Private Tales Forever A Stranger

[Rose]

Rose squirmed under the gaze and looked at her cuticles instead. They were bloody things, constantly being picked at. She exacerbated that further with her thumb nail.

“Nah.”

Like not now require or never require? There was a big difference. Like. Bad difference. She would know.


It would be polite to not bother the woman and let her sleep, but Rose was no longer interested in manners or of what ‘ought to be done’. “How old are you?” She asked bluntly, glancing up from under her lashes to study the woman in return.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She sat in silence for a long time. It was a question that was not commonly offered - most considered it rude to ask a lady her age - but the unusual appearance - a woman, but the same size as a child, looking like an elf and clearly not a hobbit - brought it often enough.

The sad thing was, she had never been able to adequately answer it. Too many, upon hearing she was old beyond reckoning, thought that it meant she would have all the knowledge of this world and others to work with...but, the mind is a finite thing, and there is only so much that can be remembered. The deep, distant past was shrouded eternally in the mists, shapes occasionally rearing out of the fog but never resolving fully.

Except for one, anyway.

"I...do not know," she admitted, finally. "Old. Very, very old, Rose. Old enough to have seen too much." Old enough to no longer be capable of fitting in, anywhere. "Since we are asking, how old are you?"

 

[Rose]

So... 18 then? 20? Probs 20, Rose concluded, looking away.

“Sixteen?” She answered back. She would have once been proud of the age, now she just felt kinda weird about it. She didn’t know why.

“I’m old enough though. To be out here. Suzy got married at this age. If she can have a kid, I’m not one myself,” came the practiced response. Her chin raised stubbornly, telling the woman she didn’t wanna hear it!

Not a damn child.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"So young," she breathed. Most people lived such short lives, and at one point she had been derisive of their short-sighted ambitions. With great age came...well, not great wisdom. Better understanding, at least.

"You have no need to be so defensive around me...Rose," she replied. The smile she gave the girl was wan. "Though...I would not run headlong into adulthood, were I you. Life is too short to rush through it," for some of us, she finished in her head.

 

[Rose]

Rose eyed her for a long moment, gauging if whether or not that was true. Could she trust the woman to be kind towards her? To not judge her or need any explanations? She decided yes.

Her whole demeanor changed, her shoulders loosening and back slumping out of its perfect posture. It was as if her whole body had spoken ‘okay’ to the woman’s reassurance.

She pushed forward as if nothing great had occurred there.

“Not for me. I’m going to live forever, I think.” There was no bravado to her statement, more a sense of resignation.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

What an odd statement, she thought to herself. She quested outward, her senses ablaze for anything that might be unusual with the child before her. There was nothing to feel, alas. She regarded the girl quizzically, and then shrugged. At least the mystery had drawn her a little out of her quiet, brooding bubble.

"Eternal life is...daunting," the Sidhe admitted. It seemed odd, coming from someone who was the size of a human child, but there it was. "Don't think I would wish it on anyone," she added sadly.

 

[Rose]

“Tell me about it,” Rose replied thickly. She kicked feet out, swinging them to silent beat.

She was silent for a beat, chewing on her lip as she judged whether or not she should ask this question. ... if she misjudged and this girl guessed what she was... well, Rose didn’t feel like running so fast again. She was always running. But if she was right? That maybe the girl could actually relate?

The words came tumbling out. “Whatcha have to do to keep it?” After all, eternal life always had a cost.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

Now there was a question. It was something she did not really think about. She was...different, shall we say, than most of the people on this world. In fact, different than practically all of them. Hers were very rare, refugees from a world that had been destroyed by hers and others like hers' own hands.

"Avoid getting cut in half," she replied, but after a long moment sighed. She knew that was not what was being asked. "Just avoid places devoid of magic. I...do not need to eat or drink, persay. Maybe to a degree but..." She shrugged. "I am a being of magic," she added. It was risky to say as much. There were things that could be done to her that could not be done to people of flesh and blood.

 

[Rose]

Rose frowned and looked down at herself.

What was she a being of then?

Oh. Right. Monsters. So not fair.

“Lucky,” she breathed, rubbing at her wrist. After a moment she perked and looked around them. “There’s magic here then? Where?”

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"Almost everywhere," she said simply. "Some places, it flows through the world in boundless supply, like a river of life. In others..."

She shuddered. There were places where it was all but absent, desolate places where little in the way of life could survive. And then there were the truly barren places, devoid of any natural magic of their own. Typically the sites of terrible atrocities of the past.

She eyed the girl. "Why lucky," she asked. Genuinely curious, because lucky had never been a term associated to herself by basically anyone, ever.

 

[Rose]

Rose gave a nondescript shrug, her lips pressing together.

“Well... I bet you’ll always fit into your corsets for one.” Something some girls would kill for back at home.

“And you’ll never find yourself devoid of milk, for another.” She added, morose. She clicked her teeth, swallowing instinctively.

“Do you miss it? Food?”

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"I've never had to eat," she said. At some point in the past her people had gained the ability to ingest food and to process it, but...it was not required. "Eating helps recover some stamina, but...we are Fae, the few of us that are left."

That admission was painful, if truthful. So few left on this world, and who was to say how the Sidhe had fared on other worlds than this? The diminutive woman certainly could not.

 

[Rose]

Rose raised a brow, watching her with a gaze that was a touch too acute for someone her age.

“If you live so long and forget so much, why don’t you try forgetting the bad stuff? Like. Heeey you found a barn~ Somewhere to sleep! And cause you don’t remind yourself of all the rest, it seems like a damn good day. I love finding barns. I don’t need the warmth but it’s nice all the same.”

