Post by journeycat on Feb 23, 2010 15:15:58 GMT 10
Title: The Strange Life
Rating: PG
Length: 294 words
Competitor: Joren
Round/Fight: 1/E
Summary: Some things will never change. Part of the "Scenes from Stone Mountain" series.
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“How is he?”
“Healthy. Strong. Growing. He’ll wake from his nap soon.”
Joren nodded curtly, unbuttoning his sweat-soaked shirt. He contemplated her out of the corner of his eye. Their arranged marriage had started off badly and had only gotten worse, from bitter arguments to near-physical harm. Had she become a page—and she so very nearly had—he would not have thought twice about punching her in her annoying, unreadable face.
But Keladry was his wife, and he would dare not damage the reputation of Stone Mountain by hurting her.
“So how old is he now? Six months?”
“Nine.”
“He’s getting big.”
“Yes.”
He slid a sly glance in her direction as he shrugged off the shirt. She was perched on the edge of the large bed they shared, her back to him and her dreamer’s eyes staring vaguely out of the window. Their relationship had switched from heated words and clenched fists to flat exchanges. It was not because they had grown to like each other, not even close, and it wasn’t even that they could tolerate each other now—she never dropped that Yamani Mask and he still hated everything she did, from wearing breeches to practicing with that pigsticker of hers.
It was only that, whereas all his many other mistresses bore him daughters or nothing at all, in a twist of fate, she and she alone bore him a son. For that, he could restrain himself, at least a little.
He was still only a squire, and rarely got to see the boy. This midwinter, though, Joren thought, feeling smug, this midwinter, when I finally take my Ordeal, I’ll have all the time in the world to raise him to be a proper son of Stone Mountain.
Rating: PG
Length: 294 words
Competitor: Joren
Round/Fight: 1/E
Summary: Some things will never change. Part of the "Scenes from Stone Mountain" series.
-----
“How is he?”
“Healthy. Strong. Growing. He’ll wake from his nap soon.”
Joren nodded curtly, unbuttoning his sweat-soaked shirt. He contemplated her out of the corner of his eye. Their arranged marriage had started off badly and had only gotten worse, from bitter arguments to near-physical harm. Had she become a page—and she so very nearly had—he would not have thought twice about punching her in her annoying, unreadable face.
But Keladry was his wife, and he would dare not damage the reputation of Stone Mountain by hurting her.
“So how old is he now? Six months?”
“Nine.”
“He’s getting big.”
“Yes.”
He slid a sly glance in her direction as he shrugged off the shirt. She was perched on the edge of the large bed they shared, her back to him and her dreamer’s eyes staring vaguely out of the window. Their relationship had switched from heated words and clenched fists to flat exchanges. It was not because they had grown to like each other, not even close, and it wasn’t even that they could tolerate each other now—she never dropped that Yamani Mask and he still hated everything she did, from wearing breeches to practicing with that pigsticker of hers.
It was only that, whereas all his many other mistresses bore him daughters or nothing at all, in a twist of fate, she and she alone bore him a son. For that, he could restrain himself, at least a little.
He was still only a squire, and rarely got to see the boy. This midwinter, though, Joren thought, feeling smug, this midwinter, when I finally take my Ordeal, I’ll have all the time in the world to raise him to be a proper son of Stone Mountain.