💾 Archived View for lantashifiles.com › gemlog › entries › 2023-06-07.gmi captured on 2023-07-22 at 16:36:27. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-06-14)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Following is the next screen to Hybrid Shadows. With this one I wanted to bring out Kendra's and Matthew's personalities more, as well as to further develop their relationship.
This scene took a while for me to write. It it supposed to be a fun scene before things start to get more serious in the story.
This might happen with all authors, I don't know, but as I write stories, I keep wanting to put in more and more character and relationship building, and I get the idea that after a while I need to cut things off. Otherwise, my story will be 90% relationship and 10% action. Which kinda sounds fun, but I do want the story to proceed, and not be a million words long ;-)
Matthew was starting to breathe heavily, struggling to keep up with Kendra as she jogged through the woods. She was so excited to show him her discoveries. Now that she had been out here several times on her own, she had seen many things that no other human had seen. It was special to her, and she had chosen to share it with him, with Matthew.
Several times he stumbled, once nearly falling. His foot would snag on a root or branch that crossed the trail, but he needed to keep up with his friend. He considered calling out to the girl, asking her to slow down, but he was aware that she was going much slower than normal just for his sake. He had a bit of ego on the line. He had insisted on coming not for the reason he had given, not because he wanted to share in her adventures away from the colony, but because he was worried about her. What would she think if, instead of him protecting her, she had to end up taking care of him.
Kendra pulled to a stop in front of Matthew. He pulled up beside her. His lungs aching inside him, he used this break to slow his breathing. Matthew looked down at Kendra, watching as she too now had to catch her breath, sweat glistening on her face and bare arms, her chest rising and falling quickly as she pulled in oxygen from this new world. She had a huge smile on her face. She was enjoying the run, of getting away, of being free.
Kendra's black hair was tied back in a loose pony-tail. Like Matthew, her clothes were gray and drab, those of most of the manual laborers in the colony, made to be durable, to protect from the weather. Those of Kendra and Matthew were now a bit stained, having run through ferns and other underbrush, and the fabric was sticking to their skin, though both of them had rolled the fabric up on their arms to try to help.
A cool wind was blowing through the woods, whipping at their hair. Matthew enjoyed that it was cooling him down, but it made Kendra look wild, her bangs blowing over her face, pulling strands of hair out of her ponytail.
The trees were tall, with a thick canopy overhead. They were in shadows, and as Matthew’s breathing began to slow, he became more aware of how alive the forest was around him - the sound of the wind to through the leaves, the rustling of plants as small animals moved about, and the song of birds many and varied. He wondered if this is what it was like back on The KshDonar, the dying world of their ancestors. Could they keep from making such a mess of this new home they had found?
"Can you hear it?" Kendra asked, turning to look up at her friend, an excited look in her dark brown eyes.
"I hear many things now," Matthew replied. "It is peaceful. I can see why you like here. But I still worry that we will get in trouble. Everyone has to know we are here, maybe our exact spot."
Kendra looked ahead, down the small animal path they were following.
"What do you hear, Matt?" she asked. "And what do you see?"
"I see you," Matthew said. Kendra looked back up at him, a playful twinkle in her eye.
"Yes, I hope so, or else I would have to kick you."
Matthew laughed.
"What else do you see, or hear?"
"I hear the wind, rustling in the woods, bird-song. At least I think they are birds."
"Listen more closely to the wind. Some of it, it is not wind. It is water."
Matthew concentrated on the sound of the wind through the trees, and then he heard it. It was there, something, a lower sound, a steady rumbling.
"Is that a..."
But he was not able to finish his question. Kendra was off again, running quickly. After a moment, Matthew was after her, trying to catch up.
He became aware of animals running beside him, on both sides of the path. They were strange, six-legged creatures, shaggy, with two eyes on each side of their head. A long white tongue hung out of each creatures mouth. They didn't seem to be hostile, but they made Matthew nervous none-the-less.
It was a strange thought, but it made sense. Kendra was at home here, wanting to be part of their new world as it *was*, not trying to transform it it into something alien.
Matthew could see that the forest was lighter up ahead, helping him to see better. He picked up speed, now pulling even with Kendra. He was breathing hard and perspiring freely, whereas she barely appeared to be winded. She looked over and smiled at him, a playful, mischievous look in her eyes. Then just to spite him put on an extra burst of speed. He followed suit, throwing himself into the run with all of his remaining strength. All the while, the forest was lighting up, both due to the growing daylight, and as he could now see they were coming up on a clearing. Pulling even with Kendra once again, he was determined to beat her into the clearing. Now neck and neck, the clearing just seconds away...
Matthew suddenly found himself airborne! He had just run off a cliff, along with Kendra. He shouted out in alarm, and the girl cried out in joy. He saw the waterfall directly ahead of him, noisily crashing to the earth below. His heart leapt into his throat at the sensation of falling, but it only lasted a couple of seconds. He and the young woman with him tumbled downward about fifteen feet, splashing loudly and sending a stream of water several feet into the air.
He was immediately soaked as Kendra and Matthew splashed into the cold water of a lake at the base of the waterfall. Underwater for several seconds, he could see the girl beside him that he had been chasing. Her lythe legs kicked at the water as she pushed up toward the surface of the water. He quickly followed.
In another couple of seconds he broke the surface, using his hands to rub the water out of his eyes, and getting his bangs out of his face. He was a little disoriented by the noise of the waterfall so close, something that he had never heard in real life before, and certainly never this close. As he got his wits about him, he heard the sound of laughing. It was a beautiful, just a wonderful sound. He looked at its source, and saw Kendra floating nearby, treading water, a huge smile, gales of laughter erupting from her.
"That was NOT funny!" Matthew shouted over the waterfall, but his protestations were weak, as he felt a huge smile of his own breaking out. "You know, we could have been killed going over that cliff!" But he was so happy, seeing this normally somber and depressed girl acting so carefree. She was different out here, the wild animal, free from the rules of their stifling society.
"Oh come on," Kendra shouted back. "You once told me you would try anything once. I am just making you keep your word! You would have never done that if I told you about it ahead of time."
"You don’t know that!" Matthew protested, but it was already too late. This was fun, something he had never done before, and that never would have been approved of by the Cardinal Embassy.