Author: mute_pen | It's past dark, but when you need the outhouse, you need the outhouse.
Isabel picks her way across the yard of her father's house in the moonlight, hoping to sneak back into bed without waking him. |
Author: pythbox | A silent shadow descends from the sky in a long swoop. Enormous talons close on her shoulders. With one beat of its great soft wings, the giant owl carries her off into the sky. |
Author: mute_pen | All hope of not waking her father evaporates. She screams.
But of course her father cannot do anything.
"Put me down! Let me go!" |
Author: pythbox | The giant owl either cannot hear her, cannot understand her, or does not care. It flies higher. |
Author: mute_pen | Isabel does her best to reach up despite the grip on her shoulders and pick at its talons. She doesn't want to fall, but if she could somehow - climb its leg, maybe, pull out its feathers till it lands - |
Author: pythbox | Until now it has been holding her quite gently.
Now it tightens its grip, slowly, until its talons pierce her skin and she starts to bleed. |
Author: mute_pen | Isabel shrieks. Owls can hear well, can't they? Maybe it will find her too annoying to carry if she just screams and screams - maybe it will at least hold her gently again if she screams when it squeezes. |
Author: pythbox | It eases off again. They're traveling quite fast; already the countryside zipping past far below is nothing she would recognize. |
Author: mute_pen | Isabel quiets her screams when it lets go of her. The scenery would be amazing, beautiful, if only she could fly over it herself - instead she feels like she might throw up.
She does throw up.
It doesn't really help. |
Author: pythbox | The owl flies on, covering what must be hundreds of miles of strange land. They pass over forest, river, farm, lake, another forest, another farm, another river.
Another lake.
There is a castle beside this one, a lonely-looking place with high walls and higher towers. Along the nearest shore, a cluster of young women in white dresses huddles under the owl's shadow. It swoops low, low enough for Isabella to see their frightened faces looking up at her, then drops her on her feet a quarter of the way around the lake.
And then it is not a giant owl at all, but a man in a long feathered cape, his hands digging into her shoulders as he spins her around and scowls thunderously into her face. |
Author: mute_pen | Isabel stumbles when dropped, but his grip won't let her fall. She looks around in bewilderment at the lake, at the owl-man looming over her. "Where am I - why did you take me - what's going on -?" |
Author: pythbox | "Silence," he growls, shaking her by the shoulders. |
Author: mute_pen | "You can't just kidnap me -" |
Author: pythbox | He gives her a shove that sends her sprawling across the dewy grass.
"I am the Baron von Rothbart," he says, "and I can do what I please with you, Odette."
That is not her name.
But the word crackles in the air, and the talon-marks in her shoulders sting like they've been immersed in something noxious, and no other name is available to her anymore. |
Author: mute_pen | Odette shrieks - it hurts, she's afraid - and clutches one hand at one shoulder, one at her head, her name, her name - |
Author: pythbox | The sting fades. The talon-marks are gone. So are her clothes; she wears a white dress of feather-patterned lace, like the other girls who are now just barely visible a long way off behind the Baron.
"Listen to me," the Baron commands. His voice fills her ears. "This is your new home. When the sun rises, you will leave this shape and live as a swan for the day. When the sun sets, you will go ashore and live as a woman for the night. When I summon you, you will come to me. You cannot escape. You cannot drown yourself. There is but a single way to free you: if you win an unclaimed heart - if one who has never loved before swears to love you forever - then the curse will be broken. Until then, my swan—" He smiles and gathers his cape around him. "Welcome home."
The giant owl hoots softly, then takes off. |
Author: mute_pen | Odette sits.
She touches her uninjured shoulder, gingerly, then with greater puzzlement.
She runs over his words, committing them to memory; she has nothing to write with here.
She gets up and she stumbles towards the other girls. |
Author: pythbox | The other girls are all huddled together on the shore, a few minutes' walk from where the Baron dropped her. None of them is speaking or doing very much.
There is a certain physical resemblance between all of them, her included. Their height, the colour of their skin and hair, the shape of their faces. |
Author: mute_pen | "H-hello," says Odette. |
Author: pythbox | No one says anything. They look at her uncomprehendingly. |
Author: mute_pen | "I'm -"
Odette.
That's not her name - she doesn't even seem to be able to make something up, though, can't tell them she's called Bianka or Ingrid or Verena, it won't stick, the sentence won't happen.
She is almost too stunned to be angry, but she is angry enough to be twisty about it. She's not going to go by Odette. She's - she's going to nickname herself, that's it.
"I'm Etty. Who are you?" |
Author: pythbox | One of the women opens her mouth and makes a birdlike whistling sound. |
Author: mute_pen | "Can... you understand me?" Etty asks, stepping forward, frowning. "Nod if you can't speak." |
Author: pythbox | A different woman squawks and edges nervously backward.
No one nods. |
Author: mute_pen | "What happened to you?" |
Author: pythbox | It should be fairly clear at this point that no coherent answer is forthcoming, and indeed there isn't. |
Author: mute_pen | Yeah, Etty's getting that.
Keeping a half an eye on the... flock of girls... she starts a circuit of the lake, venturing away from shore into the surrounding forest periodically, scoping out her - new home, pessimistically; starting point from which she'll venture to rescue, optimistically. She wants hiding places in which to stash things she may acquire; sources of food, like nuts or berries, because she has no idea what she'll be fed or how regularly; and any interestingly shaped rocks that could allow the creation of tools. Or weapons. Maybe she can alternatively break the curse by stabbing the bastard. |
Author: pythbox | There are some interestingly shaped rocks around, and plenty of trees and bushes, some of which are indeed the sort that produce nuts or berries. In fact there is even an orchard next to the castle, surrounded by a wall but with the gate unlocked. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty takes inventory of the orchard, and takes some fruit for right then - food helps one to stay awake, and if she's going to turn into a bird at dawn, she's going to be as nocturnal as possible to make the most of having hands. She's also going to try flying away, of course, but if that worked -
Then there probably wouldn't be a flock of braindead girls who look so much like her at the lake, now, would there.
On the other hand she can easily believe that none of them were particularly clever about less straightforward means of escape. Maybe she can cut his cloak and he won't be able to fly and then - well, she'll have to think this through now, even without that he'll be easily able to overpower her. She'll think.
She wishes she had paper.
