join the element
it reflects"

She recited, knowing that it was the remainder of the poem she had been working on earlier.

Blythe stared, wide-eyed, before trying to push him out of the flames, and falling back with the heat. Luckily, she didn't catch on fire. Unluckily, she couldn't get Lucius to budge.

He didn't scream as he burned, his skin turning black, melting, peeling off his very flesh. He didn't say anything. He didn't move, Lucius didn't even seem to blink, and as far as she could tell, Blythe was helpless. She couldn't save him now. She just had to watch him burn into nothingness.

As much as she wanted to, she couldn't look away, and when the deed was done, the fire went out. Instantly, without a trace. The smoke in the sky, swirling into the shape of a labrador puppy before becoming a shapeless blob and floating into the sky.

Lucius was no more, and neither was the smoke, or the flame.

Yet another one of her poems had come true, no real mysteries existed to her. Except, the extent of his despair. Why jump on a fire, she wondered, why not just find someone new?

[Alice]

Blythe

Experience: 1 Running, 4 Observation, 1 Animal Husbandry, 2 Interrogation, 3 Listening, 1 Fortune Telling
Lores: Experiencing a Blank Mind, Finding a Puppy, Befriending a Puppy, Answering a Stranger’s Questions, Obeying a Stranger, Soothing a Stranger, Watching Someone Commit Suicide, A Prophetic Poem Coming True, Questioning Someone’s Reasons

Comments

What a beautiful and tragic story! I really liked the end, because first it seemed like she could comfort him, so it surprised me when he suddenly stepped into the fire. I decided not to give you writing points though, because the writing happened before the thread took place. As always, contact me if you feel I’ve missed something. And I’d love to read more from you!