Enga mellom fjella

Cecilie

"Short Shots Image Prompt (August 2021)" 

Cecilie smiled when she saw the blue light on the horizon. It would match her pink hair.

End of August, already autumn. Soon it would start getting cold. In 3 months the lights would go out and she'd be able to move about freely at any hour.

Moonlight made her hair shimmer and the stars were her very best friends.

She directed her horse towards the light.

At a safe distance she continued alone on foot. The fur on her feet deadened all sound of her passage.

It was a strange object, glowing from within. She had heard of them. A cave fashioned out of fabric. She preferred a crevice in solid stone. She just put a hide over her when she slept. In the Season of No Night, she had a favorite hidey-hole that the light and people never entered.

People. They were strange, they were.

Whooping and hollering! She could barely hear the Aurora when they came within sight. It's song was a lullaby to those who shut up long enough to look up and see the crescendo of color the melody in the movement of ions. Word was that people were deaf to its siren call.

They called her to her ancestral home. How long ago had she been cast out and shunned?

She crept closer.

She heard noises and stopped. Listened closely. Ah, they were asleep. They snored. She kept her guffaw to herself. No need to wake them up and scare them. People. So easily scared.

They told stories about her to frighten their little ones and make their elders shudder.

If only they knew.

She looked up at the stars. They knew.

They were there the day she had stood up for her right to have an opinion. She had seen a fire burn without flame, heard a mountain move and crumble, smelled thick oil coming out of the sea.

They told her she was crazy. But then the people came.

Her herd had fled back to their home. And left her stranded.

She marveled at the blue. Such an unearthly shade only found in the deep pools of melt when that nasty fireball returned.

Its glow soothed her nerves.

She sat down to be drawn into its dream.

But snores interrupted her delving. She grasped a shock of grass. Chewed it then blew her breath towards the sleepers. Once calmed she could read their thoughts.

Odd. They had no fear of being here in the middle of nowhere. They had no fear of her! They'd heard of the legends but... they weren't concerned. In one well-worn dream they had met her, even invited her in to sit with them as they served... a steaming liquid?

Cecilie was intrigued. They ought to be frightened. She had spent many seasons leaving her foot prints where they would find them and despair. They would follow her tracks away from her haunts. They never figured out her deception. They never imagined she had a horse, would never believe that she could ride one, never looked her way as she made fun of them.

They weren't much fun. But these people? There were three of them wrapped up, cocooned in fake fur. She pulled a twig out of her own.

Yes, she was not well-groomed, but there was no one to rake their fingers along her spine, untangle her hair, tickle her beard. Even the pink hairdo could be better if she had the proper mirror. Those fish kept making ripples as she tried to match the color at the tips of her ears. They laughed when she threatened to eat them. They just flipped her a fin and darted away.

That was earlier today. She paused to think how time had abandoned her too. She had nothing to look forward to but a meeting with Death, and she had told him to back off or be prepared for a thrashing. Once Death had threatened her horse. He wouldn't make that mistake twice! Had it been a century? Maybe two?

The stars began to hum a song she barely remembered. It spoke of The Beginning, a place even older than Death, a place he was forbidden to enter. Cecilie began to sway to the lullaby. She fell asleep.

She woke up to the bitter smell of dark liquid being boiled. She looked into the eyes of one of the people. They were kind. Soft naked hands offered her a steaming cup of the brew. You have such beautiful pink hair. My name is Lily.

The stars were about to wink out. Her horse had joined her and waited patiently by her side.

Voices continued to speak in her mind. Be not afraid. We know you want to go home. We will take you there.

Surrounded by blue light, she knew she was ready.

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