Ingress of the House of Arch (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smallestopener) wrote2010-05-09 12:38 am
smallestopener) wrote2010-05-09 12:38 am
Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story.
Ingress had a brilliant birthday. She’s eleven. Eleven is nearly grown up! It’s also the year when children in the stories she’s read come into their own. Adventures begin, schooling starts, worlds are saved… she can hardly wait to see what will happen next.
Her party earlier was such fun. Door was almost nice to Puck; Ingress had worried a little about that after she invited him. But he was very nice and charming, and Tom was nice, too, and Puck helped Ingress steal lots of roses off the cake while Havelock talked to Tom and Door, and it was brilliant.
She ate far too much icing sugar, but Tom had the peppermint potion waiting for her when the party was over. She feels much better now. And she’s eleven!
It sounds so good in her head. Eleven, eleven, eleven.
She should have asked Mary to stay the night with her, she thinks, as she tosses and turns. She’s never going to fall asleep, even with staying up past her bedtime. Tom and Door insisted she go to bed after she started yawning. They can be so silly sometimes.
She tosses one more time, and she thinks, again, how impossible it will be to go to sleep tonight. Her eyelids flutter and close. It is not long before she’s deep in dreams.
Her party earlier was such fun. Door was almost nice to Puck; Ingress had worried a little about that after she invited him. But he was very nice and charming, and Tom was nice, too, and Puck helped Ingress steal lots of roses off the cake while Havelock talked to Tom and Door, and it was brilliant.
She ate far too much icing sugar, but Tom had the peppermint potion waiting for her when the party was over. She feels much better now. And she’s eleven!
It sounds so good in her head. Eleven, eleven, eleven.
She should have asked Mary to stay the night with her, she thinks, as she tosses and turns. She’s never going to fall asleep, even with staying up past her bedtime. Tom and Door insisted she go to bed after she started yawning. They can be so silly sometimes.
She tosses one more time, and she thinks, again, how impossible it will be to go to sleep tonight. Her eyelids flutter and close. It is not long before she’s deep in dreams.
Re: Green grow the rushes, oh
She holds the apple to her face and breathes in the sweet scent. Apples are symbols of promise - life encapsulated within red skin, succulence to hold the cold of winter at bay.
They also taste delicious and keep you going as you make your way through the forest.
"I'll keep walking. You know why?"
Re: Green grow the rushes, oh
(In his favorite version of this story, there's only one man, with three faces. In that version of the story, Chloe becomes--Chloe is--the sun, crossing the sky bravely and eternally, carrying her father's brand; and the one who loves her lags behind, drawing near and falling back, turning from light to shadow, and once in a long, long while stealing a kiss.
But it's only one version of the story. And there are so many stories about the moon.)
He wonders what she'll do with what he's made for her; he wonders what she'll make for herself, too.
"What's that, Loompa?"
Re: Green grow the rushes, oh
She points to her heart.
"And here." She points to her head.
"They will always help me find my way and keep my feet walking. They will help me fly."
Re: Green grow the rushes, oh
He hugs her tightly, and kisses the top of her head.
"Can I borrow your jacket?"
He's going to look kind of silly with a daisy dangling from the zipper; but Eddie Dean has never worried about looking like a fool.
(Fill him, Chloe, with strength.)
Re: Green grow the rushes, oh
She hands it to him, and then she flings her arms around him. Her arms are stronger now from hefting swords and hand-to-hand grappling. They hold him tightly.
"I love you."
Her voice is muffled by his chest.
Re: Green grow the rushes, oh
"I love you, too, Loompa."
"Time's up," he says after a moment. "You head back the way we came, now. From here on out I'm on my own."
Re: Green grow the rushes, oh
She does not say goodbye to Eddie, but she waves once, sad and solemn before she turns. She walks at first, but then she starts running again, because she can. It's a joy to run with butterflies leading the way and green leaves overhead.
Stories have to end. They stay with you until the next one begins.
You might be all by yourself, but you are never alone with stories to guide you.
Re: Green grow the rushes, oh
He plants the apple core.
The story ends there. What comes next, you'll have to make up for yourself.