Fallen Angel: Chapter Nine
Nov. 6th, 2010 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanEnough beer. On to the g&t.
Naked man isn't here to make me drinks this weekend. He's in Seattle. All I can say is that he better not be falling down on his g&t duties.
"So let's go over this again. Why do you think it was elves?"
Gealhaad had judged the area safe and so we had taken the risk of building a campfire. Ostensibly to cook on, but let's face it, there is something incredibly comforting about building a fire when you are sleeping outside in the middle of nowhere.
We had rolled a couple of decent-sized logs up to the fire pit to provide a place for us all to sit. The angel didn't need to sit of course, but we had informed him in no uncertain terms that him standing over top of us all the time was uncomfortable-making so he was sitting beside us. It also meant we didn't have to look at him in the firelight. You know how peoples' eyes reflect flames when you look at them in the dark? His whole body did that, and it was just plain weird to watch. Sitting beside us made it a lot easier to just not look at him.
It was Sue who put the question to him. I picked at the remainder of my food and listened. Gealhaad had been quizzed on this a dozen times but he never showed a shred of impatience. He also never changed his story by even a single word.
"I saw the signs of struggle in your home. People who had resisted had been burned, wiped from the face of God's earth. People who did not - who could not - have interfered were not touched. Were ignored. Remembered nothing but bright light.
I was once close with one who disappeared under exactly such circumstances. A nun was snatched from her home, a cloister for those who would live their lives in worship. The blind and the infirm were not harmed. Any who stood in the way were destroyed. I could not see what had happened; the guilty were hidden from me. Every one I asked remembered nothing, could tell me nothing. But I kept asking. And eventually I heard a whisper. Elves. Elves have been known to take people this way.
I know nothing of elves so I came to humans for help. No one would help me. Now one of your own has been taken and so we travel to the elven homeland to search for those we hold dear."
I knew from repetition that this was the end of the story. I tossed my remaining fish bones into the fire, making the flames shrink and sizzle. "Sounds like a plot for a movie," I observed.
I wiped my fingers on the grass and then looked up over at the two of them. They were both staring at me. I prickled a little. "It does," I said defensively. "People who otherwise hate each other United In An Epic Adventure Against A Common Foe. It's all very... Lord of the Rings."
Sue made a dry noise. "In Lord of the Rings, the elves were the good guys."
"Well, I guess some of them were." A thought occurred to me. Something that had been tickling the back of my head since the first time I had heard the angel explain why he was here, and had suddenly matured into a full blown actual thought. "And everybody had a back story. Even the bad guys. What about it, Gealhaad? What's your back story? Why do you care so much what happened to that one nun?"
The angel sat without moving for so long that I started thinking he wasn't going to answer at all. I had redirected my attention to finding pretty images in the fire when he finally turned his head slowly towards me and said, "You'll laugh."
"What?" I blinked at him. I noticed in passing that Sue looked no less confused.
"You'll laugh at me. You will mock me. I'm not a person to you, I'm a thing. Or even worse. I represent the bad things that happened to the civilization that you grew up in. There is no way I can tell you about what happened to me without meeting your derision and contempt. So I won't."
And just as slowly he turned his face back to the fire and sat staring at the flames.
I sat for what felt like a long time just looking at the angel, flickering reflection and all. My mouth metaphorically hanging open, as it were. If I was being honest, Gealhaad was the first angel I had ever met. Sure, everybody over the age of ten had once seen the Heavenly Host massing for battle in the sky, and striking down unbelievers for shits 'n' giggles when they got bored with waiting for battle. But that had been many years ago. But I had never actually talked to one of them since the days of the war. Or in face ever even thought of them as individuals.
I started thinking about all the Vietnam vets I had known back in the day, and I started to genuinely feel bad. Maybe angels weren't all just mindless robots for ideological purity. And let's face it, who got the biggest let down when all the bosses of heaven and hell just fucking disappeared and nobody knows what happens next?
I rolled into my sleeping bag that night vowing to treat Gealhaad better. After all, we were all in this together.
