Mella visits the church yard
They stood before the ruins of what must have in its day been a magnificent chapel. Now it was nothing, the tattered remains of former glory, clinging feebly to the hillside.
Lochan was annoyed. Mella has insisted on coming along with them, following Harndall wherever he went like a faithful puppy. She was only going to cause them trouble. She had already caused enough, what with her late night escapade. And this was the place they had found her. It did not bode well.
Lochan sighed, and led Harndall down below the chapel, into the crypts which lay beneath. He wanted to show him something which he had seen when they found Mella. It had been weighing on his mind for many weeks but the weather had not permitted a trip to the ruined church until now.
Cordell and Steen had come along too, to see whether some of the once-impressive stoneworkings could be harvested for the building of the new church.
Lochan carefully led them down the cracked steps into the tunnels beneath.
“So Father, what do you make of this”, Lochan gestured to the gargoyle on the wall and the brightly coloured tiles that lay beneath their feet.
Harndall scratched his head, “I do not recognise this insignia, have you seen it before… I cannot quite make it out. Perhaps we need some more light, good Master Cade, would you be so kind?”.
Steen, glad to be of some assistance while these clever men discussed what the placement of these tiles could mean, pulled his flint out of his pocket and began to scrape at it.
The candles suddenly flared to life, one by one, their fires burning hotly, so Steen had to jump backwards to avoid burning his hands. Unfortunately he was not quite fast enough to save the entirety of his eyebrows.
Harndall and Lochan where so fixated on th tiles they do not observe this oddity.
“Thank you Goodman, that was very quick of you, you must have fast hands”, Lochan praised him distractedly.
Steen turned to face them, “Uh… the thing is, I had not even got a spark yet going with this here flint, they have just been lighting up all by themselves”.
He grinned sheepishly because he did not know what else to do.
Lochan and Harndall both stared at him.
“Well”, Lochan breathed, “That is very strange indeed”.
Mella had not gone into the crypts with the men, preferring to stay outside in the brisk, autumn air. She walked further up the hill, behind the ruined church to the churchyard.
She walked among the tombstones, trying to imagine the people who had once lived here, who had died here on Mhalwae. The descriptions had long since eroded away, leaving nothing but a hint at who lay in the soft earth, beneath her feet.
She came to a halt in front of the highest grave on the hill. Instead of a tombstone, this grave was marked by the dark statue of a menacing, hooded figure with a spear clasped in its hands.
Mella felt a thrill of terror shudder down her spine until it found her stomach so she nearly vomited in panic.
She turned away covering her face with her hands, trying irrationally to somehow hide herself from the dark face in the depth of the hood.
“Non, non… Mella, ma belle, ma pisliskurja”, the dreadful crooning voice was there again, “ne cachez pas votre visage”.
She felt compelled to look up again, staring at the statue, unable to turn her face away.
She clasped her hands over her ears to try and keep out the sound of his rasping voice, to free herself from the hold he had over her. But it made no difference, his voice was inside her head, mentally caressing her, making her feel stained somehow, ruined from the inside out.
She looked up at the statue towering above her and was filled with all-encompassing terror. It loomed above her and she screamed as she saw the hands holding the spear slowly begin to move.
Hi guys… so I know I promised a long post but it made more sense to cut it up into two… especially since I am going to see Pirates of the Carribean 3 tonight (wheeee!) and so I haven’t got enough time to write a long post. So sorry about that
Also I kinda of thought it would be more fun to leave you hanging 
I know I know… I am so mean.
Lothere… can you let me know if there are any mistakes with my dreadful French… don’t worry about this word “pisliskurja”… it isn’t French (although I am sure you realised that already
Hi. it’s alright it will make us come back for more. Erm I do know some French but I’m not very good if I’m right this Non, non… Mella, ma belle means no no Mella my beautiful?. and as for this ne cachez pas votre visage the only thing I know out of that is ne pas which I think means don’t?.
Lothere: maybe you can help me with the French too lol!.
Oh have a good time watching pirates of the Carribean my brother went to see that the other day. he wasn’t too keen though.
See ya.
My computer just crashed while I was writing my next chapter, and it looks like I lost most of the chapter. So wandering over here while running chkdsk and finding a new installment was precisely what I needed to cheer me up — writing a half-chapter today was therefore an excellent idea, Verity, and I thank you.
He he, sorry, maybe I am too obsessed with my own story, but as soon as I saw that tile, I thought “Anna has struck again!” But she kept things very subdued this time.
As for your story…
Steen is precious! I can tell you have fun with him. And I’m so glad to see Cordell up and on his feet again. (Now, I am still hoping that he has no lasting effects from his dog bite and isn’t going to go all werewolf on us in Part II.)
As for Mella… I guess she should have followed Harndall all the way down after all. Poor girl. Has she told him (or anyone) about this?
But it looks like we are getting closer to learning who or what her tormenter is. Maybe an evil former ruler of the place? A demon maybe? *fans self*
(Actually between my obsession with priests and my obsession with demons, I may have myself a problem. Or a problem and its solution.)
