Excerpt: Until Sunrise

~Excerpt from Chapter 1~

Elke was confused. She knew her name, but not much else. Not where she was, or how she'd gotten to this land of sandy desolation. She didn't know why the sun didn't move, or how she knew what a sun was; she did not, in fact, remember much of anything, not why she knew her name was Elke, not where she lived or the names of her parents or siblings, not that she knew if she actually had any.

She didn't know why she chose to walk towards the sun and light sand, just that some primal instinct deep in her soul screamed to not walk into the dark, and something that sounded like her own voice (though how she knew what her voice sounded like she didn't know; she didn't remember ever speaking) told her she had best not waste herself wandering in the faded light where she woke.

With that, the only choice left was obvious; straight towards the sun and the hope of true light. And strangely, despite the fact that she knew (and once again, how she knew she didn't know) that walking towards the sun is not any sort of way to catch up with daytime, it seemed to be happening.

The further she walked, the brighter and more clear the light became. As the unmoving sun slowly rose higher in the sky, the purple and blues of twilight faded, slowly revealing the true colors of the sand and girl walking upon them, light shimmering on golden sand and golden hair alike. The air also was growing warmer, rising and rising and without a doubt soon to become unbearable, especially since Elke was not in possession of any liquid that might sustain her on her trek into nothingness; she had the odd feeling this strange desert world would provide.

And provide it did, some hours? minutes? later, when the run rose high in the sky, the savage heat making each breath a labored, gasping thing through cracking and bleeding lips, the lack of wind providing no relief. She staggered, her high black boots catching on sand and nothing, her eyes blinded by the bright reflection off of the now brutally shining sand, and fell. She lay still for a moment, the heat pressing her down, her eyes slipping closed. She could lay here forever and burn, she thought. She could die and turn into some dessicated mummy for some other lost, tired girl to trip over someday.

The thought was too morbid. She tried to gain her feet, and failed. Her forehead in the sand, sand in her mouth and her throat crying for water, she took a moment to regain her strength, and started to crawl, soft gray eyes blind in the light, in the direction she had been heading.

Her hands blistered and split, her skin turned red and burned. She crawled on, relentless, not knowing what drove her forward but helpless in its pull. Her arms trembled and her nose bled, but still, she crawled on.

One hand met something that scorched her already-burnt hands. She let loose a muffled cry, but reached for it again. It felt like metal, and burned her, but not, she now could tell, with heat, but rather from cold. Frost coated the sand where it way, inexplicably frozen; and the chill felt so very good to her. Elke ran her deadened fingers along the cold metal and wondered at what she thought she felt; her mind loose and vague from dehydration. She forced her eyes open and, though her vision was blurred and spotted with black, the crazy idea she's had was true. The white metal haunch of a rabbit stuck out of the frosted sand.

Elke drove her hands into the frozen ground and tore clumps of ice and sand up and away, flinging them out into the heat away from the icy rabbit, where they evaporated into wispy mist.

The rabbit, once it was revealed, shone silver-white in the sunlight; the color not blinding only due to the foggy cloud that surrounded the strange thing. Metal it was, and clockwork by the look of it. At one point it perhaps wore a coat of white fur, but the scraps of dried and brittle furred leather fell away as she lifted the toy from the small hole it lay in with the shawl she pulled from her shoulders and head.

A small indented design lay on the rabbit's belly, presumably the keyhole for the missing key that would start the gears of the small clockwork construct into motion. It was frozen a position like a thing dead; the glassy red-gemmed eyes only enhancing the feeling that Elke held something that had once been more than a simple mechanical toy.

Elke forced herself to her feet, swaying as she tied the shawl into a sling, the cold rabbit resting against her breasts like a baby once she slipped her head and one arm though the loop. She felt oddly refreshed, though her lips still bled and her skin was still blistered; the need for water was lessened, though it could only be that her body was failing. The coolness of the construct spread though the fabric of her shawl, a sweet relief from the unyielding heat.

She didn't know why she took the toy (or maybe corpse?) with her; it just felt right, in more way that just as a means to stave off the heat.

* * *

Elke had been hearing the sound for a while before she realized it wasn't simply a product of her imagination. She'd been trudging, head down, eyes closed, thinking nothing, the gentle tinkling sound that gradually rose in volume mostly ignored, or at least not registered, until, that is, she shuffled out of the sand and onto tile, tripping on a low ledge before she could come to her senses. She twisted, the sling-carried rabbit coming loose and clattering onto tile as Elke herself plunged into a shallow pool or sweet, cool water.

She inhaled before she could help herself and came out of the water coughing violently, and shaking with exhaustion. She spend a few moments just sitting, staring in disbelief at the brightly tiled bottom of the fountain, until, with sudden ferocity, she plunged her face back into the water and gulped frantically.

Then she threw herself halfway out of the fountain and retched violently as her body rejected the sudden influx of water. Coughing, she lay there helplessly for a long while, eyes half-closed, relishing the sweet feel of cold water surrounding her battered and tired body until she thought herself ready to try again to drink.

Slowly this time, she relished the sweet water, feeling that nothing in her mysterious life had ever tasted as good as this water did to her now. Lazy and feeling as content as if she's just spent hours upon hours sleeping, Elke took the time to look around this bizarre oasis.

She was startled to note that, unlike where she has awoken, here great towering spires of bleached white rose in clusters from the sand. They reminded her of bones, and with a start she realized that they were indeed skeletons, as she realized that not far from her haven the great skull of some nameless beast rose from where it was buried in the sand. It was huge beyond all imagining, a single eye socket rising two, three times her height, perhaps more. The skull lay a little away from the rest of the body that she could now piece together stretching into the distance.

The sand stirred, and the first breeze she's felt in this strange place whispered to her, giving her a word, perhaps a name, or the name of this beast.

“Ja...Jabberwock?” her voice was a broken croak; she coughed violently in reaction to speech; but when she spoke again, her voice was clearer, “The Jabberwock?”

“Ware,” the wind whispered in confirmation.