(049: Club) The Tower "Lion's Lamb"
Title: Lamb’s Lion
’Verse/characters: The Tower (‘Verse), Bahne Haven
Prompt: 049. Club
Word Count: 1399
Warnings: animal slaughter
Rating: PG to PG-13 at most
Notes: It’s my first time, so be as harsh as possible, please. Want some exposition with that?
Bahne was proud to say that it only took him a few months at most to fall into a sort of routine, despite the Tower’s general madness and rooms that had the rather bad habit of not being where you expected them to be.
It was fairly easy to just go about your day’s work once you had learned not to think too hard about the things lurking in the corner of your eye, or about how every carefully removed stain seemed to magically reappear if you only turned your back on it for a moment.
It was a bit like the stairs that lead in and out of the tower. For them to be manageable at all, you only needed to imagine that there were only about six of them, rather than the several hundred he had counted during the first few days.
Of course, the tasks he had to do were still plenty and difficult, but he did his best to complete them all in due time, if only to stifle the feeling of emptiness that came over him whenever he tried to procrastinate.
It didn’t do to think too much about your situation and the company you kept when you were in the tower; it would surely drive you mad.
Bahne could not fathom by what power Marius, the only other human being he had encountered here, managed to keep all of his wits about him without work to do. Then again, maybe tormenting Bahne had proven to be exercise enough, for it seemed to be Marius favourite way to will away the seemingly endless hours.
At first Bahne had tried to reason with himself that the boy, for Marius was only a few years older than Bahne, was only trying to hold on to the life he’d had before he’d come to the tower. It was a little hard to piece together since Marius didn’t speak a word of English and refused to make any kind of effort to learn phrases other than ‘I want’ and ‘fetch me some’, but Bahne was fairly sure that Marius used to be a prince of some sort.
However, by now Bahne was convinced that Marius, royalty or not, was mostly just a bit of a prat.
So it didn’t come as much of a surprise when Marius was the first to give Bahne an order that he found himself unwilling to carry out. For hours and hours Bahne kept putting it off, until one day bled into the next and the one after that. Bahne had almost begun to hope that Marius may have forgotten. He was proven wrong almost immediately, as soon as dinnertime had come around. A greatly displeased Marius had not only thrown his full plate across the kitchen in anger, but had also gone to tell Konstanze, eradicating any hope Bahne might have had to stand his ground on the spot.
Konstanze was the one who had brought Marius into the tower shortly after Bahne’s own arrival, not as a servant but as a sort of toy or pet. Konstanze had introduced herself as the sin Luxuria, though at this point in time Bahne had still been too young to understand any potential implications her keeping around a young boy for her amusement might have held. All Bahne knew was that Marius usually got anything he wanted from her, and this time was no different.
And sure enough, that evening Bahne found himself kneeling on the floor inside their small barn with a young lamb laying across his lap. Gently curling his fingers through the soft wool he felt as miserable as he ever had.
Usually Bahne loved coming into the barn, apart from the kitchen and Marius’ room it was the only place in the whole tower that ever seemed to be warm at all, but now even the chance to feel the tips of his fingers for a change didn’t lift his spirits at all. Outside he could still hear the snowstorm howling like a wolf for its pray.
“You make everything so dramatic,” Konstanze said suddenly, making him jump. She had appeared out of thin air next to him in the hay, and was now reaching out to stroke the lamb as well. Happy about all the attention it was getting all of a sudden, the little creature lifted its head to press it against her palm.
“Just cut its throat already. It won’t feel a thing if you make it quick,” she said, giggling a little when she got her long fingers licked.
Bahne wisely kept his mouth shut, but he reflexively tightened his arms around the lamb, making it struggle momentarily until he stroked its back soothingly.
Konstanze sighed and rolled her eyes at him. She sat back on her heels and looked at him apprehensively. It was odd to see her amongst the hay and animals down here, usually she was sprawled across one of the many settees upstairs. Down here her painful looking heels and red dress - which Bahne still wasn’t entirely convinced wasn’t meant to be underwear - looked ridiculously out of place.
“You were born in an age when a lot of animals were kept, surely this isn’t the first time... then again, maybe it is, maybe your family couldn’t afford to slaughter any cattle?” she mused out loud.
