New Writer Spotlight: Kira S.

War of the Shifting Sands

Buzzing… The quick vibration of wings against air created a subtle sound that seemed to echo inside Sylvaria’s mind.

Wedged in between two slimy walls of a hive, the young night elf’s body was twisted in an awkward position. Thin rivers of blood slid down her left arm but she dared not move to wipe away the irritating sensation that seemed to tickle at her flesh in annoyance.

Her breathing was shallow, silent… to any observer it might appear the woman didn’t breathe at all as the buzzing would increase sharply only to recede deeper into the caverns of the hive. Every inch of her slender body cried out in protest as an aching feeling kept her in an almost constant state of agony. Fear was the only thing that kept her awake, kept her in the invisible chains that held her against the slick walls of the hive.

Once again the buzzing began to grow, sending small vibrations through her flesh to her very core. A small tear began to form in the corner of her right eye, so insignificant compared to the buzzing that she almost didn’t notice it until it had slid halfway down her cheek. As the sound retreated once more, one of her arms shifted only a fraction of an inch and creating a loud popping sound that made her chest tighten and her breathing cease.

It was almost as if the world had stilled to watch her fate.  The silence choking her as she crouched there for what felt like an eternity. Her cracked, dry lips moved ever so slightly to form the words that would forever be etched in her memory.

“Elune… Save me…” It wasn’t a prayer but a plead. After all her training, all her years, she had been reduced to nothing in that single moment. Those simple words spelled out selfishness, a quality that had caused nations to crumble and tear themselves apart from the inside. She cared not of the others who had been trapped down in the hives as she had. She had been brought to her knees in front of the Goddess and she was begging for her life.

If the Goddess of the Moon had decided to cut the thread of her life at that moment, it would have been considered just but Elune was merciful. Sylvaria hadn’t realized what she had been listening to for the past several minutes had been nothing but silence… the buzzing gone. She had been consumed by her own fear and self pity that she barely noticed the figures that wandered just outside her hiding spot, tall elven women that cut their way through the thin membranes of the hive.

Sylvaria hadn’t noticed, her ears still rang with the sound of buzzing even as the women discovered her, shouting question after question that fell on deaf ears. Her fear turned to pain, her pain turned to pity and her pity turned to darkness as the world faded to black in the arms of her saviors.