Familiar

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narhwal90
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Familiar

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We broke down the witch's door and pushed inside, choking from the stench of the place. With the rags torn from the windows, a scene of hell on earth was revealed all around in each room. Some creatures long dead, mummified in place- others still writhing in bondage, whatever the crop of suffering and pain was, unharvested. We set free those we could and quickly ended the torture of those we could not. All the remains, the the jars of the grotesque, fragments of obscene art; all went into the fire outside which burned hot in strange colors, the flames dancing and jetting in all directions contrary to the wind, all of us noting the strange tinkling and susurration coming from nowhere.

I noticed a small terrified ball of fur in the corner, picked it up- a kitten- unharmed- entirely black except for one white whisker mewed at me. So I dropped her into my cloak pocket and carried her home.

She did not hunt, though the mice vanished from the house and barn. My neighbor's dogs never barked at her, just carefully went elsewhere as she roamed the fields. Often she would sleep with my wife and I, at the foot of the bed, other times disappearing for a week at a time on some errand. But she always returned for a nap in front of the fireplace and a bowl of milk and some scraps from the kitchen.

Once I awoke once around midnight to go to the bathroom. Glancing through the window overlooking the shed, I saw her sitting out there on the roof silhouetted against the brilliant moon, casting an immense shadow of a very different form.
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Familiar

Post by FiveSkandhas »

Very nice! I like the opening...lots of sudden energy reflected in the style, goes well with the content. Looking forward to the next installment.
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
narhwal90
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Re: Familiar

Post by narhwal90 »

:) dont' have one yet- I wrote this because of a dream last night.
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Familiar

Post by FiveSkandhas »

You should keep going...I'll read it. 8-)
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
narhwal90
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Re: Familiar

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My wife named her Dark, but I liked that she always had one bit of white fur or one white whisker. When she had been with us for a year, the frequency of her disappearances began to increase, though she always returned for a week or two before vanishing again.

Early spring on the farm is a busy time, so it was easy to miss the arrivals and departures, but the solstice arrived with apocalyptic thunderstorms washing out the roads and blowing trees down all over the farm. We walked the fence-line to find and cut up tree limbs that had fallen across and repairing the wire before the cows could find the gaps, and began finding the dead animals.

My wife looked worried, and as we walked along the fence, mounting fear made me quiet- squirrels, birds, frogs, groundhogs, dogs, cats, owls- all outside the fence. "What is happening..." she asked as we walked back to the shed to drop off the tools. I looked up and saw Dark sitting motionless on the peak of the shed roof, watching us.
narhwal90
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 3
===========
Despite misgivings of leaving my wife at the farm, I saddled and rode the horse into town, stepping over the limbs and trees down along the road- the flooding subsided quickly in the low areas leaving mud and debris behind.

The square was intact, busy, wagons and bustle. At the market, no-one remarked about the storm particularly, all the talk was of the planting and the harvests, livestock and deliveries. I didn’t inquire further and instead bought the items on my list and confirmed various details relating to livestock, then headed home.

By the time I arrived home I convinced myself that imagination had run away with me that morning- I so no evidence of dead animals on the ride back, so was sure I must have seen only a few- perfectly reasonable after such a storm.

All was well, my wife working away in her fashion in the kitchen- stew on the stove and cat sleeping on the chair.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 4
===========

We were accustomed to reading the Bible or poetry or literature to one another in the evenings, and so passed the time amicably. Suddenly Dark lept up, hair standing on end and ears flat- I paused with a gasp, her movement so sudden and my wife looked over startled.

In the silence, Dark crept slowly to the door, arched back- moving noiselessly. She stopped at the door, seeming to look through it- vibrating with energy. In the silence the faint scrape of something on the boards outside awoke all my fears and I grew angry- “Whos there outside!” I arose and reached for the shotgun above the fireplace.

Dark hissed as I stepped towards the door and jumped away. I grabbed the handle, jerked the door open revealing an empty porch, empty yard- nothing. Behind my, my wife gasped “Father- look!” I whirled, shutting the door and looked to the corner of the room, the cat there sitting on its haunches looking at us- her eyes glowing green, but not in reflection.

