[Short story] Crimson And White
Very old short story of mine. I was browsing through my files and found this.
(Uhm, let's see if I still know how to do LJ cut...)
Crimson and White
She looked how snowflakes fell from the sky slowly, like first scouting the world and then deciding which was the best place to land. What wind riders little snowflakes were… The girl turned around and looked into the dark forest near her. She smelled the winter, its pure and fresh scent which would soon disappear as the winter got old. She was wearing only a light white dress. But she wasn’t shivering, she didn’t feel cold and snowflakes were only tickling softly her pale skin. Her long hair looked black against whiteness of the landscape and her dress. Her dark eyes had a distant gaze, like they were observing some secret world beyond this plane of the universe.
He was hunting. White powder covering the land made the prey’s footprints easy to follow. He whizzed between the thick trunks faster than his prey. He was getting it. He didn’t much notice of sweet snowflakes which were clever enough to sneak through the leafy roof. Only things in his mind were the prey and its tracks and smell. One more turn and his teeth were close enough.
The girl felt the power of the forest. It was calling her, calling her in the wind and through the ground and the call echoed in her mind, stronger and stronger. Her bare feet took one step and then another and third too. Then she walked into the hazy cathedral of nature, humming along with the forest.
Content and silent, peaceful and happy was his mind now. There was time to look around and see little miracles and travel without hurry. He felt occasionally how cool snowy figure landed on his skin and melted away as soon as it arrived. Fog was playing between the trees which were like majestic pillars in the king’s castle. The man arrived to the lake. When he gazed into its whirly deeps, he saw a figure walking, that figure was like an angel.
It was like a dream. She was excited, eager was her mind. She felt the forest wanted to show her something and let nature’s forces to guide her under the trees. The treetops were so high, she looked how light was playing in the evergreen leaves, yet she didn’t collide with the trees because it was like her feet knew the way perfectly. She had a feeling someone, or something, was waiting for her in the end.
He was in deep thoughts, thinking this and that. The waters were moving slowly, waving back and forth and sewing web of nature’s music. Silently, a female figure stepped from behind the tree, looking at the lake and watching its hypnotizing movement. She stood majestically even though she wasn’t very tall and she was like she had stepped from a painting, so dusky was her face. Snowflakes fell into her hair and made them look like fairy’s, little white winter blossoms in her nightly hair.
The man rose and went to the girl. Her dark eyes were asking why she had come here and was he awaiting her but she didn’t say a word, who knew was she even able to speak or was it nature’s magic that she was mute there. He took her in his arms and knew she was the angelic figure seen in the lake’s depths. Whispering comforting words to her ear he pulled the girl closer. The trees around the lake stood silent as always, just low humming of the branches was heard in the forest. Snowflakes went wild in the air, they started their play above the swirling waters.
So white was her skin and her dress he noticed, no wonder she looked so pure in the water. He put his mouth on her neck, pressed his lips upon her milky skin but the girl didn’t react, even her breathing was hard to notice. The man kissed her neck once more and then opened his mouth and pierced girl’s skin with his sharp teeth. The girl gasped when she finally felt something. The man drank and crimson drops stained her dress, death’s roses on a snowy hill.
She felt how she weakened; she woke up from the dream which had been created by light and snow, by fancy dance of the snowflakes, quiet song of the evergreen pillars of the forest palace and calling of the mysterious waters in the lake. She looked around but saw only crimson flowers on a white sheet in an empty bed. Somehow that image told her it was the end. And slowly the quiet white world blackened, like night it crawled upon the forest. Some snowflakes flashed through the darkened view but they weren’t joyful anymore. They floated down like in sorrow, not dancing in the air but falling straight down, in slow motion. Then the power of darkness was too strong to even brave little snowflakes.
The white fragile figure was still in his arms. Confused was he and there he pondered why he had done it. Then he stepped into the lake’s freezing pool, walked where it was deep, the girl in his arms. The mirror of nature looked like obsidian in its depths. He let the fair, fragile body of the girl fall through the glass-like surface of the water. Girl sunk into the black coldness of the wintery waters and the man walked away from the water. He stood there for a moment, maybe grieving the beauty lost, maybe just deciding the next move. Finally he left, running through the forest where snowflakes still drifted in the air telling stories about the new winter.
The red stains got covered with virgin snow.
After the long cold winter, in the fairness of the spring, beside the lake, a few crimson flowers rose from the black mud to sweeten the scene.