[Tortall: Drabble] "Running" [G]
Title: Running
Prompt: writerverse challenge #05 quick fic #2 (“Do not tarry, do not stop, no matter what happens” (Garth Nix) )
Word Count: 231
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: Protector of the Small: Lady Knight
Summary: Tobe runs for help after the attack on Haven.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
Running
Tobe ran, blinded as much by tears as by the darkness, stumbling through the moonlit woods. Branches lashed at him, and the howling wind chilled him to the bone, but he kept going.
He had to reach Fort Giantkiller, as fast as he could. If he had been thinking clearly, Tobe would have gone there because it was the nearest Army fort, because the garrison there could get back to Haven the fastest.
But Tobe wasn’t thinking clearly. As he ran, barefoot and muddy, through the dark trees, his only thought was of reaching Lady Kel.
Every one of the gods must have been smiling on him when they brought her to the inn where he’d been in service. Tobe had never trusted anyone before Lady Kel, not really, but she had proved that she wouldn’t let him down. When the Nothing Man’s machines had come to Haven, Tobe had known that he had to get to her, and fast.
He kept running until the trees thinned, pausing impatiently to sob his story to the guards, then to Lord Wyldon, but his heart was still racing, even when his feet were still.
“Tobe,” breathed Lady Kel, and he flung himself at her, burying his face in her nightgowned middle, feeling her arms tight around him.
She would save them, Tobe knew, she would save all of them. And he finally slept.
THE END
Current Mood:
snowed in
Prompt: writerverse challenge #05 quick fic #2 (“Do not tarry, do not stop, no matter what happens” (Garth Nix) )
Word Count: 231
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: Protector of the Small: Lady Knight
Summary: Tobe runs for help after the attack on Haven.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
Running
Tobe ran, blinded as much by tears as by the darkness, stumbling through the moonlit woods. Branches lashed at him, and the howling wind chilled him to the bone, but he kept going.
He had to reach Fort Giantkiller, as fast as he could. If he had been thinking clearly, Tobe would have gone there because it was the nearest Army fort, because the garrison there could get back to Haven the fastest.
But Tobe wasn’t thinking clearly. As he ran, barefoot and muddy, through the dark trees, his only thought was of reaching Lady Kel.
Every one of the gods must have been smiling on him when they brought her to the inn where he’d been in service. Tobe had never trusted anyone before Lady Kel, not really, but she had proved that she wouldn’t let him down. When the Nothing Man’s machines had come to Haven, Tobe had known that he had to get to her, and fast.
He kept running until the trees thinned, pausing impatiently to sob his story to the guards, then to Lord Wyldon, but his heart was still racing, even when his feet were still.
“Tobe,” breathed Lady Kel, and he flung himself at her, burying his face in her nightgowned middle, feeling her arms tight around him.
She would save them, Tobe knew, she would save all of them. And he finally slept.
THE END
Current Mood:
snowed in