>"I wonder if the humans still sacrifice their young in appeasement to me
>when the winter comes early?"
<hmmm, indeed jaxy. and what about the animal world as well?>
*~ I am stretched on your grave
And I'll lie here forever
If your hands were in mine
I'd be sure they would not sever
My apple tree, my brightness
It's time we were together
For I smell of the earth
And I am worn by the weather
Oh, the priests and friars
They approach me in dread
Oh for I love you still
For all your life I am dead
I still will be your shelter
Through rain and through storm
And with you in your cold grave
I cannot sleep warm ~*
by Kate Rusby
Kylie felt it the moment she awoke from her restless slumber and her nose
nuzzled the chilled air outside the downy blanket where she'd spent the
night curled up next to (a. Jackson, b. Ben, c. her painful memories).*
Instantly alert, Kylie sat up and flung the bedding away from her despite
the sweeping cold air that came to claim rights against her skin. It was as
if someone had left the window wide open. But she didn't have to glance to
the small window to know better than that.
In a few quick motions, Kylie pulled on her doeskin trousers and her short
ankle boots. Without bothering to lace her tunic, she grabbed her sheep's
wool coat and bounded for the stairs in a rush of panic. It couldn't be, but
it was. The elders had woven the tale of the early killing frost for the
young ones, and Kylie remembered it well. Twenty harvests gone, the year her
twin sisters were born, had been the only year she'd witnessed it's wrath
and known it hadn't been a fable to her family.
Kylie tore through the common room and nearly toppled poor Khelti with her
tray of pies in the kitchen. Blinded by long strands of hair whipping across
her face in the wind, Kylie stumbled down the back porch and across the
small garden to stables. She'd stood here just last night under a different
climate, gasping large amounts of autumn island air to ease away the harsh
conversation she'd had with Ben. Now, slipping on a small patch of ice, the
girl gripped the edges of the barn to catch herself as the animals within
readily expressed their confusion at nature's sudden change.
With a hesitancy to confirm her instincts, the True Essence wolf in human
form moved past stall after stall. And there, in the largest stall, Kylie
found what her heart already knew: the mare nuzzling her beautiful young
colt with a wild look of fear in the milky whites of her eyes. The foal had
been born late in the season a moon's cycle ago, but it wasn't uncommon by
any means. Horses often had an extended mating season in the wild, and the
foal's mother had been brought down from the mountains just a few months
before. Kylie had nurtured this mare's pregnancy with diligence, but she had
not foreseen, no one had foreseen, an early killing frost.
Tears spilled from Kylie's haunted eyes and she sank sobbing into the hay
next to the dead colt, mourning the mare's loss and her own.
~~~~
*Sorry, couldn't resist. Just wanted to see if anyone was
reading...^;^...for those keeping score, the answer is c.*
http://www.bittersweet.f2s.com/kylie
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
--
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe dragontales" in the body of the message.
