Skidmark

[Geoni]

Refraction

It was late morning. The sun was beginning to blaze, the earth of the barrens already cracking from the heat. Geoni saw no insects, and heard no birds. The air was silent but it was as if he could hear the shimmering of the heat. Where the air morphed in its loss of density, a prismatic effect created the illusion of water within Geoni's vision. In the distance, he could see a figure wading through the waves. He stopped in place and held his hand over his eyes, squinting to determine whether or not this figure was a mirage as well. She was not. He could see her: an Orc woman walking as if on one leg. Her right leg would wobble at the knee and collapse every time she used it while her left leg held her weight so she could drag the injured one. To Geoni, everything about her figure seemed unnatural, and phantom-like. The black shadow that was her distant figure dragged closer and closer as he stood and watched. Eventually, the figure lost its shape, shadow melting into a pool on the ground as the woman fell. Geoni wiped the sweat off his forehead and approached, his palm having collected enough liquid for the sweat to bead at the ends of his sharp fingernails and drip onto the ground.

As Geoni stopped and stood before her, the manifestation of the mirage seemed too physical; the woman had fallen on her stomach, which hunched up in a curve due to the arrow she took to the abdomen and a screaming baby that was trapped underneath her weight. Behind her, a trail of blood could be seen as far as Geoni's vision could track it. Dizzy due to the heat, and in a state of confusion due to the situation, it took a moment for him to register that he needed to roll the woman off her baby. He knelt down, and pushed her body with all of his strength to lay her on her back and save her child from being crushed. The baby boy pried his fingers into the cracks of the earth as he shouted and tried to crawl away, but was instead scooped up into Geoni's arms.

The woman threw her arm up to grab Geoni by the wrist, and held on tight. She faced him, licked her dry and blood crusted lips, and pleaded, "I beg of you. Take care of him. He has nobody left to..."

Her voice grew weaker with every word, and her grip on his wrist weakened with the slip of a finger every second before it fell off and onto the hard ground. Geoni leaned over the baby to hold her by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes and shouting question after question, his voice, full of concern, eventually raising to a higher decibel than the cries of the six-month-old Orc, "What happened? Who did this to you? Where is his father? Your family and friends? Please, what can I do to help you?!

She stared up into his eyes as he asked his questions in a panic, her face calm and weary. Her cracked lips were moving up and down as her words were reduced to mumbles and eventually hushed noises. Eventually it stopped. Geoni, staring down at her helpless visage, knew that her body released its hold of her spirit when her eyes finally relaxed themselves within the sockets. He felt entirely helpless, and paralyzed in his shock. The baby pushed his way out of Geoni's hold, and crawled towards his mother's body, his arms pushing and sliding against the scorching surface of the earth. His little hands took a hold of her shirt, his head falling against her chest in hunger, crying all the while. Geoni pulled the boy away from his mother and held him against his chest, his widened eyes staring into the blank and arid space.

[Geoni]

Attachment

As he was making his way through the Barrens, Geoni thought of the only place that he knew to find help: The Broken Keel in Ratchet. By the time he arrived to the city, he had already smoked two joints of Felweed, both of the butts still hanging out of his mouth. The baby was screaming and crying, partially because of the smoke, but mostly because he needed to be changed. The tavern was rather quiet when he walked in, the boy's crying and screeching the only thing that Geoni could hear. It was relatively empty as well; only a familiar Blood Elf sat at a table in the corner, the top of it covered in papers along with a sign that said 'The Love Exchange'. However, there wasn't any love to be found through this matchmaker, but rather, parenting tips. How to carry him, sing to him, calm him down, and clean him. These were all of the things that he would have to learn to do. Having to change a baby was always Geoni's worst nightmare (along with the other responsibilities of parenthood), and as he carried the baby's soiled clothing, he looked down at it and said with his nose pinched, "What a skidmark..."

He gazed into the air in thought, and then burst into a few chuckles. At that moment, a name had been decided.