Bahne’s guess was as good as hers, the memories of his past life were becoming fuzzier with each passing day. He could hardly remember his parents faces, let alone what they’d been doing or even the name they had given him. The fact that he had not even been called Bahne Haven until recently was just another one of many things that he preferred not to think about too much.
“Don’t get me wrong. Personally I think it’s revolting,” Konstanze said offhandedly. “I mean, we don’t technically need to eat at all, so slaughtering some poor animal for pleasure would be pointlessly cruel. “
Bahne only kept from pointing out that making him kill a lamb just for her plaything’s happiness was quite pointless and cruel as well, because he knew that there was no real arguing with Konstanze. She was the nicest, most pleasant person in the tower by far, but she was also temperamental and easily annoyed.
He must not have fully succeeded to keep the displeasure off his face, because Konstanze’s mouth curled into a mean sort of smirk.
“What is it?”
“Nothing,” muttered Bahne, still staring down at the little creature in his arms. It seemed like such a horrible waste. He could understand why most of Konstanze’s people didn’t eat meat, if they ate at all. Bahne had been living in the tower for some time now, and although no one had ever refilled the pantry, he still found fresh bread and vegetables in there every morning.
It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate a good roast just as much as the next person, but to be the one who killed and prepared the animal gave the situation a sense of reality that he just could no longer appreciate.
“You are a horrible liar,” Konstanze informed him gently, “but I shall give you credit for trying. “ She got to her feet, and only stayed to remind Bahne that there was no use in putting it off any further.
“The thing, my dear, is that I could easily kill it. And so could Marius for that matter, but we are not the ones who came here begging for our lives, swearing to do whatever was asked of us. You may feel that you are being mistreated, and you may be right, but things have a habit of getting better and less painful with time. Do yourself a favour and get it over with.“
And with that, she had gone again, leaving Bahne alone with the cattle.
He sat there for a while afterwards, but now the cold from outside seemed to have seeped inside.
Maybe Konstanze was right, there really was no use in waiting. Shivering he lifted the lamb of his lap and laid it down into the hay. He went to fetch the large wooden club that he had leaned against the door earlier. Taking a deep, steadying breath he lifted it over his head before bringing it down as hard as he could, keeping his eyes shut tightly.
’Verse/characters: The Tower (‘Verse), Bahne Haven
Prompt: 049. Club
Word Count: 1399
Warnings: animal slaughter
Rating: PG to PG-13 at most
Notes: It’s my first time, so be as harsh as possible, please. Want some exposition with that?
Bahne was proud to say that it only took him a few months at most to fall into a sort of routine, despite the Tower’s general madness and rooms that had the rather bad habit of not being where you expected them to be.
It was fairly easy to just go about your day’s work once you had learned not to think too hard about the things lurking in the corner of your eye, or about how every carefully removed stain seemed to magically reappear if you only turned your back on it for a moment.
It was a bit like the stairs that lead in and out of the tower. For them to be manageable at all, you only needed to imagine that there were only about six of them, rather than the several hundred he had counted during the first few days.
Of course, the tasks he had to do were still plenty and difficult, but he did his best to complete them all in due time, if only to stifle the feeling of emptiness that came over him whenever he tried to procrastinate.
It didn’t do to think too much about your situation and the company you kept when you were in the tower; it would surely drive you mad.
Bahne could not fathom by what power Marius, the only other human being he had encountered here, managed to keep all of his wits about him without work to do. Then again, maybe tormenting Bahne had proven to be exercise enough, for it seemed to be Marius favourite way to will away the seemingly endless hours.
At first Bahne had tried to reason with himself that the boy, for Marius was only a few years older than Bahne, was only trying to hold on to the life he’d had before he’d come to the tower. It was a little hard to piece together since Marius didn’t speak a word of English and refused to make any kind of effort to learn phrases other than ‘I want’ and ‘fetch me some’, but Bahne was fairly sure that Marius used to be a prince of some sort.
However, by now Bahne was convinced that Marius, royalty or not, was mostly just a bit of a prat.
So it didn’t come as much of a surprise when Marius was the first to give Bahne an order that he found himself unwilling to carry out. For hours and hours Bahne kept putting it off, until one day bled into the next and the one after that. Bahne had almost begun to hope that Marius may have forgotten. He was proven wrong almost immediately, as soon as dinnertime had come around. A greatly displeased Marius had not only thrown his full plate across the kitchen in anger, but had also gone to tell Konstanze, eradicating any hope Bahne might have had to stand his ground on the spot.
