IN LYREAH’S SHADOW

 IN LYREAH’S SHADOW

(A story by David DeLane Snow, and my art)

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As my host, Lyreah spoke, the fire we had built between us suddenly blazed to life with a single whispered breath, to my utter surprise. I rubbed my hands before the light’s warmth as the chilled air soon dissipated. Under that starless pitch, an ember glow danced against the shadows of the forest about us.

My hostess smiled even as my wide eyes took in the details of her form sitting across from me. Her entire upper body was bare, covered in a fine mist of fur, like the tan deer torso beneath her that sat upon the ground. In silence she removed a handful of something from a worn, cloth pouch that was slung across her chest, its strap lay between her bare breasts that were draped with copper strains of hair. Leaning back, her eyes widened as she tossed a scattering of dust directly into our camp’s fire. The glittering smoke instantly reacted with an array of changing colors that swirled into a bellowing plume of fire twice my standing height! I heard the Elven deer speaking, but her voice’s rise and fall were nearer to poetry or singing. Listening to the tone of her soothing voice was pleasurable and mesmerizing, but her words wove a bittersweet tale with many sorrows and emotions. Somehow, I began to see deep within the rhythmic tongues of fire a vision of moving images as real as she and I. A warmth came over me even as my thoughts began to feel hazed over. The fire and I both were enchanted by her spellcasting. But I did not care, wanting all the more to listen to the story her picturesque weavings played out in front of me. My attention was ever wanting to know more.

I saw two identical figures standing close to one another. The motion of their wild, waving hands and harsh countenance told me they were in the throes of a heated argument. No sound came from them as I only heard Lyreah’s song voice tell of their confrontation. One brother furiously demanded his twin to accompany him aboard the parting ship he stood nearby. But just as passionately his mirror reflected back lofty reasons for staying behind in the port city. Each sibling countered the other, only convincing those who stood behind them as they themselves refused to listen to the other. The scene played on and on for what seemed like hours as each follower cheered on their spokesman.

Though I was very intrigued by the vision and the mystic stranger who captivated my desire to hear more, about the edges of my thoughts there was a growing urge to leap to my feet and run away. Fear lay in the dark.

When my eyes drifted away from the vision within the pillar of fire and back to watching my host, I could almost see something standing behind her. But when I tried to look directly at whatever it was, there was only darkness beyond the dancing ambered shadows. Her voice pulled my attention back to the two arguing brothers, and the one who wanted to stay among Men and teach them the wisdom gleaned from the ancient elves’ longevity. I wanted so much to learn more about those deathless people myself.

But, again, when she spoke of the agreeing arguments from their followers, I must admit my attention wandered back to what I could only glimpse from my side vision. It was a towering figure just beyond the shadows, standing among the tall trees of the forest, beyond the flickering light of our small camp. Only when I did not look directly at it, could I see a monstrous beast thrice the height of a man, it was no war horse or any creature I had seen before. Its huge, outstretched eyes looked piercingly through me, and I felt the brooding brutality it wanted to inflict upon me! The creature’s clawed talons rested atop the pommel of a huge, two-handed broad sword that stood before its armored body. The beast was crafted from various creatures and yet the more I looked at it - “In the days that followed that great departure,” Lyreah’s change of tone instantly had us both back in our present moment, with our eyes meeting across a dying campfire. Seeing the questioning terror in my eyes, she addressed my unspoken fear, “Do not give it your attention. Whilst you are with me no harm shall befall you, young Fayendar.” Then before anything I could say, she added with a smile, “Rest now, be at ease.”

A moment later I awoke beside the stone ring of cold ashes, with the sound of cooing doves off in the distance and the heavy dew of a cool morning. My racing thoughts saw there was no evidence that my host had ever been there, other than having left her beaded, cloth pouch among my pack. After searching the area, I found no sign of anything ever having lurked in the woods where I spied it the night before. My whirling thoughts all came to the same conclusion, I did not care to linger in those woods any longer. Exhaling the tension, I breathed in the freshness of a new day. Gathering my belongings and shouldering Lyreah’s bag I headed out of the woods and soon happened upon the road. Turning left; I went west for the cliff city of Sinjar. Heading east would have kept me too close to the woods of Kinderval.

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