Redux 15: Challenge 207. Swan
Rated: PG
Category: Firefly--Gen, Kaylee
Words: 404
Summary: Kaylee discovers life.
Note: Written in response to the LJ prompt of ‘extinct animals’ #207 on
ff_friday.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. Dialogue is from the script for Safe.
KAYLEE: It looks like it was made with...you know, longing. Made by a person really longed to see a swan.
INARA: Perhaps because they'd only heard of them by rough description.
She’d never seen one, of course, not a real one. Not many of them left anywhere in the ’Verse. But she could picture it in her mind, a little sweeter, smoother, than the carved one in the shop. Skimming on a lake, brilliantly white, arched neck.
Her mother had told her about the Ugly Duckling that turned into a swan, but there wasn’t much to the story, it had been passed down so many times. Thinking to make her feel better about growing up, being a kinda awkward girl, all knobbly knees and elbows, that one day she might glide smooth across a shiny dancefloor in a fluffy dress, or sweep down the church aisle in a white gown and veil. Romantic notions for a young daughter, standing at the sink, gazing out the little kitchen window, aimless hands in soapy water. No doubt looking at the clouds, seeing the face of a boy to make her happy.
But it wasn’t a face little Kaywinnet was conjuring, gazing heavenward, the faucet dripping on forgotten dishes. Even in bed, her eyes squeezed shut, not a boy with soft, shy hands, or a flouncy skirt of tulle and lace. No, all she could see was a silvery bird, swooping over the clouds in a grey-black sky; engine flaring, ruffling fiery feathers. Under her touch, the hot beating heart of a flying machine.
And that day, down the docks, when she’d seen the Firefly, her vision come true, she knew this was it. Felt her eyes light, her head lift, drawn toward it so she hardly felt her legs move. Drifting ’cross the lot, toward her life.
Once upon a time she felt--not alone, how could she, in the nest of a big, loving family--but aching, longing, for something beyond the dry dirt and hot sun of home.
Now, on Serenity, she’ll catch sight of her own reflection, in a tin tray, or in the faces of the people around her. See the light in her eyes and the tilt of her head, glowing with the grace of floating free. And she remembers another half-legend from a long-extinct culture. Saraswati. The Indian goddess rides a swan into the heavens. Traveling between worlds.
Category: Firefly--Gen, Kaylee
Words: 404
Summary: Kaylee discovers life.
Note: Written in response to the LJ prompt of ‘extinct animals’ #207 on
ff_friday.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. Dialogue is from the script for Safe.
KAYLEE: It looks like it was made with...you know, longing. Made by a person really longed to see a swan.
INARA: Perhaps because they'd only heard of them by rough description.
She’d never seen one, of course, not a real one. Not many of them left anywhere in the ’Verse. But she could picture it in her mind, a little sweeter, smoother, than the carved one in the shop. Skimming on a lake, brilliantly white, arched neck.
Her mother had told her about the Ugly Duckling that turned into a swan, but there wasn’t much to the story, it had been passed down so many times. Thinking to make her feel better about growing up, being a kinda awkward girl, all knobbly knees and elbows, that one day she might glide smooth across a shiny dancefloor in a fluffy dress, or sweep down the church aisle in a white gown and veil. Romantic notions for a young daughter, standing at the sink, gazing out the little kitchen window, aimless hands in soapy water. No doubt looking at the clouds, seeing the face of a boy to make her happy.
But it wasn’t a face little Kaywinnet was conjuring, gazing heavenward, the faucet dripping on forgotten dishes. Even in bed, her eyes squeezed shut, not a boy with soft, shy hands, or a flouncy skirt of tulle and lace. No, all she could see was a silvery bird, swooping over the clouds in a grey-black sky; engine flaring, ruffling fiery feathers. Under her touch, the hot beating heart of a flying machine.
And that day, down the docks, when she’d seen the Firefly, her vision come true, she knew this was it. Felt her eyes light, her head lift, drawn toward it so she hardly felt her legs move. Drifting ’cross the lot, toward her life.
Once upon a time she felt--not alone, how could she, in the nest of a big, loving family--but aching, longing, for something beyond the dry dirt and hot sun of home.
Now, on Serenity, she’ll catch sight of her own reflection, in a tin tray, or in the faces of the people around her. See the light in her eyes and the tilt of her head, glowing with the grace of floating free. And she remembers another half-legend from a long-extinct culture. Saraswati. The Indian goddess rides a swan into the heavens. Traveling between worlds.