<I>Unconditional</I> -- Windsong Library

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Date Posted: 17:17:02 04/11/04 Sun
Author: Nira
Subject: Unconditional
In reply to: Melln 's message, "Continue" on 14:28:14 04/04/04 Sun

Enraptured for as long as he read, immersed in the fathomless world of her unburdened soul, Nira remained in a dream-like stasis for a few moments after Melln had laid down the book. Only when his honest eye caught her gaze did she begin to stroke towards the surface of her conscious, drifting away from a haze that slipped from memory as quickly as it was abandoned. Nira used the period that Melln took to do Who Knew What to orient on the world of Thes Ladrin, where all was barren of the beauteous colors and radiant lights. Here the colors were murky to Nira�s eye, and the lights were harsh and grating, appearing and disappearing with every blink, painful signals that always -something- was there. At least the surrounding library made the jar from reverie to reality softer. In this place Nira felt at ease, comforted by the archaic ambiance and compassionate company that made up the entire atmosphere of the building.

Melln�s return brought her into full attention, and she watched him with curiosity-lit eye as he placed a new book for her to see. What was this? Oh� letters. Letters were the key to pain. Behind-the-eye pain. The pain that throbbed and cultivated, expanding to other parts of her lobes should she continued to stimulate it. It would be foolish to try and test it, this she knew by hard-taught instinct. Yet so great was her respect and love for the elderly librarian, even after just one reading, that she forced herself to study the page. The letter swam in front of her stare, the sticks rearranging despite Nira�s desperate attempts to make them stay in one place. First A she saw, then E, then a mixture of a B and a K. Sitting back to rub her confused optics, Nira instead murmured the sound that Melln was repeating, shaping her mouth as she saw his. �Ooo� aaaa� ae. Ae!� She still did not understand quite what he wished of her.

�Ah!� This new sound (one previously unheard of that she would later admit she was surprised to have uttered) came with the arrival of a very oddly shaped, very frightening, very -new- creature. Nira scrambled back into the buoyant chair, her frantic movements causing it to groan in protest. Once she had sufficiently wedged a (far from) suitable distance between the creature and her own trembling form, Nira was forced to do nothing but stare in shocked amazement at the unidentified organism, the majority of her brain screaming to run but (to her growing horror) another small, inducing inborn sense whispering that she should instead do as her ancestors had done and prey� Firmly shaking the appalling notion from her thoughts, Nira only calmed once the being had returned to its partner. She kept a wary eye on it, but managed to sneak a glance at Melln, hoping that he hadn�t somehow learned of the awakening of that horrendous instinct. Oh, how she hoped he hadn�t seen! Her body moved with a fluency that was lost to her distraught mind, cautiously resuming a normal position in the chair. Her gaze remained on the creature and its other, the tenuous sounds that ripped from a paralyzed throat only deciphered through close listening. �� wh...aa...t?�

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