Chapter 7 Chapter 6: Figures in the Skyrim

After the group of people on the entire Eden Wasteland left, the place where the bonfire was lit in the wasteland returned to the usual loneliness. A tightly wrapped female figure left the place where the small bonfire was, and slowly approached the place where the people gathered before. Yuzuka.If the red clay dealer had been watching carefully, he might have recognized the woman who had stood alone on the top of the mound and disappeared as soon as anyone approached.She took her old place on the top of the mound, and what was left to greet her were the red embers of a burnt fire, like the twinkling eyes of a dead day.She stood there motionless, surrounded by a vast expanse of night, but, compared with the darkness of the moor below, this darkness may be regarded as a pardonable misdemeanor rather than a sin. A mortal sin.

She was tall and slender, with a ladylike air about her, which was all that could be seen now, wrapped in a long shawl folded diagonally in the old fashion, with a large cloak around her head. Scarves, a must for being here, here and now.She stood with her back to avoid the strong wind blowing from the northwest; however, at first glance, whether her back to the northwest was because she was in a specific position to avoid the strong wind, or It is not known whether it was because her attention was focused on the southeast direction. This place at the center of the surrounding wilderness is a dead silence, and she stands quietly, blending with the dead silence, but why she does so is still unknown.Her extraordinary concentration, her solitude so visible, her indifference to the darkness of night, and so on, all expressed a fearless spirit.This is a vast country, whose unchangeable and dangerous environment made Caesar always eager to attack before the autumnal equinox every year, so as to get rid of its twilight after autumn; Depicting our island nation as having the landscape and climate of Homer's Cimmerian land, such a place certainly does not seem at first sight to be a woman-friendly place.

【Note】According to Homer's description, the Cimmerians lived at the easternmost end of the ancient world, a land of eternal darkness. Perhaps there was reason to think that she was listening to the wind, for as the night grew darker the sound of the wind was noticeable at first.Indeed, the wind seems to have come for the occasion, just as the scene appeared for the moment.Sometimes the wind sounds so special that it is impossible to hear the wind heard at this moment anywhere else.There are frequent gusts of wind blowing from the northwest in successive gusts, and each gust of wind is divided into three sounds, which can be heard as the highest note, the sub-bass, and the low note.The wind blows through the hollows and high places, forming a fluctuating wind sound, playing the most dignified harmony of this piece.Then you can hear the rich baritone voice of a holly plant.There is another voice, which sounds less powerful than the first two voices, but has a higher pitch. It gradually weakens and desperately emits a rough and hoarse tone, which is the unique voice here.This sound is softer and more difficult to hear immediately than the other two sounds, but it is more capable of plucking at the heartstrings.This kind of voice may be called the language characteristic of this wasteland; this kind of voice may be hard to find anywhere except in the wilderness, which also vaguely explains the reason why this woman is so engrossed.

Just like before, he just stood there, motionless. These mournful winds that blow in November sound very much like a voice sung from the hoarse broken voice of a ninety-year-old man.It is a hoarse rustling, dry and paper-thin, which blows past the ear and sounds so real, this long-accustomed sound caused by the wind blowing over the corners of the moor. The rustling sound is almost as if you can touch it with your hands.It is also the collective sound of countless tiny plants blown by the wind that are neither stems, leaves, fruit, blades, thorns, lichens, nor mosses. They are the dried heath whorls of a bygone summer, when they were so soft and purple, and are now celebrated by Michaelmas. ] The rain washed it pale and colorless, and was shriveled and stiff by the October sun.The sound of a dry heather leaf was inaudible, and the sound of hundreds of leaves could only be heard in the silence, so the sound of countless dead leaves on the whole hillside reached the woman's ears. , are nothing more than some intermittent flat and boring recitatives.And yet, among the looming and erratic voices of tonight, there is hardly a sound more powerful than the one that immediately reminds a listener of its source.In the depths of a man's heart one can see the infinity of the converging voices; the wind catches the little trumpet of each leaflet, blows in through the mouth, rushes by, and out from here again. The small trumpet blows out, as if this small trumpet is a huge crater.

