Anyway, on to the fic. I could really use some help with this, folks. I'm a decent writer and speller, but my grammar and sentence structure are not so much.
And non-grammar suggestions and criticisms are welcome (and wanted!) too.
NO TITLE YET
Chapter 1
The library was an unremarkable building for its area. Formerly a two-story house of some sort, it had been adapted to its new purpose very thoroughly. Only from the outside could one tell what it once had been; on the inside, it was impossible to conceptualize the space as anything other than a place of books and of community.
The girl entering the building was finding that comforting. She was very tense, and the feeling of comfort and calm that came along with the musty paper smell was a much-needed balm to her nerves.
Thank goodness it's the right building, she thought. Now, to find who's here...
Stepping into the main room, the teenager saw a lot of bookshelves in various states of fullness, a large open space in the middle full of tables and chairs, and not a lot else. Certainly there were no librarians to be seen. She considered calling out, announcing her presence, but the silence seemed sacrosanct somehow.
She wandered amidst the tables, feeling out of place yet somehow comfortable with that. On one of the tables lay a neatly-stacked pile of books, which she leaned over to examine.
"The Serpent and the Rainbow," she quietly read, brushing aside the strands of blonde hair that fell over her face, "Modern Rites of the Mother, Hekerzan's Grimoire, Sacred Magicks of Abra-Melin... Secrets of the Left-Handed Hummingbird?"
"Oh, it's fine," said a loud voice from a few feet behind her, causing the girl to jump in shock. "It's not really about a bird with hands or anything."
Trying to keep her heart from escaping her chest, she turned to find a girl her own age, maybe a little younger, standing there. She had fiery red hair and a very welcoming smile, which was a little hard to see, because her mouth was still moving at ninety miles an hour.
"Well, I say it's fine," she continued, "but really, even though it's not about a scary mutant bird or anything, it's really about an ancient and really bloody death-god... the name's a literal sort of translation of Huitzilopochtli, which sort of means, 'the warrior god that sits in the left side--that's the South--of the heavens'. Lots of ritual sacrifices and stuff, with hearts being cut out and big pyramids and... you don't want to hear about it. I mean, I don't want to hear about it, and I'm reading it!" She frowned. "Not that I don't enjoy the reading, of course, it's just that I'm taking more of a... scholarly interest in it, than a practical. 'Cause I'm all up on the magics and things, don't get me wrong, I'm study-girl, but not so much with the heart-removal. Oh! And I'm Willow, hi. I mean, it's just like me to get all nervous meeting someone new, and go on babbling for five minutes about Aztec sacrifices and not even give you my name... well, not usually about Aztec sacrifices, it's not a subject that's on my mind a lot, obviously, except for now when it doesn't seem like I can shut up about it!" Willow's eyes had grown a bit wide, as though she was watching her words go by like a speeding train, but not quite able to stop them. "But I can shut up about it, and I am going to... right now!" She took a couple of breaths. "See?" A grin.
The girl had been initially startled, then intimidated, but as the redhead's babble had gone on and on, a smile had crept its way unbidden onto the blonde's face. She held out her hand.
"I'm T-Tara," she said, rolling her eyes at the stutter that always crept into her speech when she was nervous.
They shook hands, and smiled at each other. Somehow they already knew that they had become good friends. In some way that they didn't know and couldn't understand yet, they just fit.
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Well, that handshake went on a little longer than it needed, the short, dark haired woman observed with amusement. She had walked into the room moments ago, alerted by the sound of Willow's welcome, but had stopped in the doorway and watched. As the two teenagers continued their introductions, the woman seemed to come to a decision and quietly left the room the way she'd come.
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The librarian looked up from her note-taking as her lover literally ran into the room, an impious grin on her face.
"Come on, you've got to see this!" she enthused.
The librarian chuckled. The dark-haired woman before her was practically bouncing. "If it's the new girl, I already know she's here." Her lips quirked into a wry smile. "I could feel her before she got to the building, actually."
The other woman looked surprised for a moment, then shrugged it off. "No. Well, yes, her, but... oh, just come and see for yourself!" She held out her hand impatiently.
Chuckling, the librarian allowed herself to be dragged off.
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"Oh. Yeah, I see what you mean." The women were standing in the doorway again. The girls in the middle of the room were oblivious to their presence, chatting away as though they'd been friends for years, totally focused on each other. "Well, I suppose that explains a few things."
The dark-haired woman nodded. "The destiny we felt pulling on Willow. At least we know it's not about to pull her away before she's ready to face the world."
"Nope," agreed the taller woman, watching the way the girls interacted. "Looks like it came to her, instead."
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"So where are you from?" the redhead was asking Tara. "I know you're not from Newhaven Plateau, because I've been here nearly six months already and I'd have totally noticed you. I mean, there's no one else here that's near our age. There's one kid who's about seven--his name's Gareth, he's adorable--and a bunch of adults, but like I said, no one our age except me. And you, now."
