Like A Hundred Million Suns

[darksmokerising]

WHO: Merlan, open

WHEN: April 20th-30th

WHAT: Merlan being Merlan, selling stuff and getting into skirmishes

WHERE: Around Gazin, The Forge

WARNINGS: Swearing, violence, gross wounds?
 

1. Market Day [OPEN]

Gazin’s Market Day was every fifth day for Merlan, a place where she could sell her wares — magic and not. It was also a good day to chat with people here and there and catch up on what people have been up to in their lives. She’s all bright and sunshine, chatting here and there, her eyes light with happiness.

 

“You don’t look like you need a protection medallion,” she says with a laugh and a smile.

 

2. [Bucky] Monsters In the Night

 

She's late on the road coming back from Gazin, late and laden with the things she bought from market and the trees whisper in the wind. Fresh milk, fresh bread, sugar, some salt, fresh flour (Bucky Barnes making pancakes in her kitchen, the air thick with honey and the scent of cooking cakes on the griddle, the scent of coffee rousing her from bed, his voice all around her), and honey she can almost taste on her lips. A new flat pan. A new tunic folded neatly into the saddlebag.

 

She never bought much, just enough to get them through. The flour, sugar, and salt were staples. The pancakes were a necessity. She'd never been big on them before but the times have changed and she's a fucking angel, isn't she? A strange cry in the woods shifts her mind back to the here and now as she touches the talisman that has become a reminder of him and his security -- a wolf set against a soft, warm, shell of a moon. She speeds up, urging Thunder faster just because she's paranoid and the safe paths aren't always safe.

 

There's no one else out here. It's late enough that the sun's setting, late enough for the spooks to get started terrifying travellers, late enough for the unthinkable. It's late enough but on the home stretch as they race for the Forge and its magical barrier. Something flickers orange and <I>God</i> she remembers that smell.

 

Bog wight. They sure hated her.

 

A pain slams through her head as something blunt crashes into her temple and she's knocked from her horse. Everything blurs as she hits the road and rolls. The creature screams in triumph, letting the horse keep moving. Thunder will find Bucky, will lead him back here. Her sword is out as she rolls back up to her feet but it's not the right sword, it's not silver. Long, slender fingers close around her throat as her wings flare out to knock the creature away.

 

Everything hurts from her head to her toes to something that’s broken and trying to mend. She winces and realises it’s more than one and they’re working together.

 

They lunge and fire blooms along her side as claws find their mark.

Agony immediately follows as she launches herself skyward and the pain in her head blossoms like fireworks, red and black spots clouding her vision as she begins to lose altitude over the Forge. She doesn't even feel it when she hits the earth.