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Title: cards down and shown
'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Hazel, Aodh, Lin, Fintain
Prompt: 053 "Earth"
Word Count: 704, at least one more prompt to follow in the arc
Rating: (why am I even bothering with this?) PG
Notes: Lin resides with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
merditha, who I very much hope will tell me if I got something wrong. Chronologically speaking, this is the farthest forward prompt to date.
She had a half-second's warning, heard the first branch begin to fall and reacted, kicking her feet loose from the stirrups and flinging herself backwards and up, out of the saddle and tumbling backwards down the incline, trying to curl in on herself to protect her hands and stomach.
Her horse screamed, up the hill, cut off abruptly with a thud of wood hitting wood hard.
She rolled to her feet, her right spur tinging against a rock she'd fortunately missed, took quick stock of her remaining weapons, then stopped, stared around her as men started dropping out of the air and fading out of the background.
"Do all of you have tracking spells on me?" she asked, half-disbelieving but unable to think of any other reason for her father, her favourite cousin and her lover to be there in that moment. Her father and her lover exchanged a glance, then both looked at her, apparently checking visually to see her in one piece in lieu of fighting over who got to touch. She started picking twigs and torn-out leaves from her hair under the scrutiny, slightly embarrassed.
"I'm only surprised Hernén and your sister haven't put in an appearance yet," Aodh replied absently, looking around, then flicked both his hands out with a hiss as something moved in the low underbrush.
Hazel watched, hand paused mid-comb, as coils of spells became visible, leaf green on water green on earth brown, anchored to the path, the trees around them, and swirling tighter together the closer the pattern got to the place her horse had died. Aodh had caught one of the earlier lines in the course of untangling, unraveling, fading out from visibility.
"Uncle Fintain," her cousin said calmly, though his teeth were bared in a wolf-wide snarl as he looked at the glowing tangle, "would you inform the King your brother that an assassination attempt was just carried out on a member of the royal family and that a Hand is or will shortly be on-scene?"
"--what?" Hazel and her father both said.
"I can prove it if you want," her cousin told her father, flat, ignoring her entirely, "But the longer you delay, the better chance I'm going to lose my grip on at least one of these, and they're going to tell us who thought they could kill your youngest daughter with a rigged deadfall."
Her father disappeared in a tiny flicker of red and gold light.
"What?" she repeated herself.
"Long story. The King our grandfather got clever when I was sixteen. 'Less you're doubting that someone just tried to kill you?" he raised an eyebrow at her, then jerked his chin at her lover.
She blinked at her cousin for a moment, nonplused, then took two steps to the right, where Lin met her. He kissed a new-stinging scratch on her cheekbone, unmindful of the dirt smudging the same cheek, and ran a light hand across her side, smoothing away leaf debris and making her aware that she'd banged something on the way down the hill.
He'd gone away again, tangled up somewhere in his head and in the past, she thought, suddenly angry, and reached up to tap at his nose. He didn't react the way she expected, looking through her finger to her face and ignoring the touch entirely.
"Jessamisiar," Aodh said quietly, his voice dropped to a deeper register than she'd ever heard her cousin use, his face still turned towards the edges of the trail, looking at the tangled spells instead of at them.
He waited until Lin stopped staring at Hazel like she'd disappear if he blinked--she wondered how he knew so precisely when--then continued, "We can do a lot better than private vendetta."
"You've never seen me on vendetta," her lover replied, very soft, cold as ice-fed rivers.
"Do I get a say in any of this?" Hazel put in, brushing at the biggest stain on her jeans before she stuck her hands in her hip pockets, jerking her chin up the trail. "They killed my horse."
"No," Lin and Aodh chorused.
"But you can help destroy their lives," Lin added, in a generous tone.
"I love you too," she told him wryly.
'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Hazel, Aodh, Lin, Fintain
Prompt: 053 "Earth"
Word Count: 704, at least one more prompt to follow in the arc
Rating: (why am I even bothering with this?) PG
Notes: Lin resides with
merditha, who I very much hope will tell me if I got something wrong. Chronologically speaking, this is the farthest forward prompt to date.She had a half-second's warning, heard the first branch begin to fall and reacted, kicking her feet loose from the stirrups and flinging herself backwards and up, out of the saddle and tumbling backwards down the incline, trying to curl in on herself to protect her hands and stomach.
Her horse screamed, up the hill, cut off abruptly with a thud of wood hitting wood hard.
She rolled to her feet, her right spur tinging against a rock she'd fortunately missed, took quick stock of her remaining weapons, then stopped, stared around her as men started dropping out of the air and fading out of the background.
"Do all of you have tracking spells on me?" she asked, half-disbelieving but unable to think of any other reason for her father, her favourite cousin and her lover to be there in that moment. Her father and her lover exchanged a glance, then both looked at her, apparently checking visually to see her in one piece in lieu of fighting over who got to touch. She started picking twigs and torn-out leaves from her hair under the scrutiny, slightly embarrassed.
"I'm only surprised Hernén and your sister haven't put in an appearance yet," Aodh replied absently, looking around, then flicked both his hands out with a hiss as something moved in the low underbrush.
Hazel watched, hand paused mid-comb, as coils of spells became visible, leaf green on water green on earth brown, anchored to the path, the trees around them, and swirling tighter together the closer the pattern got to the place her horse had died. Aodh had caught one of the earlier lines in the course of untangling, unraveling, fading out from visibility.
"Uncle Fintain," her cousin said calmly, though his teeth were bared in a wolf-wide snarl as he looked at the glowing tangle, "would you inform the King your brother that an assassination attempt was just carried out on a member of the royal family and that a Hand is or will shortly be on-scene?"
"--what?" Hazel and her father both said.
"I can prove it if you want," her cousin told her father, flat, ignoring her entirely, "But the longer you delay, the better chance I'm going to lose my grip on at least one of these, and they're going to tell us who thought they could kill your youngest daughter with a rigged deadfall."
Her father disappeared in a tiny flicker of red and gold light.
"What?" she repeated herself.
"Long story. The King our grandfather got clever when I was sixteen. 'Less you're doubting that someone just tried to kill you?" he raised an eyebrow at her, then jerked his chin at her lover.
She blinked at her cousin for a moment, nonplused, then took two steps to the right, where Lin met her. He kissed a new-stinging scratch on her cheekbone, unmindful of the dirt smudging the same cheek, and ran a light hand across her side, smoothing away leaf debris and making her aware that she'd banged something on the way down the hill.
He'd gone away again, tangled up somewhere in his head and in the past, she thought, suddenly angry, and reached up to tap at his nose. He didn't react the way she expected, looking through her finger to her face and ignoring the touch entirely.
"Jessamisiar," Aodh said quietly, his voice dropped to a deeper register than she'd ever heard her cousin use, his face still turned towards the edges of the trail, looking at the tangled spells instead of at them.
He waited until Lin stopped staring at Hazel like she'd disappear if he blinked--she wondered how he knew so precisely when--then continued, "We can do a lot better than private vendetta."
"You've never seen me on vendetta," her lover replied, very soft, cold as ice-fed rivers.
"Do I get a say in any of this?" Hazel put in, brushing at the biggest stain on her jeans before she stuck her hands in her hip pockets, jerking her chin up the trail. "They killed my horse."
"No," Lin and Aodh chorused.
"But you can help destroy their lives," Lin added, in a generous tone.
"I love you too," she told him wryly.
