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Halfway done! [Flowerhouse and Catboys]
Jul. 6th, 2007 12:21 pmSince there are only a few of each of these, putting them in the same post. You should be able to tell which is which.
47. Storm
Acacia is not exactly afraid of thunder, but she puts up an extra screen between herself and the wall during storms. There are too many stories about wild-wind nights for her to feel comfortable.
Behind her screen, through the window, the lighting-gods and the wild hunters fight, a thousand thousand hooves trampling the sky itself. A hell-wolf howls its loneliness through the tears of a goddess.
Acacia counts her breaths and does not sleep at all. One day, she thinks, she will step off a cliff and join the wind – but until then, she must try to keep her distance.
48. Moon
Artemis ran under such a sky as this, and it was a night like tonight that sent the rabbit leaping into the fire. It is clear and cold and Acacia can see every star in the sky. The moon is pure silver above the trees.
She knows eight myths for every constellation; she can see the Pleiades, and name each one; the stars –
glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid
- and she does not do anything so undignified as raise her hands to them, but all the same she feels the moon’s light calling to her.
49. Uniform
The first time she sees Ryoka wear his dress uniform, his mother cries. His little brothers are mutely impressed.
He has medals on it, in purple and gold. They ask. He says, this one is for ‘devotion beyond the call of duty’, and that one is for ‘bravery in the line of fire’. He doesn’t say, ‘my best friend should have gotten this only he died first’, or, ‘this was for nearly committing suicide with a hand grenade’.
They’ll find out themselves, someday, and he won’t have to tell them why he hates looking in the mirror dressed like this.
50. Scissors
The most common sign of a captive is short hair. It’s disgraceful, among the Ab-Syllans, to have a ponytail any shorter than waist length. So of course, the first thing Xeng Kho does when he captures Ryoka’s men is give them all haircuts.
They’re not cowards, but they’re marked as it, and Ryoka rages for them.
The bastard doesn’t cut Ryoka’s, and that pisses him off – he’s their captain. He should be the first into battle, last to retreat, first to suffer. But his soldiers are in prison, he is in the enemy’s tent, and he doesn’t get the choice.
47. Storm
Acacia is not exactly afraid of thunder, but she puts up an extra screen between herself and the wall during storms. There are too many stories about wild-wind nights for her to feel comfortable.
Behind her screen, through the window, the lighting-gods and the wild hunters fight, a thousand thousand hooves trampling the sky itself. A hell-wolf howls its loneliness through the tears of a goddess.
Acacia counts her breaths and does not sleep at all. One day, she thinks, she will step off a cliff and join the wind – but until then, she must try to keep her distance.
48. Moon
Artemis ran under such a sky as this, and it was a night like tonight that sent the rabbit leaping into the fire. It is clear and cold and Acacia can see every star in the sky. The moon is pure silver above the trees.
She knows eight myths for every constellation; she can see the Pleiades, and name each one; the stars –
glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid
- and she does not do anything so undignified as raise her hands to them, but all the same she feels the moon’s light calling to her.
49. Uniform
The first time she sees Ryoka wear his dress uniform, his mother cries. His little brothers are mutely impressed.
He has medals on it, in purple and gold. They ask. He says, this one is for ‘devotion beyond the call of duty’, and that one is for ‘bravery in the line of fire’. He doesn’t say, ‘my best friend should have gotten this only he died first’, or, ‘this was for nearly committing suicide with a hand grenade’.
They’ll find out themselves, someday, and he won’t have to tell them why he hates looking in the mirror dressed like this.
50. Scissors
The most common sign of a captive is short hair. It’s disgraceful, among the Ab-Syllans, to have a ponytail any shorter than waist length. So of course, the first thing Xeng Kho does when he captures Ryoka’s men is give them all haircuts.
They’re not cowards, but they’re marked as it, and Ryoka rages for them.
The bastard doesn’t cut Ryoka’s, and that pisses him off – he’s their captain. He should be the first into battle, last to retreat, first to suffer. But his soldiers are in prison, he is in the enemy’s tent, and he doesn’t get the choice.
