5 Solone

_Solone_

She'd only been in the garden relaxing when it had hit. The visions didn't come often and most times when they did, she was asleep. You might call them a dream but they were much too different- far to real and containing things she didnt know about from the real world. How could someone's own mind make up things from the real world that actually existed? And with the proper name to boot. So it was no question to her that these visions were real. Her dreams weren't like these at all.

It wasn't as if she had never before experienced a vision while she was awake- because she had. The thing was that they were fairly rare and when they did come, she was left... oh what was the word... faint. She was left quite faint after these visions. For if she was not asleep then she collapsed, and found herself stiff on the ground- often times with an uncontrollable shake in her body.

The existence of these visions was a nuisance. It had troubled the twelve year old since she was six. Half of her life had been spent seeing things that she didn't know what to make of. They were confusing things- she didn't know what they meant nor did she care much for it. Sure, there was an innate curiosity to them so anyone would have wondered about the existence of these and what it is they meant. Otherwise, she did not care much for them. They were a confusing nuisance after all.

The vision that came to her now was not unlike the others that hit her why she was awake. Unsurprisingly, her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell to her knees, very likely getting her nice dress dirty. She had been alone in the garden at her own request so now she was defenceless, lying on the ground, stiff and unmoving.

She could smell smoke now, and lots of it, practically choking her. Shouting and screaming filled the air and she found her heart nearly beating out of her chest at the images she saw next. Blood, fire, red hair. Blood, fire, red hair. They repeated over and over before the vision went dark. This was normally when they ended but it was not so. It seemed she was to see more before the vision ended but she had no idea as to just how much she would be seeing before this vision would come to a close.

More images came to her after a time, brightly making themselves known to her. This time, it was not nearly as harrowing as the last. Sounds of birds in the trees, a faint sound of trickling water from a stream nearby, and the sounds of a dog barking. However pleasant these noises, they soon came to a stop as the sounds of multiple boots came stomping through the dirt. This is when the images came to her. Grey eyes, glowing stones, and a child, perhaps one as old as herself, running. These images repeated themselves like the last set, seemingly trying to tell her something. But what? She couldn't see the running boy well enough to recognize him if they met in person. However, if the eyes she saw belonged to him then perhaps she would recognize him.

Being so high born, her family had received all sorts of visitors- even the rare ones from the east. This boy looked somewhat like the easterners- perhaps he was foriegn too. Sometimes things in her visions happened in real life so she wondered if she would meet this boy... which led her to wonder about the first vision. Red hair which certainly belonged to a person. She had met others with red hair before, hell, her own mother had red hair but never before had the hair looked like this. It was not a natural red- it was the red of blood. A dangerous red, and with the other images she saw with this hair, she hoped to never meet the owner of the red locks.

The vision went on to interrupt her thoughts of it, adding more for her to analyze. The tantalizing sound of shrill screams and yells of agony- children weeping and fathers fighting. The sounds of war, she guessed. When an image came to her, it was a sorry scene. Death, as far as the eye could see, but it wasn't the lifeless bodies of people that she saw. Nature itself had withered away. Trees were old and bare, their dead, grey arms reaching towards the sky in an ominous way. The grass was yellowed and dry and those of the flowers that weren't shriveled and turned to dust on the ground were brown and wilting. The sky was a pale grey, the baby blue it often took on was completely gone without a trace.

The corpses of animals rotted all around, and not a thing in sight dared to move. For the longest time it remained like that. She couldn't wake from it either and so the scene was drilled into her brain, all the while the sounds of war echoed around her. But she could not locate where they were coming from. It was as if her ears were in one place and her eyes another. She felt her heart nearly stop when she caught movement beyond the trees. Holding a breath that did not need to be held, she watched what it was that emerged from the trees.

It approached the clearing with a smooth movement, the shape of a man. The movement was so smooth in its approach that there was no way this creature was walking but rather floating forward. The closer it came the more she could make out its features.

