literature

The Picture Book

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"I think I found something." A head of sandy hair peeked around the pile of rotted wood and rusting metal. Dirt encrusted his goggles and mud streaked his hair, but his lower face was spotless. The scarves that were recently protecting his mouth and nose hung around his neck. "Morgyn," he called again, "I think found something."

Morgyn looked up, his frown hidden by his own scarves. "It better not be another dead baby." The cloth muffled his voice.

"It's not. It looks like some kind of old book."

"A book." Morgyn's tone sounded disbelieving. "You found a book," he added with growl. "Piper, how do you spell your name?"

Piper frowned. "Morgyn, it's –"

"Of course you can't tell me, because you don't know how to! I can barely figure out if my name has an 'A', 'E', or 'Y!' And you want a book!" he yelled. "What good would a book do us?" He adjusted his goggles and turned back to his own pile of junk with an audible grunt. "If you want that book, you better go find Ariel or Jade." He threw a piece of wood out of his way and added with more fire on his tongue, "Little Piper wants a book."

Piper sighed, pushing his small frame between his brother's and the derbies he was digging through. "Morgyn, please," he begged, "look at this. I was able to wiggle it out of the book. It's a picture book!"

"Don't." But Piper pushed the picture in his face before he could protest.

"It's a woman!" Piper exclaimed. "Right? I mean, it doesn't look like a man."

"You've never seen a woman before," Morgyn stated as he slipped the picture from Piper's fingers. It was old and brittle, ripped almost entirely in half, but it was still recognizably depicted a woman, a sight which shocked him.

The woman was standing under a tree, the arm of a torn-out person wrapped around her slender shoulders. Her head was tilted up, a smile gently pulling on her lips as she looked up at the missing person. She wasn't wearing layers of clothes or looked like she feared for her life; she seemed… happy.

"When was the last time you saw a woman?" Piper asked innocently. "Besides the matriarch."

"Eleven years," Morgyn replied still examining the photo. "Our mother before she was taken. And our sister, they took her, too."

"Did they take Dad?"

"They don't take men, they gut them. You know that." His tone was blunt; he wasn't going to pretty things up for his brother's sake. "I'll help with that picture book."

* * *
"So I get sent into a mud pit and you get to find picture books?" Ariel huffed, crossing his arms over his chest in a mock pout. "Mud pits aren't fun, Morgyn."

"Book," Morgyn corrected. "It was only one book."

Ariel shifted in his puddle of mud. "Still more than what I found."

Morgyn looked up at the dark haired boy, taking in the mud that coated him from head to toe. The only visible patch of pale skin surrounded his eyes, where his goggles must have recently sat. "I think we're moving soon, perhaps to a place that lacks mud pits," he offered without feeling lacing his voice.

"Do you think we'll catch a glimpse of a woman?" Ariel asked, dropping himself onto a fallen steel beam. "How many are left?"

"After the raid last week, I'd say no more than five." Morgyn let his gaze fall back to the picture book resting in his lap. "But," he added, "if you want to see a woman, I might be able to help. Cleanse yourself of the pits, first."

"Cleansing away," Ariel almost sang as he scampered off to find clean water, leaving Morgyn alone with the delicate photographs.

He flipped carefully through them, his fingers tender against the time damaged edges. Most of the images contained the woman, but she was often accompanied by a tall man or small child: A family. Some of the pictures depicted the wife tangled in her husband's arms; others showed the mother caring for her son. However, the pictures that Morgyn loved most were those of her alone, her black hair falling over her shoulders and her green eyes perceptively examining her world.

He took a deep breath, trying to imagine how it would sound if she could say his name.

"Morgyn."

His head snapped up, as the voice was clearly not female. Jade stood next to Ariel's mud puddle, his blond hair as unruly as ever. "Ariel is chattering away about how you found a picture book." Jade's blue eyes were stoic behind his goggles.

"That was Piper, I just freed it." Morgyn paused, his fingers playing with the edge of a photo. "How well can you read?" he asked slowly.

A smirk formed on Jade's lips. "Better than you. I still say your name's spelled with an 'A.'"

"I said read, not spell," Morgyn scoffed. "I want to know what her name is," he added, his voice softer. Stiffly he freed a picture from the confines of the book and turned it over, studying the faded writing.

For a moment Jade just stared, but hesitantly took the picture, examining it with intent. He was silent; his lips moving as he mentally sounded the name out. It was a long minute before he handed the picture back with a nod of his head. "Her name was Tempest Summers," he informed. "I don't understand why she had two names, but that's what it says."

Morgyn ran his fingers down the side of the woman's face, wondering what this Tempest Summers was like.

"Aren't you going to yell at me?" Jade suddenly asked, breaking the silence the other male had allowed to form. "You always have something to complain about." There was a hint of worry to his tone.

"Jade, I want a woman." The words were a whisper, almost too quiet he over the three feet.

"Talk to the matriarch, perhaps she'll give you one of –"

"I want this woman."

"She's dead, Morgyn!" Jade shouted, his voice becoming Morgyn-like. "This isn't like you."

Morgyn opened his mouth, quickly closing it as his dark shifted from Jade to yet another visitor. "Ashley? What is it?" His voice was stronger, slowly gaining back its edge. "I don't like the look you're giving us."

Ashley, a man of short stature, came to a sudden halt just behind Jade, his chest heaving. "It's your lucky day, boys," he said, his manner saying quite the opposite. "You get see women. It's another raid; we need to keep them away from the women."

The panicked words bestowed a sense of urgency into the two younger men. Jade was the first to speed off, Ashley at his heels. Morgyn remained, however, just long enough to slip the picture book between the folds of his clothes. As he joined the ranks of other men, the thought that somewhere beneath the rubble two skeletons laid with their fingers still intertwined never occurred.

Even in death, Tempest Summers could not love him.
I actually don't know what I think of this. I want to come back to it one day and rewrite it, adding details that didn't make it into this version.

A Note on the Names: The female names were actually me mimicking the trend to give girls boy names. However, most of the names I used here were victims of that trend, with Morgan, Ariel, and Ashley being the most notable.

This was written as part if the April Scream Prompt: [link]

April 16-22: A character has a crush on someone.
Difficulty -- it's from a photograph of someone they've never met.
Double Difficulty -- no celebrities/famous people of any sort.

Week 1: [link]
Week 2: I'm still working on that.

As always, comments and advice is loved.
If you see something wrong grammar or spelling wise, please point it out.
© 2012 - 2024 stormsinmidsummer
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Psyghostis's avatar
I'm very intrigued by what's here, and I'd definitely love to see it expanded upon. Very interesting stuff.