[strawberry banana] 1 && [green tea] 5, 2 + 25
artist: Frances J./Meep
title: Like You've Seen a Ghost
verse: Jazz Remix
prompt: strawberry banana #1 "a good omen"
rating: G
summary: Mariel sees someone out of the corner of her eye, but can't quite believe it.
notes: illustrated scene from a part of the story I haven't written yet
author: Frances J./Meep
title: After the Battle
verse: Ballad Remix
prompt: green tea #5 "evening"
rating: G
summary: Mariel and Aya recuperate together after an ambush by bandits.
notes: this is a high fantasy alternate universe of the Jazz Remix (itself an alternate universe (of an alternate universe, of a crossover)); in the main plot, written by a friend of mine, they were ambushed by bandits along the way to find the dragon.
"Are you well, Mariel?" asked Aya, slipping her hand into Mariel's. "You look ill."
Mariel was ashen and pale, and she had a shallow cut on her right arm, which Aya fussed over. The villagers had taken them to the local inn, rewarding Mariel and Silas for their efforts against the bandits. "I'm fine, Aya. I'm just tired."
Mariel had stripped almost immediately when they got to the inn, and gratefully accepted the offer of a hot bath. Now clean and freshly dressed, she sat with Aya in the room next to Koji and Silas, her feet sticking out over the edge of the bed. The two women leaned together against the wall, Aya curling up against Mariel's side.
"Did I do right?" asked Aya, after awhile. She looked up at Mariel with hopeful eyes. "You and Silas are so brave. I wanted to help."
"You did wonderfully," said Mariel. Without Aya calling the villagers for aid, Mariel and Silas might have escaped, and they might have even dragged Koji out of the mess, but they would have lost their supplies and significantly more blood. The cut on her arm was already healing over.
"I'm glad," said Aya. She leaned her head against Mariel's shoulder. "I wanted to be brave like you and Silas."
"We're not brave," Mariel said, shrugging uncomfortably. "More like stupid. Discretion is the better part of valor, they say."
"But you kill dragons," said Aya, "like a knight. That's brave."
"I have to," said Mariel. "So does Silas. My husband is ill, and Silas's wife has two children already, with a third on the way. Killing dragons pays the bills better than counting cards at the local inn, or smithing."
"Well," said Aya. "I still think you were very brave, and I want to be brave, too."
"You were brave," said Mariel. "Just don't be stupid."
author: Frances J./Meep
title: Before the Dragon (Sunrise)
verse: Ballad Remix
prompt: green tea #2 "morning"
rating: G
summary: Aya tries to reassure Mariel the morning before she goes off to slay a dragon.
"So tell me about your husband," Aya asked Mariel. They sat together in the common room of the inn over breakfast, although Mariel barely picked at her soup and bread. Instead, she kept looking over shoulder out the window to the west. Aya handed her an apple to eat, but instead of eating it, Mariel carefully peeled the skin off in one neat spiral, then cut it into rabbit shapes that she arranged on her plate and pushed back towards Aya.
"Tristan?" asked Mariel, distractedly spearing a bunny apple slice on the end of her knife.
"Unless you have another husband," said Aya, tsk-tsking. In Mariel's country, Aya knew one only had a husband or a wife. In Aya's country, one had a husband and a wife, but to have two husbands or two wives was an injustice to both spouses.
"Just the one," said Mariel, although she managed a thin smile.
"He must be something special, for you to go out and kill dragons for him," said Aya. She had seen the burns up Mariel's arms while undressing the night after their fight with the bandits, and knew that Mariel was lucky to have escaped with only scars, or even to have escaped at all. It made her nervous thinking about it, although Mariel had a partner now, and more experience, and a better sword. Still, none of that was a guarantee that she would come out of the coming battle still breathing and unburned.
They would sneak up on the dragon by night, when it would be nearly blind, but Mariel rose early as always, while Koji and Silas remained in their room together. Aya followed Mariel downstairs quickly enough, unable to sleep through the commotion next door. They had been sitting at the breakfast table for almost an hour, and the sun had still just barely come up over the tall mountains to the east.
