"Hell on Earth - Sky clad" by Helfried ´RRJ´ Haider

As the slow beat of the drums started, so did the movement among the women. Slow and entrancing, they trailed around the fire, steadily to the rhythm that was absorbed by their very heart.

It was the dance for the mothers; the bringers of children, and the daughters watched in awe as they moved, lit by the flaring fire and the moon. They watched the swift movements, taking in every twist and turn into the fibre of their being.

Marissa was sitting a few feet away from the other new initiates whose hearts raced towards the final dance, where they would perform for the first time; and although the place was well-lit, she sat in the darkness; and while there were many people here, rejoicing and embracing the new season, she was alone.

She could only feel her one true friend beside her, but he could not, would not be seen by the others.

The beat arose to a roaring thunder, in unison with the cracks of the wood who smothered and burnt in the fire, whilst the mothers concatenated in their movements, slowly, but steadily adjusting their rhythm, so the many might become one.

"Look at their petty efforts to rise to the sky." Marissa's friend said, with a sad tone in his voice. "Do they really believe that mortals can call out to the gods that easily?"

"They believe that on this day of the year, they can." answered Marissa in a hushed tone. No one else could hear her friend, so it was best that no one could hear her. She wanted to be part of it, no matter what Zhvi thought. "It is their way to unite the earth and the moon."

There were figures to be seen in the smoke of the fire, dancing to the wind, mimicking the movements of their mortal counterparts, dissuading when the wind deemed they had lived long enough.

"Will you help me?" Marissa asked, uncertain.

Zhvi sighed, and with his sigh, Marissa filched, but then he spoke. "I will aid you this once, if that is your wish."

Hastily, Marissa nodded; there wasn't much time left - already the mothers had untied in their dance, and as a sole entity their movements called out to the earth and the moon, commanding the fire to rise.

Then, the drums faded into nothingness, from one second to the next, and even the wind paused in awe as the initiates rose from their places. Marissa got up, too, and joined into their ranks. Normally, they would look at her with a sneer to put her in her place, but not today of all days.

As they neared their destination, the girls shed their white clothes, one by one, as their mothers had shed their brown garments, to be sky clad before the moon and the earth.

Tisha had been chosen as the living rune the month before, and she bore the markings with pride, tattooed all over her body, as she stood as the first in line behind the poising mothers. All the others joined with her, hand locked into hand around the mothers, and as the last hands were joined, the drums hailed to the sky once more.

There was an tingling sensation, as Marissa took her neighbour's hand, as energy stored within them both met and interwined. Slowly, they began to move, each of them trying to catch their rhythm, their feet treading, stomping and floating over the soil.

Marissa, who always had been a laughing stock to the other dancers because of her clumsiness felt her friend guide her into the first simple steps, and she tried to oblige, not wanting to be outdone by the others.

The living rune was taking the lead of the initiates, as their hands slowly opened and every one of them danced to themselves, although still linked in unison and spirit with the others. Marissa couldn't feel the calm the others so often spoke about, she only felt the urge to move her feet and dance to the beat of the heavy drums, who still called to the heavens while the mothers staid grounded.

While the others moved gracefully, illuminated and rooted, Marissa had her troubles keeping up with the mass. There was no time for her to correct her slight mistakes, but the spirituality of her dancing lost focus. "Help me!" she muttered under her breath to Zhvi.

"Let me guide you completely." came a whisper into her ear. "Give your body to me so I can guide you through this ritual."

Marissa still hesitated, but then, as she almost tripped, something within her gave way; she could feel herself distancing from her own body, and suddenly her movements were not her own anymore, Zhvi took control of her body, who snapped into its rightful place.

The drums started to beat faster and faster still, and where Marissa would have turned wrong and stumbled, Zhvi excelled. While the others were doing their best and faltered, Marissa's body moved lightly over the ground, her bare feet seldom touching the ground, moving in perfect unison with the music. Her movements were those of a goddess, and although the mothers remained still, Marissa could see from the back of her thoughts that even they felt inspired by this performance.

One after one, the others collapsed, the strain on their bodies becoming more than they could bear, giving their collective strength to the living rune, as was preordained, until only Tisha and Marissa remained.

Angrily, Tisha looked at Marissa, waiting for her to give up, fall to the rhythm, but Zhvi had no such intention. On rare occasions, it had happened before: The living rune fell and one of the others completed the ritual.

