Gawd its been awhile since I added to this fic...damn Writers Block...
Anyway I managed to scrape up another chap...
Chapter 11
Dementa woke up with a start, sitting up sharply and with a short scream.
She looked around and saw that she was safe in the room she was in before and breathed a sigh of relief. She jumped with someone touched her shoulder.
"Jumpy this morning eh?" she heard Ishtar's voice say, "You ok? I heard your scream..."
"I am fine..." Dementa panted, trying to calm herself down, "Just have a little nightmare that's all."
"I see..." Ishtar lowered her head, "I'm afraid I have some bad news..."
"I know...your superiors refused."
"Huh?" Ishtar snapped her head back up, "How did you..."
"One of them visited me in my dream...Thunder Moon if I remember correctly."
Dementa lowered her head, a single tear rolling down her face. "I am surprised she didn't fry me or something...considering how angry I acted toward her."
"Thunder Moon is a very understanding and patient goddess...." Ishtar explained, "It is rare for her to get angry."
"I guess so...but what am I going to do? I am stuck with this curse for eternity it looks like...."
"You just have to make the most of your life..."
"That's what I have been trying to do...all of my life." Dementa closed her eyes and sobbed quietly, "But everything I do...ends up sour somehow. Everything..."
"Things will change for you, you'll see. You mustn't let this bring you down."
"How? When all I can see is downward....?"
"You see downward because you only want to see down..." Ishtar said, seriously, "You think that there is no hope for you...but there is. It is hard to see but there is. You just have to look for it."
Dementa sighed and laid back down, her back to Ishtar.
"Please...I...just want to be alone right now..." she whimpered.
"Alright..." Ishtar said with a sigh, "If you need anything...just holler."
It took three weeks for Dementa to fully recover physically. Mentally, however, will take much longer, for what she had been through in that lab will haunt her for many weeks to come. It didn’t help her any that it was spring; the time of the year where many new relationships start and old ones are strengthened.
Dementa often watched these couples from the window, but could never stand watching them for long: it was too painful for her. It wasn’t that she didn’t desire a mate…no, it was the opposite. To be held in the arms of someone she loved without fear of her hurting him. But the curse prevented any such contact, much to Dementa’s sorrow. Such a relationship was out of her reach as long as the curse remained and the curse hadn’t shown any sign of abating in the 300 years it was on her.
One day, she just couldn’t take it anymore. Gathering up the few belongings she had, she slipped out of Ishtar’s hut in the dark of the night…
Dementa walked solemnly along in the night. She didn’t know how long she had wandered, nor how far, but she didn’t care. About her was the silence of the forest, save for the chirps of crickets and occasional paramite screech. The only other things were the sound of her own breathing and footfalls. She had left the company of friends for the sake of the last shreds of her sanity, yet her heart ached with loneliness. She yearned for company, yet feared unintentionally harming others with her harm touch.
Am I fated to forever walk this land alone…? she thought sorrowfully, desiring the company of others yet not due to this curse? Why was I fated to suffer like this when I hadn’t done anything to deserve this type of punishment?
Lost in her own thoughts of despair, Dementa only vaguely registered that she had entered a large clearing. Looking up the night sky she saw the moon was full.
Stopping her aimless wandering she stared at the moon for a moment, tears running down her cheeks. Then she opened up in song, the song of mourning for her people, from her culture. But to Dementa it was also a song of lost hope. She sang for a long time, her voice echoing amongst the trees surrounding the clearing, until she could sing no more and sank to her knees and sobbed.
“What has gotten you so down miss?†a voice said behind her.
Caught completely off guard, Dementa literally jumped to her feet with a yelp. Whirling around she immediately and instinctively dropped into a defensive posture: head and shoulders down, her whole body tense, ready to react at a second’s notice. But once she spotted the speaker in the darkness of the night, she felt breathless and bewildered….
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