“Quickly now mother, behind me” I raised the gun- “Dark what is this?” instantly feeling ridiculous, as if the cat would answer. “We should get out...”
narhwal90
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 5
===========

The corner and half the room went dark, the light vanishing into nothing- and a sudden vast presence filled the room.

A whisper of old fabric scraping on stone arose in the air around us, “Pause, Farmer.” Cold terror gripped me and my wife behind me grabbed my arm, her hand trembling.

“Who...” I barely uttered.

“I have only the name you gave me” came the voice again.

“What do you wwwant” I barely squeaked.

“I fulfill my summoning. Your words cannot describe me. The animal and I are neither two nor one, I am contained and not contained by its body.“

“I was to have dominion over your world to the limits of my power but the conditions for it are incomplete.”

“I am a locus between the realms. I was to serve the witch, yet she died before completing the process. When you rescued the animal, the locus changed but it is also incomplete because the balance between you and I is not established.”

“As the animal’s mind matured, I was able to seek out others of my kind, to understand. But I found no answers only their desire for power. The locus between us has saving my life as its basis, therefore I may act likewise for you but no further. The animals at the fences were coming for you, so their masters might collect me. The creature on the porch awaits a similar opportunity.”

My wife sobbed behind me, I reached behind to grasp her arm and we backed away from the door.

“Wh...what do you want of us?” I repeated, holding the gun uselessly by its barrel-

“Farmer, I fulfill my summoning, there is nothing else. The animal prefers this house, so I prefer this house. It cannot speak so we take this form to do so.”

“What is the creature you..?”

“Another agent, more subtle. It uses guile instead of force. I may only act while you are threatened. Be wary, if they obtain locus they will not hesitate to employ me.”

Something knocked on the door.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 6
===========

I glanced back from the door and the room was normal again, Dark in the corner looking at us as usual- and the knock came again.

“Who is it?” I asked, releasing my wife’s arm to grasp the shotgun properly, bringing it bear on the door.

I heard a baby cough and begin to cry and my wife gasped, moving towards the door “Hold a moment mother”

“A moment ago there was a step out there, I looked then and no-one was present. Now there is a baby’s cry and no-one speaks. We are being manipulated.”

The crying stopped, and the knock came again, stronger & rattling the door on its hinges.

I lost patience- “Begone spirit! You have no business here, leave the grounds or I will shoot you where you stand.”

Silence.... Dark sauntered up to the door, tail in the air, sat and began grooming her front claws.
narhwal90
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 7
===========

I lowered the shotgun, “Wife, I.... “ and paused, seeing her tears, and embraced her instead. Through her sobs, “Father, I don’t understand- will they come back, what did we see”

“I don’t know- we saw the animals and whatever happened on the porch. If we should flee- be elsewhere- who could we tell? What help is there against shadows...”

“The church, father- are these demons?” “I don’t know mother.. but I don’t think waiting in fear is wise. We can take the horses, but what of Dark- can we carry her .. or.. that, in a cage?”

We watched Dark curl up in front of the door.

“Perhaps we are safe for the night mother, let us consider again in the morning.”
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 8
===========

I was sure I would not sleep, shotgun ready by the bedside, but I awoke in the grey dawn. We packed quickly for traveling. She carried the valises downstairs behind me, I led with the shotgun. Dark was still curled in front of the door.

“Good morning” I greeted her as usual. She stood and stretched, turned to the door and meowed. My wife and I glanced at one another.

“Mother, please stand at the wall and reach over to open the door- I will be ready here.”

She turned the knob and pulled the door ajar, I stood braced, gun at the ready as the door came open- but I saw nothing outside. Dark trotted outside and I followed sweeping my eyes over the porch and yard, to the shed and barn, down the path- again nothing.

Dark halted in the center of the yard, looking down the path. Out at the road, beyond our gate I saw a cloaked figure step out of the trees and halt at the gate. “Mother, someone is waiting outside the gate.”