She finishes her circuit of the lake and goes back through the orchard to investigate the castle itself. |
Author: pythbox | The front door of the castle is enormous, forbidding, and closed.
There are other doors. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty... considers the value of information very high right now.
She tries a side door. |
Author: pythbox | The side door creaks rustily open. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty slips in with as little creaking as she can manage, judges the wind gentle enough not to slam the door shut if she declines to re-close it, and proceeds into the castle cautiously. |
Author: growcrooked |
In the distance, someone is crying. |
Author: mute_pen | ...
Etty follows that sound. |
Author: growcrooked | It leads her, with a few acoustic detours, to a room at the top of a tower. It's a beautiful room, containing beautiful furniture and a beautiful canopied bed, and in the bed is a girl who may or may not be beautiful under normal circumstances but is currently red-eyed and tear-streaked and cocooned in a tangle of beautiful sheets. |
Author: mute_pen | "...Hello," breathes Etty. |
Author: growcrooked | She blinks and sniffs and looks at Etty.
"Oh," she says, her voice wavering. "You must be the new one." |
Author: mute_pen | "...I guess." |
Author: growcrooked | The girl wipes her face distractedly with one hand and swings her legs over the edge of the bed, not particularly bothered that her sheet cocoon is gradually sliding off.
"Did he bring you just now?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Tonight. I don't know how many minutes. I walked around the lake first." |
Author: growcrooked | She nods.
"Why'd you come up here?" |
Author: mute_pen | "I was - exploring - and I heard you." |
Author: growcrooked | "Nobody else ever did that." |
Author: mute_pen | "They can't have all been so - despairing as to not even look for tools to get away in the obvious places. Can they? Whatever they are now." A shudder of fear goes through her. "Will that happen to me?" |
Author: growcrooked | "It takes years," says the stranger. "Years and years. I don't know how many. And then when you're too far gone he'll find another one." |
Author: mute_pen | "What are we for?"
And -
"They all look my age." |
Author: growcrooked | "So do I," she snorts. "It doesn't mean anything. You're for the Baron. I don't know what he does with you; I've never looked." |
Author: mute_pen | "Who are you, why are you here?" |
Author: growcrooked | "The Baron is my father." |
Author: mute_pen |
"Oh." |
Author: growcrooked | "I hate him," she adds. "I want to kill him. But we're both immortal, as long as there's a flock..." |
Author: mute_pen | "He told me how to break the curse, for some reason, but even if I assume he's telling the truth..." |
Author: growcrooked | "Of course he did. He's not going to let you do it. The last time a man fell in love with Odette, he wrapped me in spells and made me go seduce him." |
Author: mute_pen | "And now I suppose he's made it even harder to. Meet people, than it was then," murmrs Etty. "- Don't call me Odette. I can't remember what it should be instead, but. Etty." |
Author: growcrooked | "Don't call me Odile," says the girl, smiling crookedly. "But I can't think of anything I like better." |
Author: mute_pen | "...Do you want me to think of something?" |
Author: growcrooked | "If you want," she shrugs. |
Author: mute_pen | "I'll think about it," Etty says. "...Is it safe for me to be here? Do you ever come out to the lake?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I've never done it before. I don't know what he'll do if he finds you here. Probably not anything you'll like." |
Author: mute_pen | "That would be in keeping with the trend. Does he come to this room much?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Plenty." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty considers this.
She looks around the room for hiding places. |
Author: growcrooked | Under the bed is probably the best prospect.
Not-Odile watches her curiously. |
Author: mute_pen | "I'm trying to figure out where to hide if he comes up the stairs while I'm here." |
Author: growcrooked | The sheet wrapped around her shoulders has been falling off all this time; it finally drops away.
"He'll know you're here, I bet," she says. "He always knows where I'm hiding." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty - looks a moment longer than really seems prudent, then drops her eyes.
"How does he do it? More magic?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Probably," she says, declining to cover herself. |
Author: mute_pen | "Are - you sure you wouldn't rather - put on some clothes -?" |
Author: growcrooked | "...Why?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Most people prefer it, in company." |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't think you're going to fuck me, so what do I care?" |
Author: mute_pen | Etty swallows. This person is the only friendly individual remotely accessible. If she wants any help getting out she'll have to accommodate her, at least on minor subjects. "As you like." |
Author: growcrooked | "...Something wrong?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Apart from my having been kidnapped and cursed?" |
Author: growcrooked | She shrugs. "Guess not, then." |
Author: mute_pen | "So someone managed to claim an unclaimed heart before? How did that happen?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Some prince was out hunting and almost shot her, then she turned human and he was smitten on the spot, apparently. He was very sweet to her. When the Baron sent me to him it was the best a man has ever treated me." |
Author: mute_pen | "- Then what happened?" |
Author: growcrooked | "He found out I wasn't really Odette and panicked and went to her and they threw themselves in the lake. When they died it loosed the flock and the Baron had to run and get another one to get his immortality back. I wish I'd killed him when I had the chance." |
Author: mute_pen | "He specified that I couldn't drown myself." |
Author: growcrooked | She snorts. |
Author: mute_pen | "I haven't tested it," Etty adds. |
Author: growcrooked | "Are you going to?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Things would have to be worse than they have been so far. Or I'd have to be able to accomplish a lot by dying that I couldn't do any other way." |
Author: growcrooked | She shrugs. |
Author: mute_pen | "You really don't know what he's going to do with me?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I hear him shouting at them sometimes," she offers. "He does that a lot. To me, too." |
Author: mute_pen | "Why? What about?" |
Author: growcrooked | "He tells me I'm a baron's daughter and I need to act like it," she says. "You, he named after my mother, so maybe he'll scream at you for leaving him." |
Author: mute_pen | "He named me after your mother?". Etty does not have words for how twisted that is. |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know if he'll want to fuck you, but it wouldn't surprise me," she adds. |
Author: mute_pen | "I - I - thank you for warning me," whispers Etty. |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter shrugs.
"You're welcome, I suppose. Me, I wouldn't wager that it helps to know ahead of time." |
Author: mute_pen | "Perhaps, but - it would not be a pleasant surprise." |
Author: growcrooked | "True enough." |
Author: mute_pen | "Do you know - any details about how the curse works? If I am the first to do something so obvious as walk through an unlocked door there might be hope." |
Author: growcrooked | "Less than you do, I think. Except - when the Baron sent me to seduce that prince, I was supposed to make him say he loved me." |
Author: mute_pen | "Something about the unclaimed heart. Probably. If he said he loved you then his heart wouldn't be properly unclaimed for his Odette?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I guess. He didn't give me reasons." |
Author: mute_pen | "You said man, earlier - he didn't specify - his omission or were you just supposing...?"
