city_limits Before The Fall
"Like a child feels, watching a rainbow.
Like a bird feels, the first time it flies..."

The words were not phrased in English. Not as the language would, in later ages, come to be recognised, even if the place would be. The girl's voice, nevertheless, sounded as clear as that from any glass bell. No ordinary peasant, was this, even if the customs and learning expected of her frequently seemed to bore the maiden. The clothing was clean, as was her skin. The song a simple one, as she made her way down the bank of the river, grass stepping flat under feet, only to spring softly up, again, behind her.

"I feel magic stirring within me,
When I look in my true love's eyes...."

Dragonflies. Beautiful things and made prettier, still, by the sun's glistening reflection upon the surface over which they hovered and skipped, in a delicate ballet of aerobatic grace played out long before humankind had ever walked upon the Earth.

Crouching, the Princess watched close by in admiration. How quickly they did fly... How precise could they dart. Just a thought, she imagined and these creatures could be transported there, in an instant. She had little patience for religion, but nature's infinite miracles did impress her, so. There were tales, also, from lands, far away. Of dragons and white steeds and folk of the sea, who ahd not legs, but the tails of fishes.

"Living river, turn light to..."

A sudden breeze and flock of birds, high up in the nearby trees, taking to the skies.

"Turn light... Light to..."

Strange to say, but she was now overcome by that most unsettling of feelings: Being watched. From where, she was unsure, but...

"When I look in my... In my true love's..."

Not so much as a bird's chirping now. The woodland had gone quiet. Only the sound of that same, ominous wind flowing through the branches, as if the reserved hiss of some vast serpent. It was wrong, this. So very, terribly wrong and she could not think for why. Nothing was here and yet the sky had now taken to falling grey.

Shadows... Shadows between the trees...

"True love's eyes...."

Anxious as any lonesome deer, she whirled at the sound of a croaking frog. That, though, was not the source of her disturbance. It, too, was crawling away from the direction of those woods and into the water. The Princess did not like this. She did not like it, one little bit.

And then a shaft of light. The sun burning through those passing clouds, to bestow its soothing kiss of warmth upon the world below. A cricket sounding aloud its call for love. The swishing of a fish and finally, finally, a dragonfly coming eye-level to her Highness, as if to say hello.

"Oh...!"

It was enough, blinking eyes, to cause a flutter of relieved laughter, but as she glanced back to those trees, again, the maiden's smile began to wane. This was no longer a safe place to be. Not a river by which to play. She could still feel it. A hunger. Or even a thirst. Something malevolent reaching out from the gloom, by way of servants and wishing to express a haunting, 'I want'.

Seized by a sudden complaint of inward sickliness, the young woman stepped back, resolving not to tempt this particular fate. She wished to see the dragonflies another day.

Unbeknownst to her, there would not be many left...