Tales and Dreams

The gray mist had turned blue before them when Penny Rose opened her eyes and unclasped her hands from Lucif's fur. She glanced nervously over the edge. "What lies there, Lucif?"
Lucif looked at her for a moment, its quiet a weighing of time against the answer. "It's not always the same, child. Some say there is a harbor below us, others that there is only nothing. Some say that there is a land on the other side."
"And what do you think?"
"In my days, the people said there is a bridge that stretches from here to there. But you must be on the other side to see it."
"So how did they know?"
"They said that was where they came from."
"But no one kept a map?"
Lucif looked at her curiously. "I know of only one. But it was... lost. Long ago."
Penny Rose glanced again into the stillness ahead of them. "And what lives in the land on the Other Side now?"
Lucif sighed. "Our tales live there. And our dreams."
Penny Rose didn't know what Lucif meant, but she reached out a hand to caress Lucif's head, now bent in memory. "We'll get them back, Lucif," she said, not realizing she had said it until it was spoken. Lucif looked down into her eyes, and then snuffed, nudging her with its muzzle.
"I do believe you could, child."
Lucif stood, and walked slowly toward the edge, staring into the lightened haze. For one terrifying moment, Penny Rose thought it would not stop before the edge, but Lucif stilled and looked far and long. "What do you see?"
Lucif turned toward her, its eyes deep pools. "I am not sure. But I have never seen so far before."
Penny Rose gazed into the distance, but she could make nothing out, and shook her head. "I can't see anything."
Lucif took a deep breath. "Lucif?"
"Yes?"
"Where are we going now?"
Lucif walked back to her, and lay down in front of her. "Sit with me here awhile, child."
Penny Rose sat down, happily, the sunshine and the long night making her endlessly sleepy. She curled into Lucif's warm, soft form, and it leaned into her. "You must read me a story."
Penny Rose was mid-yawn. "Read you a story?"
"Yes, Reader, a long tale."
"But I am tired. And I have no book."
"Exactly," replied Lucif, as if it were clearly the best time to tell tales, especially with no literature at hand.
Penny Rose frowned into her lap. A story, a history. A history. Perhaps read back from memory? "Well... Centuries ago the ancients lived in the land; they made many monuments and..."
Lucif stopped her. "No, not that history, child. The History."
Penny Rose's hand, as it did in times of worry, had unwittingly wandered to her pocket, where the Box lay. She started as her fingers touched it and found the surface more than warm - even hot, and quivering. Under her finger tips she felt the small ridges of letters running through it. How long had it been doing that?
She drew it out and watched it shine bright, even in the sunlight. Lucif's breath purred a moment of satisfaction at the sight. "Yes, The History," it said, its mirrored eyes transfixed by the moving letters. They reflected and multiplied there, and Penny Rose began to read a different tale there than in the letters of the box. A tale of long days and long battles. Of blood, and memory and more that Penny Rose could not read, as Lucif's eyes turned back to her and then closed resolutely. "That is not The History either, child," it said quietly, but with what sounded like regret. "And not a tale you should have to bear so early."
Penny Rose's gaze moved back to the box, whose script had slowed and become smaller in the absence of her attention, but under her curious comprehension the letters fattened, became clearer, shined brighter, moved faster. She watched as they seemed to start hovering over the surface of the box, and as she read them it lit more from inside, hovering over her hand. "Read to me," prompted Lucif gently, and Penny Rose drew a breath to begin.