Etty has known about herself for years and kept quiet, but here there is information to be gained and so little to lose. |
Author: growcrooked | "There's only ever been the one, and he was a man." |
Author: mute_pen | "But as far as you know the curse doesn't care." |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know at all." |
Author: mute_pen | "Mm."
There is a question to ask of this (stark naked) girl, but it could offend; Etty will save it till she's sure there is nothing else she needs from her.
"Do you know what's the first thing to go when Odettes - deteriorate? And - is there any way I could get something to write with, and on?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know anything about the early times," she says, shaking her head. "I can give you pens and inks and books, that's simple enough -" and she gets up, abandoning her sheets, and rummages in the drawers of an enormous oak desk. |
Author: mute_pen | "Thank you," says Etty, heartfelt. "...What do you know about the later times?"
She thinks of blank staring faces. And swan sounds. And shivers. |
Author: growcrooked | "I've been to the lake when he was out looking for a new one," she says. "I've seen what they're like when they're all used up."
She returns carrying a blank scroll, a pen, and an inkwell, all of which she hands to Etty. |
Author: mute_pen | "...Yeah. So've I. Do you think it's sudden or gradual?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Gradual. That's how the magic works," she says. "If he took them all at once he couldn't use them to make us immortal." |
Author: mute_pen | "...So if I break the curse you're going to die." |
Author: growcrooked | "Not right away," she says. "Unless I try to kill him and he kills me first. I just won't be young and beautiful forever anymore. But I'm tired of being young and beautiful." |
Author: mute_pen | "Of being young and beautiful," murmurs Etty, "or just of the circumstances you have to do it in?" |
Author: growcrooked | She snorts. "It's the same thing, isn't it? I don't really think I can kill him. I just know I'm going to try, next chance I get." |
Author: mute_pen | "What makes him hard to kill besides the part where he's immortal?" |
Author: growcrooked | "He's twice my size, a trained swordsman, a sorcerer, and sometimes when I look at him I can't think for screaming?" |
Author: mute_pen | "...Those are all things that might make someone hard to kill."
Etty thinks.
"How does one learn sorcery?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know. I've tried. I've picked up a few things just living with him, but when he caught me with one of his books—" She shakes her head. "I catch fire if I try the library door, now." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty hisses a sharp indrawn breath. "Eegh." |
Author: growcrooked | "So I can light candles and freeze raindrops and make my rooms tidy themselves, but I can't do anything useful." |
Author: mute_pen | "I take it the spells for candles and raindrops won't work on a person. At least not him." |
Author: growcrooked | "You think I've never tried lighting his beard on fire? He put it out. I suppose I could freeze a drop of his spit but I don't see how it'd help." |
Author: mute_pen | "I was thinking freezing his blood. Or the fluid in his spine, or his brain." |
Author: growcrooked | "One raindrop's worth at a time, when I can't see any of it? Stabbing him would be surer." |
Author: mute_pen | "A small ice crystal in the heart could - well, if it were sharp, otherwise I suppose it would just melt harmlessly," muses Etty, nibbling her lip. |
Author: growcrooked | "You've a vicious turn of mind," she snorts. "I like that. But he's by far a better mage than I am. If I try a little trick like that, he'll catch me, and then he'll be on his guard and it'll be that much harder to get him on the next try." |
Author: mute_pen | "I didn't have a vicious turn of mind until a few hours ago. Adversity makes me creative."
And:
"Pardon me if I offend. But. I don't suppose by any chance you have never loved before?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Not once." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty lets the obvious conclusions hang in the air for a moment. |
Author: growcrooked | "Do you want me to try loving you?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Absent other ways out. If you could." |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know," she says, perching on the edge of her bed. "I've never tried." |
Author: mute_pen | "I don't think I'm unlovable. Although I've tried to avoid - attention - from men in my village, and doubt any women would have dared tell me if they were interested any more than I cared to chance whispering to them." |
Author: growcrooked | "Avoiding attention," she says. "Isn't that a dream." |
Author: mute_pen | "Perhaps we'll be out of here soon. Or if not me," she shrugs, "then - the next, I suppose, or the one after, if this goes on indefinitely, and you'd still have the chance to save yourself and all who'd have come after." |
Author: growcrooked | "I'll try with you," she decides. "You, I like." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty smiles a little bit. "Let me know if I can do anything in particular to help." |
Author: growcrooked | "Well, tell me about you," she suggests. "I hardly know anything about who you are. Maybe princes can fall in love with just a pretty face, but I think I need a little more to go on." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty sits on the floor and pulls her knees up to her chin. "I grew up in Astgabels. In Diotaland - are we even still in Diotaland? I have little enough sense of geography that I don't know how far he carried me. My mother died when I was small so it's just been me and my father, Carl. He's the sheriff. I kept house, but I had time to read - I was friends with the bookseller's daughter; she'd loan me things - and write. I mostly write about my own thoughts. I spend a lot of time in my head. That's what I wanted this for," and she lifts the blank scroll. "Especially since now I must fear forgetting - everything. Not just slippery brief thoughts." |
Author: growcrooked | "We're in Diotaland," she says. "Though my knowledge of geography isn't much better. I've only ever left the lake that once." |
Author: mute_pen | "I have not often traveled either. To a few neighboring towns, to buy things, not otherwise. But unworldly though I may be, I am puzzled about why the Kaiser calmly tolerates a baron who has been routinely kidnapping and draining the minds out of girls." |
Author: growcrooked | "Doesn't know, doesn't care, couldn't do anything about it if he did?" she suggests. "One of those, or maybe all three." |
Author: mute_pen | "Perhaps. Although - if it takes years to drain each, if the flock I saw is the second - there may have been more than one Kaiser since this began. I have heard that the royal court employs a sorcerer. Perhaps he is not a very good sorcerer, or the rumor was mistaken." |
Author: growcrooked | "Oh, it's been lifetimes," she says, nodding. "When the prince came, it was his mother who ruled. That must have been fifty years back at least. Maybe more like a hundred." |
Author: mute_pen | "You haven't been counting," observes Etty. |
Author: growcrooked | "What would be the point?" |
Author: mute_pen | "To know. To have an idea of how much the world outside the lake and the castle might have changed since the last time you had a look." |
Author: growcrooked | "I'm probably never going to see the world outside the lake again. I don't have anything to look forward to except my father's death or mine, and after the prince I was sure I'd never see either, until you showed up. Now - " She sighs. "I have no idea." |
Author: mute_pen | "Carl must be frantic. I'm sure I woke him when I screamed or he might have gone without noticing till dawn, but..." |
Author: growcrooked | "Is he likely to make trouble about you? The baron might have gone to kill him, if so." |
Author: mute_pen | |
Author: growcrooked | "Sorry," she adds. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty covers her face with both hands and attempts to cry very quietly. |
Author: growcrooked | For a few seconds, she just watches.
