Dream A Little Dream Of Me

by horizon

16. Did you hide, U Low Kene? (Monarch Dodora)

Palei Hantu

<Did you hide, U Low Kene?
In the end.
You boast, and your rage
is known like the thunder from the shores
And none would say you are not brave
so
Did you hide, U low Kene, in the end?

Are you not everything a bull should be?
Dedicated, strong and wise,
And a burning spirit, oh!
You tell us all the time.

And
When you chased a defenseless cow
When you chased the dukun of the tribe
When you chased away me, U Low Kene
It was truly the wisest thing
The tribe had ever seen from you!

I am the tribe’s protector, U Low Kene;
I appease the ghosts of earth and wave,
Jembalang Tanah and Hantu Air,
And guide your semangat
when you swim the sea of dreams;

And you -
O little calf
Who would butt his own reflection in the water - !

You sat and waited to kill me
Because I chose your brother over you.

Such wisdom.

Did you clench your tainted spear
As you thought of me?

No, U Low Kene,
You are no bull.
The cleansed newborn heifer
Is more bull than you.

And that is why
I will be your wife, U Low Kene.
I will join with you
As I never wanted.

For you are no bull, and I -
I am no protector.

That night
I scrambled the walls of the realm of the Myinn
I knew my doom was certain.
I have seen before the tree-shrew
That upturns the hornets' nest.

I fled through shadow and shouts
But my discoverer was no hornet
But a solitary Moth;
Bat-winged, and golden eyes that spoke
That she too feared their stings;
And she gave to me the shelter
She wished she could enjoy.

That night
In the realm of Myinn
I saw a thing of dread and wonder:
I saw their semangat -
The first of all the dukun to see their semangat -
Flit about the night.

Their Hantu Raya is gone.
Their dreams are unprotected.

I saw
The minds of Myinn.

(The first of all the dukun who saw the minds of Myinn!)

I saw their fear
and lies
and love
and needs
and all between;

I saw
The kindling of the fire
That would destroy us.
And I -
May I be cursed a thousand years! -
I, the spark to set it off.

Their Hantu Raya once blessed her Myinn
With forms of night;
Ebon coats, and
Leather wings, and
Eyes to pierce the dark; and
Silent hooves, and
Needle fangs, and
Magics of the sea of dreams.

Never such a blessing
Garnered such a curse;
That the unchosen would hate them so
And drive them to the shadows.

Oh, the Myinn can hate!
They hate like we do, U Low Kene;
They hate like only Mooken can
In the curse of dharat sattu.

They hate so
That even joy
Lets it fester:

Dawn Patrol’s gentle flame
Cusped for Littlemoth;

Sailcloth’s love for a song of the sea,
His moonlit Sonata;

Leitmotif's bright revelry
And Littlemoth's flitter-dance;

Lights
That did not push the dark
But only made the shadows deepen.

And one called Peridot
Spread her hate
Like a cobra spreads its venom;
Like hornets
Sting the flesh they find -
Sting any flesh they find -
Just because it hurts.

The story of their Hantu Raya’s fate
Would rip apart the nest;
Would see Peridot queen
Of a swarm of torch and spear-point
For the dark ones;

And the story of her fate
Like a thunderhead across the sea
Approached in boats.

There was
A Myinn of sky:
Dawn Patrol.
He flew to meet
Their mighty wooden sea-cows
And thus was first to hear.
His spirit was not green or stone
And in terror for his gentle flame
(His spirit did not burn like yours!)
He turned away the ships
With fevered talk.

But one
Inside that hiving place
Already knew.

Shooting Star,
Myinn-dukun,
Twice-chosen of their Hantu Raya:
One for blessing, one to serve,

And one
Whose mind was closed to me
(Oh, curse I ever touched his mind!)

But he surely knew his Lady's fate.

Perhaps
Soldier to her darkling brood
He sought
To de-queen the looming swarm;

Perhaps
In grief
He only wished
To serve

Perhaps
He simply hated
As the Myinn can hate.

