(WWS): the missing stormclouds, PG-13 (Memory Shredded)

[Tamari]

Series: Memory Shredded
Title: the missing stormclouds
Rating: PG-13
Event: Spice Up Your Life
Words: 200 (not including introductory quote)
Summary: The belly of Kalasin’s story. Character death referenced.
Notes: Kinda wandered away from where I started with the prompt, but I’m still happy with where it ended up. Thayet is the spice in Kalasin's life!

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“You don’t have anything
if you don’t have the stories.”
(Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony)

On quiet nights, Kalasin tells the story. Thayet listens — a babe in arms, a child in bed, a young woman in suspense.

This is the story Kalasin tells:


One sunrise, Alasis of the Hau Ma gave birth to a daughter. She was called Kalasin, after the mountain stream. Alasis taught Kalasin their ways and their stories. But Kalasin’s gaze strayed often to the fields, where her horse waited.

One sunrise, when Kalasin was sixteen, Alasis died. A band of lowlanders were hunting antelope, but they found Alasis instead.

The Hau Ma were angry, and lowlanders came. The youngest was Adigun, the son of the jin Wilima warlord. Adigun hated the K’mir. But he saw Kalasin’s beautiful face, her broken heart, and he wanted her.

Kalasin knew about power. If she married Adigun, she could change the lowlanders' minds about the K’mir. She could stop the violence that killed her mother.

One sunset, Kalasin married Adigun. Then she had a daughter. Adigun was angry, and the priests prayed daily for an heir. But Kalasin loved her daughter, loved her with a fierceness like hoofbeats. Thayet gave Kalasin the strength to do what she must.


(Who would tell the story, after?) 

[Rosie]

This is wonderful, the idea that it isn't just Kalasin's face that attracts Adigun, but the fact that he sees her when she's vulnerable. I love the insight into why Kalasin married Adigun, and the 'fierceness like hoofbeats' is beautiful.

[devilinthedetails]

There's such a lyrical quality to your writing here, and that last line "(Who would tell the story, after?)" is a truly haunting question. Beautiful job with this!

[Kypriotha]

This is beautiful Tamari, so sad yet really capturing Kalasin's spirit.

Kalasin knew about power. If she married Adigun, she could change the lowlanders' minds about the K’mir. She could stop the violence that killed her mother.

This line broke my heart a little, because of Kalasin's determination to try to bring about change, but also knowing how it ends.

[mistrali]

There is such a fable-like, or even oral history-like, quality about this. I can imagine someone, particularly someone K’miri, learning it by heart and reciting it.

Something about the middle two paragraphs gives me the mental image of plains: I think it’s the hunting antelope. Love the mountain/field contrast.

[Tamari]

Rosie, Thank you so much! Kalasin might be the most beautiful woman in the world, but the power dynamic between Adigun and Kalasin is never balanced, and I think that would influence the reasons he wanted her in the first place.

devilinthedetails, Thank you! The last line is a tie-in to the framing of Kalasin being the one to tell the story, but also thinking about assimilation and oral history. Do Thayet and other K'mir pass down this story, or is it lost?

Kypriotha Thanks! That's the reasoning that Tammy gave Kalasin for agreeing to marry Adigun (the power, not her mother's death). It adds to the tragedy.

mistrali, Thank you! I'm so glad the oral history quality came through. When writing it, I didn't intend to put in the mountain/plains dichotomy, but it kind of snuck in there!