Then she picks up a blanket and wraps it gently around Etty's shoulders. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty tucks the blanket in around herself and continues to weep. "I know your father is - is who he is - but mine, I love him, and he would make trouble, does the Baron know that? How would he know, when he just picked me up out of the yard...?" |
Author: growcrooked | "He would've been watching you first," she says. "He does that. He's gone for months, sometimes, when he's looking for a new Odette. Has to find just the right one." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty whimpers. |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter leads her gently to the bed and sits her down and hugs her. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty cries on her shoulder, quite effectively distracted from the nudity at this point. |
Author: growcrooked | "You can cry all you want," she says, "I don't mind." |
Author: mute_pen | "I think," sniffs Etty, "I'll be done soon. It won't help him if I cry. Or me, or you, or anyone."
There's an odd creeping warm feeling up her back. Sunrise approaching, maybe, she has no idea what it feels like to turn into a swan, but when she lifts her head and wipes the blur out of her eyes the sky out the window is as dark and starry as before. |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter hugs her some more. "I know what you mean," she murmurs. "But sometimes I cry anyway." |
Author: mute_pen | "I know," says Etty ruefully, and she hugs back. |
Author: growcrooked | Hugs. Snuggly blankety hugs. |
Author: mute_pen | "I am so afraid of losing my mind," Etty murmurs. "Of writing so carefully so I don't forget and one day looking at the scroll and not remembering what it's for, or not being able to read it." |
Author: growcrooked | "I know," she says. "It'll be years, at least. Years and years." |
Author: mute_pen | "Depends on what goes first. I don't know why he cares if Odettes have minds left, but it's probably not for our literacy or our introspection." |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't think what the Baron wants matters that much to how the spell works, or there wouldn't be a way to break it like there is." |
Author: mute_pen | "Did he just - find the entire curse in a book, or is part of how you build spells a matter of obeying restrictions like allowing a way to break them?" |
Author: growcrooked | I'm supposed to know?" she snorts. "I just know he wouldn't have made it like that if he'd had a choice." |
Author: mute_pen | "No," agrees Etty, sighing, "I suppose he wouldn't. How do you light candles and freeze raindrops?" |
Author: growcrooked | "With magic," she says, leaning her head on Etty's shoulder. "I don't know how to teach it; I've never tried before." |
Author: mute_pen | "But - what do you do, are there steps or is it just like lifting your arm?" Tentatively, thoughtfully, Etty lifts her hand to rest it on the other girl's hair. |
Author: growcrooked | She snuggles up a little, smiling.
"I just look at the candle," she yawns, "and make it burn. It takes a little time, but it's more fun than the other way." |
Author: mute_pen | "Hm." |
Author: growcrooked | "Hm?" |
Author: mute_pen | "...It's not almost dawn, is it? I feel - odd." |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't think so. The sky's still dark." |
Author: mute_pen | "That's what I thought. There's this odd warm feeling. But if I'm not about to turn into a swan I don't know what it could be." |
Author: growcrooked | "I have warm feelings too," she offers. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty blinks. "Do you think it's the same thing?" |
Author: growcrooked | "...Mm?" |
Author: mute_pen | "My odd warm feeling and your odd warm feeling. Do you think they're related or were you just saying?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Mine's not odd at all. It's nice, I like it." |
Author: mute_pen | "Mine's - nice, I guess, it's just confusing, it's like someone's laid their arm against my spine and has their hand on the back of my neck. And I don't know why that should be because that's not where your arm actually is." |
Author: growcrooked | "Oh. Mine's not like that," says the baron's daughter. |
Author: mute_pen | "What is it, then?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Warm," she says. "And nice. Do you want to come into bed with me?" |
Author: mute_pen | "We're already sitting on - I - what do you mean?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I mean do you want to come into bed with me and share my blankets and hug like we're doing," she says. "I'd like that." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty thinks about this, then nods and repositions. |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter crawls under the blankets with her and snuggles up, tucking her arm around Etty's waist and putting her head on Etty's shoulder again. |
Author: mute_pen | This is comfy.
And Etty has been up all night.
"I might fall asleep," she mumbles. |
Author: growcrooked | "Is it bad if you do? I could pinch you to keep you awake," she offers. |
Author: mute_pen | "Well," says Etty. "Soon enough I'll turn into a swan. I don't know if I'll start out knowing how to fly, so I might not like to be put out the window." |
Author: growcrooked | She laughs.
"I'll carry you out the gate." |
Author: mute_pen | "You think he's - away, then. Going back to Astgabels." |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know where he is, but he's not here." |
Author: mute_pen | "All right. Am I going to think like a swan when I'm a swan, do you know?" |
Author: growcrooked | "If you do, I'm going to have a hell of a time getting you out of my room," she giggles. |
Author: mute_pen | "Yes, probably," says Etty with a weak chuckle. |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter hugs her. |
Author: mute_pen | Hugs.
Etty really may fall asleep.
She closes her eyes. |
Author: growcrooked | Snuggle snuggle. |
Author: mute_pen | Sleepy and warm and sleepy -
Etty drops off into sleep and begins murmuring soft words. |
Author: growcrooked | It's sweet. She smiles.
Eventually, dawn comes, and the baron's daughter is cuddling a white swan with beautiful soft feathers. |
Author: mute_pen | The transformation doesn't wake Etty; she sleeps a few hours longer.
And then she opens her eyes.
