Some people just can't stay away
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 7:46 amRattrap's curious brown gaze was fixed on the lake. Watching, unmoving, every ripple, splash or disturbance of the water's calm surface. The morning sun had been rising for a good third of an hour while he stood there. A warm breeze tugged at the indigo-colored tunic, ever the defining 'marking', if you will, of Dr. David D'Rael.
The sun reached a point where the glare reflected so forcefully off the lake's surface that Rattrap had no choice but to look away. He peered off to his right, studying the trees that he'd so often studied before. Except that before...well, the things that were hadn't been yet. Before, there wasn't this gap between one time and the next. But now there was. Yet, the 'gap' was over now. Rattrap was home again. And this time...well, he was going to do thing just so slightly differently.
He started towards town, knowing where to go despite the lack of grounded visual representation. It was elementary knowledge to know one's directions by the sky. Cruddy-looking leather covered either of his feet in makeshift boots, softly crushing the grass with each step, only to allow the blades to reach up towards the sun again scarcely a second later.
Rattrap looked a little different. His face...no, that was quite the same. Homely, friendly; round features, not the sort of type anyone has nightmares about. Well, nobody's ever told him they'd had nightmares about him, anyway. In fact, one little boy who'd suffered a broken leg from some unguided tree-climbing had told him his dream was quite the opposite of a nightmare. At the time, Ratt couldn't help but feeling warm inside.
Ah, but the ribbon! It was gone. The piece of cloth that had always matched the tunic as if to give the whole outfit a sense of completion wasn't anywhere to be seen. Such a small detail wouldn't normally be cause for attention, but the doctor had only ever been seen without that ribbon by his own family and one very special fairy. No more mystical dancing of the loose ends, apparently. His dullish brown hair didn't naturally stand up as it had used to, either; now it was simply subject to the wind's will, pulled and pushed into whatever chaotic design it chose.
But that didn't matter. None of that really mattered anymore. His absence, the crazy things that happened just prior to it - past and gone. Time to start things anew, and perhaps do things a little better this time. Meet up with old friends and gain new ones. All in good time.
The sun reached a point where the glare reflected so forcefully off the lake's surface that Rattrap had no choice but to look away. He peered off to his right, studying the trees that he'd so often studied before. Except that before...well, the things that were hadn't been yet. Before, there wasn't this gap between one time and the next. But now there was. Yet, the 'gap' was over now. Rattrap was home again. And this time...well, he was going to do thing just so slightly differently.
He started towards town, knowing where to go despite the lack of grounded visual representation. It was elementary knowledge to know one's directions by the sky. Cruddy-looking leather covered either of his feet in makeshift boots, softly crushing the grass with each step, only to allow the blades to reach up towards the sun again scarcely a second later.
Rattrap looked a little different. His face...no, that was quite the same. Homely, friendly; round features, not the sort of type anyone has nightmares about. Well, nobody's ever told him they'd had nightmares about him, anyway. In fact, one little boy who'd suffered a broken leg from some unguided tree-climbing had told him his dream was quite the opposite of a nightmare. At the time, Ratt couldn't help but feeling warm inside.
Ah, but the ribbon! It was gone. The piece of cloth that had always matched the tunic as if to give the whole outfit a sense of completion wasn't anywhere to be seen. Such a small detail wouldn't normally be cause for attention, but the doctor had only ever been seen without that ribbon by his own family and one very special fairy. No more mystical dancing of the loose ends, apparently. His dullish brown hair didn't naturally stand up as it had used to, either; now it was simply subject to the wind's will, pulled and pushed into whatever chaotic design it chose.
But that didn't matter. None of that really mattered anymore. His absence, the crazy things that happened just prior to it - past and gone. Time to start things anew, and perhaps do things a little better this time. Meet up with old friends and gain new ones. All in good time.