Ingress of the House of Arch (
smallestopener) wrote2010-05-09 12:38 am
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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: Not all is as it seems
Mr. Julia is barely keeping the giant bat monster away from the purple butterfly, which is losing altitude. This battle is close to shore, but high in the air. How can she do this job?
She sets down the bloody sword and takes her slingshot out, and a steel ball from her pocket. She aims and fires.
The ball plops into the water after arcing up and out over the lake. It was a fine shot. A slingshot simply does not have the lift to hit the monster in the air.
Ingress frowns. Oh no.
Re: Not all is as it seems
"Balls," she says, ducking under a clawed limb, "are overrated as a combat necessity."
There's a hot pink crossbow in her other hand; then there isn't anymore, because it's flying through the air toward Ingress. "You have weapons."
Re: Not all is as it seems
"Thanks!" she calls out to her.
Wow, Buffy has a cool weapon. She wishes she had time to watch her in action.
Ingress turns to the task at hand. She pulls back the bolt, aims, but - just before she fires - the bat monster dodges past Mr. Julia's tentacles.
She lets the bolt fly, and it strikes the bat monster in the eye. It's not soon enough. The bat monster's talons descend upon the butterfly, clutching hold and shaking it in its grip.
The butterfly tears apart and bursts into a hundred fluttering pieces. Ingress covers her eyes as the bat monster plummets into the lake. She wasn't in time. This is terrible.
When she opens them again, the lake is quiet. Mr. Julia is gone; he's back under the water, hopefully. There are hundreds of small purple butterflies hovering around her.
Maybe not all is as it seems. Maybe she didn't fail.
Even if she was successful, she doesn't want to stay here. It's dark, and she's cold, and she can't see anyone. The butterflies flutter off into the direction of the forest. Ingress plods after them. She's so tired.
Re: Not all is as it seems
Does it double?
Triple?
The air, at least, has grown incrementally warmer, and the smell of honeysuckle and violets fills the air.
"Be welcome, Opener," says the Lion, voice deep and rumbling and warm, mane flashing tawny-gold in the ever-increasing light.
"Though you shall not linger here overlong."
The next time pays for all.
But that, of course, is another story, and shall be told another time.
Here and now --
Re: Not all is as it seems
She runs again, laughing, into the light, and when she opens her eyes, the clean, sunlit green of a forest rises about her.
She hasn't long to go now.