Summertime
Anyone working on their Summer prompt?
Funeral Games:He took a taper to the little clay day-lamp which kept a source of fire, and kindled the cluster on the big branched lamp-stand. Outside, a red glow showed that the soldiers were making a cook-fire. Konon's shadow, made huge by the light behind him, loomed dark and manifold on the worn linen hangings of the tent.
"He put the elephants upstream, in line across, and the cavalry downstream; then he told the phalanx to advance. They went in, the phalanx leaders each with his men. And when they got to the middle, it was as if the Nile had come up in flood. It was over their heads; the horses downstream had to swim for it. It was the weight of the elephants did it; it stirred up the muddy bottom, which the Tigris didn't have. But the worst of all, they all say, was to see their mates being taken by crocodiles."
"I've seen a crocodile," said Philip eagerly.
Alone in the circle, she stood with her head up while the first stones struck her. Their force made her stagger, and she sank to her knees to prevent an unseemly fall. This offered her head, and soon a big stone struck it. She found herself lying, gazing upwards at the sky. A cloud of great beauty had caught the light from the sinking sun, itself hidden behind the mountain. Her eyes began to swim, their images doubled; she felt her body breaking under the stones, but it was more shock than pain; she would be gone before the real pain had time to start. She looked up at the whirling effulgent cloud, and thought, I brought down the fire from heaven; I have lived with glory. A thunderbolt struck from the sky and all was gone.
The Charioteer:A flickering smile, in dread of presuming, appeared on Barnes's face like an anxious rabbit ready to bolt back down the hole.
"The thing with Peters, once you're on the board, is just to carry on as if he wasn't there. He likes that really, you'll find. It soothes his nerves."
Laurie, a steady but unsensational performer at other games, was the House's white hope at swimming and was expected to get his School colours next year. Barnes said, "Yes, Odell," with an expression of almost inert stupidity. The awe of this heavenly message had stunned him. Laurie observed it with approval; it was no good if encouragement made them fresh.
A fuzzy dullness was creeping over his brain. He recognised the combined effects of morphia and atropine, being too old a hand not to have found out by now what the syringe contained. He disliked it and couldn't imagine himself ever acquiring an addiction. Now as before, silly scrappy little waking dreams kept drifting behind hiseyes. He could see long draperies, with gold tissue woven into them, purples and reds and greens. Resolving not to doze off, he lay staring at the ceiling. He was in a punt on the Cher at Oxford, drifting conveniently upstream, lying on cushions and looking up at the leaves. Between the Parks and Lady Margaret Hall he saw Charles swimming towards him. "Come along," said Charles, "the water's absolute heaven. You know you can swim really. take off your things and jump in." "Perhaps I can," Laurie told him, "but I don't want to. It's not allowed, I'm having an operation."
The Last of the Wine:Sometimes when the night was chilly, or there was rain, and we ached all over from riding or from wounds, Lysis and I would draw together, seeking a little warmth; but we never shared a cloak, because when you do that in winter you will do it in spring. Remembering those days, I hardly know what kept us to our resolve; we had no time to pursue philosophy, or be quiet, or consider the gods except when the squadron made the morning or the evening prayer; and I think it was weariness more than anything that made it easy to us. Yet sometimes in the night watch, when the Galaxy unrolled its book across a moonless sky, I knew what we were about, and where Sokrates was sending us. When Lysis had left me and gone to sleep, I would feel my soul climb love as a mountain, which at the foot has wide slopes with rocks and streams and woods, and fields of every kind, but at the top one peak, to which if you go upward all paths lead; and beyond it, the blue ether where the world swims like a fish in its ocean, and the winged soul flies free. And thence returning, for a while I found nothing created that I could not love: the comrade I had been angry with in the day, the Spartans sitting in Dekeleia; even Kritias I was sorry for, and knew why Sokrates had not sooner cast him out. Yet I was not drowsy, nor lost in dreams, but saw the night sparkle like a crystal, and every coney stirring, or the silent owl.
I worked away at the wet straps of my armour, trying to be quick with it. He had made me a soldier, and it was his due that I should do it before him. The corselet of Archagoras, with its gold studs and its Gorgon, came away from me. I walked over the wet deck, and dropped it in the sea.
Just then Theras the pilot came up and said, "You're none too soon, Lysis." I looked at the weather and saw he was right. "With your permission," he said, "I'll get the deckhouse broken up." There was no need to say more; one does it at the end, to get spars for the swimmers. Lysis said, "Very well. Break up the boat too." We carried a little one, for places where we could not beach, to get water and stores. Theras looked at him; he said, "How many will she take, in this sea?"- "Four," said Theras. "Five maybe."-"She'll give planks for ten or twelve. Break her up."
Fire From Heaven:'Our men are either side of you, and the enemy has theharbour. Are you tired of life?'
Some warning, a gift of Herakles, made him whip round. He hardly saw the face of the man whose spear was lifted, only the exposed throat. His stab severed the windpipe; the man reeled back, bloody fingers clawing at the hissing wound. He swung round to confront the others; in this instant the scene had changed, he saw instead the backs of the royal squires, shields locked, heaving off the Argives. Hephaistion came breasting through like a swimmer through surf, and stood to shield his back. It was over, in about as long as it would have taken him to finish his half-eaten fish.
He looked round. He had not a scratch, he had been a stroke ahead each time. Hephaistion spoke to him and he answered smiling. He was shining and calm at the centre of his mystery, the godlike freedom of killing fear. Fear lay dead at his feet.
The Persian Boy:As I cantered up river in first light, my heart revived; till I saw a sight so shocking, I hardly believed my eyes. A dozen young men were in the river itself, their whole bodies in the sacred waters, washing themselves; and, as if delighting in this impious pollution, splashing about or swimming. Among them was a mane of golden hair, which, wet as it was, could be nobody's but the King's. I thought that he looked my way, and galloped off in horror.
Barbarians! I thought. What vengeance will Anahita of the Waters take on them? It was a beautiful morning, fresh but turning warm. Truly, I had left all civilized things behind me. All the same ... if one knew no better, what pleasure to slide through the sparkling river, bare as a fish.
I had troubled myself for nothing. When I dared to ask him, Alexander said, "What, would you like it? Well, why not? They've told me so often I'm Persianized, no one should be surprised. Can you swim?"
"Oh, yes, Al'skander, I'm sure I could."
He laughed. "Neither can I."
