|
Post by boosette on May 5, 2009 6:23:24 GMT 10
Title: The Stuff Heroes are Made of Rating: PG Prompt: Villain Category: Up to 250 Word count: 250 Summary: Joren's means have always been made of suck. * Joren's sister has a cat. He's seven and she's six when he steals it. Sets the creature in the fork of a tree and tells the meanest common boy from the village that it's there. It doesn't take long for the other lad to show up, torch in hand, to scare the cat up the tree. Joren chases him off with shouted oaths he oughtn't know and noble command. His sister and his parents are there – he'd brought them – to see him play here, see him climb branches too spindly to hold a grown man's weight. From the very top of the tree he can see everything from the keep to the gray granite mountain ranges on each horizon, can hear his little sister wailing down below as she clings to Mother's skirts. He ignores shouted orders from Father and uncles and the steward, pleas and demands that he come down before he kills himself. Joren climbs higher and shimmies out onto the limb the cat picked. Her fur is singed and he almost regrets not picking someone else to torment her, then shrugs before he shoves the animal off. She lands on her feet like cats do, and Joren's sister stops wailing and chases the animal off. He climbs down, his skin and clothes are sticky and pungent with pine sap when he lets himself drop the last ten feet. Gathered in his mother's arms, Joren declares, "I want to be the finest knight in all of Tortall someday!"
|
|
anilaurel
Queen's Rider
Posts: 505
Gender: Other
|
Post by anilaurel on May 5, 2009 10:14:16 GMT 10
Wow, he's almost human. AWED
|
|
|
Post by boosette on May 5, 2009 10:17:20 GMT 10
Thank you! He can't always have been a jerkface, after all.
|
|
|
Post by Katty on May 5, 2009 10:31:22 GMT 10
This is a bit creepy. But exactly the sort of thing I can see a young Joren doing. Very well done
|
|
|
Post by boosette on May 5, 2009 10:40:31 GMT 10
Creepy is good, creepy is good Thanks, Kat!
|
|
|
Post by ubiquitous on May 5, 2009 10:57:31 GMT 10
♥ What Kat said.
|
|
|
Post by boosette on May 5, 2009 11:14:49 GMT 10
♥ Thanks, Isha!
|
|
|
Post by PeroxidePirate on May 5, 2009 13:16:42 GMT 10
Wow. You made this just similar enough to the time Kel rescued kittens to emphasize the fundamental difference between them. This is why Kel is a hero and Joren will always be a villain... and it completely works, that it started at a young age. Excellent Joren.
|
|
|
Post by boosette on May 5, 2009 13:25:41 GMT 10
I'm so glad you got the parallelism because it was exactly what I was going for - the climbing and the cat and everything.
♥
Thank, Peroxide!
|
|
Imogen
Probationer Page
Posts: 100
|
Post by Imogen on May 6, 2009 10:02:58 GMT 10
The part that got me was when he knocked the cat out of the tree to save it. I thought he was going to carry it down! Great job with this. A Joren younger and more innocent, despite the conniving, with all his elements there.
|
|
|
Post by Fenella on May 6, 2009 11:26:16 GMT 10
I winced at "Joren's sister has a cat"... it's a nice mix between sweet and creepy. Like Joren!
|
|
|
Post by Lisa on May 17, 2009 14:59:50 GMT 10
Delightfully creepy. Beautiful parallel!
|
|
|
Post by girlcalledsun on Jun 3, 2009 6:30:51 GMT 10
Joren - how so wrong? Thing is, I can believe he really does want to be a good knight, he just doesn't know how to go about it. Great drabble.
|
|
Pandesme
Page
Just call me Kaelie.
Posts: 367
|
Post by Pandesme on Feb 3, 2011 6:41:29 GMT 10
This was really interesting, I can totally see him doing this. Great fic!
|
|