The Edge

Penny Rose awoke to Lucif's voice almost purring in her ear. "We're here, child," it murmured, it's tufted ear tickling her forehead as it turned its head back to speak to her. The sound of foreboding it the words were clear, even as it was gentle.
Penny Rose raised her head from the warm, soft back, and her eyes filled with unbidden tears, feeling the warning tension and knowing the journey must go on, despite the deep sleep that had rested on her for a moment. She stretched and carefully slid from Lucif's high back, it kneeling to let her descend. The soft grasses cushioned her feet, but even so the ache in her joints spoke of her exhaustion, and Lucif's nose snuffled her ear comfortingly, stroking its forehead against her a little. Penny Rose looked up at it and smiled wanly, reaching for its shoulder again. "Where is here?" she asked, almost to distract herself from what was surely the next challenge.
"The Edge of Dawn. Look." And Lucif stepped to the side to let her see over the edge that was just before them.
Over the precipice Penny Rose could see - nothing. The drop seemed infinite, ending in a gray mist, before them a gray mist - lightening ever brighter in the Dawn. Lucif was tense, but it sat gracefully nonetheless, glancing at Penny Rose. "It has been gray for a long time. The dawn has not broken for years."She looked back and reached again for its shoulder as she stepped nearer the edge and peered over it. Suddenly, a paw planted itself in front of her, keeping her from wandering too close and when Penny Rose looked up, startled, she saw the worry between Lucif's brows. "Not too close, child," it said, using its paw to then draw her close. Its tail was twitching, but Penny Rose stood and leaned against it, and heard the deep, unbidden purr from its chest.
Suddenly, a bright gold lit the entire deep gray mist before them, and an orb broke free of the waves of gray below them, shining. Penny Rose heard Lucif draw in its breath, startled. The orb grew and grew, rose before them, and flew into the sky. As it moved past them, it expanded and Penny Rose saw the surface of it as it shot past. It was lit from within, like a lantern, the brightest lantern, shining through the translucence of reflective gold. But it was the shapes running over it that made her draw her breath. The characters ran and jumped about on it, burning and emerging, disappearing. Foreign and then familiar, Penny Rose sensed rather than read their meaning. It spoke of hope and the tales of history that were the heart of the light.
Lucif watched it, transfixed. The reflection in its mirrored eyes lingering longer than it seemed the orb was in front of them.
Lucif's purr had stopped in awe of the light that had risen in front of them. Now it turned its enormous head, and gazed at Penny Rose, as if transfixed. Penny Rose looked back, unflinching. "That was beautiful," she breathed, her eyes sparkling. Lucif nodded, but said nothing. It simply laid its head on its paws before her in a deep bow, the second time on this longest of days.
She looked at it, a frown of confusion between her brows. "You are the Reader," it said solemnly, "but you have done more than ever I expected. You have brought back... hope. For you can read the histories and know their meaning. It is clear, now." Then the eyes rose to her level once again, and the nose snuffled her ear in a gentle, sympathetic nuzzle. "But you are young, my dear - so young. So young and so brave."
Penny Rose blushed. She wasn't sure what it meant, but she realized the weight of Lucif's words and she hoped - and feared - it was right. The mirrored eyes reflected back Penny Rose's wide ones. The creature circled behind her, its large paws nestling on either side of her as it sat down behind her. "It's all right to fear, child. But you must know what you are - brave and good."
Tears came to Penny Rose's eyes and she turned into Lucif's furred chest, the blazon of white catching her tears as she wrapped her arms around the beast and let herself cry. A comforting purr flowed beneath her cheek, and a large head bowed to shield her.
The girl and the creature stood upon the edge, the morning light shining on their embrace.

Dawn

The rest of the dark night, Lucif and Penny Rose made their way calmly through the Marshlights - the deep indigo lights sparkling beautifully in the distance, but never again nearing them. The golden light glowed yet in Penny Rose's skin, and Lucif glanced at her every now and then, while Penny Rose floated through the dark and damp pathways, following the mazing trail quiet and fearless, the warmth deep in her blood.
Lucif and Penny Rose finally reached the end of the swamplands, the tall, rush grasses thinning against the darkness, and the sky lightening as they stepped onto solid ground. Penny Rose's tired head was drooping even as the gray of the morning sky swept above them. Ahead of them, a sea of grasses seemed to stretch out to the horizon, and Lucif circled behind Penny Rose to pad silently behind her, its shoulder nudging her gently forward. "Come, child, you are tired I know but we must continue - just to the edge."
"The edge?"
"Yes, the edge of the dawn. It is just there."
Penny Rose's eyes widened, as she looked harder at the end of the grass field, and realized that rather than moving into the horizon, the grasses simply ended. And from the edge, the gray was lightening ever brighter.
They trod on, and as Penny Rose's steps became slower, Lucif paused to kneel and allow Penny Rose to climb onto its back. Penny Rose grasped the thick, marled fur, and laid her cheek against the warm softness, laid over the power of Lucif's strong, graceful spine. Even as they walked into the unknown, Penny Rose closed her eyes and let the creature take her toward the end.
"Lucif?"
"Yes, child."
"Will you stay with me?"
Lucif paused, and the silence stretched ever louder, only broken by the slight whuff of Lucif's paws as they trod over the soft grass, now a silver in the dawning light.
"I will stay with you, child."
"How long?"
"As long as you need."
Penny Rose's breath ruffled against Lucif's fur, as she buried her hands further into the thickness, even her elbows tightening against it. Lucif's mirrored eyes showed nothing, but it said not a word, just continued on, neither slowing nor wavering, toward the horizon.

