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[Raine]

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She was an explosion of colour. The cotton tapestry outstretched on the grass beside her tent was awash with swirls and starbursts by lanternlight – riotous intonations of colour and light that bespoke fields of flowers and prismatic falls of water in the morning sun. And for all her creation, Raine wore it too. Her hands, her arms, her cheeks – smudged with daylight and rain lily, and twilight's veil. A swath of luminous white across her forehead. She watched the colours and followed their paths through the tapestry with painted fingertips – traced each dancing step with an abandon that forgot the world outside her camp.

The dyes would settle into the fibre of the tapestry and become a part of the fabric, one element of the whole. And on the morrow, it would hang brightly across the tent's door and flutter in the roiling summer breeze. Raine smiled dreamily, lifted a bottle to her lips, and swallowed a mouthful of rich red wine with a contented sigh. Her eyes blinked once, slowly, and she curled up on her side in the cool grass, her faded pink patchwork skirt twisted heedlessly up around her knees. The lantern burned low, and she watched the stars until they lulled her to sleep.

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes again. The lantern had long given up its light to the depth of night, and the fire was only embers. How long had she been asleep? Her eyelids were heavy with want of slumber, but there had been a sound. A shuffle – a sliding sound, as if someone dragged a box, or a sheet of canvas across the grass. Raine lay deathly still, eyes wide in the darkness, listening more than seeing.

There. That was the sound. A dragging of sorts...what could it be? Whatever it was, it was close.

In an instant, she found herself bound up effortlessly, and unable to move. She struggled frantically, twisting this way and that within the coiling of her confines, but there was no way out. The serpent that twined himself around her lifted his great head, fangs bared, mouth agape as a gargoyle. His eye illuminated the fear upon her face with unnatural blue light. She was hopelessly tangled, as the serpent squeezed the breath from her lungs. She tried to scream, but her lungs burned for air. Then, the serpent struck, sinking fangs deep into her shoulder.

The effects of the venom were instantaneous. Fire burned through her veins, and her body went limp, useless to resist, much less to fight. She could hear, see, feel the serpent as it savaged her, but she was helpless to stop it. Helpless to cry out.

Her heart was slowing as the venom burned slow and thick through her body. Her eyes closed. Whether in sleep or death, she cared not. For in this darkness awaited comfort and ease. Even death was preferable to this pain.
_________________
The days and nights are killing me.
The light and dark are still in me.
But there's an anchor on the beach,
So let the wind blow hard
And bring a falling star...Ohhh....
~Trampled By Turtles

[Raine]

---

“And you've no idea how this happened?” Haynes examined the deep gouges in Raine's shoulder, probing one gingerly with something metal and pointy.

Raine sucked in air through her teeth, and tensed. “Careful!”

“Sorry Lass, I just need to make sure there's nothing broken off in there. They look like spear wounds...identical, and clean. How long ago did you—”

“Last night, it happened last night.”

“Are you sure? If you don't remember, you could be wrong.”

“I'm not wrong, Sir. It happened last night. I fell asleep, I must have been so tired...I found them when I woke this mornin'.”

The healer probed the other gouge. “The holes are two finger-widths wide, a hand and a half apart. The gods only know how deep they go. I'm sure an injury like that would wake a woman from the deepest sleep.” He pulled the probe away from the wound and looked at her skeptically. “Had you been drinking, Miss?”

Raine's cheeks burned, and she averted her eyes. “Truth of it is, yes..I had. But no more than half a bottle of red wine. Yew's finest. I enjoy it when I paint...”

Haynes furrowed his brow and silenced, setting about cleaning the wound with something that smelled of turpentine and herbs. The holes were centered halfway between her shoulder and her right breast. Raine held up her dress to cover herself the best she could, and still stay out of his way. She avoided eye contact. He clearly knew there was something she wasn't telling him. Best he believe it was the amount of wine she'd consumed, rather than what she actually remembered. No one was going to believe her. She wasn't entirely sure she believed herself.

“Well, would ye look at that...” Another healer named Maisie chimed in from the far corner of the room as she folded fresh bedsheets. “Ha'e ye ever seen such a thing?”

Haynes and Raine looked up and followed Maisie's gaze. At the healers' front door, three ravens had wandered inside. Their mouths were open as they panted, recovering from the heat outside. They looked around the room, sparing only an occasional glance to those in the room, seemingly unfettered by the presence of humans. Instead, they seemed content to simply stand on the wood floor out of the sun, and preen themselves, releasing the heat from their feathers as they fluttered.

“Goin' to be an early winter, mebbe.” Maisie smiled. “They're the herald o' winter, y'know.”

Haynes sighed and looked back to his work on Raine's shoulder. He breathed the words, half to the plump healer, and half to himself. “That's an old wives' tale, Maisie. Besides, that's the constellation ravens. Not the 'hot outside so they came in to cool off' ravens."

After the serpent, with that brilliant blue eye, Raine had forced herself to put the constellations out of her mind. The eye of the Serpent, after all, was a brilliant blue star, the brightest in the night sky. She watched the ravens intently as Haynes continued his work. She flinched as the needle penetrated her flesh and he began to stitch, but could not tear her gaze away from the three ravens standing in the doorway. As if he could feel her gaze upon him, one of the ravens looked up to lock eyes with her. He cawed a terrible cry in her direction, and took flight through the doorway. The other two followed his lead, and together the three flapped their way out of sight.
_________________
The days and nights are killing me.
The light and dark are still in me.
But there's an anchor on the beach,
So let the wind blow hard
And bring a falling star...Ohhh....
~Trampled By Turtles

[Raine]

---

Raine couldn't remember the last time she'd gone to bed. Slept, yes. But it was as if the sky called to her as the setting sun waxed obese and liquid – singing the day's last refrain as it seeped into its earthly grave. And Raine was helpless to resist its call. Not once in recent weeks had her head known the comfort of a pillow. The evening called to her in hues of twilight, and the gypsy girl would follow.

Somewhere between the sand and the sea, she lost herself. Standing at the edge of the world, her feet ankle-deep in tide, the world went black, and the dream began again.

In the forest behind her, the hunter's horn sounded.

The hounds bayed, begging to be released.

A wolf, head lowered, ears splayed back upon his head, stalked her slowly.

And Raine, unable to move for her feet rooted in the sands, could only lift her hand, her palm facing the wolf at her heels.

The starlight painted her skin pewter, and her raiment was luminous against an abyssal sky.

Her heart beat wildly in her chest, as the two moved in sync, step for step, across the sky. The hunter, always in pursuit. But all three agonizingly slow.

Nothing could save her now, if the wolf were to gain ground. And so she kept her arm extended behind, a futile attempt to halt his advance.

And when she could not take another step, she collapsed. Tomorrow, perhaps she would seek the Queen. Tomorrow, perhaps there would be time.

Raine awoke with a start, her body cast carelessly upon the sand as the waves lapped at her, the world spun sideways and askew as her eyes flitted open and crinkled against the sun.

And so it had been, and so it would be. Raine removed the peridot mask and crawled from the surf to start the day anew.
_________________
The days and nights are killing me.
The light and dark are still in me.
But there's an anchor on the beach,
So let the wind blow hard
And bring a falling star...Ohhh....
~Trampled By Turtles