previous part: https://jordynsaelor.com/2025/12/04/fled/
all parts: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/
***
I tore at my sleeve
with my teeth
and got some gray thread to unravel
and ripped it off the garment,
then I got the whole string wet
and stuck it on the wall
and shaped it
like hair on a shower stall
into a fire rune
but
sadly
since the whole thing was wet
and the wall was made of (magic?) clouds,
the rune just hissed
and smoked
and barely burned.
So I bit off some new thread
and made a wet wind rune
at a bend in the path,
close enough to the ground
that when I tapped it
the water bubbled and rippled away from the breeze.
I spun messy enhancement runes
overlapping the wind rune,
then I stepped away
and tapped the wall with a foot.
The bubbly burble
broke into a gale,
howling,
and the water flew away from the wind,
clearing a ring of mud
and splattering me.
I checked both ways
but Mrflfip hadn’t appeared
so I ran to another spot where the corridor curled
and set up wind runes there
then I made a whole trail of them
under the dust-covered sky
and when I’d repurposed
my whole sleeve
I walked back
with dirt stains to my waist
through choppy water
to a circle of sorta-drying-mud,
and in the mud circle
I carved rune rings with my toes–
complex things
I used to use to make my pencils dance back to me
but this time
I carved directions
to make not pencils dance
but walls
and added fire runes
to bake the runes
into the mud
forever.
***
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Jordyn Saelor 