It was indeed a man, dressed in a ragged old cloak that was in bits at the bottom and sleeves. The smell came to her before he did, and it made her recoil away as soon as it hit. He reeked with the stench of much more than death. As if all of time had rotted his soul into a nasty depravity that wilted anything it came across.

As he came closer, she realized that there was no way this man was a living thing. He must have been dead like everything here for his face had no skin or meat to it- only a sickly skeleton with bits of leftover flesh hanging from select areas of his face, but that was surely to rot away too. The robed skeleton raised a bony hand, pointing a long finger in her direction and screeched. It was then that it suddenly appeared for her in a size that was much too big to be a man. This was a monster.

The monstrous being yanked her by the arm and held her up to his harrowing face. She screamed, all too close to the skull of the monster. His teeth were in full few, a haunting permanent smile that all skeletons had- but this one was all the worse as the teeth- all of them- were stained green black and yellow but most importantly, long and sharp.

She tried to scream again, trying to push and kick at it to let her go. It felt like her arm might fall right out of its socket the way he held her up by the wrist nearly four feet from the ground. Her efforts did very little to stop the hideous being from holding her there like she weighed nothing. She screamed again but this time she was interrupted by his own shrill screech, one that deafened her. It rattled her skull and left her dizzy, feeling like her ears had burst. In fact it was likely that they had, seeming as she felt a wetness drip down from her ears to her neck and beyond.

Holding back tears she pushed at him again, trying to get this figure to let her go. He would not have it. Instead the creature brought his other hand up and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him and face his foul smell. It flashed its sharp teeth at her for a moment before the black sockets where there were no eyes stared her down. His face moved closer to hers until the black sockets were all that she could see.

The monster was showing her something she realized as she blinked away the blurry tears in order to see what it was he was trying to show her. There was nothing for the longest time but right before she could lose hope, a white light appeared, causing her to flinch. As she adjusted to the white she came to see something else. Silhouettes of some kind.

She came to see there were seven of them. Seven people. Seven souls. But who were they? This didn't tell her nearly as much as she wanted to know but the creature had now dropped her to the ground and as she hit her head she faintly heard a whisper- presumably from the boney monster before her.

"Find them."

_____

She sat up from her bed quickly, looking around the room before rubbing her face to better wake herself from that slumber. From the change of locations she guessed that someone had found her in the garden like that. How embarrassing.

"Oh Rhoswen, my lady, you are awake! I should inform your father right away," The older woman next to her bed said, standing quickly but the girl, Rhoswen, was quick to stop her.

"Wait, don't leave yet.." She asked the woman, tugging her dress sleeve closer to her.

"I must inform him that you have woke-"

"And I must know what the hour is."

"Why, it is just half past noon, my lady." the servant woman responded obediently.

"How long have I been asleep then?"

"Perhaps two hours since the gardener found you, my lady."

Rhoswen hummed to herself before she let out a sigh. "Could have been longer i suppose. Please, Katrina, don't tell father. He will only worry and insist that I am ill."

Katrina shook her head and pulled away from Rhoswen. "But you must be ill, you fainted in the garden- which by itself is of concern seeming as it is not the first time- but when the gardener found you, blood was coming from your ears!" She explained in a worried tone.

This made Rhoswen's eyes widen and her brows raise. Her ears had bled in the vision too. "I am not ill, there is something else that afflicts me I promise it-"

"I will not have any more talk of these 'visions' that you so often speak of!" The woman complained, running an exasperated hand down the side of her face.

Rhoswen groaned in response. "Why don't you believe me?" She complained in response. "You never think what I say is true! Do you really think I would lie about something such as this?"

Katrina shook her head now, giving the girl an apologetic look. "I believe that you believe the things you say. But I do not think what it is you are saying is the truth. Lady Rhoswen, I mean no offense to you but I believe you to be a troubled child- perhaps truly ill which is no fault of yours,"

The girl wrinkled her nose in disagreement, but she kept any upset emotions to herself, pushing them down to keep her composure. She was silent for a moment, looking down at her lap before she met Katrina's eyes again. "That's sad to hear," She said calmly, but her shortness was an obvious indicator of her hurt, resulting in sad eyes from the servant. "You may leave then." She added on.

