Scintilla – Caught between a witch and a river…
scintilla [sin-til-uh] (noun) 1. A spark; a flash; a trace amount. 2. A small piece of writing intended to inspire wonder, curiosity, or amusement.
Without my permission, my legs stumbled to a halt, refusing to keep placing one foot after the other. I looked up, knowing roughly what I would see, but it still felt like a punch in the gut to see Absall standing at the lead witch’s elbow, looking down at her with blatant adoration.
As soon as I had felt the influence, and realized that somehow a witch had gotten hold of my hair, I knew it had to be him. I had a lock of his hair too, tucked carefully away in my heart-pouch. Not that it did me any good. My power lay in different areas, and if I wanted to use his hair, I would have to find a witch stronger than his current master to do the dirty work.
“So much for love,” I said, feeling bitter even though I knew it probably wasn’t his fault. He was probably under their influence from the very beginning. Why else court the ugly sister?
The witch in front of him laughed, a strangely lighthearted sound. At a wave of her hand, two men in the plain garb of initiates stepped forward, approaching me cautiously from both sides.
Witch in front of me, witch initiates to either side, the river behind me, and legs that refused to move. Fortunately, she hadn’t thought to immobilize my upper body.
I swung my arms up over my head and arched my back, unbalancing myself just enough to tip over. I felt the backs of my legs hit the edge of the high river bank, and then I was falling, curling my arms over my head and wondering how in all the hells I was going to survive falling into the river in full flood.
Scintilla – On the Run
scintilla [sin-til-uh] (noun) 1. A spark; a flash; a trace amount. 2. A small piece of writing intended to inspire wonder, curiosity, or amusement.
I ran along the bank of the river, as close as I dared to the steep drop into the raging water. Running water disrupted magic, but trying to swim across that torrent seemed tantamount to suicide. Instead, I ran, and hoped proximity would interfere enough to let me get to a bridge or a safer ford.
Then my sense of the world spun, and I ran into the ground, plowing face-first into the mud. I shook my head and stumbled to my feet again, determined to keep going, to get away. With my hair, they could influence me – tug me off course, skew my perceptions. Mess me up enough to let them catch me, and take my blood.
With blood, they could control me.
Instead of helping to keep my family’s defenses strong, I would become a wide open gate to let our enemies in. I couldn’t let that happen.
*Snicker*
So… this is distinctly not appropriate for work, church or children, but it’s so funny that I’ve been carrying a printout of it in my purse since 2006. Strange how it only occurred to me today to look for it online again…
And the author’s website: Sailor Jim’s Blies 2.0
Go, read!
Teh awesome: “Goodnight Skreekagog”
Scintilla – Fire!
scintilla [sin-til-uh] (noun) 1. A spark; a flash; a trace amount. 2. A small piece of writing intended to inspire wonder, curiosity, or amusement.
The fire flickered ephemerally along the floor when I walked into the hallway, setting my heart racing. Even as I tried to clear my sleep-clogged voice enough to shout, though, it faded away on its own.
Had I been dreaming? I felt awake, though it was the middle of the night. I walked over and placed my foot experimentally where I had seen the flames. Warm, but not hot enough to burn. The carpet wasn’t even singed.
What was going on here?
© 2010 Catherine Wechsler, used with permission.