Naked man isn't here to make me drinks this weekend. He's in Seattle. All I can say is that he better not be falling down on his g&t duties.
"So let's go over this again. Why do you think it was elves?"
Gealhaad had judged the area safe and so we had taken the risk of building a campfire. Ostensibly to cook on, but let's face it, there is something incredibly comforting about building a fire when you are sleeping outside in the middle of nowhere.
We had rolled a couple of decent-sized logs up to the fire pit to provide a place for us all to sit. The angel didn't need to sit of course, but we had informed him in no uncertain terms that him standing over top of us all the time was uncomfortable-making so he was sitting beside us. It also meant we didn't have to look at him in the firelight. You know how peoples' eyes reflect flames when you look at them in the dark? His whole body did that, and it was just plain weird to watch. Sitting beside us made it a lot easier to just not look at him.
It was Sue who put the question to him. I picked at the remainder of my food and listened. Gealhaad had been quizzed on this a dozen times but he never showed a shred of impatience. He also never changed his story by even a single word.
"I saw the signs of struggle in your home. People who had resisted had been burned, wiped from the face of God's earth. People who did not - who could not - have interfered were not touched. Were ignored. Remembered nothing but bright light.
I was once close with one who disappeared under exactly such circumstances. A nun was snatched from her home, a cloister for those who would live their lives in worship. The blind and the infirm were not harmed. Any who stood in the way were destroyed. I could not see what had happened; the guilty were hidden from me. Every one I asked remembered nothing, could tell me nothing. But I kept asking. And eventually I heard a whisper. Elves. Elves have been known to take people this way.
I know nothing of elves so I came to humans for help. No one would help me. Now one of your own has been taken and so we travel to the elven homeland to search for those we hold dear."
I knew from repetition that this was the end of the story. I tossed my remaining fish bones into the fire, making the flames shrink and sizzle. "Sounds like a plot for a movie," I observed.
I wiped my fingers on the grass and then looked up over at the two of them. They were both staring at me. I prickled a little. "It does," I said defensively. "People who otherwise hate each other United In An Epic Adventure Against A Common Foe. It's all very... Lord of the Rings."
Sue made a dry noise. "In Lord of the Rings, the elves were the good guys."
"Well, I guess some of them were." A thought occurred to me. Something that had been tickling the back of my head since the first time I had heard the angel explain why he was here, and had suddenly matured into a full blown actual thought. "And everybody had a back story. Even the bad guys. What about it, Gealhaad? What's your back story? Why do you care so much what happened to that one nun?"
The angel sat without moving for so long that I started thinking he wasn't going to answer at all. I had redirected my attention to finding pretty images in the fire when he finally turned his head slowly towards me and said, "You'll laugh."
"What?" I blinked at him. I noticed in passing that Sue looked no less confused.
"You'll laugh at me. You will mock me. I'm not a person to you, I'm a thing. Or even worse. I represent the bad things that happened to the civilization that you grew up in. There is no way I can tell you about what happened to me without meeting your derision and contempt. So I won't."
And just as slowly he turned his face back to the fire and sat staring at the flames.
I sat for what felt like a long time just looking at the angel, flickering reflection and all. My mouth metaphorically hanging open, as it were. If I was being honest, Gealhaad was the first angel I had ever met. Sure, everybody over the age of ten had once seen the Heavenly Host massing for battle in the sky, and striking down unbelievers for shits 'n' giggles when they got bored with waiting for battle. But that had been many years ago. But I had never actually talked to one of them since the days of the war. Or in face ever even thought of them as individuals.
I started thinking about all the Vietnam vets I had known back in the day, and I started to genuinely feel bad. Maybe angels weren't all just mindless robots for ideological purity. And let's face it, who got the biggest let down when all the bosses of heaven and hell just fucking disappeared and nobody knows what happens next?
I rolled into my sleeping bag that night vowing to treat Gealhaad better. After all, we were all in this together.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-07 03:48 am (UTC)I totally need to adapt that idea.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-07 04:03 am (UTC)