Being a swan is strange. It doesn't hurt - it doesn't feel like she's been mangled into this shape - but it's not fully natural either; she's the bird equivalent of an infant who can't find her toes. (Though she is a grown swan, not a cygnet. She figures this out in the course of learning how to operate her spectacularly flexible neck; her wings and feet are quite pinned in the cuddling.) |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter sleeps on. |
Author: mute_pen | She really is very pretty.
Etty bends her neck every which way, which takes a long while given all the options, and then she starts trying to extract a wing. |
Author: growcrooked | The blankets aren't so tangled as to make escape truly impossible. |
Author: mute_pen | With her wings out, Etty manages to fumble her way across the bed so she won't disturb the baron's daughter as she experiments with the new joints and the sensation of wind resistance when she moves. Her feet also take some figuring; the knees bend the wrong way and she's got the wrong number of toes. |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter wakes.
"Oh, you," she murmurs. "Aren't you pretty." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty dips her head. |
Author: growcrooked | "You are," she says, delighted. "D'you want the window or the door?" |
Author: mute_pen | Etty's pretty sure she can't really walk, let alone fly - though she's definitely going to try flying, soon - and she turns her head in the direction of the door. |
Author: growcrooked | "Okay."
She walks over and picks Etty up, and then she carries her out of the room and down the tower stairs. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty nestles comfortably in her arms for this trip. But halfway down the stairs she finds her voice and peeps a soft swan noise. |
Author: growcrooked | "Mm? What is it?" |
Author: mute_pen | Can swans give withering looks? This one is going to try. She cannot answer the question. But she can lift her head up and look over the baron's daughter's shoulder back the way they came. |
Author: growcrooked | "Okay," she says, puzzled, and she carries Etty back up. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty points her beak at the scroll and ink and pen. |
Author: growcrooked | "Oh, that," she says, and puts down her armful of swan, and frowns thoughtfully. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty looks up at her. Surely she can just make two trips if she can make one? But she can't ask. |
Author: growcrooked | "I'll bring it out to you later," she says, and picks Etty up again. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty nods and settles her head on her own back for the ride. (It's kind of fun to do that once she's gotten over the concern that she will injure herself doing it.) |
Author: growcrooked | Down they go. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty waits to be put down. Not particularly impatiently. The baron's daughter is pleasant to be held by. |
Author: growcrooked | Just outside another of the side doors, the baron's daughter puts her down, then leans down and kisses her on the beak. |
Author: mute_pen | This surprises a little sound out of Etty. |
Author: growcrooked | She grins.
"Can you get in the orchard?" she asks. "I'll leave your things there." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty is not sure.
She tries walking a step.
It doesn't work very well, and she's not used to catching herself when she's working with wings instead of arms. |
Author: growcrooked | "...Can you get in there when you're human, though?" |
Author: mute_pen | Etty nods. |
Author: growcrooked | She shrugs. "Okay. Then that's where I'll put it. He hardly ever goes there." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty nods again, then tries walking some more. She's not very good at it; if she thinks through each step in full detail she overbalances halfway through and if she tries to speed up she forgets how her joints work. |
Author: growcrooked | She giggles. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty clacks her beak at the baron's daughter. She stumbles over to the water, where at least she can expect to float if she forgets how to work her legs. |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter goes back inside.
A little while later, she hides pen and ink and scroll in the orchard. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty divides her day between napping - so she'll be able to stay up all night - and figuring out how swans work. She can flap her wings by the end of the day, but hasn't worked out how to actually take off.
She sits on the shore when the sun starts going down. |
Author: growcrooked | The other swans all cluster on the shore by the castle as the sun sets.
There is a definite warning - a heaviness in her limbs, a fizzing in her bones. It goes on for a little while, as the sun sinks below the treetops; when the glow is fading from the western horizon, the change finally happens. All at once, she's a woman again, complete with pretty white dress. |
Author: mute_pen | Well -
Strange sensation, that, not something she'd do recreationally, but it could be worse.
Etty gets up and heads for the orchard. |
Author: growcrooked | The orchard is right up next to the castle, and of its four walls, the one that it shares with the castle grounds is thick enough to walk on.
Someone is standing on it. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty waves. |
Author: growcrooked | The baron's daughter waves back. She appears to have put on clothes of some kind.
Then she climbs over the edge of the wall and drops to the floor of the orchard. It makes an unpleasant sound when she lands. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty blinks.
Then she moves - at a brisk walk; she knows how these legs work but that doesn't mean they work well - around to the gate and into the orchard. |
Author: growcrooked | She walks up to the orchard gate not long after Etty steps through it.
The clothes are her fathers - is her father's, a shirt and nothing else. It hangs loose, half-buttoned. She isn't wearing shoes. If the fall injured her, she shows no sign of it. |
Author: mute_pen | "- Are you okay? That's - a drop." |
Author: growcrooked | "I'm immortal," she shrugs. "And the Baron thinks scars are unladylike, so I heal clean." |
Author: mute_pen | "But doesn't it hurt?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Not that much. I've had plenty worse." |
Author: mute_pen | "I heard a noise, it sounded like you broke a bone." |
Author: growcrooked | "Yeah, my ankle. It's all better now, see?" She twirls, moving lightly on both feet. |
Author: mute_pen | "...I guess you got used to it after however many decades?" ventures Etty uncertainly. |
Author: growcrooked | "Breaking bones is nothing new," she agrees. |
Author: mute_pen | "Why are you dressed like that?" Etty asks next. |
Author: growcrooked | "I hate wearing my dresses, but it's not comfortable being out here naked." |
Author: mute_pen | "What's wrong with your dresses?" She has many complaints about her situation, but her white feather dress isn't really one of them. |
Author: growcrooked | "He makes me wear them." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty looks down at her own outfit. "I haven't even been yelled at yet, and yet if I were to list the sources of my displeasure the fact that I did not choose this dress would not rate highly." |
Author: growcrooked | "That's you," says the baron's daughter. "I'm me. We're not the same." |
Author: mute_pen | "That is true." |
Author: growcrooked | "And you might not care about wearing dresses, but I care that my father beats me when I wear clothes he doesn't like, so I do it whenever I don't think he'll catch me." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty nods.
"I thought of some name ideas, today," she says. "While I was trying to learn to work wings." |
Author: growcrooked | She smiles.
