Post by Charlie Dudox on Sept 27, 2004 0:49:11 GMT -5
Charlie had fallen asleep out there in the grass. She was still exhausted and unwilling to come to grips with how fallible her body still was. While her body was exhausted, her sleep was not restful. Perhaps all the drama was dredging up old sorrows but for the first time in a long time she dreamed of her times back in the Harona tribe. She had been only six years old when her parents hauled her along with them to study the hierarchical structure of the small tribe. There she had made fast friends with the other children, taking a special liking to a sister and brother Senta and Sooni. It was they who taught her Haronan when her parents were too involved in their work. It was they who invited her to join in their house hold chores, making her more a part of the tribe than her observational parents could ever hope to be. But in her dream there were none of these happy memories.
She was in her parent’s small shack, out on a cot stricken with an epidemic that threatened the life of almost every child in village. Her body was covered in splotches and she was sweating buckets. She could still feel her mother’s cool touch against her hot skin as she lay it upon her only daughter’s forehead. They had argued that night over whether it was fair to bring a child where life was so dangerous and disease ran so rampant. Her father wanted them to return to the University and teach until Charlie was older. Her mother kept replying stiffly that he probably expected her to become a domestic housewife and that Charlie would be fine, that children got sick, Harona children got sick and that he could go be a domestic without her if he so dared please.
Charlie had barely paid attention to their arguments, she had spent most of her illness calling out and asking after Senta and Sooni. She had screamed for them in English, pleaded for their company in Haronan, in the depths of her fever even spoken to them as though they were in the room. For three weeks her body raged and succumbed and then slowly fought the virus she had only asked her parents how her two ill friends were and if they could be sick together. Senta and Sooni had died only two days after Charlie had become bed ridden. No one had had the heart to tell the girl, and in their mercy they had lied and lied. It was not until Charlie had completely recovered that she learned the awful truth and it had almost been enough to cause a relapse. Her parents had ended their research early to spare their child the pain of a tribe nearly emptied of its children. They had moved on to the jungle tribe the Zotta not long after.
Charlie woke with a start. She was shivering though out of cold and not fever. She was shocked by how clearly she remembered her shouts for her two first friends. When she was too young to even comprehend the hugeness of the term “selflessness”, she had become deeply involved in the wellbeing of others while often forgetting her own. As a little girl she had been unable to save those who she cared for most but it had fueled her forward. All her life she had left people baffled by her constant desire to get exactly what she wanted and her first reaction in any circumstance to put the well being of all others before her own. It had happened in the cave in with Daniel only the day before, but still, how strange that that moment had triggered such a near-forgotten memory.
She stood slowly and brushed herself. She should have been back at the camp site hours ago. No doubt someone, by this point, would have noticed her inexplicable absence and would be worried, though Daniel seemed so caught up in Amariette all the sudden, she almost doubted it. The walk back to camp was slow and leisurely, it was only when she was the smoldering smoke that her heart skipped a beat. Not another on the job accident! Perhaps this temple simply didn’t wish to be unearthed. Perhaps it was cursed. Stranger things had happened. She broke into a run, breathing hard as she soon found herself light headed as she reached the perimeter of the dig. “What happened now? Someone fill me in. Now!” Her voice was filled with an authority that was rarely heard from the friendly and jovial young archeologist. One of the men stopped in his track and sputtered. “You don’t know? Ma’am, Dr. Carter was attacked by a stranger from the Phoenix Guild. He was shot and kidnapped and the dig was nearly burned to ashes. Miss Amariette went to go gain aid from the Queen!”
She was shocked, he had to be kidding. Quickly she marched forward without another word, looking around fully expecting to see Daniel here somewhere. So involved was she in this fruitless search that she didn’t even bother to ask why she had been referred to as Ma’am of all things when Amariette was Miss. She sure as hell was not anywhere close to the age that would deserve that title. “Who the hell is the Phoenix Guild, and where the hell am I going to have to go to get Daniel back.” She was still yelling, directing her questions at no one in particular but still expecting a direct and quick reply “Uh… uh… the Phoenix Guild is organized crime, Ma’am. They run whole parts of Ayenee. They are said to be vicious, you can’t really expect to go after him all by yourself. It would be suicide, Amariette will get the Queen, you should be resting still!” The same man replied following after her as she stalked towards her tent and began to dig through her bag, finally finding her revolver. Amariette. Amariette. Amariette. She was a sweet girl, a clever girl, no doubt worthy of Daniel’s sudden doting and affection but she was a naïve country bumpkin and Charlie wasn’t used to leaving this sort of thing for others to handle.
She loaded the revolver while the worker looked on gaping, her voice coming off as calm and tight. “First of all, if you call me Ma’am again I am not going to be held responsible for my actions. Secondly, I absolutely plan to get anywhere and do anything necessary to bring that man back, safe and sound. Thirdly, for all the great respect I have for Miss Amariette, I do not trust her in the least not to get herself in way over her head.” The man did not reply as his eyes shifted between the strained expression on her face and the loaded weapon in her hand. “Ma’—Charlie, I’m sorry. We do not know where he is being kept for certain or you would be the first to know. Why don’t you just stick around until we have a game plan? We need your help here. Dr. Carter would have wantd you to help us salvage his work.” God damn the voice of reason. Charlie strapped on her holster and slipped in the gun. If there were bandits around she certainly wasn’t going to go around unarmed. Instead she stormed past the man angrily to go help with the work “I’m holding you to that. I want to be the first to know with any new developments. And don’t you dare ever speak of Daniel like he is already dead in my presence again.” With the she went to work, channeling her energy away from the pain of her heart ripping in two once more.