I heard her gasp, then “What do we do.. Please don’t go down there!”. I heard her move over to the window and draw the curtain.

“I will not leave you in the house. But we cannot go with someone waiting down there.”

Dark glanced back at me, then trotted down the path towards the gate. I backed just inside the doorway, but kept the gate and path in view, watching her travel.

She reached the gate, and sat before it, entirely still, tail wrapped gracefully around her front paws. The cloaked figure stood equally still on the other side. After a few moment’s eternity, the figure bowed to Dark, unlatched the gate and walked up the path with her following.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 9
===========

The figure halted some few yards from the porch, clearer now in the strengthening light. Tall, dressed in a long worn overcoat with a large hat pulled low over his head, face invisible. Arms hung straight, ending in gloves.

“I am the Voice.” he intoned in a quiet voice that brought to mind dark vapor rising from unhallowed graveyard soil. The hair on the back of my neck stood and I braced, preparing to raise the shotgun- my wife gasped, looking out the window.

“The Beast has given me passage to speak and then to leave.”

“Speak, then.” I replied firmly.

“The Beast was to die along with the witch. Kill the animal.”

I was shocked, at a loss for words for a moment. “Mind your tongue!” I growled. “Who are you to come onto my land and make demands!”

“I am the Voice. Kill the animal.”

My anger rose, “Why are you here?”

“I am sent to convey a message, I have given the message.”

“I will give a message in return. This is a free household, not subject to demands. If there is to be parley then let your master come forth. I will shoot the next messenger that crosses my fences uninvited. Begone!”

Dark meowed once, the figure turned slowly and walked down the path, closing the gate behind. The cat stood and trotted onto the porch, joining us in the house.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 10
===========

My wife was terrified and in tears, I held her close.

Dark jumped up on the dining room table, forbidden to her, sat and looked at us.

“Dark, what are you doing?”

Blackness surrounded us again, the morning light barely showing the windows.

“Farmer, the balance is made.” came again the voice out of the air, like the unseen rustle of fabric, somehow deeper.

“What balance!” My wife whimpered in fear beside me.

“I am given direction and purpose, to guard within the fences. None of the spirits or their agents shall pass without invitation.”

“What will you do?” suddenly I was afraid for my neighbors- “What are spirits?”

“They are the myriad forms of union of the realms- unseen, unfelt, manifest. My nature is to condition time and space, existence and non-existence.” the voice grew deeper and a green glow appeared where Dark might have been on the table.

“What did the Voice mean, to kill the animal?”

“The animal and I are neither one nor two, we are an indeterminate and complete being.”

“Why do they want me to kill you?”

“They lust for power, fear when others have it, hate their own lack. What they cannot take, they seek to destroy.”

“Are you going to kill us?” my wife sobbed beside me.

“Lady, we are grateful. Food when hungry, a blanket to sleep on, a fire for warmth, a caress. Under the sun and moon, to walk in the grass and wind is our desire.”

The sunlight reappeared, Dark sitting on the table. She hopped like a stream of liquid off the table and walked into the kitchen to her food dish and paused, looking at us.
narhwal90
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 11
===========

I looked down at the Spencer carbine on the bed, all the memories roaring in my head, the old twitching in my face and hands started again. So long ago the Captain handed it to me, taken from a fallen Union cavalryman when we finally disengaged at Nashville, the army broken and our company dead almost to a man. “Remember young Elias- we never yield. The only defeat is in giving up.” He was dead too, the next day. In collapse, there were only the cold pitiless straggling marches though December and January, the freezing nights, sometimes leaving the dead behind where they lay on the frozen ground, empty depots, the only rations those we could scavenge and always the Union behind us. The corpse of the army evaporated like mist as we went.