The spirit moves them, and those who notice the scene will feel the meaning of the words; and the fetish complex of an emotional listener may be sublimated to a new level.After all, at this moment, it is not the sound of the old yellow flowers on the left slope, nor the right slope or the slope ahead; My son is talking. Suddenly, right on Rainbarrow, among the moving voices of the desolate night, there was another voice, which blended so naturally with the others that it was impossible to tell when it came. When did it disappear.That's a dwarf tree, a bush, a whorled leaf Britannia broke the silence together; at last the woman spoke as well, as if she were adding a sentence to other voices that were equally promiscuous.Her voice came out in the wind, blended with other voices at once, and died with them.

All she let out was a long sigh, obviously, it was out of emotion, because of the thing that drove her here from the bottom of her heart.There was a sudden indulgence in this sigh, as if the woman's mind had decided that it was uncontrollable, and she let out the sigh all at once.It is also obvious from this that she has been living in a depressive environment, rather than in a lazy and sluggish situation. In the distance, the faint lights in the windows of the small inn at the bottom of the valley were still on; after a while, it became clear that the woman's sigh was not because of her actions or her immediate reaction to the surrounding situation, but rather Because of that window, or rather, because of the movement in the window.She raised her left hand, holding an unopened telescope.She pulled the binoculars away with a quick movement that seemed to indicate that she was used to it for a long time, and then raised the binoculars to her eyes and looked straight at the lighted inn.

The large scarf that was tightly wrapped around her head was now drawn back a little, exposing part of her face.Her face was profiled against the heavy night around her; she looked like Sappho [Note: Ancient Greek poetess. ] and Mrs. Siddons [Note: British tragic actress. ]'s silhouette was revived, compounded into a person who neither resembles the two persons, but can show that they are the two.However, this is only superficial.The specific character traits of a person may be determined through the contour lines of a face; however, to fully see a person's character, it can only be understood from the changes in the face.Therefore, to understand a man or a woman, it is mostly always through the so-called changes in facial expressions, which reflect a person's character more than the activities of other parts of the body put together.This is exactly the case at the moment.Thus, only a small part of the face was exposed from this figure completely shrouded in night, while most of her face remained invisible.

At last she stopped the spying, closed the binoculars, and turned toward the dying embers.The embers were not glowing now, and only when a particularly gentle wind blew, the embers would suddenly light up, like the embarrassment that appeared on a girl's face and then disappeared.She stooped over the silent fire, selected from among the charred logs a log whose coals were burning brightly at one end, and carried it back to where she had stood. Blowing on the fire with her mouth, she lowered the firewood to the ground; the fire dimly illuminated the ground, revealing a small object which turned out to be an hourglass (though she herself wore a watch).She blew a long breath on the coal fire, and saw that all the sand in the hourglass had leaked out.

Huh!She cried out, looking surprised. The flames blown by her were very bright, and the flames flashed instantly, illuminating her face, allowing people to see the two incomparable cherry lips and one cheek, but the scarf still wrapped her head.She dropped the wood, picked up the hourglass, tucked the telescope under her arm, and walked on. There is a faint trace of people stepping on the small ridge, and this woman is walking along it.Only those who are very familiar with this trace that have been stepped on by people call it a small road; occasionally a lonely traveler walks by, even in broad daylight, I am afraid that he may not notice it, and there are often roads in the wasteland. Residents who come and go will never miss the trail even at midnight.When it is so dark that even the main road cannot be seen clearly, the ability to follow such a trail that is not really a road at all depends entirely on the extraordinarily sensitive exploration of a pair of feet, which is derived from the It has been haunting this little-traveled place at night for years and months.For a person who often walks in such places, they can distinguish whether they are stepping on the tender grass that has not been trampled on, or the hard gravel path. Know what path is under your feet.