Lights in the Darkness

Penny Rose would have preferred to keep her eyes shut throughout the journey. But Lucif's words of warning rang loud in her ears, and she kept them carefully trained on the  marshy peat beneath her feet - only glancing up from time to time to make sure that Lucif was not mesmerized by the dancing flicker of the blue lights. Lucif's tail was madly twitching under her hand, even though she could tell it was trying very hard to keep it still. The coiled tension of that large, feline-like spine told the story of even Lucif's nerves, and Penny Rose knew that on this journey, they were walking a very fine line of danger indeed.
Her hand slipped into her pocket of its own accord, in the heart of the damp and cold fabric, the box still glowed warm, and Penny Rose wrapped her hand around it, holding tight to to the square edges, reassuringly radiating against her leg and under her fingers. Her basket, which had shrunk to yet a smaller size, was slipped in her other pocket, folded into a triangle that would fit it he palm of her hand. She hoped very much that it would re-find its original shape, and thought very hard about the fire that would burn in it when they reached the other side. She felt the tail go stiff under her hand, and her stomach leapt.
Lucif was staring, wrapt, at a particularly bright and gleaming blue light, one that was flightily buzzing in front of its nose. Lucif's mirrored eyes, for once, seemed to be betraying it. Penny Rose watched the dreamy reflection of the dancing light in Lucif's strange gaze, the light coming ever closer, becoming ever brighter. Penny Rose's hand tightened on Lucif's tail, her heart beating into her throat. "Lucif!" she said, the cry coming out closer to a whisper. "Lucif!" she said, her voice stronger now. "You must look away."
Lucif didn't even glance back at her. It simply took one step to into the deeper water of the marsh, its nose pointed up and straining toward the bright bright blue. Penny Rose took a gasp of air, and although the pull of the blue light seemed to be pressing on her senses, drawing her attention, drawing her thought, she jerked on Lucif's tail. There was no response. The graceful spine was taught like a wire, the gait usually so fluid was stiff. Penny Rose pulled her hand out of her pocket and gripped the tail with both, pulling on it, as now Lucif was slowly and inexorably stepping into the sucking water of the marshes. Penny Rose could hear the sound of the wetness around the large, taloned paws. She pulled as hard as she could on the silken fur of Lucif's tail, but nothing could interrupt its hypnotized stare, its puppet like steps.
Penny Rose searched about for something to interrupt that unblinking gaze. She cast about, but all around her the marsh was dark, just the eery, hovering lights drifting in the silence. They were all alone, all alone except for the fairy-like lanterns, the dangerous beings, fluttering in the ringing blackness.
"Lucif!" she screamed, realizing that the lights weren't just hovering, motionless, they were drawing nearer. A group of them, as if made curious by the energy of Lucif's captured stare. Nothing. Lucif was deaf and blinded by the most beautiful of light. Penny Rose felt tears of frustration and terror rising in her throat. In her pocket she could feel the box burning brighter, the basket, too, seemed to be growing slightly, becoming more substantial in her pocket. What to do? What to do? Her fingers were biting into the tail, now, but it was simply beginning to pull her, making her slide across the squelch of mud and grass beneath her feet, and she could feel the ice of water against her toes as she was being drawn away into the deeper marshes. She had to let go, or she, too, would be lost. But she could not continue without Lucif. No, she could not.
The box in her pocket was so hot as to be almost painful against her leg. She tightened her grip on Lucif's tail with one hand, and without thinking, drew the box out with the other. It was not only warm, it was bright. Very bright. She remembered her dream, the words arranging and rearranging themselves before her eyes, and the golden light of the box got stronger, as if the power of her memory was stoking its fire. She stared at it, frantic, and then, a tear escaping from beneath her lashes, she squeezed her eyes shut and thought with every ounce of her strength about the dream, about the light. In her hand, she felt the box click open, and from behind her lashes, she saw the light exploding in the night.