The dance became fiercer and fiercer still; Tisha and Zhvi in Marissa's body battling against each other, both covered in sweat, with the fire burning in their eyes, treading sky clad to the rhythm of old.

Marissa rejoiced as she saw Tisha fell, while Zhvi danced onward, renewed and invigorated by Tisha's last energies, and onward still as the mothers rose from their slumber to embrace the girl who had bested even the living rune, and as the mothers started their swift movements, Marissa could feel it for the first time, an energy that came from above and below, and that sang in its serenity to all the women.

She wanted to take over her body again to fully rejoice in this feeling, but Zhvi rejected her as she urged forward, still dancing.

"Let me back!" Marissa cried, and saw in horror a smile form on her own lips as they formed the word. "No."

As the mothers embraced Zhvi, Marissa felt herself drifting even farther away and out of her body - she tried to hold on, but she couldn't; she could only watch in horror as Zhvi began to dance again, in a new rhythm to her own drummer, while the mothers picked up their pace. She had been tricked into leaving her body, and now she could not return.

Drifting away more and more, Marissa could see the invisible lines forming in the air, the line of the moon and the line of the earth, as they joined in Zhvi, who readily accepted this gift.

Marissa's soul cried tears her body couldn't, and she urged herself forward and forward again, as she saw Zhvi's true self, her own true demonic form, dancing and swaying in an unholy fashion against the sky, turning the ley lines of the very moon and earth black, corrupted by unholy fires.

The energies started to corrupt everything around them, touching and swaying to the sides like the lashes of a whip, and they others cried out as the first mother fell to the ground, her nose and eyes bleeding.

Marissa cried out, trying to stop Zhvi, who had pretended to be a friend, who had dared to claim it was human, but slumped backward and backward, losing her hope … ready to go give up, as she felt a surge that tagged at her.

Everything was better than being lost, so Marissa followed the surge to it's origin and with a final snap suddenly found herself joined with Tisha.

"What is going on?" were Tisha's weary thoughts as she felt Marissa inside her head, who, full of panic and despair tried to explain everything with random thoughts; images, speeches, and feelings, all in one storming through Tisha's mind.

Tisha cried out loud as this confusion hit her, drawing Zhvi's attention towards her, who suddenly danced in a swift, deadly motion through the mothers, now tearing at their flesh with invisible claws, dragging their minds behind her in a wailing mass, a raging, corrupted and blackened soul unified as one.

Marissa urged Tisha forward, who didn't want to comply, but Marissa's panic was a more driving force than Tisha's weary mind could bear, and Marissa's pleading still rang in her ears.

"Enough!" Tisha cried out and silenced Marissa. "I will stand, but I cannot do it alone."

Although hesitantly, Marissa knew of this meaning, and reluctantly merged her very own self with the energies flowing through Tisha's veins, dispersing her soul in self-sacrifice to prevent Zhvi's deadly dance from reaching its climax.

Zhvi had almost reached Tisha, ready to strike her, a deadly smile on her lips, dragging a trail of blood on her invisible claws with her, ready to lash out at Tisha, who waited until the last moment.

Tisha lunged forward, straight ward into Zhvi's claws, impaling herself upon them, much to Zhvi's surprise, with such driving force that Zhvi stumbled backwards; for a moment time stood still as Zhvi tried to balance herself again, but the weight of Tisha's dying body drove her backwards into the fire.

With her last strength, Zhvi cried out as the flames engulfed her and the dying unison of Tisha and Marissa; her plans thwarted, while the energies of the moon and the earth danced, freed of the vice of their corrupted tormentor.

Several initiates started to cry, and the mothers watched in awe as the flames readily consumed what had been offered to them. They were uncertain of what had happened, and while most of them felt relief, they were struck with sorrow at the amount of the dead who had been claimed this very night.

What should have been a joyous celebration to unite the moon and the earth left a shallow taste in their mouth, and they knew all too well that this special day was tainted forevermore, although a victory of sorts had been won today, thanks to Tisha, the living rune, whose name was talked in high reverence from now on, and Marissa, who was falsely branded as traitor, although a few claimed that they had seen her spirit travel with Tisha into the fires, their combined anger taking down the unknown enemy.

RRJ