So like many others before the end I turned away, I chose west. I had luck hunting and kept from starving. The stench of the battlefields, death and smoke lingered on my uniform and pack and in my mind. A warm patch of sun would sometimes bring back the smell and the memory of screaming and blood, leaving me shaking and sick, barely able to move. I remember some of the men who broke in those last battles, running screaming, voices unheard amid the cannon thunder. A few turned their guns on themselves. I nearly did the same several times in those weeks but could not with the memory of the Captain and his last words to me.

Finally that warm day along the Arkansas river just over the Colorado border from Kansas, among those towns not blasted and burned by the war, there was some work and a bed for the quiet shell of a man wearing rags and carrying a Union rifle.

The screaming in my mind and the twitching finally began to ease when I met the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen- tall Dorothy, a rancher’s daughter, and she didn’t mind looking back. I wrapped up the gun then, put it away along with the memories, like a book closed so another could be opened. And so it went. But now that creature in the coat had me feeling like those old days and nights, when we knew the Union was coming like a fist in the dark, to break us.

She was weeping as I picked up the rifle for the first time in 20 years, barely able to hold it for the trembling hands and the memory of powder smoke in my nose, closer than my skin. When I finally got them steady I felt like I was back on the line mustered for action under the Captain. “Mother”, I said, “we cannot yield to fear. Whatever this is I will protect you, and us. I will not be hunted on my own land.”
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 12
===========
“But where will we go?” she asked. I had no idea. It must have shown on my face, she continued “I want to see my sister”

I replied “Should we bring this to her doorstep?” She burst into tears again, “I must say goodbye to her.” I nodded, dim memories stirring in me of days in the kitchen with my brothers and father- all long dead but for me. I would have liked to say goodbye to them.

“The wagon then, put up the top to keep the rain off?” I asked, “and then by the horses if we break a wheel.” Now purposeful she moved to her dresser, I picked up the sling and cartridge box and pushed the lump in my throat down into that icy ball I had never wanted to feel again.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 13
===========

Dark appeared out of nowhere and jumped into the wagon as I loaded the trunks and my wife readied the horses, found herself a spot among the hay and watched us.

I double-checked the gates so the animals would not be trapped and we were off, my wife beside me on the seat.

We both glanced back to the house as we turned out onto the road. “We’ll be back” I said to her. “The war passed, this will pass.” She nodded but didn’t reply and I didn’t feel like saying more.

I had good relations with the Cheyenne outside of town, I found them to be honest people who respected honest treatment- I hoped to trade for some tobacco and grain on the way past but as we passed through where their village had been, we found nothing. No damage, nothing burned- but all the tents were newly gone, prints on the ground fresh from where they had stood. Dark sat up and also watched as we passed through, her tail swishing.

My wife and I glanced at each other, but we continued west with the sun at our backs.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 14
===========

We picked up the Cherokee trail, making time judiciously to save the horses and wagon wheels. I estimated about 10 days travel to Boulder and my wife’s sister and family, perhaps long enough for some of the tension to ease. I hoped so, the rifle and shotgun were ready under the seat and I checked them often.

Dark was clearly the calmest of the three of us sometimes sleeping much of the day among the bales and boxes in the wagon, other times jumping off and running into the grass and flowers beside the trail, then racing up from behind to leap back in.

Every night we camped under the stars and wide open sky. Dark would stalk out into the darkness beyond the firelight and come back in a few hours to sleep on our blanket. I found it comforting to see her curled up at our feet despite the experiences of the last week. I about jumped when she pounced onto my foot as it moved under the blanket like she did as a kitten- but no green eyes or voices.

Being the daughter of a rancher Dorothy relished working the horses, I could see how it calmed her. As the son of hardscrabble farmers, taught more in the army than my father had ever learned, I cooked, minded the wagon and kept the camp orderly. The savory coffee on the rekindled fire just before first light did more to calm my nerves than any passage in the Bible I had ever read.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 15
===========

A few days in, the weather started changing, heavy clouds coming over the plains, distant swaths of rain and lightning contrasting with the shrinking rays of sunlight filtering past. We snugged down the wagon bonnet and drew it closed with the strings but decided to keep moving since there was no reasonable cover. Recalling that recent storm, I slung the carbine, donned my heavy poncho and hat and walked ahead of the horses to lead them while my wife took the reins.

