dicreasy2 | Go Fish 2012 - prologue thing!

Title: Go Fish 2012: Prologue Thing
Prompt: High Fantasy
Rating: PG
Summary: Prologue thing to whet your appetites.
Notes: This is the first scene for my Go Fish piece. It's the scene that's inspired the story I'm working on.
Word Count: 653.

Cahlleehn stood on the shelf of rock that acted as a balcony to his palace and looked out on the moonlit land he called his own. From here, he could see the rushing water that bordered it on the east and west sides, and the row of sickly trees to the north that delineated the extent of his influence. The final border to his land was a steep mountainside to the south that none of his people could bear to mine. This land wasn’t enough. It had never been enough.

He felt the soft breeze caress his face and his lips twitched into the ghost of a smile. The wind had changed; for the first time in his lifetime it was blowing in from the north, bringing with it the feel of the cold and the faint stench of decay. If he was reading things right, his people’s situation was about to change.

“Sehr!” A lesser being would have jumped at the sudden greeting cutting through the silence of the night, but Cahlleehn merely turned and raised his eyebrows in askance. The guard lifted his left hand to his right shoulder and bowed his head. “Sehr,” he repeated more quietly, “one of the astronomers from the Western Tower seeks an audience with yourself.”

“Did he say why?”

“No, he insists that what he has to say is for your ears only.”

Cahlleehn nodded. “Send him out here.”

The guard saluted again and disappeared back into the palace. A moment later a man of indeterminable age, but clad in the voluminous robes that marked him out as a scholar shuffled out onto the balcony, followed by the guard. “Sehr,” he muttered as he sank to his knees and prostrated himself on the ground.

In a few quick steps Cahlleehn was in front of him. “You wished to speak with me?”

Still face down on the ground, the astronomer nodded. Cahlleehn clicked his fingers. Recognising the signal, the scholar rose to his haunches, but kept his eyes fixed on the ground before Cahlleehn’s feet.

“Why?”

The astronomer hesitated and Cahlleehn squatted down in front of him. On the fingers of his right hand he wore the traditional finger rings of his position. Long and pointed, they covered the tips of his fingers completely like talons and like talons, they were razor sharp. He now hooked one beneath the astronomer’s chin and forced his head up so that he met his gaze. The astronomer hissed at the sudden pain, and tried to keep the fear out of his eyes. He failed.

“Why did you wish to see me?” asked Cahlleehn again, his voice dangerously quiet.

“Sehr, I have seen it!” exclaimed the astronomer.

“Seen what?” asked Cahlleehn as he felt his blood quicken.

“In the western most quadrant of the sky! A shimmer!”

Cahlleehn’s head reared back in triumph, but he kept his excitement under control. “You are certain?”

“Yes!”

Cahlleehn removed his hand, but the astronomer didn’t lower his gaze. “You will continue to observe the phenomenon. I want regular reports, and if this shimmer changes in any way, I am to be informed immediately. Do you understand?”

“Yes Sehr!” Cahlleehn stood up and nodded to dismiss him. The astronomer stood up and scurried back into the palace, the guard following at his heels. Cahlleehn turned back to the view and walked slowly to the edge of the balcony. He raised the talon he had hooked under the astronomer’s chin to his mouth and sucked at the blood on it, savouring the metallic tang as he thought about what he had just heard. The ironwood trees to the north were dying. The wind had changed direction. And now the sky had started to shimmer. He lowered his hand and his mouth curved into a grin that showed his needle-like teeth. The enchantments were falling. For the first time in two generations, his people would be free.