"Tell me!" |
Author: mute_pen | "My favorite is 'Nona', but if you don't like it I have second and third choices." |
Author: growcrooked | "Nona's pretty. What are the other ones?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Verena. Saskia." |
Author: growcrooked | "I like Nona best," she decides, and she gives Etty a hug. |
Author: mute_pen | Hugs! |
Author: growcrooked | Hugs. Cuddly snuggly warm lovey hugs. |
Author: mute_pen | "That odd feeling is back. Well, it didn't leave, but it's changed," observes Etty. "I think it has something to do with you." |
Author: growcrooked | "Maybe it's the spell, telling you I love you." |
Author: mute_pen | "- Do you?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I've never done it before, how should I know? But I like you plenty," she says, snuggling her some more. |
Author: mute_pen | Hugs.
"...If the curse tells me, does it tell him, too?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know. But I think he would've come roaring back here already if he knew." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty nods slowly. "Makes sense." |
Author: growcrooked | Nona shrugs. |
Author: mute_pen | "Maybe I should pay close attention to when the sensation changes." |
Author: growcrooked | "What for?" |
Author: mute_pen | Etty decides to summarize the reason as: "Impatience." |
Author: growcrooked | "What's that supposed to mean?" |
Author: mute_pen | "If it's giving me useful information about what's helping, with the cursebreaking - then I could do more of whatever helps," shrugs Etty. "If it's smart feedback, anyway, it might not be." |
Author: growcrooked | "What exactly breaks the curse, anyway? Or do you not know?" |
Author: mute_pen | "He said that if someone who has never loved before swears to love me forever, then the curse would be broken." |
Author: growcrooked | "...Do they have to mean it?" she wonders. |
Author: mute_pen | "He... didn't say. I suppose you could just try reciting a sentence to that effect, to see." |
Author: growcrooked | She shrugs. "I promise to love you forever," she says.
The curse gives Etty a cold shiver. |
Author: mute_pen | "...The spell doesn't like it," Etty reports. |
Author: growcrooked | "So I guess I have to mean it," she says. "...How do I mean it?" |
Author: mute_pen | "I don't know. I've never been in love before at all." |
Author: growcrooked | "Well, have you ever kept a promise?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Yes - of course. Little ones." |
Author: growcrooked | "How do they work?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Someone asks me to promise something - Carl asks me to promise to be careful walking in the rain, Annika asks me to have a book back in three days - or seems unsure about something I might do - the butcher's not sure I really only left my coinpurse at home and will pay him tomorrow, the neighbor's not sure I'll tell Carl about needing to repair the fence -" She swallows a little when she mentions her father. "And I say I promise, and it means that I will try particularly hard, that as long as it's in my control it will happen and that I think it is in my control." |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't think loving you is very much in my control," she says. "And forever's a long time." |
Author: mute_pen | "It is a very long time," agrees Etty. |
Author: growcrooked | "I promise I'll do my best to love you forever," she tries.
It's not unpleasant, this time, but it definitely didn't work. |
Author: mute_pen | "Didn't work," Etty sighs. "Not as - cold, though." |
Author: growcrooked | "I guess that's better?" |
Author: mute_pen | "I guess." |
Author: growcrooked | "Sorry," she says, and hugs her again. |
Author: mute_pen | Hugs.
"Where did you hide the paper and pen?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Over here."
She leads Etty to a corner of the orchard where some big loose rocks are piled. The end of the scroll is just peeking out of the gap between two of them. |
Author: mute_pen | "...If I leave it here even after writing on it, are you going to read it?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know. Do you want me to?" |
Author: mute_pen | "No." |
Author: growcrooked | "Okay, then I won't." She grins. "I promise." |
Author: mute_pen | "You seem sufficiently confused by the concept of promises that I'm not sure what to read into that." |
Author: growcrooked | "Well, you just explained them, didn't you?" |
Author: mute_pen | "Yes, I suppose I did." She chews her lip. "Don't take it personally if I decide to move it anyway - sometimes I'm paranoid." |
Author: growcrooked | "Okay," she says agreeably. |
Author: mute_pen | It's going to be hard to write in the dark, but she has all night every night to let her eyes adjust, Etty supposes. She starts looking for a flat rock that will be suitable for writing on. |
Author: growcrooked | There's one on top of the pile that should do nicely. |
Author: mute_pen | Excellent. And she's not going to be able to see any letters she puts down, yet, and Nona's standing right there, so it is not yet time to do her processing. "Is he still away?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I guess he is. He usually goes to the lake first, when he comes home from something." |
Author: mute_pen | "Maybe Carl is hard to kill." |
Author: growcrooked | "Maybe!" |
Author: mute_pen | "But probably not." |
Author: growcrooked |
Nona hugs her. |
Author: mute_pen | Hugs. |
Author: growcrooked | Hug hug. |
Author: mute_pen | "I'm afraid," murmurs Etty. "Of what will happen when he comes back." |
Author: growcrooked | "It's scary," says Nona, hugging her. "I'm sorry." |
Author: mute_pen | "Why is he like this, what happened - or has it always been this way?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't remember it that well," she says. "I was - well, about the age I look, when Mother left. A little older when he finally brought her back." |
Author: mute_pen | "I'm seventeen," volunteers Etty after a silence. |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't remember how old I am." |
Author: mute_pen | "Do you know what year you were born?" |
Author: growcrooked | She shakes her head. |
Author: mute_pen | "It's 1878 now." |
Author: growcrooked | Nona shrugs. |
Author: mute_pen | "Transforming isn't as bad as it could be, and being a swan isn't terrible except that I can't talk - or write," Etty comments idly. "I didn't figure out how to fly today, but I might tomorrow." |
Author: growcrooked | "I hope you do," she says. "I bet it's fun." |
Author: mute_pen | "I bet it is too." |
Author: growcrooked | Nona grins. |
Author: mute_pen | "I guess you don't turn into any kind of bird." |
Author: growcrooked | She shakes her head. |
Author: mute_pen | "What do you do all day," wonders Etty, "if you can't go into the library anymore?" |
Author: growcrooked | "Eat. Sleep. Cry. Climb things. Fall off of them. Tidy the castle. Fuck myself." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty permits herself a blink at that last. |
Author: growcrooked | "What?" |
Author: mute_pen | "I don't usually hear people talking about that." |
Author: growcrooked | "You asked me what I do all day. I do a lot of that." |
Author: mute_pen | "I suppose you do have to occupy yourself somehow." She chews her lip. "...Is the bit about catching fire in the library just you, or could I go in?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know. But if you catch fire, you might not live through it, so I wouldn't try it if I were you." |
Author: mute_pen | "So us swan types are only eternally youthful, and not invulnerable," concludes Etty. |
Author: growcrooked | "He could've changed something after the prince, but if he did, I don't know about it." |
Author: mute_pen | "I'll only try it if I become so bored or desperate as to risk immolation, then." |
Author: growcrooked | "Okay." |
Author: mute_pen | "People say burning is the worst death. Are they right?" asks Etty. |
Author: growcrooked | "It hurts a lot. I don't know if it's the worst death; I've never died." |
Author: mute_pen | "I imagine the dying part is roughly similar in all cases." |
Author: growcrooked | "I've done a lot of things people die from, but it's different when you're immortal. I've been set on fire and beaten and raped, and I've jumped off the top of the tower and tried to drown myself in the lake and eaten rat poison and broken glass. Fire hurts the most while it's happening, but it doesn't last as long as some of the rest - but I don't know if it'd kill you faster or slower." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty shivers. |
Author: growcrooked | "What?" |
Author: mute_pen | "It's - gruesome." |
Author: growcrooked | She laughs.