I never cared much for being out on the plains in thunderstorms, it brought back too many memories of being fired on by artillery. But walking ahead of the horses to calm them was better than sitting waiting for the storm to break overhead.

The rain smelled wonderful as it cooled the hot summer day, I was grateful for the storm turning out mild. Curtains of rain swung this way then the other, the flowers on the plain following along in the dance- life is always there when one’s mind is open for it.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 16
===========

The lightning struck all around, I heard my wife scream and Dark howled as if her tail was stepped on. The horses panicked and reared in the traces, I jumped to one side away from their hooves. The wagon was blasted into the air, throwing my wife into the bushes. As I reached for her, two immense shadows flashed through the rain seeming to leap between the lightning strokes and collided in a column of flame and a vast peal of thunder.

I dove to the ground beside her as fragments of the wagon rained down around us and the horses screamed just as lightning struck them with a final ear shattering crack and then all was ringing silence but for the pattering rain.

I scrambled to my knees and then my feet, wheeling around with my rifle at the ready- seeking, waiting for the shot- tense as a wire and moving fast. I saw a figure standing off the road in the grey light at about 100 yards, got a snap shot at him and ran towards the wrecked smoking wagon for cover as I cycled the weapon and made a second shot as he staggered; two hits and he dropped.

At the wagon, checking around from cover, cycled the gun again- it felt strange blessing that Union cavalryman for a good weapon because I could keep moving without delaying for reload or concern for the rain. Still nothing but the light rain pattering down all around, smoke and ozone, and the powder stink strong in my nose. I crept around the wreckage, eyes roving then crouched and approached the unmoving body an arc, sweeping the prairie around me with the rifle as I moved.

I saw the same long overcoat and gloves, but missing his hat lying behind him- I looked down at the week old corpse of one of the town’s deputies, flesh blackened, clouded eyes and jellied blood leaking from his chest where I had shot him. I prodded the body with the rifle barrel.. soft with decay like all the others on the long ago battlefields- at least the rain was washing away the smell. I backed away and moved back towards my wife who was gingerly getting to her feet.

“Elias?” she asked fearfully as I approached. Shuddering, I replied “The man in the overcoat, its Gordon- was Gordon, his body is out there. I shot him twice and he fell, but his body looks at least a week dead.” In a moment the trembling washed over me again, I threw up and fainted.
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Re: Familiar

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Chapter 17
===========

I awoke to the sight of a canvas screen just above my head, shielding me from the still pattering rain, boots off and found I was laying mostly dry on a few boards, and under a blanket. I turned my head and saw her out in the rain wearing a long overcoat, sitting on one of our trunks and wearing my hat low to keep the rain off the shotgun she held on her lap. My savior, a sentry as well.

“Mother”, I said, “ how long...”

“A few hours- how do you feel?”

I replied “Weak..” but I rolled onto my side and saw Dark there sitting, watching me. Some of her fur was singed nearly to her skin, raw scars on her head and ears. “What is she...”

“Husband, “ she interrupted, “please rest. I am keeping watch, nothing has happened. I salvaged enough from the wagon for some shelter, she showed up an hour or so ago, and has been sitting there watching you since. My horses are dead” she sobbed at the last.

“I’m so sorry Mother, they were fine and loyal- more so than any I’ve ever known.”

“That man out in the field, the body is gone- you said it was Gordon? It disappeared between two glances, I’ve seen nothing else. Much was destroyed I recovered enough for a few days, if you want to check the packs?”

She was always practical and packed like a quartermaster- “You pack better than I dearest. But I think we need to get out of here, perhaps overland? But we cannot bring this to your sister’s house.. the children..”

Dark stood and limped over to me and looked deeply into my eyes then touched her nose to mine and sat again.

“Husband, I also think we should get off the road- if you’re able to move and we can make it a few miles out, find a ravine or hill to camp behind? The rain will quickly cover our tracks.”
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