It's a trap.

They know this because instinct raises the hairs on their neck, on their arms; instinct makes the silence hum and training keeps their hands close to their weapons (but not overtly guarding, never overtly guarding, tantamount to aggression it is, and they cannot afford aggression).

It's a trap, and they're walking right into it because ( Read more... )

It's not concern that makes her run after him that night.

It's not compassion that puts her between him and his prey.

It's not anger that makes her eyes blaze red in the hungry fires he's set, nor is it pity that compels her to insist on guarding him when there is no one left to.

It's not mercy that moves her to teach him how to survive, how to ( Read more... )

It should have been impossible for her to push herself to her feet, to stride across the ground as it quaked and rolled like the shoulder of a fly-plagued horse. It should have been impossible for her to stand calmly in the face of the storm, and yet stand she did, as surely as if her feet touched only solid ground.

And perhaps it did.

"Thank you," ( Read more... )

20 Deaths

(1)
He never knew what happened, not when it happened, nor after it happened.

But all the same, as they take the mechanical ventilators away, his final breath is not for his parents, or his dependents, or the will sitting silently in the filing cabinet of a man whose name he cannot recall-

But for the children he never knew.

(2)
She knew it ( Read more... )

Fandom: Howl's Moving Castle (movieverse)
Characters: Howl (PoV), Calcifer, Sophie
Rating: PG
Blurb: He catches a falling star, and finds another that needs catching.

The stars are falling, and he watches them die.

The stars are falling, and the cry of magic breathes in his veins.

The stars are falling. Their magic is dying.

The stars are dying, and ( Read more... )