Reflections Of Angels

A Feeling

Alysha sighed, staring up at the ceiling of the small wicker hut in Calder's village as she lay under a thick fur-skin blanket atop the straw mattress bed. "I feel... something is off."

Calder lay beside her on the bed, also under the blanket; pressing a soft kiss to her shoulder whilst tracing soft fingers down her bare arm and along her naked back. "Is it your sister?"

Alysha nodded, blinking back sad eyes; she'd forgotten what it was like to feel a connection to someone like that, and now it felt like what remained of her heart was breaking in two.

Then a frown came across her face and she sighed; suddenly sitting up, clutching at the blanket as it threatened to fall away from her undressed form. "But it's more than that. Something else is going on. Something I'm not seeing yet. Odd things have been happening; the Draugr, they're still here. Why is that? For what purpose? All at once, things are occurring. Everything is off kilter. I feel a strange... kind of energy." She frowned, scratching irritably at her neck and collarbone as if wanting to peel back the skin and release it. Calder placed a flat hand on her back, rubbing it soothingly as Alysha shook out the joints in her arms, trying to banish the feeling. 

Electricity ran through her body, hot and cold sparking across her skin; her muscles tensing and un-tensing like iron springs, a thread pulling low down in her stomach just above her pelvis. As she moved her head, her hair crackled with static against her bare shoulders.
Suddenly she straightened bolt-upright, eyes wide; as if hearing a sound in the far distance. Leaping from the bed, she scrambled to  pull on her clothes. "Calder! Get my axe!"

The axe he handed her moments later was a savage weapon of war. The thing was nearly as tall as her and yet she hefted it with ease; a huge double headed blade, the handle formed of warped bone; one side formed of a crystalline material, the other forged of dark metal; engraved with markings and strange runes. Everything about it screamed 'wrong'. It glowed as she gripped it- no, glowed was the wrong word. It seemed to absorb light.

It hadn't been made for her. But it was hers.

Striding out of the hut, she peered around the clearing with a hunter's eyes; scanning the fog that boadered the camp, for any sign of... anything. Any sight, any sound. With a silent tread, she walked across the grass to the boader-line, peering into the swirling wall of mist as she followed the pull in her core. There was something out there; she knew it.

Curiously, she inserted the weapon into the wall of fog; the mist parting around it, even the fabric of this realm repelling it.

There! Just out of the corner of her eye- a flash of movement. A shadow- disappearing into the fog just as soon as she looked. Then again. And again. Just out of sight, in the corner of her eye- running rings around her as she turned, moving as quick as a blink. She turned around and around and around again; trying to catch it in her sight.
Until finally it vanished; disappearing into the fog. She waited for a moment, heart pounding, to see if it would reappear. When it didn't, she straightened up, forcing herself to relax. Turning back to the camp she called out. "Calder! Where have you got to?"
A small smile appeared on her face at his muffled reply, as she wandered back towards the settlement.

***

Eyes watched her out of the mist. Formless, waiting, just for now. Not for long.

Hungry.

Definitely want to hear your thoughts on this one! Alysha and Calder, Alysha's (or maybe not?) weapon, the shadow, the lot! XD