"That's my life." |
Author: mute_pen | "Well, maybe it's fixable." |
Author: growcrooked | "Maybe." |
Author: mute_pen | "Do you think you could teach me to light - does it have to be candles, or could I burn leaves and tinder and the like? I think I can adjust to this level of moonlight and be able to write, but the moon will wane, and I don't know how - how long it might take to break the curse." |
Author: growcrooked | "I have no idea," she says. "But if you light anything, he'll see it from the castle. And there'll be hell to pay if he sees you doing magic, I bet." |
Author: mute_pen | "Even if I go deep into the woods? Or as deep as I can, anyway, I don't know yet what's keeping me from walking or flying away but it must exist." |
Author: growcrooked | "Maybe not. And I guess he can't hurt you as bad as he can hurt me, or you'll die and he'll have to find a new flock again." |
Author: mute_pen | "Do you know if I heal - clean, like you do? If he breaks my legs or something - for that matter what happens when I transform, if I'm hurt?" |
Author: growcrooked | Nona shrugs. |
Author: mute_pen | "Well," sighs Etty, "no need to hasten the experiment, I'm sure to trip and scrape my knee soon enough." |
Author: growcrooked | "Do you do that a lot?" |
Author: mute_pen | "I'm very clumsy. Even when I'm not adjusting to an unfamiliar body." |
Author: growcrooked | "Oh." She shrugs again. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty's hands twist together. "Do you suppose it will help," she says, "if I fall in love with you?" |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know. It might. Do you want to?" |
Author: mute_pen | "- There are reasons to want to. Overall I haven't added them up yet." |
Author: growcrooked | "Okay." |
Author: pythbox |
All of a sudden, the curse gives Etty another inexplicable feeling.
This one is very insistently directional. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty stiffens.
"I think I have to go," she whispers, and she lurches to her feet and stumbles in the direction of the gate. |
Author: growcrooked | "Good luck," Nona whispers back. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty's shaking by the time she exits the orchard. She trembles her way in the direction the curse pulls her. |
Author: pythbox | The Baron is waiting by the lakeshore, wearing his owl-cape. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty slows down as she gets closer.
She does not - quite - stop, till she's about five feet away. |
Author: pythbox | He beckons her closer. The curse doesn't have anything to say about that. |
Author: mute_pen | She considers asking him what he wants.
But it's clear - at least in terms of what she is meant to be doing right at this moment - what he wants.
And she'll find out the rest of it.
She edges closer, shuffling step by shuffling step, keeping wary eyes on him. |
Author: pythbox | "Are you comfortable, my swan?" he inquires. |
Author: mute_pen | There are so many ways she could answer that.
She swallows, considers which ones will have the least effect on her ability to experiment with others effectively later, and says, "Yes." |
Author: pythbox | He nods, as though he expected that answer.
"Come up to the castle with me," he says, offering her his arm. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty has settled on a general strategy of pretending that this is some kind of civilized and appropriate behavior to which she does not strenuously object. This might make things go smoothly; if it doesn't she will assuredly have opportunities to try other things.
She links her arm with his, swallowing. |
Author: pythbox | The Baron smiles, a not especially pleasant expression, and leads her to the main gate. It swings open silently at their approach, and just as silently closes behind them.
They proceed in this way up to a dining hall, where he seats her on his right; he, of course, takes the seat at the head of the table. At a careless wave of his hand, all the dishes fill themselves with food. |
Author: mute_pen | So she's not going to be consistently obliged to live on fruit from the orchard, nor will she have to work out what swans eat. That's - well, she'll decide how good it is after he's done with her. She watches him, waiting for instructions or an example to follow; she has never eaten at a noble's table, let alone this one's. |
Author: pythbox | "Eat well, my swan," he says, and starts in on his food. He does not at least seem to hold himself to any high standard of table etiquette. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty concludes that she can serve herself, so she takes samples of everything and tastes them. |
Author: pythbox | It is mostly delicious and entirely expensive.
The Baron also doesn't seem inclined to make conversation over dinner. |
Author: mute_pen | This is reasonably likely to be the pleasantest part of the whole evening. Etty makes sure she's got enough food in her to last, and then slows down but diligently continues to interact with her meal. |
Author: pythbox | Eventually, the Baron finishes eating. He claps his hands sharply, and the remaining dishes clear themselves; then he stands and offers Etty his arm again. |
Author: mute_pen | She gets up.
She accepts the offered arm. |
Author: pythbox | He nods approvingly.
"You see, my swan, it is so much better when you keep to your place." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty ducks her head in a manner that could be interpreted as acknowledgment. |
Author: pythbox | He smiles.
And leads her up a different tower than the one she visited before. |
Author: mute_pen | She follows him.
One of her bare feet slips on the step and she stumbles. |
Author: pythbox | He catches her, holding her steady with his hands on her shoulders.
