The Skraelings (retold)

I was asked for more details on the skraelings story from Candlemass, so here it is.

Candlemass had said it was nearly midsummer's night eve, and the guard had already changed twice by the time he went on patrol. The moon was sitting, swung so it sat nearly on the horizon, so it almost seemed like a part of the houses whose lights shone steadily in town. The wall was, as always, ablaze with torches set in brackets on the wall's walkway itself at a regular ten foot interval, and the entire place smelled of tar and pitch.

The evening had been particularly hot and close- it felt like the night was a blanket, pressing in on you, closing in wetly on the perimeter the torches cast. It was a close darkness, and watchful. Even past the firelight, Candlemass could see eyes, glinting at him from the darkness.

Some, he knew, were probably wild animals. But only some.

Questions...

Someone just mentioned this to me- I never did think to question why Candlemass decided to hang around me in the first place. This will definitely be something I ask him, as well as the apparent age-time differences a lot of you have pointed out to me, and I never thought of asking him about, either.

While you were gone...

So apparently what was going on was a great deal more than I had expected. Candlemass had mentioned the Red Skull scare wasn't the worst of his problems in the village, but I had no idea how far that extended. But I'll tell you what Candlemass told me.

wtf wasps?

I just found a huge old wasp's nest in the kitchen, chilling on the sideboard.

My mom doesn't know how it got there, and neither does my dad, and I'll be fucked if I put it there.

I threw that motherfucker right in the garbage. Screw that shit.

A Better Morning

My day just got infinitely better. Candlemass showed up right after the dude did, maybe with about an hour leeway. He loomed out of the shadows right next to where I was working, looking ominous. Startled me pretty badly, seeing something yellow and billowing out of the corner of my eye where nothing had been before.

Furthermore, his nose and forehead were bloody, and he was wiping his face with the back of his wrist even as he was speaking to me. "Chickadee, are you alright?" Apparently, he'd gotten wind of what had happened earlier this morning due to the fact that the person was actually a village council member who was incredibly sore that his hero Candlemass wasn't around for him to fanboy on. He also assured me he'd given Crow a drubbing for what he'd done to me, the rest of the council be damned. He was the one who recalled Candlemass for the Red Skull scare, which hadn't been nearly as serious as Candlemass had thought.

As straight from Candlemass's lips: "Nathaniel Crow needs to get a life. He has to understand that what I'm doing here has importance, too." I'd never seen him look so serious before- his eyes have a habit of getting much bigger, and his mouth thinner, so he looks a bit older than he really is when he does that.

After making doubly sure I was okay ("I'm okay, Candlemass, I'm okay!") he told  me he had to go again. He was handling a particularly troublesome case back in the village at the moment, which he promised to tell me about when he gets back.

Weird morning

Worst morning in a while. I guess I have been being a problem for Candlemass's village, only he didn't really want to admit it to me. Early this morning, before the sun had even fully risen, I woke up again to the same man standing over my bed- as soon as my eyes opened, he leaned down to pin me down in my bed.

I've taken self-defense classes, so you better believe I beat his sorry ass off of me. Two palm-punches to the head, two the solar plexus had him off of me, and backing up to the door, guarding himself. The weirdest thing was, even though I was scared, the altercation had this weird, dreamy quality to it, as if my body was moving of it's own volition, and I was just sort of standing, watching myself. Maybe it was because I was high off of the adrenaline, maybe it really was just a dream.

Whatever it was, the guy didn't come at me a second time, and when I saw him duck out the door, I saw he was wearing a cloak, but it was dark blue.

I'm guessing it was someone from Candlemass's village, and I'm beginning to wonder if I did the right thing fighting him off. What if he wasn't trying to hurt me? He didn't really seem that intent on murdering me, and if he had been, I'm pretty sure he would have tried it a second time.

I guess we'll see. He hasn't come back to explain himself

Recall

02-27-12 Last night, Candlemass woke me up, looking strangely grim and urgent. "I'm being recalled, Chickadee." Apparently, his "vacation" of sort has been cut short, and the village council is making him come back for regular duties. He said not to cry, and not to worry, because he'll drop in sometimes to make sure I'm okay. I'm not sure if this means I won't see him at all anymore, and I really hope not. He gave me a kiss on the forehead, rearranged my blankets, and said "Sweet dreams, Chickadee." And was gone. He wasn't here when I woke up, but there was a note on the table that reminded me to keep practicing my exercises, and to call him if I needed him. (With this, what's left in terms of updating has been finished. I'll start posting new stuff now. Is anybody actually reading this?)