Konstanze was the one who had brought Marius into the tower shortly after Bahne’s own arrival, not as a servant but as a sort of toy or pet. Konstanze had introduced herself as the sin Luxuria, though at this point in time Bahne had still been too young to understand any potential implications her keeping around a young boy for her amusement might have held. All Bahne knew was that Marius usually got anything he wanted from her, and this time was no different.
And sure enough, that evening Bahne found himself kneeling on the floor inside their small barn with a young lamb laying across his lap. Gently curling his fingers through the soft wool he felt as miserable as he ever had.
Usually Bahne loved coming into the barn, apart from the kitchen and Marius’ room it was the only place in the whole tower that ever seemed to be warm at all, but now even the chance to feel the tips of his fingers for a change didn’t lift his spirits at all. Outside he could still hear the snowstorm howling like a wolf for its pray.
“You make everything so dramatic,” Konstanze said suddenly, making him jump. She had appeared out of thin air next to him in the hay, and was now reaching out to stroke the lamb as well. Happy about all the attention it was getting all of a sudden, the little creature lifted its head to press it against her palm.
“Just cut its throat already. It won’t feel a thing if you make it quick,” she said, giggling a little when she got her long fingers licked.
Bahne wisely kept his mouth shut, but he reflexively tightened his arms around the lamb, making it struggle momentarily until he stroked its back soothingly.
Konstanze sighed and rolled her eyes at him. She sat back on her heels and looked at him apprehensively. It was odd to see her amongst the hay and animals down here, usually she was sprawled across one of the many settees upstairs. Down here her painful looking heels and red dress - which Bahne still wasn’t entirely convinced wasn’t meant to be underwear - looked ridiculously out of place.
“You were born in an age when a lot of animals were kept, surely this isn’t the first time... then again, maybe it is, maybe your family couldn’t afford to slaughter any cattle?” she mused out loud.
Bahne’s guess was as good as hers, the memories of his past life were becoming fuzzier with each passing day. He could hardly remember his parents faces, let alone what they’d been doing or even the name they had given him. The fact that he had not even been called Bahne Haven until recently was just another one of many things that he preferred not to think about too much.
“Don’t get me wrong. Personally I think it’s revolting,” Konstanze said offhandedly. “I mean, we don’t technically need to eat at all, so slaughtering some poor animal for pleasure would be pointlessly cruel. “
Bahne only kept from pointing out that making him kill a lamb just for her plaything’s happiness was quite pointless and cruel as well, because he knew that there was no real arguing with Konstanze. She was the nicest, most pleasant person in the tower by far, but she was also temperamental and easily annoyed.
He must not have fully succeeded to keep the displeasure off his face, because Konstanze’s mouth curled into a mean sort of smirk.
“What is it?”
“Nothing,” muttered Bahne, still staring down at the little creature in his arms. It seemed like such a horrible waste. He could understand why most of Konstanze’s people didn’t eat meat, if they ate at all. Bahne had been living in the tower for some time now, and although no one had ever refilled the pantry, he still found fresh bread and vegetables in there every morning.
It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate a good roast just as much as the next person, but to be the one who killed and prepared the animal gave the situation a sense of reality that he just could no longer appreciate.
“You are a horrible liar,” Konstanze informed him gently, “but I shall give you credit for trying. “ She got to her feet, and only stayed to remind Bahne that there was no use in putting it off any further.
“The thing, my dear, is that I could easily kill it. And so could Marius for that matter, but we are not the ones who came here begging for our lives, swearing to do whatever was asked of us. You may feel that you are being mistreated, and you may be right, but things have a habit of getting better and less painful with time. Do yourself a favour and get it over with.“
And with that, she had gone again, leaving Bahne alone with the cattle.
He sat there for a while afterwards, but now the cold from outside seemed to have seeped inside.
Maybe Konstanze was right, there really was no use in waiting. Shivering he lifted the lamb of his lap and laid it down into the hay. He went to fetch the large wooden club that he had leaned against the door earlier. Taking a deep, steadying breath he lifted it over his head before bringing it down as hard as he could, keeping his eyes shut tightly.