The lonely man walked the accustomed route, paying no heed to the sound of the dead heather-bells still being blown by the wind.Walking along the edge of a gully, she didn't even turn her head to see a group of dark animals feeding in the gully.When she approached, they fled in a herd.They were some wild ponies called moor ponies, about twenty of them.They roamed unfettered and unfettered over the rolling Aydon moor, though too few in number to add much life to the lonely moor. Right now, this night walker has no other distractions, but a small accident can show the extent to which she is so absent-minded.A clump of blackberries caught her skirt and stopped her from walking.She didn't use her hands to pull the branches apart, and hurried on her way, but she allowed herself to stand there passively and motionless.When it occurred to her to get away, she turned from side to side and freed herself from the prickly branch.She was completely in a daze of frustration and frustration.

She was heading in the direction of the little bonfire that had been burning, the same little bonfire that had previously attracted the attention of the men on Rainbrick, and of Wildeff down in the valley.The faint light from the flames of the bonfire began to shine on her face, and after a while, she saw that the fire had not started on the flat ground, but on a protrusion at the junction of two earth dikes. .Outside the dike was a small ditch, which was dry except for a short section under the fire, and directly below the salient where the fire was lit was a large pool surrounded by heather and bushes. .The small bonfire is reflected in the calm water. There was no hedge over the connected earthen embankments, nothing but clumps of brambles growing disconnected.These bushes of thorns lined up on the top of the embankment, like human heads poked out by wooden stakes on the city wall.A white mast with the other ship's rigging stood there, and when the fire burned well it could be seen high up against the black clouds in the light of the fire.All of this is very much like a fortification, and what is lit on it is a bunch of beacons for communication. There was no one to be seen, but every now and then a white thing would emerge from behind the embankment and disappear again.It was a small human hand, adding pieces of wood to the fire; but only this hand was visible, and it really looked like the hand that troubled Belshazzar.From time to time, a piece of ember rolled into the pond from the earth embankment, making a chirping sound. 【Note】Belshazzar was the last king of Babylon. During the banquet, someone suddenly pointed out that there were writings on the whitewashed wall warning him to fail.See the Bible.Old Testament.Daniel chapter 5 verse 5. On one side of the pond, there are steps made of rough soil so that people can climb the embankment. This is where the woman came up.Inside the embankment was a barren field, but one could tell at a glance that it had been cultivated; South, and it has the momentum of completely occupying here in the past.Farther on, a sprawling house loomed, with gardens and outbuildings, and a clump of firs behind the house. From the way this young woman jumped onto the embankment with ease, it can be seen that she was very young and did not go inside from the embankment, but walked on the embankment until she reached the corner of the embankment where the bonfire was lit.Now the reason for the permanence of the bonfire was clear: the fuel was sawn and slivered hardwood, the old gnarled thorn trunks that grew in twos and threes on the surrounding hillsides.There was another pile of these chips at the inner corner of the embankment; a little boy was standing in this corner, and looked up to meet her eyes.Now and then he threw a log carelessly into the fire, a task which seemed to have taken up a good deal of his time tonight, for his face looked somewhat tired. I'm so glad you're here, Miss Eustacia,' he said, with a sigh of relief, 'I don't like to be left alone. Don't talk nonsense.I only took a few steps away.I was only gone for twenty minutes. It looks like it's been a long time, murmured the frustrated boy, you've been going back and forth a lot. Huh, I thought you'd be happy with a bonfire.Don't you appreciate me for giving you such a chance? Gratitude is gratitude, but there's no one here to play with me. I guess no one has been here since I left? No one has been here except your grandfather; he went out once and wanted to see you.I told him you went over there on the hill to see other campfires. What a nice boy. I think, I hear him coming again, miss. An old man came from the direction of the house and walked into the outer light circle of the campfire.He was the old man who caught up with the red clay dealer on the road that afternoon.He seemed to miss the young woman standing on top of the embankment.From his open mouth, there was a mouthful of intact Palian porcelain [Note: A kind of marble produced on the Greek island of Paros. 