CHAPTER FOUR
895 Words
Asher
Finding a muse had been really tough. As an artist it took a lot to grab my attention. I got bored easily. Over the few months I'd tried everything – city markets, abandoned industrial sites, even the coastline at 3 am. Nothing had really worked. Nothing had managed to stir whatever it was inside me that needed to be stirred before I could create.
So I turned to the woods. I knew the paths well – which ones circled back which opened into clearings and which stretches of trees were worth capturing in the afternoon. I was sure I knew these woods.
That's why it made no sense when I stumbled upon a community I'd never seen before. It was beyond a narrow path – a settlement hidden behind a thick tree line that muffled any sound from the outside world. The architecture was unlike anything stone buildings with carved wooden details, clean streets and lanterns that burned with a strange light. The whole place had a quality to it – a weight in the air a stillness that felt inhabited.
I stood at the edge of the path trying to figure out how I'd never found this place before. I explored these woods. I would have noticed.
Then a man in leather appeared out of nowhere and yelled, "Human!" at the top of his lungs. It wasn't a greeting. It was a signal. Two more men in uniforms showed up moving too fast too synchronized. They pinned my arms. Dragged me down the street. My feet barely touched the ground.
Doors swung open as we passed. People poured out onto the street drawn by the shout and formed a procession. I caught a glimpse of their faces. Regretted it. Some had claws of fingernails. Others had teeth that were too long and sharp. A low sound rippled through the crowd – not quite a growl, not quite a murmur. It vibrated in my chest.
I thought I’d been in situations but I couldn’t think of one.
"We shouldn't disturb the Queen " one of the men said.
"Lets just end it here " the other. The crowd agreed.
I looked at the faces around me – the claws, the fangs, the expressions –. Assessed my situation. This was probably how my story ended. It was a shame because I’d thought today was going to be the day I found my muse.
It got boring fast. They. Called me human or growled.
Then the crowd went silent. Someone was coming through the crowd. I looked up. A woman with hair and pale skin moved through the crowd with certainty. Her eyes were deep green. They did something strange – a slow bloom of gold spreading through the green. She was the beautiful person I’d ever seen.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I was vaguely aware of being held by two men who’d been discussing ending my life and a crowd of people with teeth were forming a circle around me. None of it felt relevant anymore.
She stopped a feet away and looked at me. Not through me not past me – at me with intensity. Her expression gave nothing away. There was something in it that wasn’t quite hostility. Something like surprise.
I met her gaze with the level of attention.
"Someone put him in a cell " a voice said from behind her. An older man, sounding authoritative. She didn’t acknowledge him and didn’t look away from me.
Then I was moving again – the grip on my arms tightening my feet finding the ground – and whatever that moment had been it was over.
The cell was ancient. Stone walls, a door with iron fittings a narrow bed with a terrible mattress. A single torch flickered in the corridor outside casting light through the gap at the bottom of the door. The whole place smelled of earth old wood and something sharper.
I sat on the edge of the bed. Took stock. I was alive which was more than the crowd outside had planned. The cell was locked, which was less ideal. The guards outside muttered to each other occasionally tossing comments in my direction through the door.
I leaned back against the stone wall stared at the ceiling and thought about the haired woman. They’d called her Queen. The way the crowd had stilled when she arrived the way the men holding me had almost forgotten their task – that wasn't respect. It was something instinctive. She carried authority like it was a property.
She had looked at me like I was something worth looking at.
I had no clue what this place was who these people were or what was going to happen to me when morning arrived.. For whatever it was worth – I had finally found something that genuinely interested me.
I closed my eyes. Tried to get comfortable, on the terrible mattress. The guards outside were still muttering. One of them said something that included the word "human" in a tone that made it sound like an insult. I'd heard worse.
I thought about silver hair and green eyes turning gold and that particular feeling of being seen by someone. I drifted off to sleep.
I hadn’t expected to see the sunrise.. I’d seen something spectacular before whatever came next. That felt like enough.
- Writer
