Advent Prompt 4

Come here to tell your tales and meet with others. (In-character talk only)
User avatar
Bifrost Janger
Experienced Adventurer
Posts: 412
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 12:02 am

Advent Prompt 4

Postby Bifrost Janger » Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:18 pm

The language of Kitty Janger's flowers was silence. Meaning, she never received any. Not for years, at least. The last bunch had come from her neighbour, Anges; for when her father had died. Kitty had resolved to start growing her own; splashed in little pots about their cobbled yard. Though, the wind was chill now, and the daffodils were sleeping.

Flowers never came from her husband, Roalf. Not even now that they were rowing. No white carnations of apology for Kitty. They were still knocking heads. Locked in submission. But Kitty was sure that she would win. Her husbands puffing and bellowing didn't bother her any. She was nearing her fifty-fith winter; she was old enough to have learned patience. Six children birthed; so she knew pain. And raising them all had taught her endurance. So, yes. Kitty Janger was not worried. She had everything at her disposal that she needed to win. She was as formidable as farmer's wives came.

Kitty was up with the dawn, and about in her pyjamas. She was down along the secret passageway - that was truly nothing more than the overgrown path that trailed from their farmhouse to the road. But that is what the kids used to call it when they were young, and the name stuck. She'd lost count of the time she'd scolded the boys for peeing in it.

The early wind blew about Kitty's exposed ankles as she came to the tumbled fence that flanked the end of the muddy trail. The 'rifter was just coming up, and the sky was pleasantly pink. But Kitty wasn't looking at that. She was busy watching the road; the courier should be by soon. Her skinny fingers fumbled with the items in her housecoat pocket; two silvers and a crinkled letter. She had habitually fondled them throughout her walk through the secret passageway, fearful that she might drop them.

They were items that she could not avoid to lose. The letter, especially. Kitty Janger had never learned her spellings and such. She had to enlist one of Anges' kids to write it for her. That letter in her pocket, it was the only one she had ever written in her life. And she hoped that it was good enough.

She did not have long to wait. Valornian couriers are punctual sorts. Not even a marc later she sighted the lad coming up the road. Kitty stood straighter in her meagre pyjamas, and opted her best Sunday voice to address him.

"Good turn, young sir. Could you see this missive to Mister Bifrost Janger, please."

The courier bobbed his head and accepted the letter to his pack and the coins to his pocket. The two silvers weren't enough. But the young lad hadn't the heart to tell the weathered woman at the side of the road. So he accepted the job, and silently resolved that he'd square the remainder with Bif when he found him.
Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grow in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground. - Terry Pratchett

User avatar
Blythe
I talk WAY too much
Posts: 2540
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:27 pm
Location: The Space Between

Re: Advent Prompt 4

Postby Blythe » Mon Dec 06, 2021 2:34 am

Raffe crept down the secret passageway just before dawn. It was less of a secret than a partially hidden path of convenience. At least, those in the guild all knew of its existence and those not in the guild had little use of that knowledge anyway. This passageway led from the library to the gardens. Hidden behind a bookcase that opened like most doors,it was a shortcut that he knew Fleur used often. He could tell by the shuffled footprints that she had made her way out to the gardens before the first soft rays of 'rifter had even stretched across the lands.
He found her in the garden, as he suspected, still in her pyjamas and whispering to her precious flowers as it was time to wake from their slumbering. He admired the way she could make almost anything grow, and not just grow but thrive. She told him she learned to speak the language of every flower she planted in their gardens. She listened and spoke to them often with such tenderness that he understood exactly why they thrived; the same way that he has for so many cycles in their lives together.
He knew why she was awake so early. It was a special turn, as she had told him. This one flower only bloomed under the turning of the Demon Eyes when they all lined up just so. And for this plant, it meant that once the blooms were harvested it would slumber beneath the ground for another hundred cycles or more before the next fresh tiny green shoots would appear. Fleur knew it was time, she had told him, because she listened closely and saw every sign that this would be the only turn for the bloom to open under the first light of Sunrifter.
He watched her wordlessly as she hummed a tune, with spare words of a song breaking through every so often, while 'rifter stretched across the horizon and the long awaiting blossoms opened under the light, tender caress of her fingertips. The dew evaporated as the sky shifted from its darkened purples to a bright blue and Fleur turned away from the bloom to meet his eyes with a smile.
These moments made her happy.
I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am :D
Image
Raffe Rychmin
57568

10x2

User avatar
Turcko
Veteran
Posts: 564
Joined: Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:53 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Advent Prompt 4

Postby Turcko » Sun Dec 12, 2021 9:43 pm

Two flowers were talking, you know, the way flowers do. A third wanted to join in, but it was a dandelion, and no self-respecting pair of daisies would be seen under the red light of the Three Demon Eyes talking with a dandelion. This is known.

These two talked often. You could call them birds of a feather, if they were birds. But these were flowers, so any other saying that did not include the mortal enemies of seeds would really be more appropriate. Flowers have an expression for it. You are stuck with birds and feathers.

Nevertheless! They were talking, in their flowery language. Not in a hurry, you see. They weren’t really going anywhere. Not like those two humans rushing about. However, those two were the subject of their conversation, indeed they were.

Would you believe it? They just came out of a hatch on the ground. A secret passage, if you want to call it that! What makes it secret? The flowers don’t know about you, but neither of them had gone through it, so it was certainly a secret to them. Don’t be picky, a secret is only a secret if you don’t know it. This is known.

Why are humans always running somewhere? The two daisies had no words to explain it. Not that they really needed to, it was just nice to be able to put a word to what you saw.

For instance: what word would best describe the alarmed look on the older, blond-haired man?

Where was he going, still in his pyjamas, carrying that young boy on his arms?

How did the boy get so bloody, down in that secret passageway?

This the flowers discussed. They did not really care about the WHY. They simply wanted things named, in the language of flowers.

But certainly not with the help of that dandelion!
Turcko, Falx Monde, Ivan Monde, Argoth

Image


Return to “Lord Cory's Social Hall”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests