literature

The Lady Of The Lake

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Literature Text

Her voice is a like a tremble. It slips down and past mossy stones and empties out into a quiet and secluded lake, from where it again splinters and drains away. Animal bones and the discarded skeletons of old children's toys are bobbing on its surface peacefully; ribbons of black ichor and dirt spiral off of them into the water. It is polluted by my perception.

I do not speak as I float across the lake silently in my little boat. There are a few subdued ripples as I dip my oars under the skin of the water. I slowly paddle to the center of the lake and look into the water, where it is deepest. I see swirling charcoal masses; fragments of hair and lichen stir together. There is a pale unlit face amongst them. Her eyes are half-closed and streams of purple blood stain her lips and gently spill outwards as she glides underneath my boat. I reach down and dip my finger into the water.

A pale and stained hand slowly weaves its way out of the depths and gently grasps mine. Her nails are neatly trimmed; her skin translucent, her bones brittle. She is my spider, and I lift her up and out of the water.

Her body is large and impressive; her wiry legs, all skittering around at random. There is a strange grace to her movement as she climbs up onto the boat. She drips steadily onto the rotten wood floor of the boat, and pushing her sticky black hair away from her face with a thin hand, smiles at me. Her teeth are bright as china and her lips are a bruised purple. We talk for awhile. Soon the sun burns a brilliant blue behind distant mountains. The cloud-forms are lit from below like fires.

She curls her arms around her abdomen and shivers. I place a small blanket around her shoulders and pat her dry, as she slowly rows to the shore of the lake, her arms being much more suited to the task than mine.

I build a small fire on the damp ground, placing a few small branches inside it. The rusted skeleton of a dog lies nearby. Its brittle brown jaw hangs open, slack. The smell of bone and burning hair fills the air, but we do not mind. She crawls up to me and leans against my left side. I hold her withered wrist in mine and stroke it softly, and she begins to sing quietly, until she falls asleep across my legs.

I kiss her across her closed eyes and look over her sleeping body. It is cold, wet, and dirty. Her legs are beginning to slide back into her naked body. She no longer has the form of a sea spider, but that of a woman. Small, young, and helpless, like a child.

I lay there on the moist earth next to her and hold her around the shoulders. And I sleep.

In the morning she is gone.

The ground is stained with her blood. I cry out her name and search for her frantically, and I feel a strange sensation on my hand. I turn it over and see her there, my little spider, crawling across my knuckles, her beautiful black body spotted with bright indigo and swirls of violet. She takes a small bow.

I place her on the minty green leaf of a nearby tree, wet with dew. She climbs up it and I watch as she weaves her web. It is a graceful thing. It curves around the surface of the tree and its branches like a thick carpet. When she is finished she waves her legs at me playfully and I turn and face the other direction.

When I turn back she is standing there in her human form. I smile at her widely and kiss her on her lips. They taste of bitter roots and old earth. Taking her hand, I lead her back to the water, which she glides into slowly, waving back at me. She disappears into the black water.

I watch the ripples fade and her traces melt. There is a message she has left for me in her web. I look over it carefully. It is a simple representation of her face.

She will weave her web the next year, and the year after that, and each year I will return to see her. But I may never change with her, and I would never wish to. I love her for what she is, not what I wish for her to become.

And in accepting her, she is made perfect.
I like surprising myself.

Please let me know what you think.
© 2007 - 2024 TheGlome
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Cyanseagull's avatar
Very nice, it has a good macarbe vibe with a nice sense of 'despite' carried through it. Yeah I know that doesnt make any kind of logical sense, but I'm hopingyou'll know what I mean. Just be carfeul in the beginng about repeat words very close to one another, like water and boat. I'm neurotic about word repetion so it may not actually be an issue. I just feel that it tends to break the flow of sentences sometimes, and in a really good piece like this, to have that happen would be a pity.