She was in her parent’s small shack, out on a cot stricken with an epidemic that threatened the life of almost every child in village. Her body was covered in splotches and she was sweating buckets. She could still feel her mother’s cool touch against her hot skin as she lay it upon her only daughter’s forehead. They had argued that night over whether it was fair to bring a child where life was so dangerous and disease ran so rampant. Her father wanted them to return to the University and teach until Charlie was older. Her mother kept replying stiffly that he probably expected her to become a domestic housewife and that Charlie would be fine, that children got sick, Harona children got sick and that he could go be a domestic without her if he so dared please.
Charlie had barely paid attention to their arguments, she had spent most of her illness calling out and asking after Senta and Sooni. She had screamed for them in English, pleaded for their company in Haronan, in the depths of her fever even spoken to them as though they were in the room. For three weeks her body raged and succumbed and then slowly fought the virus she had only asked her parents how her two ill friends were and if they could be sick together. Senta and Sooni had died only two days after Charlie had become bed ridden. No one had had the heart to tell the girl, and in their mercy they had lied and lied. It was not until Charlie had completely recovered that she learned the awful truth and it had almost been enough to cause a relapse. Her parents had ended their research early to spare their child the pain of a tribe nearly emptied of its children. They had moved on to the jungle tribe the Zotta not long after.
Charlie woke with a start. She was shivering though out of cold and not fever. She was shocked by how clearly she remembered her shouts for her two first friends. When she was too young to even comprehend the hugeness of the term “selflessness”, she had become deeply involved in the wellbeing of others while often forgetting her own. As a little girl she had been unable to save those who she cared for most but it had fueled her forward. All her life she had left people baffled by her constant desire to get exactly what she wanted and her first reaction in any circumstance to put the well being of all others before her own. It had happened in the cave in with Daniel only the day before, but still, how strange that that moment had triggered such a near-forgotten memory.
She stood slowly and brushed herself. She should have been back at the camp site hours ago. No doubt someone, by this point, would have noticed her inexplicable absence and would be worried, though Daniel seemed so caught up in Amariette all the sudden, she almost doubted it. The walk back to camp was slow and leisurely, it was only when she was the smoldering smoke that her heart skipped a beat. Not another on the job accident! Perhaps this temple simply didn’t wish to be unearthed. Perhaps it was cursed. Stranger things had happened. She broke into a run, breathing hard as she soon found herself light headed as she reached the perimeter of the dig. “What happened now? Someone fill me in. Now!” Her voice was filled with an authority that was rarely heard from the friendly and jovial young archeologist. One of the men stopped in his track and sputtered. “You don’t know? Ma’am, Dr. Carter was attacked by a stranger from the Phoenix Guild. He was shot and kidnapped and the dig was nearly burned to ashes. Miss Amariette went to go gain aid from the Queen!”
She was shocked, he had to be kidding. Quickly she marched forward without another word, looking around fully expecting to see Daniel here somewhere. So involved was she in this fruitless search that she didn’t even bother to ask why she had been referred to as Ma’am of all things when Amariette was Miss. She sure as hell was not anywhere close to the age that would deserve that title. “Who the hell is the Phoenix Guild, and where the hell am I going to have to go to get Daniel back.” She was still yelling, directing her questions at no one in particular but still expecting a direct and quick reply “Uh… uh… the Phoenix Guild is organized crime, Ma’am. They run whole parts of Ayenee. They are said to be vicious, you can’t really expect to go after him all by yourself. It would be suicide, Amariette will get the Queen, you should be resting still!” The same man replied following after her as she stalked towards her tent and began to dig through her bag, finally finding her revolver. Amariette. Amariette. Amariette. She was a sweet girl, a clever girl, no doubt worthy of Daniel’s sudden doting and affection but she was a naïve country bumpkin and Charlie wasn’t used to leaving this sort of thing for others to handle.
She loaded the revolver while the worker looked on gaping, her voice coming off as calm and tight. “First of all, if you call me Ma’am again I am not going to be held responsible for my actions. Secondly, I absolutely plan to get anywhere and do anything necessary to bring that man back, safe and sound. Thirdly, for all the great respect I have for Miss Amariette, I do not trust her in the least not to get herself in way over her head.” The man did not reply as his eyes shifted between the strained expression on her face and the loaded weapon in her hand. “Ma’—Charlie, I’m sorry. We do not know where he is being kept for certain or you would be the first to know. Why don’t you just stick around until we have a game plan? We need your help here. Dr. Carter would have wantd you to help us salvage his work.” God damn the voice of reason. Charlie strapped on her holster and slipped in the gun. If there were bandits around she certainly wasn’t going to go around unarmed. Instead she stormed past the man angrily to go help with the work “I’m holding you to that. I want to be the first to know with any new developments. And don’t you dare ever speak of Daniel like he is already dead in my presence again.” With the she went to work, channeling her energy away from the pain of her heart ripping in two once more.