】Like white teeth. When will you go back to the house, Eustacia?he asked.Almost time for bed.It's been two hours since I got home and I'm very tired.How boyish you are to waste so much good firewood by being out there playing with the campfire for so long.This is the rarest kind of firewood, my precious bramble roots, which I kept for Christmas and you nearly burned them all! I promised to light a bonfire for Johnny, and he was just happy to keep it burning, and Eustacia spoke immediately that she was the absolute queen here.Grandpa, go to sleep, I will follow in soon.You like this campfire, don't you, Johnny? The boy looked up at her suspiciously and muttered, I don't think I want to order anymore. Her grandfather had already turned away and did not hear the boy's answer.As soon as the white-haired old man disappeared, she said to the boy very annoyed, "You don't know what to do.How can you play against me?If you don't let this bonfire light now, you'll never have another bonfire.Come on, tell me, say you enjoy doing things for me, don't deny it. Frustrated kid says, well, I will, miss.After speaking, he continued to fiddle with the bonfire perfunctorily. Stay a little longer, and I'll give you a bent sixpence, said Eustacia more gently.Add a piece of firewood every two or three minutes, but don't add too much at once.I'm going to walk along the top of this embankment again, but I'll be back soon.If you hear a frog flopping into a pond, it's like a stone being thrown into a pond, you must run and tell me, because that means it's going to rain. Yes, Eustacia. It's Miss Veil, sir. Miss Vistasia. That's about it.Now add a piece of firewood. The little slave continued to add fuel to the campfire as before.He seemed to be nothing more than a robot, acting and speaking according to the will of the headstrong Eustacia.Perhaps he should be the legendary Albertus.The bronze statue made by Magnus, [Note: German scholastic philosopher and theologian, it is said that he spent thirty years making a bronze statue. 】He made it, only let it speak, act, and be his servant. Before walking away, the young girl stood silently on the embankment for a while, listening.It is almost as lonely and desolate as Rainbrick, but it is a little lower than Rainbrick; and the few firs on the north side make it less vulnerable to wind and weather.An earthen embankment encloses the house, isolating it from the chaotic world outside.The earth embankment is made of square and thick mud blocks dug from the ditch outside. It slopes slightly from bottom to top. Due to the strong wind and poor soil conditions, there is no way to get the materials for building the wall. The earth embankment The top is bare and unobstructed.Elsewhere there was open space, looking down the whole valley to the river behind Wildeff's house.On the right, the hazy silhouette of the rain mound towered up, blocking the sky there, and the rain mound was much closer here than to the lady's shop. An expression of impatience came to Eustacia's countenance after he had scanned the deserted slopes and empty ravines with absorbed attention.From time to time, a few foul words came out of her mouth, interspersed with sighs, and she would stop sighing suddenly and listen carefully.She came down from the height of the embankment, and walked unhurriedly towards Rainbrick again, but this time she didn't go there. She walked back after a few minutes, and walked back and forth twice, each time she said Little guy, is there nothing to jump into the pond? No, Miss Eustacia, answered the child. Well, she said at last, I'm going into the house, and I'll give you the crooked sixpence to go home. Thank you, Miss Eustacia, said the weary fireman, much better.So Eustacia turned away from the fire again, but this time she did not go towards Rainbrick.She walked around the embankment to the side door of the house, stood there silently, and looked at the scenery in front of her again. Fifty yards away was the corner where the two earth banks meet, where the bonfire was lit; and as before, the figure of the little boy stood up at short intervals and went toward the fire. next to.The wind blows, blowing the smoke, the child's hair, and the corners of his apron all in one direction; when the breeze stops, the apron and hair fall down, and the smoke rises straight up. Just as Eustacia looked there, the child's figure jumped up suddenly: he ran down the embankment, and ran towards the white gate. What's the matter?asked Eustacia. A frog jumped into the pond.It's true, I heard it! So it's going to rain, and you'd better go home quickly.You are not afraid, are you?She said in a panic, as if her heart jumped into her throat when she heard what the boy said. Fear not, because I'll get that crooked sixpence. Yes, here, here you are.Well, now run as fast as you can and don't go there from the garden