walking nightmares. Who: Genna, Jaehaerys, NPC Kingsguard Where: Summerhall, random hallway When: August 19, laaate. like if we had actual clocks it would be Aug 20. Rating: PG-13 Status: Ask if you want to join.
The shadows were coming with their blue eyes and silver swords, dancing with grumkins and singing in voices like ice and the hiss of flames. The dragons' heat was replaced by the cold of deepest winter and the taste of poppy milk and bitter bark. She opened her eyes to the dark and the dying flames in the fireplace. There were lumps and bumps in the bed and Ned was whispering to snakes with his eyes closed. Septa Mariyan was asleep in her chair and there were others, other shapes of bodies gone to shadows. William, her father, had been here. She had cried and remembered his voice...
The shadows were coming with their blue eyes and silver swords, dancing with grumkins and singing in voices like and ice and the hiss of flames. Genna could see them in the walls, waiting for the fire to go out. She slid the big covers off and made her legs move. They were shaking, but they held her as she stood on the cold stone floor. She got down on her knees and reached under the bed, fumbling for a moment til her hands found the thing they sought. Holding it tightly, she crawled toward the door, keeping her motions slow and silent aside from the faint swish of her silk nightgown on the stone. At last she got to the door and pulled herself up again, opening it slowly- so slowly that she worried the dark would sweep in before she had it far enough- but the embers held. She only opened it far enough to let herself out.
In the hallway the tapestries shivered and danced in the light of the torches and candles. They brushed her hair and face as she walked along the wall, holding her up and whispering sweetly. The old silk was cool and strange against her skin, and the figures moved toward her and back again, always reaching out, asking her to join them. She could go with them to the lands of always summer: the lands of the songs. She could go and never fear the winter night. She could go with them. She would be a princess in the songs, and always young and pretty, and never old or sad. She stumbled once, and then again, falling against the marble floor, and lay there, shaking, shivering, heart pounding as she wondered if she could make it to her feet again.
The kings looked down on her with purple eyes, sad and kind and mad and lost, and they offered her their hands. The queens were there, all bright and sweet and fair, and they held out flowers for her hair. The dragons spun through the air and their breath swept over her again, hot and burning, till her flesh was bubbly and her hair was soaked in wildfire.
"I can't... I can't..." Tears as hot as flame were in her eyes. The shadows had taken everyone and she didn't remember where... "I have to find him first... Just that... just that..."