L E V I A T H A N S E A : Woot 2.

It was night in the Kingdom of Hyren; shadows, long taken as companions and kin of the Witch-Casters, escorted lonely travellers upon their path - - amongst these was a young woman, eyes dim in the darkness and obscured by long, auburn curls which fell haphazardly from her brow. Her hands, clutching dry-wood to her breast, tensed and relaxed with her steps, as though somehow uncertain even in this Kingdom she obviously knew well; she paused, a foot extended in the middle of the dirt path, and glanced at her back, momentarily unsure, momentarily concerned of the sound of movements somewhere back along the disused road. She stepped aside as a man appeared, disheveled from what she immediately assumed to be a long journey; he, as he rode horseback, could possibly have come from only two distant Kingdoms, each at least a three day's ride from the Coven-folds of Hyren. He was tall, shrouded and brusque as he pulled from his pack a satchel and thrust it downwards, against the wood and into the girl's arms; he said nothing, but turned abruptly upon his mount and charged back in the direction from whence he had come; she, curious now about this wrapped bushel, turned in the direction she had been headed and quickened her pace, practically running and obviously desperate to keep her two burdens from tumbling headlong into the dirt.

Somewhere in the distance, as she rounded the forested curve of the roadway, could be seen the large bonfires of the Covens, and she knew well that standing about them were the Great Mothers, bent together in rhyme and softly chanting; it was a Bonfire Night, an Esbat for the Full-Moon which she was expected to attend - - she careened about the corner, lifted her long tattered gown and lifted high her feet as she crossed the meadow-lands where stabled were the livestock of the Coven, careful not to disturb the newborn calves of the Spring. From the bracketed field she strode, now purposeful that she knew precisely to where she was headed; and from there were we granted first glimpse of her as she walked, hunched over her burdens - - she seemed, most unfortunately, for she possessed quite a fair face, almost hunchbacked. Her shoulders sloped quite attractively into her back, where rose an unsightly growth; she, however, seemed almost entirely dismissive of it as she walked, stopping before a hovel of a home to drop the dry-wood upon a wheelbarrow left there for that particular purpose - - she passed through the open doorframe and lifted from her shoulders the cloak she'd worn upon her journey into the wilderness, dismissing any thought that she might have been humpbacked with the rise, from her back, of shadowy wings. They spanned perhaps ten feet, a multitude of muted colours which matched precisely the tint of her auburn hair and fair complexion - - they troubled her little as she moved from the ungainly seating room into a toilet area, shutting the door at her back.

From a cauldron, heated upon the dirt floor, she poured a good quantity of heated water into a deep bath, shedding her clothing as she moved from one place to the next within the Bathing Room; she slipped into the bath, closing her eyes as the warmth of the water surrounded her in entirety, sighing heavily and dropping beneath the water until she could no longer be seen.