Anti Ancient Arts

 

The sound of clay appliances falling and rolling around carried through the cramped hut. The heavy drape covering the openings in the walls moved lazily on the wind shedding sunlight inside. Beam of light hit a dark figure, exposing a young girl on the floor. The sudden brightness abruptly blinded her and in order to protect her fragile pupils she quickly covered her eyes with her forearm. Brunette was dressed in flappy, dark brown clothes. A quiet muttering could be heard when the girl was slowly picking herself after the fall. The vision she has just witnessed caught her off guard, making her lose her balance. She sighed and took one of the drapes down, this time looking away from the source of light, letting her brown as bear’s fur eyes get used to the brightness. She glanced over the clay bowls and pots she created not long ago and left to dry – now most of them being broken and shattered on the ground.

The hut’s inside was covered in wooden shelves and cabinets, which crowded all kinds of items and containers. Most of the things would not be recognisable to normal folks, in fact the unknown was terrifying enough to make them avoid girl’s hut. In the past, villagers would call her “Lily the freak” and treat her as a worse kind. The interior looked monotone, filled with shades of black, grey and red. The only thing contrasting with the background was a small skull bowl filled with lilies of the valley – its white flowers and green stems seemed to be glowing compared to its surroundings. The girl’s name came from the name of this bell-shaped plant.

Lily massaged her elbow while shaking the memories out of her head. Meditating always brings out too many things at once. She had to focus on the vision she has just experienced, forgetting it, or messing up an important part could bring doom upon her and others. The girl stood on her tiptoes in order to reach to one of the higher shelves and grabbed one of the small wooden bowls, filled with dark powder. Thereafter she pulled out a thick roll of rough leather, which she proceeded to reel out on the ground. Then she reached to the skull vessel with lilies of the valley and dipped her fingers in the water the flowers were put in. Lily put her wet fingertips into the dark powder, which upon contact with liquid turned into a claret paint. She closed her eyes and tried to recall every detail of the vision she has witnessed, to put it onto the leather as faithfully as possible.

Her muscles tensed and her eyelids flinched upon the recollection of the vision. All-pervading darkness brought discomfort and misfortune. Sudden explosions of bright, powerful energies tore the blackness apart. Their auras were almost impossible to read, yet alone to distinguish whether they foreshadowed good or evil. Surely enough both negativity and positivity were present, but even things as simple as such seemed to be told by some unknown beings, becoming really hard to decipher. Lily was sure of one thing – it was a vision of upcoming calamity. She swung her arm with frustration, painting the last line of her piece and opened her eyes. The girl was not able to read any consequences or end results of the vision. Almost as if its appearance’s only purpose was to give her a thing to overthink and worry about. Lily looked at her completed creation – messy lines and dots would sure seem like a random work of a child to outsiders, yet for her it was a clear description of the happenings she witnessed. She sighed and used the remaining on her fingers paint to draw protective symbols on the inner walls of her hut.

A sudden shiver ran through her spine, alarming her about someone approaching. That was the moment she fully snapped back to reality. Lily remembered that Eric was fighting for the title of the village leader and the sudden presence nearby must have been of his. The girl lived far enough from the crowd, next to a riverbank, and other than wild animals or her childhood companion, no one dared to come close. She sighed and hid the leather scroll behind one of the cabinets – there was no need to alarm Eric about the vision so vague just yet. Especially since Lily’s senses were predicting his crushing victory.

As if in confirmation of her feeling, she heard knock on the door. Lily opened the door to a skinny young man, clothed in thin shirt, now dusty. Even his brown hair now seemed ashy. He was holding spear and a big chunk of meat in both of his hands. His eyes were contrasting with his appearance, shining with all shades of river.

“Lily, where were you? You’ve missed the whole fight!”, Eric bombarded her the moment Lily appeared in the door frame.

“The ritual I have been performing in the morning got prolonged and I couldn’t afford to interrupt it midway”, Lily calmly answered, unbothered by Eric’s attitude.

“How does that compare to my fight?” the boy asked annoyed.

“I will witness many more and much greater fights of yours, I’m sure”, Lily answered dismissively.

“But this one was special, even if there are more special fights in the future, I still want you to be there for all of them”.

“The time cannot be turned back now. What are your plans now, after the victory?”

“I will need to slay a great beast tomorrow in the hunt. I need your help in finding it so I hope you will join me”.

Lily frowned, calculating possible profits of such cooperation, and then replied.

“Only if you give me the skin and the claws of the beast in trade”.

“Of course, I would be happy to give meat as well, if you want it”.

