Kenifyd

Kenifyd

"There is a swirling darkness there just behind the eyes." The old woman smiles showing her toothless gums as she brings up both her hands and place her index fingers to her face just behind her eyes. The young girl sitting with her squints from the bright afternoon sun trying to understand the old woman's ramblings.

Why? The girl thinks to herself. Why does she try to make sense of what this senile old woman tries to say? It never makes sense.

But the old woman in her cackling voice persists.

"And then the thickness numbs and builds a painful pressure in the front of your head, right here." The old woman rubs her forehead as if to sooth an ache away.

"But no matter you see, because it is nothing to me; just some phantom and ill gotten memory."

The girl winces as the old woman laughs.

"It just gets all swirly grey and numb thick and pain and they comes in the night and take the very spark of life ands they twists it tight with afraidness and shamefulness and the youth energy hides it's fresh laughter being torn from thems that can't get away."

Gently the girl places a hand on the old woman's shoulder as she has wrapped her arms tightly around her knees and is now rocking herself gently. Her tears flow freely from the clear insane grey eyes.

"It is okay Dame Kenifyd. The bad man has gone away and won't return."

Again, the woman's harsh cackle makes the girl wince.

"Theys coming I tells you. And theys never stays away. Theys always here, right here I tells you in the grey swirly behind these eyes."

There is a silence then as the old woman and the girl sit by the hut. Fennris wonders if she should attempt to get Dame Kenifyd back inside. She is agitated and it may be wise to get her out of sight.

But Fennris isn't up for a struggle and Kenifyd is always noncompliant when she is agitated. No, it is best to sit here beside the old woman and try to sooth her through the roughest spots in her tirade.

In a soft voice almost a whisper the old woman continues.

"Theys can do those things and never guilt touches thems. In the nights when they not suppose to be there. Ands they tells you be quiet or theys going to kills you. Always same. Theys coming again in the grey swirly behind these old eyes."

Again, the woman weeps as she rocks herself. Fennris rubs the old woman's shoulder and croons to her gently trying to calm her agitation. The girl looks around to see if anyone else may be able to hear what Kenifyd witch is saying today. Fennris frowns though no one has yet taken notice. Always, when Kenifyd grows this way, the evil filth that spews forth is not far in following.

As the grey haired woman finds a moment of quiet, Fennris stands and tries to persuade her grand-dame into the hut. She is no harm except to herself when she gets this way. She raises the fears of the villagers and someday it will be her death for what she says. Her death and any who try to defend her.

She is crazy, this old woman. Fennris knows there is no help for it.

"Please Grand-Dame Kenifyd, the sun is terribly hot and the hut so much cooler to sit in." Fennris gently lifts the thin blue veined hand to assist the woman in her standing. But the old woman looks up into the blue brightness of her grand-daughter's soul and shakes her head sadly.

"No Fenni girl. The shadows fill yonder hut. Only in the bright hotness of the sun am I safe. Theys no coming to the full light of the day you see, only in the shadow and the deep night they use for their deeds. And they says be quiet or they kill you. But everytime they come you dies and you no knowing your death till they be gone. They take piece by piece till you are no more and leave a sliver only to keep your body living. No little Fenni, I stays right here in the safe hot light. I only a sliver left and they coming to take my death and making it theirs to own. My soul in peril great it is. I stays here in the sun and be safe."

Resigning to the inevitable the young girl sighs from deep inside her growing fear. "Yes, Grand-Dame. Do you want some water then?"

The old woman nods slowly but says nothing. She looks around her and the old grey eyes glaze over as she is teleported to a past long gone and lost to the dust of time. A smile creeps over her face and she is young again.

Fennris sighs her relief as she enters the hut to fetch a cup of water. Kenifyd will quiet for a while. The smile always precedes her growing weariness and she will soon succumb to sleep.