Chocolate, Strawberry & Honeydew with so much Butterscotch it isn't even funny
Author: Dralore
Challenge: Chocolate #6 - grace; Strawberry #14 - stairs; Honeydew #3 - ritual
Topping: Butterscotch, and lots of it
Word Count: 418
Rating: G
Story: Persia AU; Xander
Summary: The new year celebration in one of Persia's capitals.
Note: Historically, I couldn't verify the accuracy of this piece, except that it's theorized that Parsa was used as a major hub for Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebration. Parsa is what Persepolis was called when it was a functioning city in the Persian Empire. Geographically, it's more or less correct. Oh, also, this is so totally B.C.
Parsa glowed with the newness of the year and the day; fires, large small were lit within each house, celebrating the light of the world and the rebirth of spirit; the week of Nowruz the new year.
Spread before him, the Royal Road led off into the distance, twisting through the city, through the fields and orchards that lay along the river Pulwar...And pilgrims filled it, as far as his eye could see. Pilgrims bearing gifts for their Shah, their emperor, Xerxes. Some would have traveled even so far as Egypt, while others had much shorter journeys...And all had been well-rested, washed, in preparation for an audience with Xerxes.
The gifts they brought were rich, for only the rich could bear gifts great enough for the ruler of Persia; coin and incense, fine weapons and cloth in a rainbow of colors. Animals of the best breeding and gemstones that would sparkle soon in jewelry for the Shah and his entourage. All of these gifts, and more.
Xander, though there were many centuries until he called himself such, stood at the main gate, watching as the Road seemed to slither, filled with people and animals, chariots and wagons...And their faces were a study in the richness of diversity, so wide was the Empire. Yet, all dressed in their finest, newest clothes; lucky clothes for a lucky new year.
For himself, Xander wore a collar of bronze bedecked with lapis lazuli and a new robe of deep blue to match. He glanced to his left, over the many heads processing through the gateway, to eye his 'brother', dressed similarly, though in a saffron yellow. The other's wings, like his own, were only half-furled, an impressive warning to onlookers; and all the world could see them here, no need to hide...
Some who entered stared up in fear, but others only smiled upon him, and he, in his youth, graced them with a smile of his own, sharing their joy of the new year. Today began Nowruz, and the most important of them would climb the stairs of the Apadana bearing their royal gifts; re-pledging themselves, whether as governors of the satrapies, or merely in hope of gaining the Shah's ear. And then feasting and festivities for the next week, with plentiful drink, and attention to families...
And he, in the meantime, would watch the gate as he always did, always had since he'd come into being.
The gate was his life, and guarding it the only purpose of his immortality.
Challenge: Chocolate #6 - grace; Strawberry #14 - stairs; Honeydew #3 - ritual
Topping: Butterscotch, and lots of it
Word Count: 418
Rating: G
Story: Persia AU; Xander
Summary: The new year celebration in one of Persia's capitals.
Note: Historically, I couldn't verify the accuracy of this piece, except that it's theorized that Parsa was used as a major hub for Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebration. Parsa is what Persepolis was called when it was a functioning city in the Persian Empire. Geographically, it's more or less correct. Oh, also, this is so totally B.C.
Parsa glowed with the newness of the year and the day; fires, large small were lit within each house, celebrating the light of the world and the rebirth of spirit; the week of Nowruz the new year.
Spread before him, the Royal Road led off into the distance, twisting through the city, through the fields and orchards that lay along the river Pulwar...And pilgrims filled it, as far as his eye could see. Pilgrims bearing gifts for their Shah, their emperor, Xerxes. Some would have traveled even so far as Egypt, while others had much shorter journeys...And all had been well-rested, washed, in preparation for an audience with Xerxes.
The gifts they brought were rich, for only the rich could bear gifts great enough for the ruler of Persia; coin and incense, fine weapons and cloth in a rainbow of colors. Animals of the best breeding and gemstones that would sparkle soon in jewelry for the Shah and his entourage. All of these gifts, and more.
Xander, though there were many centuries until he called himself such, stood at the main gate, watching as the Road seemed to slither, filled with people and animals, chariots and wagons...And their faces were a study in the richness of diversity, so wide was the Empire. Yet, all dressed in their finest, newest clothes; lucky clothes for a lucky new year.
For himself, Xander wore a collar of bronze bedecked with lapis lazuli and a new robe of deep blue to match. He glanced to his left, over the many heads processing through the gateway, to eye his 'brother', dressed similarly, though in a saffron yellow. The other's wings, like his own, were only half-furled, an impressive warning to onlookers; and all the world could see them here, no need to hide...
Some who entered stared up in fear, but others only smiled upon him, and he, in his youth, graced them with a smile of his own, sharing their joy of the new year. Today began Nowruz, and the most important of them would climb the stairs of the Apadana bearing their royal gifts; re-pledging themselves, whether as governors of the satrapies, or merely in hope of gaining the Shah's ear. And then feasting and festivities for the next week, with plentiful drink, and attention to families...
And he, in the meantime, would watch the gate as he always did, always had since he'd come into being.
The gate was his life, and guarding it the only purpose of his immortality.