The girl quickly shook her head.

“You know I don’t like meat. You will never convince me otherwise”.

“I will still always try. Also, I would want you to be there for my future special moments. As much as you can”.

“If gods allow”, Lily smirked.

“Alright, want some meat? I got it from the old women of the village after I became the leader”.

“I will curse you if you don’t stop”.

“Oh yeah. Also do you want to do anything today?”

“I will just start preparation for tomorrow’s hunt. You should as well”.

“Be careful no matter what you do, I will just do my practice near my hut, if you need me”.

“Sure, good luck”.

Eric nods and turns around. Soon he disappears between the trees on his way to his house.

Lily sighed and walked back into her hut and started looking around and searching through her mysterious items. Finally, she pulled out a small sack made of goat skin and put it on her work desk. She grabbed a rolled bay leaf and lit it up from the candle’s fire. Lily proceeded to cleanse her surroundings with the smoke, while whispering quick prayers to her deity. Afterwards, she started filling the sack with dried chamomile, basil, patchouli, and sage. Lastly, she put in a small chunk of aventurine, which she energized previously during full moon. Lily sealed the bag with some beeswax. She got up and hid the spell in her coat. After grabbing a clay pot filled with various nuts, Lily went outside and entered dense forest neighbouring her hut. Lily got on her knees and started collecting the forest cover, pushing the moss and stingy conifer needles into every pocket she had, lastly rubbing the forest cover on her skin. Her hair got tangled with plants and dirt and her face had brown and green strokes caused by rubbing. After she was satisfied with result, she made sure to wipe her hands on the moss and having completely concealed her smell she turned back towards her hut. In that very moment Lily heard Eric call her name.

“Why is he here?” she thought to herself as she walked out of the forest. Lily noticed Eric standing in front of her home, looking around. She slowly approached him.

“Hello again!” Eric said with smile on his face

“What happened, why are you here already?”

“I broke my spear, so I needed a new rope from you. You still have an extra one, right?”

“Let me check, what kind of rope do you even want?” Lily said as she entered her hut.

“The same rope as before, it worked perfectly so there is no reason to change, right?”

“If it worked perfectly, why do you need a new one? They’re not easy to make, you know?”

“The wood cracked, there was nothing wrong with the rope, but it still got ruined with the wood. The splinter of the wood messed up the rope basically”.

Lily searched through storages in her hut and finally pulled out a long rope.

“It’s my last one. It will take a long time before I will have finished another one. Be careful with it or you’ll have to be begging for it in the village”.

“From tomorrow on they would be happy to give me all the ropes I would want but I would still want your since they are way better”.

“Don’t count your chicken before they hatch. We don’t know how tomorrow’s hunt will go yet”.

“With you by my side there is nothing that can go wrong”.

“We will see” Lily answered sceptically.

Eric took the rope and started walking away yet again.

“Thank you for the rope” he said and waved, after that they parted.

Lily sighed and grabbed her stone dagger and prepared to cross the river. Being covered with dirt, and now also washed by river, her scent was almost fully concealed from any animal. She had to make sure there will be no traces of her presence, otherwise the beast would either not get baited or be cautious at all times, which would make the hunt close to impossible. Beautiful, calm forest was proudly stretching its arms towards the sky, creating such contrast with dark and gloomy dense woodland from the other side of the stream. Lily crushed some of the nuts she prepared earlier and rubbed their oils on the tree bark, bigger rocks, and the ground. All the traces leading to one place, where she piled up remaining bait. The wind picked up and hit her on the back, taking the smell of freshly minced nuts deeper in the forest. Lily quietly thanked her deity for the favourable winds and left some dried up berries on the stone on the edge of the forest as a gift to them.

The sky was covered in all shades of orange and pink already, giving a beautiful show to those observing. Before crossing the river Lily took off her clothes and went into the river in order to transport them to the other side. Afterwards she cleaned herself in the cold water as the sun was turning river into a stream of dancing flames. Lily found connection to gods in situations like those, where her pure self could connect with nature, almost to the point of becoming one. This sunset was a good sign for tomorrow’s fate, she thought as she was putting her clothes back onto her wet and cold, yet unbothered body. If the gods themselves were watching her, they would be able to see various scars on her pale skin, each one with its own story. Ever since she remembered she felt strong connection to the nature and the goods it had to offer. She always was trying out new things, ending up hurting herself in the process repeatedly. But now, having gained knowledge not available to a normal person, she felt much stronger and much more spiritual. And she knew she could use it to her advantage.