literature

Tava's Tale

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Literature Text

Three years ago...
Tava coughed violently.  She could feel the blood well up in the back of her throat as if the pain in her chest threatened to boil it up from her heart.

"Don't stop," she whispered to herself as she ran stumbling through the dying forest.  "If you stop, they will catch you.  If they catch you, they will take you back.  If they take you back, they will kill you… or worse.  Don’t stop."  She forced herself to suck in another breath despite the pain.  Her lungs burned, her chest ached and tears washed clean channels down her dirty cheeks.

“Don’t stop,” she repeated again like a mantra.  “Pain is fleeting, it will fade.”  She stumbled over an exposed root , her ankle and knee twisting painfully as she fell.  It was a sharp pain that soon dulled and added to the other aches of her abused body.

“Don’t stop,” she wheezed once more, forcing herself to stand.  “Pain is fleeting, it will fade.  Don’t stop, pain is fleeting, it will fade…”



Now...
The pain returned to her... it was if a hand was wrapped about her heart and dug its claws into it.  She knew what was coming next but it always took her by surprise as it felt as though the very air she breathed were on fire burning in her lungs.  Then came the blood, coughed up in great gouts that always left her pale and ashen.

The pain threatened to consume her.  To overtake her body and lay waste to her soul.

Tava curled up in a ball on the mossy bed on which she laid.  She tried to think of something pleasant... something to take her mind off the pain.  But the images that swam before her in her mind were soon dispelled by another bloody hacking cough.



Seven years ago...
Tava wished they would all stop coughing.  Part of her just wished that they would die already.  It wasn’t a malicious wish but merely one made by a fifteen year old girl who was weary, frightened and at her wits end.  She just couldn’t take their suffering anymore.   For three days the others in the pit in which she sat had coughed and wheezed nonstop.  Many now were so pained by the constant coughing, that they also moaned and wailed in abject misery.  It all came together in a horrible cacophony that was made worse as it echoed off the walls of the stone pit around them.

“Shut up!” she screamed in frustration, hands clamped over her ears.

Those that had the strength still left in them lolled their heads to the side to face her.  Their eyes were sunken and flecks of blood were coughed upon their lips.  Tava closed her eyes in shame to shut out the vision.

“Just please shut up,” she whispered.

Above them at the edge of the pit, stood two figures dressed in robes dark and malevolent.  Their eyes, empty pits as dark as night stared down at the helpless captives.

"They all have eaten?" the taller one asked, his voice a sibilant whisper.

"Yes master," the other robed figure said bowing his hunched form even lower.  "Three days ago, they all should be infected."

“Yet that one seems to be unaffected.”  A near skeletal hand, the flesh sunken and stretched over bone pointed down at the red haired girl.

“But the others master are near death,” the dark figure began to make excuses but was stopped short at the hand rose to silence him.

“The others were already weak from hunger and work,” the Master began.  “Against healthy specimens, the infection will fail.  We must start over.”  The Master turned away from the pit and began to stride away from it.

“What of these specimens, Master?”

The Master stopped at the doorway and looked over his shoulder.  Something in the dark pits of his eyes seemed to glow for a moment.  “Bring the girl to my laboratory.  The others,” he began turning away once more.  “Feed my demons.”



Now…
Tava tried to eat.  The Astranaar Innkeeper was kind enough to bring food to her room and left with a worried smile at the human who had been spending so much time in the quiet elven village.   Tava picked at the sweetmeats and warm bread, knowing that she should eat but was just not hungry.  The food that she ate sat heavy in her stomach and ended her desire to eat all together.  Whenever her affliction struck it usually left her weak and hungry but not this time.

Tava reached into her pack and pulled out a folded piece of parchment.  Inside the folds lay a simple red feather that she held up before her face and slowly spun in her fingers.  She sighed as she stared at the feather bringing to mind pleasant memories of a night filled with passion underneath the moon and in Elune‘s radiance.  It was one of the few things these days that brought her any sense of solace and yet as she stared at it, it also brought to her a sense of sorrow.

“Do I really have her heart?” she whispered to herself.  “I have never been so lucky, so is this all a dream?”

Tava sighs once more and lovingly puts the feather down in the folds of the parchment.

“So what is now that that leaves me feeling empty and hollow?  Love?” she said shrugging.  “Is it that what now consumes me?  Heh… as if my affliction weren’t enough.”

Tava looked down at her plate and forced herself to eat another piece of bread that had cooled on her plate.  Slowly she took a deep breath and was happy that it did not hurt, only a mild ache to remind her of pain she suffered.

“Pain is fleeting,” she whispered.  “It will fade.”
This story is based in the World of Warcraft character of mine, Tava. I did a bunch of shorts that explained her past and her present and her personality. This was the first Tale. If I find the others, I will pop them up.
© 2006 - 2024 BambooKnight
Comments3
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sheeku's avatar
I can't wait to read more about her. I also find it funny that when ever you wright about pain and suffering I'm just compelled to read more.