She patted the barrel she sat on affectionately, offering the woman an easy smile that urged her to try and match it.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"Because I have no control over what I remember and what I forget," she replied. It would have been a gift to be able to pick and choose, but that was not the way that life worked.

"Anyway, some bad things need to be remembered, so they are not repeated." And some things were too fresh to forget. She offered the girl a smile, though. It was...not as warm as it could be, but she did try.

 

[Rose]

“If that were true, people wouldn’t have wars.” She rubbed at her forearm, her own smile faltering.

She took a deep breath and shook it all off, plopping off the barrel and onto the ground to be level with Seska. “Whatcha got?” She gestured with her chin to the woman’s bag. “Any games?” Rose had her own, but frankly something new was sorely welcome on this dreary night.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"People have short memories, Rose," was all she said to her assertion. Whatever was expedient or gained them money, that was likely to be what people did. War could be immensely profitable for the winning side.

She looked to her things, and shook her head. "Games? I...haven't played any for decades at least." She tilted her head to one side. "Do you?"

 

[Rose]

Rose snorted. If she had known Seska even the slightest bit better the woman would have received an earful about how she was making zero, count it, zero sense about what people can and cannot remember.

But she didn’t know Seska better and she didn’t want to burn the chance to play cards, so she tossed the woman a grin and pulled out a worn down deck.

“I usually play by myself, which kinda stinks, knowing both sides. Better with two! Do you know anything?” She shuffled them with skill that only extended boredom could hone in.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"I...do not know cards," she admitted slowly. Why did she feel embarrassed by such an admission? But, in truth, she seldom had anyone to play with, either. Her favorite pastime would seem to be morose contemplation of the world and all its ills.

Usually.

"You will have to teach me these games," shecsaid slowly. She did not really see a point to it. She preferred games that required skill over games of chance, but she did not have a stones board, nor did she have a chess board for that matter. "You still haven't answered why you think you will live forever, and it seems we will have time." Outside, the storm continued to pelt the ground with enormous drops of water

 

[Rose]

Rose bit her lip, concentrating on throughly shuffling the cards before sparing Seska a shrug.

“I dunno. It’s what people say. And they haven’t been wrong about anything else so...”

The Rhythmic purr of the cards being flicked between her fingers took over the unspoken words.

“Anyway. It’s called Flick. It’s half smarts, half luck. Probably all smarts if you know things like chances and odds, or so my brother would say anyway. I don’t care, it’s just fun. So you get 7 cards....” she started dealing them out.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

Did the girl know the answer to the question, and she was just obfuscating and misleading...or did she simply not know? It made the Sidhe curious, to say the least. It was a question she would not give up on, although the direct assault of asking had proven to be a dead end.

Other ways then, perhaps later.

"People? Who would tell you these things? I mean, I...I assumed you were a human girl, but...maybe I was wrong?" She picked the cards up and looked at them, without a trace of understanding about what she was supposed to do with them.

 

[Rose]

Rose shifted uncomfortably, holding back a small squirm.

“I am human,” she insisted, a touch upset to boot. “I’m perfectly normal— human- I’ll die tomorrow, happy?” Rose wasn’t sure how they had slipped so close to this conversation. Maybe it was a little liberating to say the truth in small quantities. She hadn’t actually expected the woman to take her seriously and poke for more.

She picked up a card and put it face up on the ground with restrained force. “You want three of a kind. Or three in a row. Okay?”

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"That's not what I..." she said, and had to shift a bit uncomfortably herself. The question had quite clearly struck a nerve, and the girl was clearly agitated and made little pretense to hiding it. It strengthened her curiosity even as it made herself uncomfortable.

It was not often she had any company at all, and seldom even remotely pleasant company at that. But the question could not be avoided, not if the girl seemed to be trying to avoid answering it so hard.

"You've nothing to fear from me, Rose. Whatever you are or whatever has been done to you that you feel...I do not know, fear? Shame? It matters not to me. I know what it is like to be...outcast, on the outside, looking in."

 

[Rose]

Rose huffed, slamming down her cards. “Why do you have to ruined a good night. Why. Why!” She started packing up, her movements agitated and jerking.

“We coulda been friends. We coulda been good friends. If just for a night. One night!” She shoved the cards into her bag, clumsily yanking the straps and getting them tangled on her cloak.

She leaned in, nostrils flairing in a bout of anger that clearly masked pained.

“Why can’t you people leave well enough alone?!”

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

The Sidhe flinched at the anger, but it was the hurt that struck deepest of all. It mirrored something within her, that had not always been there.Some wounds healed more swiftly than others, after all, but some never did.

"I...," she began, and she could find nothing to say. Nothing that would be meaningful, nothing that would undo what prying curiosity had done. She felt her heart twist in her chest. Just another mistake, to add to the dozens of others piled like skeletons of the past behind her.

The woman stood up suddenly, her face a muddled mask if emotions that she was desperately trying to control. She did not think that was a battle she was going to win. "I...I'm sorry," she said in a whisper, shook her head, and then repeated herself. "Sorry, Rose, but I did not..."

Just as suddenly as she had stood, she made for the door outside. There, she rolled to the side, sliding down the rough wood, careless of splinters, and buried her face in her hands, sobbing softly.

 

[Rose]

Hey! Rose was suppose to be the one to storm out! ... Now how was she going to leave...

The answer was she didn’t. Beyond the rain, Rose was unaware of anything except that the woman had left her stuff here and ... she couldn’t leave. A weight had been keeping her, something she couldn’t identify. And now with nothing to drive her back away ... well she resorted to the one thing that always brought her a bit of comfort inside an empty room.

Her form dissipated, turning to whispers of darkness that melded into the shadows. And her presence would hover in that room, as it had been until something had driven it out again.