Your French is perfect, Verity. Except for the pisliskurja of course. It doesn’t sound nearly as nice a thing to be as belle, however.
Heh, am I going to be spoiling the atmosphere if I translate it?
He told her not to hide her face. *ducks*
Now that I have reread it… what happened to Cordell? Is he just coincidentally out of camera range? I notice you said “Harndall and Lochan where so fixated on th tiles they do not observe this oddity.” but you didn’t even mention Cordell. Did he wander off and turn into a werewolf meanwhile?
Oooh, that lot looks familiar! It is a very cool lot. I downloaded it and had a peek. So awesome to see it used!
Sometimes it is good to build anticipation. It helps with the biting of the nails, etc, etc. Have fun at your movie! Can’t wait to see what happens next.
Hi guys.
I did have a good time watching the movie Pandora, but I guess it wasn’t as good as the other two and I was a bit disappointed. But I still liked it and if you liked the first two I think it is worth seeing anyway. There is some very cool stuff. And I love Jack Sparrow… soooo…
Hehe… I was thinking about Anna when I put those tiles down too. Her tiles are so famous now they have spread to other worlds
Sucks that your computer crashed halfway through a post 
that sort of thing is so annoying… I never think to save until the end when I have finished writing it. Maybe I should be more careful too.
Mella hasn’t told anyone about this. There is a number of reasons for that… mostly because she doesn’t speak (except for that one time she yelled “stop” in the church) and also she is not sure if it is all in her head and she is going crazy.
You’re right, there are an awful lot of hot priests and demons running around in your valley, Lothere
Unfortunately my French isn’t perfect… rather Babelfish did a good job translating for once *looks slightly shamefaced*. Pisliskurja doesn’t sounds very nice does it… it doesn’t really live up to what it means (which I am not going to say right now). Actually I think it sounds very Finnish but it isn’t… maybe the language that it is in has some Russian-based roots… I wouldn’t be so surpised actually.
Don’t worry… translations are not spoiling the atmosphere at all. I don’t know if ppl would prefer if I just translated things I say in another language in the comments section… usually you could look it up on Babelfish (cause that is likely where it came from) if you wanted to know. Unless of course I don’t want you to know what they are saying yet.
And yes, Cordell is out of camera range… we will be seeing him a little bit in the next post but in general he is just there because the new church is his project so he needs to be. He didn’t see what happened because he is a bit out of it. We will see that in the next post too. It is not that exciting though… Mella is more the focus of these posts.
Yeah Mao… I really like that lot. I feel a bit bad to not have built it myself but I had a go at building something similar and I really didn’t know where to start. I have built my first castle… but we might not be seeing that for a while. It is huuuuge which doesn’t really fit the story that well since there aren’t that many people so building will be a bit slow. I think I am going to make some half built version of the castle to use.
Hi. oh so that’s what the other part meant thanks for telling us Lothere.
even though you didn’t like the film much as least you got to look at Jack Sparrow he’s not my type personally he reminds me of a girl that used to be in my class at school *ducks and runs from tomatos*.
anyway I didn’t notice that Cordell wasn’t there when the candles lit themselves under I read Lothere’s comment I wonder if he suffering from a side effect from that wolf attack. And I am also wondering if Mella is either being tormented by demons or by her own mind.
Keep Simming!
See ya.
I had completely forgotten that Mella doesn’t speak. That would certainly explain why she hasn’t told anyone.
I had a feeling “pisliskurja” was something nice, at least from the point-of-view of the dude saying it, but anything that starts with “pis” is going to come out unflattering. I thought it sounded more Czech than Finnish. It sounds like the name of a folk dance to me.
It does sound rather Czech… but I have a feeling that parts of Czech are similar to Finnish… not sure though. I met a Czech guy who could understand more Finnish than me… don’t know what that says though… all I can say is thanks and cheers
(and cheers has “pis” at the end… sounds about right 
And I think you’re right about the folk dance… there would have to be lots of leg-kicking and maybe thigh-slapping
Pandora… I spent the whole movie arguing with my friend over who was hotter… we had Jack Sparrow vs Will war. I have to say Orlando was looking pretty spunky at the end though.
Haha, we did this lovely Russian dance in P.E. that had music akin to Tetris, of all things. Good times for the techie crowd.
Your French was perfect, which is good, because that’s how I’d write it too, and MY FRENCH FINAL IS NEXT WEDNESDAY! I’ll just pretend I’m studying for it now.
Arg! French final! That thought fills me with horror. I remember my last German exam I just sat there drawing pictures… I think I came bottom of the class
… but I am sure you will do great. And yeah… reading my blog is totally studying for exams… erm… hehe I always say sitting around at coffee is not wasted time cause I am practicing my Swedish (rather, sitting in a daze with my head going “coffee…. coffeeee”).
Good luck… or Lycka till in Swedish