"My lady-"

"I'm feeling rather tired now, you should leave me. I can take care just fine so there are no worries."

Katrina looked a little conflicted but she nodded and swiftly left the room. Rhoswen had no doubt that she was rushing off to tell her father of what had happened. She let out a sigh and stood from her bed, grabbing the intricately designed wooden bed post for support on her shaky legs. When she was asleep and the visions came, she was normally fine... however, it was when they struck during her wake hours that she found herself imbalanced and faintly ill when she woke from them.

Luckily to her they rarely happened so she could go about most days free of their afflictions. She would likely be freed from today's activities now which she was slightly grateful for. She was to be tutored today and her teacher was not the nicest. Rhoswen rubbed her knuckles, remembering the stinging feeling of the measuring stick slapping her every time she gave a wrong answer.

This caused her to look down at her hands, still thinking to herself but she froze, and allowed herself to sit back down on the bed. She pulled up the loose sleeve of her white undergarment dress so that she could see her wrist. The same wrist she had been held from and suspended over the ground with. Her breath caught in her throat at the angry bruise that made itself known with a daunting purple and red hue. Her fingers gingerly ran over it as she frowned. Surely they would believe her now?

One did not just dream of bleeding from the ears and have it happen in the wake world and again did not get injured and have it appear again. This was her evidence, was it not? Katrina would come up with all sorts of excuses but perhaps if she explained to her father personally what it was that had happened to her, he would believe. Someone had to believe at least. This was no lie.

Surely it was a crazy thought, but what she saw in these visions... something was going to happen. She was sure of it. Rhoswen was convinced she had never been so sure of something before in her life. She stood again, this time in a hurry that had her still shaky legs taking a few stumbling steps forward. Something was going to happen, and the two people from her vision were involved- no- seven. She came to realize the vision was a call for seven people. Seven souls- it had to be. She couldn't see it any other way.

They had to be able to stop whatever it was that was coming. But how did you find seven people who you did not know nor had ever seen before? Suddenly the adrenaline of her realization faded into nothing but defeat. She had only seen the silhouettes of these people. Just black masses in the shapes of humans.

The more she thought about what this vision meant the more reality seemed to fall apart. It did sound like a story. Something entirely made up. She was a child no less so the chances of anyone believing her were cut in half. Perhaps if she met someone who was also blessed with visions they would listen.. But she did not know anyone else like her. In fact, everyone around her, except for herself, was painstakingly normal.

She decided against telling her father too much about this vision, and kept it in mind to keep any future ones to herself for the most part. Everyone was coming to think the young lady was ill or wrong in the head. She herself knew this was not so, however her mother had done a good job of teaching her that the world was a cruel and unfair place, especially for women and those who did not follow the conformity.

Rhoswen made it a point to grit her teeth and accept things despite the way she felt. Her mother had taught her that a lady must always accept things she had no proof against until the time came that she had the evidence she needed to prove everyone wrong. Only a fool walked into an argument unprepared by themselves. Men could be wrong and accepted when finally right but a woman... Their mistakes were almost always counted against them even when once proved correct.

She appreciated this knowledge afforded to her by her mother. It had saved her multiple times. Most little girls were regarded as rather fickle and daft things, but Rhoswen was able to build a respect from multiple adults around her- including her father. It was one of the few things she knew she could be proud of. But she wished the same for her visions.

No one believed them and at a certain point in her childhood she had stopped talking about them. However there were times when she just had to say something- like the warning when her mother was to get sick. No one listened, not even her mother. Her mother who always claimed to believe her. Their disbelief did not allow them to avoid the danger and now she was dead. Disease had struck and stolen her away. Medicine practitioners were not able to save her from her demise either.

Rhoswen sighed again, running a hand through her blonde hair before dropping it by her side and looking up at her ceiling, where she traced the shapes of delicate designs carved into the stone. However lavish her room was, it did not take away from the dispare stuck in her heart.