Jacob Grimm ([info]livingthestory) wrote,
@ 2006-10-06 22:00:00
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Current mood: contemplative

146: Hidden. (297 words)
The air was breathtakingly still.

Jacob stood shivering in the mist, watching the thin string of steam emitting from between his lips and resenting it for disturbing the mood. This place was cold and dead, early-winter frost coating the fallen twigs and dried leaves on the forest floor. The life and warmth that his breath represented had no place here.

He was a long way away from where Will was still sleeping, his arm still curled around that village girl, probably in for a splitting headache when he finally woke. Jake was actually feeling the prior night a little himself—the thin sunlight through the window had been what first awoke him and had him squinting. But now he was here: away from the village, away from any known human life. And looking, as he so often did.

“Where are you?” he said, so quiet it was almost a thought. His quivering lips barely formed the words.

Tenderly, he touched a leaf which still clung to its branch, holding it between his thumb and forefinger. He inspected it, searching. The light that came through the branches dappled it with illumination. Letting the leaf go he turned around, listening in the crunch of his footsteps for some clue.

Where are you hiding?

Magic couldn’t hide forever. He was sure of it. Somewhere in one of these woods, that which he and Will ran around pretending to know truly existed. He felt a tree trunk, fingers running through the grooves, feeling out every detail. In the stillness of the air, he was almost sure he could feel it.

Almost.

His hand jumped back and clenched itself by his side. Jacob shook his head, then turned and started back in the direction of the village, at once ashamed and afraid.


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[info]struck_wanderer
2006-10-07 03:48 am UTC (link)
Please do forgive my intrusion, Mr. Grimm, but I find your story intriguing. Do you spend very much time in the forest, away from signs of the human race? And do you truly believe that there is some power in nature? Rest assured, Sir, that I ask not to mock.

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[info]livingthestory
2006-10-07 04:29 am UTC (link)
I used to spend more time away, until I found out that power is there.

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[info]struck_wanderer
2006-10-07 05:52 pm UTC (link)
Might I ask what that power might be? So far as you see it, anyway.

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[info]livingthestory
2006-10-08 08:30 pm UTC (link)
I'd be hard-pressed to put a name on it other than "magic." Where it comes from--from God, or some ancient spirits, or from nature itself, I can't say.

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[info]struck_wanderer
2006-10-09 04:52 am UTC (link)
That sounds sensible enough. Origins can be, it seems, just as difficult to understand as the thing itself. But this magic... Does it speak to you? Show you images or introduce some strange knowledge?

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[info]livingthestory
2006-10-09 10:04 pm UTC (link)
I'm not sure what kind of knowledge you mean. What I found was just there, with no explanation or apology for itself.

One thing I can say is that it confirmed some knowledge I already had. Stories and legends I'd studied all my life.

Why are you asking? Are you looking yourself, or do you know something?

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[info]struck_wanderer
2006-10-10 12:41 am UTC (link)
I suppose I was referring to any affirmations, anything that the discovery might have tied into. Everything has meaning in what it ties into, and the meaning ties with knowledge... At least, I believe that is the way. I may well be mistaken.

A little bit of either, or maybe it can only be one or the other. That is, I believe that I have seen something, and that I may know something from that. I only need to discover what, exactly, it is that I know.

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[info]livingthestory
2006-10-10 05:22 am UTC (link)
Well, affirmations. Definitely, like I said. One story in particular that was thought to be just a legend... There was an ancient curse over this forest, and my brother Will and I walked right into it without knowing it. And it was all because of this queen who was looking for eternal youth, she was stealing away young girls for a spell... *waves hands ambiguously* That sort of thing. And it all turned out to be stuff I'd heard of before, the sort of thing I'd always thought was out there, somewhere... *looks down, sniffs*

But, uh. *looks back up* Anyway, I'm curious now. What is it you've seen? Or believe you've seen?

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[info]struck_wanderer
2006-10-11 06:13 am UTC (link)
That's really quite incredible. There are truths to such tales, then? I've heard my share of unlikely stories, and I can never quite tell how far the truth reaches into them. Around here, it seems that most anything can be true. An ancient curse... Interesting, Mr. Grimm.

What I've seen... You must forgive me if I falter; I still don't quite know. That is, I believe I know, I believe that it was a confirmation of something, a combination of the land itself and the precipice, but there are times when I wonder...

Forgive me, I've run quite off-track. I regret that I cannot rightly say, and that the closest I can come is to speak at a length that most may find, I suppose, tiresome. I met a man of extraordinary power, of a self-possession that I have never met, and somehow he connected with the very nature of the jungle, with the trees and the natives. He held power over them, but they reached into him. He was a very... Well. Before he died, he spoke of something. And I experienced something, a similar confrontation. All shapes and images and some vague knowledge, you see.

Something along those lines, anyway.

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