Reading

The light exploded, and Penny Rose dared to peek through her lashes, her eyes blinded for a moment by the brightness. Then the light subsided slightly, materializing into the concrete forms of letters, written in light, across the dark of the sky. They flew and burnt, twirling and cascading across Lucif's back, its marled fur gilded under each flying cipher. They whirled around the straining nose, the mirrored eyes, the bright, otherworldly blue of the marsh lights paling and fading by comparison. Penny Rose watched in wonder as they wrapped themselves in running gold around Lucif's muzzle, freeing the great eyes from their slavish gaze, the marsh lights receding imperceptibly until they had nigh disappeared, small, unseen glows at the base of the grasses.
And then Penny Rose realized she could make out words. Hope and love and freedom, she saw them running through the other letters, the letters of a million alphabets, she saw the words that she could read, and as she read, she could read more, and more. Freedom comes with the price of love, she read, and there is hope where minds still live on, and then, deeper, she read, the layers of letters revealing more and more words, more stories, stories she could sense, stories that made her mind sing, and the greatest songs of history. She stood, transfixed, her mind traveling through the letters, which now were casting themselves in waves in front of her eyes, and Lucif, awakened from its stupor, who had leapt back onto the safety of the marsh grass tufts, was watching as Penny Rose read.
The golden light lit her face as beautifully as nothing could have, and she suddenly looked much older. Or was it an older self that Lucif saw? A future Penny Rose, another Penny Rose, the one to come? Her hair waved and blew from around her face, cast back by the power of the words, and it, too, glowed from within as if it had caught afire from the magic around it. And then Lucif saw - the gold in the center of Penny Rose's eyes, the gold that was not reflection, but source. And it was, at that moment, that Lucif snatched the whirling box from where it hovered, wide and glowing, and immediately, the letters disappeared, the box shuttered itself, a rectangle with no opening once more, glowing but lightly, almost as if in reflection of something else. Slowly, Penny Rose came back to herself. Lucif watched as the gold faded slowly from her eyes, her hair coming to rest upon her shoulders once more, her hands drifting down to her sides.
Lucif bowed to her, and offered her the box. "Welcome to Madrin, Reader," it said, and bowed its huge head at her feet.

Christmas mustard

The new color for the season? Doing it up mad men style. Mix and match wonderful gifts with your own inexpensive brands for a holiday look... :)

Sweater: (gift) banana republic, dress: old!! Necklace: (gift) pier 1, tights: Ann Klein, shoes: target

Marshlights

Penny Rose was unsure but as she clung, close and blind, to the soft, thick fur of Lucif's back, she heard the phantom growls of a thousand hunting beings, and in order to simply stop straining to know what the dark held, she shut her eyes against the sting of the blackness. The basket hung from her hand, seeming smaller as if it had compacted to accommodate the mood of silence.
Lucif seemed as if it didn't breathe at all, and Penny Rose did her best to keep her frightened lungs from gasping. The ground at least had flattened before them, and they made their way across peety soil, littered with pin needles. From time to time Penny Rose felt the rough bark of a branch against her cheek, but she was otherwise untouched, Lucif's path unvaryingly reliable.
Lucif paused, and Penny Rose's eyes opened. The large head nuzzled her shoulder, and it spoke directly into her ear. "Ahead lie the marshes."
She could barely make out some bluish lights hovering ahead of them, bluish lights that winked and wavered. She gulped. The unfriendly creatures? Where were they? Lucif's muzzle was reassuringly firm against her arm. "We must follow the path of the marsh lights. They will guide as across in safety. But we must go one by one - if you were to ride me we would surely sink." Lucif paused, and its voice became ever so slightly softer, "whatever you do, do not stare at them, though. For each one alone will mesmerize you and you will be lost. You must walk always to the next one. You must walk always forward." Penny Rose shivered, but the basket nudged, courageous, against her leg and the box warmed in her pocket bravely. "Do not fear, young one," remarked Lucif, "for you are strong."
Penny Rose took a breath, and put her hand once more on Lucif's shoulder. Lucif shook its head. "Not my shoulder, dear one, this time you must take my tail."
The thought of it made Penny Rose shy - that long, leopard-like tail, that twitched at any slight response - in her hand? Surely not. Lucif turned and its tail slightly wrapped itself around her timid fingers. Penny Rose held it lightly, but when Lucif moved, she would surely drop it if she did not hold harder, and so with one hand gripping her basket, the other Lucif's tail, they began the journey across the marshes.