Soul Inheritance
A moat of deep darkness started at the tree line, concealing all that lay beyond as a three quarters moon reflected off the water. She stayed in the open, wandering almost absently. Rounding the curve of the cove she saw lights reflected in the water. They danced on the rippling surface like Chinese lanterns set afloat, each a slightly different color, reflecting the stained glass windows whose likeness they represented. The grand old Victorian house lit the way up a simple gravel path, a long wrap around porch snaking its way around the perimeter. Three stories towered above as she found her footing, making her way up to the yawning front steps, lit on both sides by lanterns glowing from inside the mouths of stone lions. It gave the impression of flaring eyes and flaming tongues...
Fear seized her as something large moved in the room, it’s shape growing into a reflection in the glass.
A figure nearly two feet taller and three times as wide as her slender frame emerged slowly from the shadows. The hairless thing had slick gray skin that glistened with a layer of water; a sculptured, almost handsome face turned its gaze to look at her. Baleful black eyes sparkled in the darkness as it moved forward into full view. It was nearly nude and without a doubt male. A pair of large pointed ears protruded from high on the sides of his head, water dripping from the tips. Not exactly animal, but definitely not human. The body was muscular, with long lean limbs, the arms ending in strong hands with curved talons at the tips of the fingers. A pair of thick, leathery wings protruded from his back. With a flurry he shook them, spraying water about like a sparrow just emerged from a bird bath. As she stood staring it moved forward, reaching for her shoulder, talons extended.
Fear seized her as something large moved in the room, it’s shape growing into a reflection in the glass.
A figure nearly two feet taller and three times as wide as her slender frame emerged slowly from the shadows. The hairless thing had slick gray skin that glistened with a layer of water; a sculptured, almost handsome face turned its gaze to look at her. Baleful black eyes sparkled in the darkness as it moved forward into full view. It was nearly nude and without a doubt male. A pair of large pointed ears protruded from high on the sides of his head, water dripping from the tips. Not exactly animal, but definitely not human. The body was muscular, with long lean limbs, the arms ending in strong hands with curved talons at the tips of the fingers. A pair of thick, leathery wings protruded from his back. With a flurry he shook them, spraying water about like a sparrow just emerged from a bird bath. As she stood staring it moved forward, reaching for her shoulder, talons extended.
Beginnings
I woke to darkness. At first there was no feeling, only a dim numbness that resonated from the core of my essence to the far reaches into oblivion. For a long while I was only aware that in some vague way I existed. When it finally came there was the sensation of a rough hard surface embracing that existence, containing it, restraining it. It was tight and restrictive, unyielding and unforgiving in it’s grip. Somewhere deep inside an urgency arose when I realized it was getting tighter, shrinking where there was no more space to shrink. Energy tingled through something I could not describe as body, as nerves, more like lightning moving through mist, touching every molecule, but encountering nothing solid.
The Energy surged and fought, was absorbed by the shell I knew to be my coffin, rough and solid like wood, but shrinking. I knew it was shrinking, could feel it contracting like a living breathing thing. Then there was no more room and still it shrank and the energy buzzed and tingled like a tinkling bell and with that tinkling sound it finally began to crack. I felt it before I saw it, like a fissure in glass. No ice - for now I was cold, frigid and shivering in the way that one who was numb with cold feels when the rush of warm blood reaches nerves.
Then there was light, a pinpoint that spread into a long, thin scratch across the darkness. Then another crack spread out from the pinprick in another direction and yet another and another until they all began to spread apart and light blinded me as the shell fell away.
The Energy surged and fought, was absorbed by the shell I knew to be my coffin, rough and solid like wood, but shrinking. I knew it was shrinking, could feel it contracting like a living breathing thing. Then there was no more room and still it shrank and the energy buzzed and tingled like a tinkling bell and with that tinkling sound it finally began to crack. I felt it before I saw it, like a fissure in glass. No ice - for now I was cold, frigid and shivering in the way that one who was numb with cold feels when the rush of warm blood reaches nerves.
Then there was light, a pinpoint that spread into a long, thin scratch across the darkness. Then another crack spread out from the pinprick in another direction and yet another and another until they all began to spread apart and light blinded me as the shell fell away.
