Post by max on Feb 23, 2010 12:42:54 GMT 10
Bright Star XX
PG
371
Joren
1/E
Second to last.
___________________________________
He walks up to the curtain wall, but there is no breath of air stirring there, nonetheless, the coldness is gnawing deep in his core (like one of those stars that cool and disappear) anyway, and for a long time he wonders how far it would be to fall, but then the guards ask him what he is doing there, and he stops, smiles, goes back down to ground level. He touches his head, marvelling at how much lighter it feels, knowing he looks unrecognisable to those around him, the word kidnapping for once not permeating his being. A star without a messy kind of nimbus around it.
He thinks about Keladry, the last time he saw her there.
He sees his parents and uncle, and they love him, but he has moved into a life and realm beyond any they could have known or experienced or ever will (he is their bright star, but they belong to the earth and the mountain, and there is always this between them) and he doesn’t fight with his father about his hair and he startles his mother out of her tears.
He thinks about her hair (mud-coloured, streaked with golden morning light)
He sees Yukimi, and she tells him to be as stone tonight, and he doesn’t bother to tell her how impossible that is, feels her heart against his own (slow and sure), kisses her brow and tells her not to worry.
He thinks about Keladry dancing with her polearm. He thinks about having met her halfway. Going on into a world where she could not follow, even if she wanted to.
He sees Zahir, gives him the keys to his room and desk. Zahir presses his nose to his own, shares his breath, cradles his shorn head in his hands, kisses his lips to will some kind of power or brightness back into his body, but Joren feels it not-take and there is something rueful in his eyes when they part.
He remembers lacing his fingers through her hair, the first time her lips were made swollen by his own hands. Her lovely mouth.
He is beyond wishes, but if he wasn’t, there would be two people he would pray for.
PG
371
Joren
1/E
Second to last.
___________________________________
He walks up to the curtain wall, but there is no breath of air stirring there, nonetheless, the coldness is gnawing deep in his core (like one of those stars that cool and disappear) anyway, and for a long time he wonders how far it would be to fall, but then the guards ask him what he is doing there, and he stops, smiles, goes back down to ground level. He touches his head, marvelling at how much lighter it feels, knowing he looks unrecognisable to those around him, the word kidnapping for once not permeating his being. A star without a messy kind of nimbus around it.
He thinks about Keladry, the last time he saw her there.
He sees his parents and uncle, and they love him, but he has moved into a life and realm beyond any they could have known or experienced or ever will (he is their bright star, but they belong to the earth and the mountain, and there is always this between them) and he doesn’t fight with his father about his hair and he startles his mother out of her tears.
He thinks about her hair (mud-coloured, streaked with golden morning light)
He sees Yukimi, and she tells him to be as stone tonight, and he doesn’t bother to tell her how impossible that is, feels her heart against his own (slow and sure), kisses her brow and tells her not to worry.
He thinks about Keladry dancing with her polearm. He thinks about having met her halfway. Going on into a world where she could not follow, even if she wanted to.
He sees Zahir, gives him the keys to his room and desk. Zahir presses his nose to his own, shares his breath, cradles his shorn head in his hands, kisses his lips to will some kind of power or brightness back into his body, but Joren feels it not-take and there is something rueful in his eyes when they part.
He remembers lacing his fingers through her hair, the first time her lips were made swollen by his own hands. Her lovely mouth.
He is beyond wishes, but if he wasn’t, there would be two people he would pray for.