"You must be more careful, my swan," he murmurs. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty gulps, and nods, and replaces her feet where they are meant to go. |
Author: pythbox | He keeps walking, now with more of his attention on where she puts her feet. |
Author: mute_pen | She doesn't fall again on the way up. |
Author: pythbox | In that case, they reach his rooms without incident. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty is not a perfect actress.
She drags her feet a little, as they go. |
Author: pythbox | The Baron frowns.
"Are you shy tonight, my swan?" |
Author: mute_pen |
"Shy?"
Her skin is crawling, she wants to hide in a closet somewhere forever, and neither person in this room knows her name.
Perhaps this adds up to "shy". |
Author: pythbox | He closes the door.
"There's no call to be nervous," he says, putting his arm around her shoulders and steering her toward the bed. "You'll do just fine." |
Author: mute_pen | "I - I -"
What was her plan if she found herself trapped in a situation where she had to actually marry? She didn't have a good one, really, mostly she'd been hoping desperately for Carl to live to be a hundred. Some combination of feigned illness and unfeigned foul temper and - possibly, if she were very, very lucky - telling the truth. She supposes.
She is not lucky.
Technically her strategy calls for letting him do as he likes - it will least interfere with trying to put him off in this way or that, later, and give her a baseline by which to judge her success or failure - but -
"Not - not tonight - please?" she squeaks. |
Author: pythbox | "Shhhh," says the Baron. |
Author: mute_pen | "Please," breathes Etty. |
Author: pythbox | "Shhhh, my swan." |
Author: mute_pen | She is not a good enough actress to be his swan according to plan right now.
She hugs herself and bows her head and weeps. |
Author: pythbox | The Baron... does not let that stop him.
He is gentle, but he is not kind. He doesn't seem to expect that she get anything out of it. When he is finished, he kisses her and calls her his swan again and goes to sleep, ignoring her completely. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty lies still for a minute, paralyzed, and then she gets up and she grabs her dress from where it's crumpled on the floor and she clutches it to her chest and she runs, out the door, down the hall, down the stairs -
She slips.
She falls.
She tumbles and she lands and something breaks and she chokes out a sob. |
Author: pythbox | Nothing at all happens for at least an hour. |
Author: mute_pen | Her legs are bruised but not broken. Etty lets herself be a crumpled whimpering heap for fifteen minutes and then she drags herself to her feet by her good arm and steps more carefully to the door. |
Author: growcrooked | The main doors won't open; the nearest side door is far enough that by the time she finds it, Nona is not far behind. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty looks at Nona, and opens the door, and goes out into the orchard, and finds a tree to sit under and curl up and go on with her crying. |
Author: growcrooked | Nona follows her out and curls up next to her. |
Author: mute_pen | This might take a while. |
Author: growcrooked | That's okay. They have time. |
Author: mute_pen | Does Nona want to sit there for the next hour listening to Etty sobbing and pretty much ignoring her? |
Author: growcrooked | Sure. |
Author: mute_pen | Then after this hour she will be rewarded with dubious eye contact. |
Author: growcrooked | She doesn't really know what to do.
But, well, here she is. |
Author: mute_pen | "It'll be worse if I don't go next time," whispers Etty. "Won't it." |
Author: growcrooked | "Yeah, probably," says Nona. |
Author: mute_pen | "I don't know if I can go, even so." |
Author: growcrooked | "I know," says Nona. |
Author: mute_pen | "He was pretending such civility. I thought I could put him off. I couldn't." |
Author: growcrooked | "He does that." |
Author: mute_pen | "Does he really think on some level that I - that we - that -" She can't finish the sentence. |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't think he cares. About anything. He just wants us to play along, and if we don't, he makes us." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty wipes her eyes with her good hand. |
Author: growcrooked | "I'm sorry," she murmurs. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty bows her head.
"I can't even write. Not left-handed in the dark." |
Author: growcrooked | "I'm sorry," she says again. |
Author: mute_pen | "Tell me what I need to do," Etty says in a low voice, "that you can promise and mean it - tell me who I need to be -" |
Author: growcrooked | "...I don't think I can do that," she says. "You're already yourself, and I love you, don't I? I just don't know how to make promises about it." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty drops her forehead onto her knee and sobs again. |
Author: growcrooked | Nona curls up a little closer. |
Author: mute_pen | When they touch, Etty flinches back with a strangled squeak. |
Author: growcrooked | She settles back a little and doesn't say anything. |
Author: mute_pen | "I'm sorry," whispers Etty. |
Author: growcrooked | "Why?" |
Author: mute_pen | "For - I know you're not him." |
Author: growcrooked | "Me too. It's okay." |
Author: mute_pen | Etty scrunches in on herself a bit more.
"I hope my wing is okay in the morning," she murmurs, cradling her hurt elbow. |
Author: growcrooked | "I don't know if it will be." |
Author: mute_pen | "I don't either. But if it is I can -" She shakes her head ruefully. "Try flying." |
Author: growcrooked | "I bet flying is fun." |
Author: mute_pen | "I bet." |
Author: growcrooked | She sighs. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty holds her arm in place and is quiet. |
Author: growcrooked | They could probably stay like that for a while. |
Author: mute_pen | They could.
Etty's certainly not going anywhere. |
Author: growcrooked | And Nona doesn't want to leave her alone, and she's slept in worse places. So. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty doesn't fall sleep.
She doesn't usually have nightmares, but there's no time like the present. |
Author: growcrooked | Nona does fall asleep. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty sits.
And cries, quietly, intermittently.
And at dawn she looks at the sun. |
Author: growcrooked | The change comes.
Her wing is whole. |
Author: mute_pen | That's good.
At least she isn't in physical pain anymore.
She tries the wing.
She makes a few false starts, getting lift and then not knowing what to do with it -
And then she's in the air, wobbly but aloft, and she smooths her flight and does her level best to travel in a straight line, away. |
Author: pythbox | It goes well enough, for a little while, and then - is that the lake up ahead?
It is. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty doesn't understand.
She turns towards the rising sun, flies that way, keeping it ahead of her - |
Author: pythbox | And after a few minutes, she comes upon the lake again. |
Author: mute_pen | She tries all the cardinal directions.
To approximately the same effect.
She half-lands, half-crashes into the lake in despair. |
Author: pythbox | The other swans are mildly startled by her splashy landing. |
Author: mute_pen | Etty ignores them.
She floats.
She puts her head on her back.
She closes her eyes and she sleeps. |