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Old 08-21-2003, 03:50 AM   #165
Rimbaud
The Perilous Poet
 
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Heart of the matter
Posts: 1,096
Rimbaud has just left Hobbiton.
Pipe

As light descended warily into the courtyard, scattering spiders and illuminating the worn cobbles, the Innkeeper sighed his way out of the side door. Another day was beginning and he had barrels to haul up to the bar, and his help was late. As always. He adjusted his apron, freshly washed and starched, and therefore remarkable in its discomfort.

The side-door swung closed behind him silently, as it always did. He wondered how a door that he had never seen oiled or adjusted could not make a whisper, even after many years of service.

Then he cursed, lowly and bitterly, as he had not remembered his keys. Not only could he not return upstairs to his predecessor’s warm and functional bedroom, but the cellar was closed to him as well.

He wrung his hands in frustration and stared down at the ground, just beginning to lighten as the sunlight washed weakly over the white walls of the Inn.

Then he forgot his worries and nearly cried out with shock.

The dawning day revealed a grey, curled body just three paces within the main gate. Even in this light he could see the remnants of the vivid blue that slashed across the pale tunic of the body. He also saw many other stains as he ran forwards. Dark red they seemed, and many of them.

As he approached, his heart nearly stopped as he discerned, just barely, the slightest movement of the thin ribs beneath the shredded clothes.

As Summer turned to Autumn, as night turned to day, Rimbaud of the Seventh Star had returned home.
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