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edenfallingSummary: Sunbright is twelve when she first kills another human. (500 words)
Note: More exploratory noodling. I don't think Sunbright knows Shadowfall at this point, but they definitely meet within a year of this incident.
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Tooth and Claw
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Sunbright is twelve when she first kills another human. The free lands that ring the realms of the Shining Ones might more accurately be called the lawless lands; any place of peace is carved from chaos at the point of a blade. Her father's lands are no exception, and as his heir (and the might-be, could-be Queen), she learns to defend them.
The little band of raiders sweeps down on an outlying village, newly sworn to her father's rule. Their swords flash in the midday sun and the light of their torches, carried to set the fields and roofs ablaze.
"Hold," Fallow says, low and intense beside her; her patient, smiling teacher swallowed by an iron-hard stranger. "Hold." The raiders reach the first fence around the fields. Sunbright tracks them, arrow slack against the string and wood of her bow. "Aim." They gallop toward the little huddle of houses, trailing smoke and ruin. "Press." Sunbright draws her bow, sends a thought to the wind for luck. They are at the inner fence.
"Loose," Fallow says, and the sky rains steel.
Sunbright's arrow takes a raider in the throat. The woman falls halfway from her horse, one foot caught in a stirrup, torch trailing beside her through the dirt.
"Aim. Press. Loose," Fallow says again, and then the time for arrows is done and the company rush forward from the tall grass that sheltered them. The rest is swordwork, brutal and bloody, and over far sooner than one might expect. A handful of raiders flee to the west; Fallow dispatches a fist of soldiers in pursuit. The others beat at the scattered fires with wet cloth and stamp the embers out.
Sunbright leans against the fence and stares down at the woman she shot. She killed others -- the ache in her shoulders and the stains on her arms and face attest to that, despite Fallow's efforts to keep her back from the melee -- but this woman was the first. Her blood soaks dark into the thirsty earth, invisible against the brown.
Sunbright bends and pulls her arrow free. Blood seeps from the wound, sluggish and cooling. It shines deep red, like rubies and sunsets, on the metal point.
"A clean shot," Fallow says, striding over to stand tall at her side. "We did good work today." His familiar smile is no comfort; it sits obscene against the scattered corpses and the stench of blood and shit.
Sunbright looks around the village: its people unkilled, its houses unburnt, its fields largely undamaged. She looks further out, both east and west, toward the fertile lands where the Shining Ones keep order among humans as humans keep order among cattle. She looks back at the dead raider: her clothes mismatched, her body scarred, her face frozen in surprise and pain.
In the free lands, this is the price of peace.
"No," Sunbright says to her teacher. "It was necessary, but it wasn't good. Someday, I'll find something better."
She kneels on the bloody, trampled earth and closes the corpse's eyes.
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Inspired by the 2/22/15![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
15_minute_ficlets word #221: red
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This was going to be a compare-and-contrast thing, with Shadowfall's first kill as the other half, but fifteen minutes isn't a very long time to write. *ponders* Maybe I can finagle something for the next prompt word...?
Note: More exploratory noodling. I don't think Sunbright knows Shadowfall at this point, but they definitely meet within a year of this incident.
---------------------------------------------
Tooth and Claw
---------------------------------------------
Sunbright is twelve when she first kills another human. The free lands that ring the realms of the Shining Ones might more accurately be called the lawless lands; any place of peace is carved from chaos at the point of a blade. Her father's lands are no exception, and as his heir (and the might-be, could-be Queen), she learns to defend them.
The little band of raiders sweeps down on an outlying village, newly sworn to her father's rule. Their swords flash in the midday sun and the light of their torches, carried to set the fields and roofs ablaze.
"Hold," Fallow says, low and intense beside her; her patient, smiling teacher swallowed by an iron-hard stranger. "Hold." The raiders reach the first fence around the fields. Sunbright tracks them, arrow slack against the string and wood of her bow. "Aim." They gallop toward the little huddle of houses, trailing smoke and ruin. "Press." Sunbright draws her bow, sends a thought to the wind for luck. They are at the inner fence.
"Loose," Fallow says, and the sky rains steel.
Sunbright's arrow takes a raider in the throat. The woman falls halfway from her horse, one foot caught in a stirrup, torch trailing beside her through the dirt.
"Aim. Press. Loose," Fallow says again, and then the time for arrows is done and the company rush forward from the tall grass that sheltered them. The rest is swordwork, brutal and bloody, and over far sooner than one might expect. A handful of raiders flee to the west; Fallow dispatches a fist of soldiers in pursuit. The others beat at the scattered fires with wet cloth and stamp the embers out.
Sunbright leans against the fence and stares down at the woman she shot. She killed others -- the ache in her shoulders and the stains on her arms and face attest to that, despite Fallow's efforts to keep her back from the melee -- but this woman was the first. Her blood soaks dark into the thirsty earth, invisible against the brown.
Sunbright bends and pulls her arrow free. Blood seeps from the wound, sluggish and cooling. It shines deep red, like rubies and sunsets, on the metal point.
"A clean shot," Fallow says, striding over to stand tall at her side. "We did good work today." His familiar smile is no comfort; it sits obscene against the scattered corpses and the stench of blood and shit.
Sunbright looks around the village: its people unkilled, its houses unburnt, its fields largely undamaged. She looks further out, both east and west, toward the fertile lands where the Shining Ones keep order among humans as humans keep order among cattle. She looks back at the dead raider: her clothes mismatched, her body scarred, her face frozen in surprise and pain.
In the free lands, this is the price of peace.
"No," Sunbright says to her teacher. "It was necessary, but it wasn't good. Someday, I'll find something better."
She kneels on the bloody, trampled earth and closes the corpse's eyes.
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Inspired by the 2/22/15
15_minute_ficlets word #221: red---------------------------------------------
This was going to be a compare-and-contrast thing, with Shadowfall's first kill as the other half, but fifteen minutes isn't a very long time to write. *ponders* Maybe I can finagle something for the next prompt word...?
