[fanfic] [children of dune] On the other side, there was...
"Enter."
Leto pulled back the curtain carefully at the corners, like a good Fremen, born of the sietch. Geoff snorted and scratched the edges of his mouth, filter-markings.
"Brother Geoff," Leto said, no inflection in his voice. Brother. "It has been quite a while."
"We are not brothers, not by blood," Geoff muttered.
Leto sat down, his legs crossed over each other. Geoff noted this, remembered that this was the same way Muad'dib would sit in his room, for hours, consulting forces beyond their understanding. He remembered running into the room, and Chani would be standing outside, shaking her head at him and leading him outside by the hand.
"Not now, Geoff. Muad'dib need his quiet."
"Everyone in Sietch Tabr is family," Leto chastised him with a smile, "And we may not be related by blood, but Muad'dib was a part of your life. Whether you wish to forget it or not, there are those who will not.”
“Like you?” Geoff said, looking at him with hollow eyes (Blueonblue)
“Like my father,” Leto said simply (blueonblue), “You would not have liked the capital.”
Geoff remembered his first visit there. Arches and open spaces. It was terrifying, the amount of space! Armies could have marched under (they had, in fact) and there were plants! Scattered in specific locations, but green, flowering plants! And he could taste the moisture in the room, the coolness of the room on his lips and it wasn’t sweat, but terror.
“Muad’dib had wise judgement,” Leto continued, “Will you doubt it now?” His tone was teasing, amused. Heresy and madness, in one voice! How did they suffer him to live? But Geoff was there, when Leto walked through the fire and the storm. They did not suffer it, but attempt to survive him.
This monster.
“You have not come here to talk of the past,” Geoff muttered, feeling unbridled and hot.
“The past has ties to all futures,” Leto said calmly, “I am here to settle old ties. When we move forward, it will on a slate of pure white.”
“Pure white?”
“You’ve never seen pure white before, have you?” Leto was looking at him, a gaze heavy, too heavy for a body so young, “There are worlds out there, Brother Geoff, worlds of white and colour so bright, it will steal all preconceptions away. Worlds of the past, worlds of the future, the great exodus will be upon us! Look inward. Dream. Dream until you die and leave your dreams for the rest of them.”
The rest of them.
“I have a query.”
“Anything.”
“Why did you come here?”
Leto paused, “On earth, a long time ago, there was a saying. The grass is greener on the other side. You wouldn’t understand, but I needed to see the grass,” Was that pain in his eyes? Or happiness? Geoff couldn’t read people. Suddenly, he felt he rather not understand them at all.
“Grass is grass,” he finally said, not meeting Leto’s eyes.
“Quite,” Leto said amiably, “A wise answer. I expect nothing less from my brother.”
And he walked, the way muad’dib would leave the tent, touching the bare edges of the curtain, in muad’dib’s footsteps and Geoff thought I was the luckier one after all.