Tara waited a few extra moments. When she was certain that the flow of words had stopped, she responded. "I come from the land of the horse-clans, several weeks walk to the Northwest. I'm not sure how far, exactly--I w-wandered a lot, and s-stopped several places along the way." Willow seemed to want more, so she continued. "My people follow the herd animals of the plains. We share the land with our brethren, the horses. Well, I g-guess they're not exactly my p-people anymore, though," she concluded.
"Did they throw you out," the redhead wanted to know, "or did you leave on your own?" Seeing that Tara looked uncomfortable, she rushed on. "I was thrown out, you see, from where I grew up. It was one of those places where nobody uses magic, or any sort of tech, really, beyond the most basic. Kinda backwards. Anyway, long story short, when I started feeling magic inside me no one believed me 'till I finally got kinda tired of not being taken seriously and showed them." The corners of her lips curled down into a frown. "They didn't like that. Called me a witch and banished me. Well, eventually banished me, once the burning didn't work." The frown disappeared as quickly as it had come, and Willow drew herself up proudly. "And I am a witch--a good one! Yup, that's me, powerful witch right here."
"Th-that's great, Willow," the blonde enthused, feeling a surge of pride for her new friend. "I..." she tried to think of a good way to talk about how she had come to depart her clan. "I s-sort of left before they had the chance to kick me out..."
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The women of Clan Maclay had always been special. Tara's mother was the most gifted and sensitive of Eponian priestesses, women who were connected empathically to the Great Mares that ruled over the herds. And she was worried for her daughter.
"Tara, this is serious," she urgently whispered to the girl in the tenuous privacy of her tent. "It's alright to be able to share our feelings with the horses--it's what keeps us bound together as peoples--but people can't handle it the way horses can. It scares them, makes them..." she shuddered, thinking of Tara's father, "..dangerous."
"I know, Mother," the girl replied, suffused with her mother's worry and her own. "It's just I can't help it, any more than I can help seeing with my eyes, or being seen. It's just... always there, in the air all around. What everyone's feeling, what I'm feeling, it's just out there. I've tried, I promise!" They both started crying with the fear and frustration.
The woman took her daughter into her arms. "Oh, moh veelah shtore, I am so afraid for you."
Tara smiled in her mother's embrace. Here, with her mother, was the one place she had always felt safe. The stutter that so plagued her speech never showed up in this tent. "'My thousand treasures'. Mother, you haven't called me that in years."
"You are wrong, my daughter. In my heart, I have always called you that, every day." They shared a moment of warmth, but it was fleeting. "Tara, your father..."
"I know." The girl was still and silent for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was uncharacteristically flat. "He'll kill me. If I don't leave, he'll kill me. He'll call it protecting the clan, but really he's afraid. Afraid of being seen, afraid of being known."
The priestess gripped Tara tightly in her embrace as her worst fears were confirmed. Donal, Tara's father, had been handsome in his day, and strong, and she had been young. Too young and inexperienced to recognise the flaws in his character that, as he came to power in the Clan, would inevitably deepen into pettiness, resentment, and bullying. She had paired with him happily, and, if truth be told, had rarely regretted it because of the daughter they had made. Yet now she could feel nothing but regret, because the very same man would now drive Tara from her life, or kill her.
But a mother must sometimes rise above her own feelings for the sake of her child, and she was a good mother. So she held onto her daughter for another few precious moments, drinking in the experience to make it last a lifetime in her memory, and then she gently pushed Tara away.
"It's time you go," she told her, looking squarely into eyes as blue as her own. "You know by now that your place isn't here. I've taught you enough of the old stories, you know that somewhere in Gaia is a place for everyone. Because...?" She trailed off, indicating Tara should finish.
"Because Gaia is mother to us all, and a mother has a place for all of her children in her heart," Tara finished dutifully.
"Yes," her mother told her, pushing as much meaning into that word as she could.
"I know, mother," Tara said, replying not to the words but to her mother's powerful emotions.
"Go, then." The older woman held out a full traveling pack. "Rations, water, all you will need. You'll have to go on foot; if you took one of the horses, I fear he would pursue you. Follow your heart, and it will lead you to tribe, family, home. My love goes with you."
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"And that's what I did, and here I am."
Willow was clearly impressed. During the tale, she had unconsciously taken a step closer to the blonde, and her green eyes were full of sympathy and wonder.
"You... wow. Your mom really loves you. You're really lucky. Well, I guess not so much, the whole psycho killer dad thing sort of evens it out, but... my parents mostly ignored me. That is, until the whole 'witch' thing started--then my mom tried to burn me at the stake. Which, let me tell ya, not fun. But... wow, telempathy, huh? That's really cool. Guess you've really learned to control it during your travels, though, huh? I'm impressed--I've heard it's really hard to learn that sort of control on your own, but I haven't felt a single one of your emotions this whole time!"
Tara's eyes widened in shock. "No, I-I... I didn't learn... wh-what's happening?"
"Ah," a voice called out from the doorway, "Don't worry; that's just me."
I'd love to get your feedback! It's very nice to meet you.