But he knew
The mahua bottles’ waters
That Peridot swam that night
Are like the sea of dreams,

And he knew

Their Hantu Raya is gone.
Their dreams are unprotected.

Shooting Star, with magics black,
Sent Peridot a vision:
A blissful bed
Of Ocean
Where water was a lover’s arms;
The sun a gentle kiss;
And in its depths the peace
Of family
And long-neglected sleep.

She pined for love long lost
(Pined for song of love long lost)
And he gave to her the ocean's love and

With no-one to see
But a cripple
Who saw nothing

He led her to the docks
Where she could find it.

...

I tell you this
U Low Kene
Because
I tried to do the same.

You thought I was defenceless
As a cleansed calf?
Had you waited just a little closer
You would have found your semangat
Beached like a jellyfish in the sea of dreams!

But you did not, and so instead
I looked through the Myinn for one
I could control
To kill you where you hid.

Curse this place!
Curse the Myinn!
Curse that I ever touched
The mind of Shooting Star!

Within the hour
The guards knocked down the door
And dragged me from the shadows.

We say the Myinn are cursed,
And it can only be so, for how else
Could such misfortune beset
As what then occurred:

Majority
For nothing more than power
Kept the Myinn afeared with talk
Of invading Mooken shamans
And here was one in the flesh!

He did not know
How well he scared his own

And when a yellow spirit
Dragged Sailcloth to the depths;
When Moonstruck murdered Dawn Patrol

It spiralled out
of even his control

And now I lie in chains
In the emptiness of Myinnkyun.

They have swarmed.
The dark ones are dead
Or fled.
I saw your semangat snuff out,
U Low Kene;
I know they seek the tribe
And I do not know if we can prevail.

If we do not
They will return and I
Will be the last of us to know their stings.

And if we do
The chief declared them manyekyaungg
And no-one will enter here.
I will die
And someone will one day find
the second Myinnkyun
silent and gutted,
absent even of corpses
But my own
And the last dreams of Myinnkyun
That whisper in the sea.

So yes,
I will be your wife, U Low Kene
When we meet in the hereafter.
For I brought war to the tribe
And so you
Will be
My
Punishment.>

Comments

[AugieDog]

Palei Hantu says:

That Shooting Star sent Peridot dreams of a peaceful rest in the sea's embrace to get rid of her after Princess Luna's banishment. Palei Hantu gives a couple of possible reasons why Star would do this, but she doesn't know for sure, and that works just fine.

The verses here are very good, too, and I like how this one does without the changeling--Littlemoth has been giving Palei Hantu shelter, so that's what she's worried about in her section of the original story. This'll be my number 2.

Mike

[Titanium Dragon]

Palei Hantu was given shelter by Littlemoth
Shooting Star murdered Peridot because her dreams were unprotected without Luna
Palei Hantu is not quite sure why Shooting Star killed her, but she speculates
Shooting Star was the nightmare
Moonstruck later murdered Dawn Patrol out of jealousy
And Adagio murdered Sailcloth because he “betrayed” Sonata

I liked this piece. The whole thing flows pretty well as blank verse, and there is a certain sort of rhythm to it which made it a pleasure to read. In the end, it was no one person who was responsible, but everyone.

If I had a complaint, it is that we don’t come to understand Shooting Star’s motive, which would have been nice to see clarified a bit more.

Still, this was strong.

[Bad Horse]

I don't understand who has chained up Palei Hantu. I'm burned out on tracking details and theories, a thing I'm terrible at in fiction, due to years of assuming (usually correctly) that all contradictions are mistakes by the author. I gave up trying to understand it and let it wash over me. This is powerful and I love it.

[AugieDog]

6467184

Within the hour
The guards knocked down the door
And dragged me from the shadows.

Littlemoth:

Has been hiding Hantu, but after Hantu touches Star's mind, he knows she's there and imprisons her. But yeah, the whole contest here is kind of like a kaleidoscope, isn't it? Names and facts and clues and innuendo all sliding around and making multiple Rorschach images...

Mike

[Sypher]

Interesting narrator. Powerful poetry. Strong explanations.

Easily a top three for me.