[Fic] "Mountain Dream" -- original
Oct. 17th, 2020 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingSummary: Mountain dreams were meant for the young, those old enough to no longer be children, but young enough to not yet have children of their own. Navila got hers when she was twenty-seven: married, widowed, and mother of three. [455 words]
Note: Written 10/16/20 in response to the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fan_flashworks challenge: nightmare.
As per the community rules, this post will just be a link to the fic text onfan_flashworks until the current challenge closes on October 20, at which point I will move the actual ficlet over here. But for now, a link: Mountain Dream
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Mountain Dream
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Mountain dreams were meant for the young, those old enough to no longer be children, but young enough to not yet have children of their own. Navila got hers when she was twenty-seven: married, widowed, and mother of three. It woke her screaming in the sticky heat of a summer night, and brought all her family rushing to her room to see the fading haze of god-light -- gold as flame, but with no flicker or shadow -- around her ears and eyes.
Fortunately, her law-brother was good with children and herded both his and hers off to stargaze, while her blood-brother bundled her into the kitchen and piled blankets onto her shoulders until she began to feel she might someday remember warmth.
"The gods have horrible timing," Navila remarked as she huddled at the table, mug of richspice clutched between her hands. "And it wasn't even a good dream. Nothing sweet to run towards, only bitterness to run from."
"All the more reason to pay attention," her little brother Aijo said. He sipped his own richspice contemplatively, then added, "Will you take the children, or will you leave them with me and Rathione? We can manage the steading a month or two without you. Or we can come with you as well, if that's more helpful."
Navila stared into the thick red-brown swirls of her drink and picked through the fragments of her dream like sorting a basket of dried beans, tossing out the chaff and the stones and keeping the good food. Fire underwater, a cave filled with god-light's eerie unwavering radiance, soft laughter that slid between warm and cruel as a callused hand circled the back of her neck, the jagged pain of loss. The icy certainty that if she didn't listen, didn't start walking north to Simjia before the next sunset, she and everyone she loved would die within the month.
Common sense said to leave her children safe at home. Mountain dreams were meant to be followed alone.
Mountain dreams were meant for the young.
The gods had broken one pattern already. Why not break another? And she couldn't escape the nagging sense that leaving half her heart behind was no fit way to start a quest.
"We all go," Navila decided. "But not until the afternoon. We have enough time to do this right."
Aijo reached across the table to lay his hand atop Navila's, his skin warm against her dream-chilled flesh. "We do. And when we reach whatever the gods want you to find, I know you'll make the right choice."
Navila squeezed her brother's hand. "You trust me too much. But I'm sure whatever the choice may be, I'll make it more wisely with my family at my side."
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End of Ficlet
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For reference, this is loosely set in an original world that I don't think I've ever talked about on this journal. It exists mostly in a litany of deities and some fragmentary worldbuilding.
The litany is as follows:
These are the gods of Tenich Valley:
Corgan who sits in her cave alone
Hopal in whose footsteps flowers grow
Elisu who is brother to water
Najia who brings the night
Merimadhu who speaks with birds
Morgada whose smile is like the sun
Sennone by whose hand the hungry are fed
And Kemmess who walks among the stars
As for the worldbuilding, for now I'll just say that Kemmess walking among the stars is 100% literal and not a trick necessarily restricted to deities, and Simjia Mountain is very important to the people of the Valley for reasons that merely start with Corgan's cave being set near its peak. The other symbolically important mountain is the Pilgrim's Horn; together, those peaks flank the main pass into the Valley.
And someday, I will actually work out a proper story to set in this world because dammit, the worldbuilding is really cool and it would be a crying shame not to do something equally cool to showcase it. *wry*
Note: Written 10/16/20 in response to the
fan_flashworks challenge: nightmare.As per the community rules, this post will just be a link to the fic text on
fan_flashworks until the current challenge closes on October 20, at which point I will move the actual ficlet over here. But for now, a link: Mountain Dream---------------------------------------------
Mountain Dream
---------------------------------------------
Mountain dreams were meant for the young, those old enough to no longer be children, but young enough to not yet have children of their own. Navila got hers when she was twenty-seven: married, widowed, and mother of three. It woke her screaming in the sticky heat of a summer night, and brought all her family rushing to her room to see the fading haze of god-light -- gold as flame, but with no flicker or shadow -- around her ears and eyes.
Fortunately, her law-brother was good with children and herded both his and hers off to stargaze, while her blood-brother bundled her into the kitchen and piled blankets onto her shoulders until she began to feel she might someday remember warmth.
"The gods have horrible timing," Navila remarked as she huddled at the table, mug of richspice clutched between her hands. "And it wasn't even a good dream. Nothing sweet to run towards, only bitterness to run from."
"All the more reason to pay attention," her little brother Aijo said. He sipped his own richspice contemplatively, then added, "Will you take the children, or will you leave them with me and Rathione? We can manage the steading a month or two without you. Or we can come with you as well, if that's more helpful."
Navila stared into the thick red-brown swirls of her drink and picked through the fragments of her dream like sorting a basket of dried beans, tossing out the chaff and the stones and keeping the good food. Fire underwater, a cave filled with god-light's eerie unwavering radiance, soft laughter that slid between warm and cruel as a callused hand circled the back of her neck, the jagged pain of loss. The icy certainty that if she didn't listen, didn't start walking north to Simjia before the next sunset, she and everyone she loved would die within the month.
Common sense said to leave her children safe at home. Mountain dreams were meant to be followed alone.
Mountain dreams were meant for the young.
The gods had broken one pattern already. Why not break another? And she couldn't escape the nagging sense that leaving half her heart behind was no fit way to start a quest.
"We all go," Navila decided. "But not until the afternoon. We have enough time to do this right."
Aijo reached across the table to lay his hand atop Navila's, his skin warm against her dream-chilled flesh. "We do. And when we reach whatever the gods want you to find, I know you'll make the right choice."
Navila squeezed her brother's hand. "You trust me too much. But I'm sure whatever the choice may be, I'll make it more wisely with my family at my side."
---------------------------------------------
End of Ficlet
---------------------------------------------
For reference, this is loosely set in an original world that I don't think I've ever talked about on this journal. It exists mostly in a litany of deities and some fragmentary worldbuilding.
The litany is as follows:
These are the gods of Tenich Valley:
Corgan who sits in her cave alone
Hopal in whose footsteps flowers grow
Elisu who is brother to water
Najia who brings the night
Merimadhu who speaks with birds
Morgada whose smile is like the sun
Sennone by whose hand the hungry are fed
And Kemmess who walks among the stars
As for the worldbuilding, for now I'll just say that Kemmess walking among the stars is 100% literal and not a trick necessarily restricted to deities, and Simjia Mountain is very important to the people of the Valley for reasons that merely start with Corgan's cave being set near its peak. The other symbolically important mountain is the Pilgrim's Horn; together, those peaks flank the main pass into the Valley.
And someday, I will actually work out a proper story to set in this world because dammit, the worldbuilding is really cool and it would be a crying shame not to do something equally cool to showcase it. *wry*