here.No kid on the moor has ever lit a bonfire like the one you just made. Apparently, the boy had got his wish and got a good thing, and he ran nimbly into the darkness and disappeared.No sooner had he gone than Eustacia left the glass and the hour-glass by the door, and hurried away from the side door to the corner of the embankment where the fire was burning. She was waiting under the cover of the earth embankment.After a while, there was a sound of water splashing outside the pond.If the boy had been there, he would have said that another frog had jumped into the pond; but most people could hear it like a stone being thrown into the water.Eustacia mounted the embankment. Hello?she said, holding her breath. A vaguely visible figure of a man appeared in response to the sound. Against the background of the night sky low over the valley, he was standing on the periphery of the pond.He bypassed the pond, boarded the embankment, and came to her side.She let out a low laugh, the third sound the girl made tonight.The first sound, made by her standing on the rain mound, expressed her extreme anxiety; the second, on the ridge, expressed her impatience; and now this one expressed her triumphant joy.She let her happy eyes rest on him without saying a word, as if she was surprised to see a miracle she had created in the chaos. Here I am, said the man, and it is Wilderf.You give me no peace.Why don't you leave me alone?I see your bonfire all night.The words were not without emotion, but they kept a calm tone, as if carefully keeping calm and not showing excessive excitement. Seeing this unexpected restraint from her lover, the girl seemed to be restraining herself too.Of course you saw my bonfire, she replied, flat, very composed, with unnatural control.Why can't I light a bonfire on the Fifth of November like everyone else on the moor? I know it was specially ordered for me. how do you know?You chose her, walked around with her, and left me completely alone, as if it was irrevocable, I was never a part of your life and soul, and since then, I have nothing to say to you up. Eustacia!Last autumn, on the same day of this month, in the same place, you also lit such a fire as a signal, asking me to come and see you, can I forget all this?This time it is not for the same purpose, why is such a bonfire lit next to old Captain Vey's house? All right, all right, I'll admit it, she yelled in a low voice, showing her unique, lazy but excited tone and look.Stop talking to me like you used to, Damon; you'll make me say things I don't want to say to you.I had given up on you, and made up my mind to think of you no more; but then I heard the news, and I came out, and got ready to light a bonfire, because I felt you had been true to me. What did you hear that made you think this way?asked Wildef in surprise. That means you are not married to her!She murmured happily.I knew it was because you loved me the most, and you couldn't marry her Damon, it was so cruel of you to walk away like this, and I said I would never forgive you.Even now, I think the inability to forgive you is too much for any woman of the slightest temper to let it go. If I'd known you'd called me here to reproach me, I wouldn't have come. But I don't care, now that you are not married to her and have returned to my side, I really forgive you! Who told you I wasn't married to her? My grandfather.He went out for a long walk today, and on his way home, he met a man who told him about a wedding that didn't take place, and he thought, It could be your wedding, and I know it must be . Does anyone else know? I don't think so.Damon, now you know why I lit this signal bonfire?You don't expect me to light this bonfire if I think of you as that woman's husband.If that's the case, it will greatly damage my self-esteem. Wildoff fell silent, evidently thinking so. Do you really think I believe you are married?she asked eagerly.Then you have misunderstood me, and on my life and my heart, I cannot bear to think that you should think so odiously of me!Damon, you're not good enough for me, and I know that, but I still love you.It's okay, just let it go I've got to put up with it as much as I can, don't you?Seeing that he didn't express anything, she couldn't hide her anxiety, and asked again.You really can't bear to abandon me just like that, do you still regard me as your most beloved person? Of course, what else am I doing here?He said very sensitively, but if you send a message like this and accuse me of being wrong, then this kind of loyalty will not do me any good.If it is up to others to criticize, it must be up to me to say it myself. I came, but I was treated like this by you.However, what I deserve is this emotional temper, which I can't get rid of, and I always get angry with a woman.This temper made me fall from an engineer to a shopkeeper.I really don't know what more unlucky path is waiting for me.He still looked at her sullenly. She seized the moment and lifted her hood, which completely illuminated her face and neck in the light of the fire, and said with a smile, Have you ever seen anything better than this while you were out? Eustacia was a man who never reconciled to being at a disadvantage.Just listen to him answering calmly, no. Not even seen on Thomasy's shoulder? Thomasy was a lovely innocent girl. This has nothing to do with that, she exclaimed, suddenly excited.Let's not talk about her; it's you and me to think about now.She stared at him for a long time, and changed into the previous calm appearance, but she said with a very warm heart, there are some things that a woman should not let others know, do I have to keep talking? Weakly speaking these things to you?Shall I admit that I was so depressed two hours ago that I can hardly express it in words?Because then it was so painful for me to believe that you had completely abandoned me. I am so sorry to cause you such pain. But maybe it's not all about you that makes me so depressed, she added artificially, it's my temper that makes me feel that way.I think it was born in my blood. Doubts. Or it was the reason for coming to this wasteland.I've been very happy while living in Bell's Mouth.Oh, what a time it was, oh those days at the mouth of the bud!Now, though, Ayton will be a little more exciting again. I hope so, said Wildeff gloomily, my old darling, do you know what it would be like to call me back like this?I have to go to Yuzuka to see you as before. Of course you will. But I want to declare that before I come here tonight, I want to say goodbye to you, and I will never see you again. I won't thank you for that, she said, turning away, and now her anger filled her like geothermal heat.You can go to Rainhill again if you like, but you will never see me again; you can shout, but I will not listen; you can seduce me, but I will never give myself to you again. You've said enough of that before, my dear; but a man of your temper doesn't stick so hard with what he says.In this kind of thing, my temper will not be like this. This is the joy I fought so hard for, she whispered bitterly, why would I want to call you again?Damon, that's weird, I get conflicts from time to time.After you made me sad, when I calmed down, I thought, what am I hugging is just a fog?You are a chameleon, and now you have the ugliest color.Go back, or I'll hate you! He looked at Yuzhong absent-mindedly for a while, counting to twenty, and then he pretended not to care about the words, and said, yes, it's time for me to go back.Do you still want to see me again? Unless you admit to me that the marriage didn't happen because you loved me the most. I don't think it's a good strategy to say that, Wildoff said with a smile, you're just trying to figure out how powerful you really are. Then you tell me! You know. where is she now I have no idea.I'd better not tell you about her.I have not married her yet; I have come at your calling.This is enough. I lighted the bonfire only because I was so bored, so I wanted to be like the witch of Endor and summon the spirit of Samuel.Old Testament.Chapter 28 of the Book of Samuel (1). 】Called you like that so I could have a little fun and see my power over you.I was sure you would come; and you did!I have shown my strength.Walked a mile and a half to here, and a mile and a half home to walk three miles in the dark for me.Isn't this enough to show my strength? He shook his head at her.I know you too well, my Eustacia; I know you too well.There's nothing in your character that I don't know; your hot little heart couldn't have played such a cold-blooded trick, nor could it have rescued your little heart.At dusk I saw a woman staring down at our house from the rain mound.I think it's me before you get me out Checked you out. Now it was evident that Wilderf's old passion had revived; he leaned forward as if to press his face to hers. Oh no, she said, running reluctantly to the other side of the remnants of the campfire.What are you trying to do? How about I kiss your hand? No, you can't. So can I shake your hand? no. That's all, I wish you good night.Goodbye. She didn't answer, he bowed in a graceful dance, walked to the other side of the pond as he had come, and disappeared. Eustacia sighed; not a woman's feeble sigh, but one that made her tremble all over.Whenever a ray of reason shone like an electric light on her lover, which sometimes happened, she would see his flaws, and she would tremble all over.But it was only for a moment, and then she fell in love again.She knew he was playing with her feelings; but she still loved him.She kicked away the unburnt firewood, entered the house immediately, and went upstairs to her bedroom in the dark.In the darkness there was only the rustling of her undressing, mingled with a few heavy sighs now and then; ten minutes later she fell asleep in bed, even though she was still trembling now and then.