The Fates (Book II)

6.6 - Simple Minds

In the wake of her decision to leave Rider... let's see where Clotho next arrives on earth...

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Scene 6: Simple Minds

2020 B.C.

This was the mortal earth again. The same earth that had brought her soul to life when she’d first landed, filling it with wonder, stirring up a thousand feelings of which she had never even dreamt till then.

It was the same earth, still, on which she now arrived. And yet this time, she didn’t feel a thing.

“What in the name of…” spoke a voice from somewhere close.

Too close for comfort, really, the Fate mused as she blinked her brown eyes to adjust to the radiant sun. There was only one human voice that she would ever wish to hear, so intimately near her ear.

A voice that she would do well to forget. If only she ever could. Even if she could somehow clear the memory from her mind, it had left far too deep a mark upon her heart.

At least it would be easier, she hoped, to keep her fateful duties at the forefront of her consciousness, while he was far away. During her last visit to the Cave, she had set her thread someplace distant enough from Rider’s that they surely would not cross during her current stay on earth. Perhaps not as distant as she should have—on the opposite side of the world probably would have been the safest bet—but this would be enough. She wasn’t sure that her strained heart could bear continuing to beat at such a great distance. Not yet.

 “What is it?” asked a new voice somewhat farther than the first, though fast approaching, as evidenced by the footfalls that followed.

“It’s… it’s a naked girl,” the closer voice replied.

As her vision came into focus, Clotho saw that two young men were by her side where she lay flat upon a field of sun-scorched grass, one sitting on his haunches while the other stood nearby.

“So it is,” the standing man observed, scratching his head and staring down at her. “Where did she come from?”

“Nowhere. As if out of thin air.”

“I knew you had too much to drink last night…”

“I’m serious! I swear!” the other man insisted. “One second this spot of land was bare, and then all of a sudden she was just there.”

His companion rolled his eyes. “Naked women don’t just appear at your feet. Save for in your drunken dreams.”

“Well, I know what I saw,” the squatting man maintained. “And whether or not you believe me, here she is at our feet now, naked and apparently mute. What do you suppose we should do?”

A pause ensued, but it did not last long. Not long at all. “Fuck her, I guess,” the friend reckoned, scratching his head again. “What else?”

“Wait,” the Fate interposed, sitting up straight, settling swiftly into a position that permitted as much modesty as possible, in her present state. “I would advise against that.”

Both men blinked at her unexpected protest, gazes dimming with disappointment as she crossed her legs, arms folded over her chest.

She had felt the need to think quickly, as soon as she had sensed that these two souls were not as noble as a man like Rider. Even upon first encountering her, before he’d since changed for the better, he’d had the decency to treat her human form with dignity. Apparently the same would not be true of every man on earth, she realized now.