[AtLA Ficlet] The Eighteenth Hour
Title: The Eighteenth Hour
Characters: Hakoda/Ozai
Word Count: 300+
Author's Notes: This is a fusion-crossover with The Night Land. Quick run-down: this takes place millions of years after the sun has gone dark. The last millions of humanity dwell in the Greater Redoubt as protection against the cosmic horrors and less cosmic but still dangerous things dwelling in the lands of the world. So these two are not actually Hakoda and Ozai but reincarnations. Hakoda remembers some of his past life, Ozai remembers only enough that he doesn't kill Hakoda.
The Eighteenth Hour
***
The fire-hole is low and dim, but its warmth fills the little hollow in the rocks. There are snakes and other skittering things about, and Hakoda watches Ozai's tail flick lazily as the beautiful creature watches one of the snakes. It's almost as large as a man, but most of its bulk is in a crevice in the rock. Now and then, its tongue flicks out to taste the air.
Ozai is still here, so the snake stays hidden.
"I brought some books," Hakoda says as he takes off his pouch and scrip. "Now you have something to practice reading on."
It still gives him a distant little pang of pain to think of Ozai not being able to read. In the far-off days of light, Ozai loved books and stories; there is almost a holy glow around the memory of the two of them lying together over a silly book of erotica.
The creature looks at him with gold eyes, and he smiles as he proffers the reader. "There's buttons on the side to navigate. But figuring out what to navigate to is part of the exercise."
Black hands take the reader, and dark tail curls around dark haunches. Ozai is a beautiful creature, though Hakoda's memories of the days of light say his Beloved should be a man as he is. Instead, though, he is a creature of the darkness - gold-eyed, dark-furred leonine body, black-skinned human torso with an under-layer that seemed to catch gold in the light of the fire-hole.
Hakoda lets Ozai play with the book while he pours powder into his cup. It fizzes in the air, turning to water, and he drinks it gratefully. For the weeks prior to this, he has had to make do with whatever water they could find on the journey back to the Mighty Pyramid. For the last two weeks, he has been alone - Ozai will not approach the Pyramid and its Watchers.
It is good to taste clean, pure water again. But somehow it's better to be with his Beloved once more.
-End-
Characters: Hakoda/Ozai
Word Count: 300+
Author's Notes: This is a fusion-crossover with The Night Land. Quick run-down: this takes place millions of years after the sun has gone dark. The last millions of humanity dwell in the Greater Redoubt as protection against the cosmic horrors and less cosmic but still dangerous things dwelling in the lands of the world. So these two are not actually Hakoda and Ozai but reincarnations. Hakoda remembers some of his past life, Ozai remembers only enough that he doesn't kill Hakoda.
The Eighteenth Hour
***
The fire-hole is low and dim, but its warmth fills the little hollow in the rocks. There are snakes and other skittering things about, and Hakoda watches Ozai's tail flick lazily as the beautiful creature watches one of the snakes. It's almost as large as a man, but most of its bulk is in a crevice in the rock. Now and then, its tongue flicks out to taste the air.
Ozai is still here, so the snake stays hidden.
"I brought some books," Hakoda says as he takes off his pouch and scrip. "Now you have something to practice reading on."
It still gives him a distant little pang of pain to think of Ozai not being able to read. In the far-off days of light, Ozai loved books and stories; there is almost a holy glow around the memory of the two of them lying together over a silly book of erotica.
The creature looks at him with gold eyes, and he smiles as he proffers the reader. "There's buttons on the side to navigate. But figuring out what to navigate to is part of the exercise."
Black hands take the reader, and dark tail curls around dark haunches. Ozai is a beautiful creature, though Hakoda's memories of the days of light say his Beloved should be a man as he is. Instead, though, he is a creature of the darkness - gold-eyed, dark-furred leonine body, black-skinned human torso with an under-layer that seemed to catch gold in the light of the fire-hole.
Hakoda lets Ozai play with the book while he pours powder into his cup. It fizzes in the air, turning to water, and he drinks it gratefully. For the weeks prior to this, he has had to make do with whatever water they could find on the journey back to the Mighty Pyramid. For the last two weeks, he has been alone - Ozai will not approach the Pyramid and its Watchers.
It is good to taste clean, pure water again. But somehow it's better to be with his Beloved once more.
-End-