Wild Roses fic prompt 031 "Sunrise"

[taennyn]

Title: so rises light
'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Hernén, Belladonna
Prompt: 031 "Sunrise"
Word Count: 200
Rating: all ages
Notes: follows this, and concludes the sequence. Still Hernén's first winter in the proto-Trickwood.


No one got very much sleep that night. The humans kept close to their fires, curled up in the lee of each other's bodies in shifts, and always fetching more wood in groups, hands on belts and worn stocks tensing in tune with the omnipresent howling. The wolves kept out of sight of the fires, but the singing never faltered in intensity or choir.

It shifted, eventually, as the sky lightened to steely white, clouds still thick with fine-particled snow, fading eventually to one still-sweet lupine soprano that sank into silence as the sun peeked over the trees and blinded everyone awake enough to see the light on the snow.

The wolves trickled back into view, some shifting as they hit open ground to raise their faces half-blindly to the light, others only going to curl, half-hesitantly, near fires.

Belladonna herself emerged on four feet, flopping down on the fire side of the log Hernén was still sitting on, and half the humans snuck looks at him to see how he reacted to a member of the group who'd kept them all awake.

He met their eyes calmly, weirdly aware of every set on him, and built his fire slightly higher.

Comments

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

It's hard work, singing all night for a ceremony.
Hernen somehow gives the impression of knowing that.

[taennyn]

On one hand, he's very pragmatically deciding that no-one slept well, it's been snowing, and they're pretty well settled where they are. Not moving today, thanks.

And on the other--yeah. Acknowledging (unspoken) that their culture, while not his, is worthy of respect.

Thanks. :)

[klgaffney.livejournal.com]

s'good. like the end of an all night candle-virgil. seems to me that only a very willfully ignorant/blind or a bad sort of fool would behave badly, in those circumstances, and he doesn't strike me as dumb. but enough people ARE that it makes sense that they'd look for it.

[taennyn]

A few are also taking cues from him--at least a third of the group of humans with him haven't interacted with real-live werewolves, just the stories and reputations. It could've got Special fast. >.>

[youraugustine.livejournal.com]

Tired wolves are tiiiired. Definitely a sense of wariness all around. Are Geoffrey et all still here at this point, or have they gone off to do other things? As if they're there, one might expect at least some commentary/company for Hernén.

[taennyn]

The wolves are rrreeeeeallly tired.

Yeah, the humans and the wolves both aren't sure what to do with this. Which is kind of an interesting dynamic.

I think this is actually before Geoffrey et all come out to join him. (Which may mean I need to tweak the index post--let me know if I do, please.)

[youraugustine.livejournal.com]

The allmixedtogether one for sure - that's the one I'm working thru, with Unification, SKoLS and Second Chances all together. Not sure about the separate.

[taennyn]

Ah. I haven't kept that one as up to date as I'd prefer; the split-up ones may have more pieces linked in. (Frankly I find the html for the combined indexes terrifying at this point. =\)

[youraugustine.livejournal.com]

Noted; as I'm trying to get a feel back for the story, I wanted the sense if how they fit together.

[taennyn]

Okay, the big one should be roughly up to date now; in case you want 'em, trickwood only and love song only indexes.