Aya leaned against Mariel reassuringly. "So tell me what he's like, if we're going to be living together."
Mariel rewarded her with a thin smile. She twisted her wedding ring around her finger. "He's a scholar," she said, voice distant. She looked out of the eastern windows, but Aya had an idea that her thoughts were somewhere else entirely, far on the other side of the mountains. "We met when I was nineteen, but he was too poor to marry. Then again," she added with a little laugh, "so was I. We didn't wed until I was twenty five, old for the girls in our town but I waited. He took ill not long after."
"What did you do before you started slaying dragons?" asked Aya, hoping to keep Mariel talking and distracted from the doom hanging over their heads.
"I was a seamstress," said Mariel.
Aya looked up at her in surprise. "I wouldn't've guessed," she said. "I suppose I imagined you were a smith like Silas."
"Not at all," said Mariel. She smiled again. "I was a maiden once, although perhaps not one so fair as you."
"Flatterer," laughed Aya, giving her a playful shove.
"Wait until you hear my husband speak of your beauty," said Mariel. "Then you can tell me about flattery. He has a way with words."
Aya felt a little jealous of the way Mariel spoke of her husband, but only a little. Someday, she hoped Mariel would speak so of her, too, but they were nearly strangers, having only known each other on the road, and then for mere weeks, maybe a month now; Aya had lost track of the moon, the further they traveled. Mariel had waited five years to marry Tristan, and gone out to slay dragons for him. Aya felt sure she had picked a good wife.
She slipped her hand into Mariel's. She had a duty to uphold, if she would be a good wife to Mariel. "You need to eat," she said sternly. "Save your strength for tonight, so you can come home to me, and to Tristan."
author: Frances J./Meep
title: Before the Dragon (Sunset)
verse: Ballad Remix
prompt: green tea #25 "countdown"
rating: G
summary: Aya and Mariel's parting conversation before Mariel goes out to slay a dragon with her partner in crime, Silas.
"You be brave, Aya," said Mariel. Aya had just finished buckling her into the light armor that had been hidden in their luggage. It was made from leather, not steel; Mariel explained that to fight a dragon in steel would do little more than slow them down and bake them that much more easily.
"I would give you my token to wear," said Aya, with surprising insight, "but I'm afraid it would only catch fire. So take this instead, and go with my blessing." She stood on her toes and placed a kiss on Mariel's lips. It was neither ladylike nor Ladylike to show such affection to a knight, let alone a mercenary, in public, but as Mariel's wife, it was Aya's right. So Aya placed threw her arms around Mariel's neck and kissed her.
"I'll carry it with me," said Mariel, feeling suddenly very noble and courtly. Half-remembered scenes from Tristan's books shimmered on the edges of her memory, him reading to her by firelight in the cold winters after they wed, teaching her to read the tales as well. She felt like a knight from one of Aya's stories now. "And return it to you by dawn."
But as she spoke, Mariel folded something into Aya's hands. Aya felt the callouses from Mariel's seamstressing and sword against her own soft fingers, and kept her hand clenched tight as Mariel and Silas walked off together into the sunset, swords at their waists and shields on their arms.
"My champion," she said to Koji. "Yours, too."
"Yep," said Koji, "but ya better hope they git back in one piece an' not all burnt up like."
title: Like You've Seen a Ghost
verse: Jazz Remix
prompt: strawberry banana #1 "a good omen"
rating: G
summary: Mariel sees someone out of the corner of her eye, but can't quite believe it.
notes: illustrated scene from a part of the story I haven't written yet
author: Frances J./Meep
title: After the Battle
verse: Ballad Remix
prompt: green tea #5 "evening"
rating: G
summary: Mariel and Aya recuperate together after an ambush by bandits.
notes: this is a high fantasy alternate universe of the Jazz Remix (itself an alternate universe (of an alternate universe, of a crossover)); in the main plot, written by a friend of mine, they were ambushed by bandits along the way to find the dragon.
"Are you well, Mariel?" asked Aya, slipping her hand into Mariel's. "You look ill."
Mariel was ashen and pale, and she had a shallow cut on her right arm, which Aya fussed over. The villagers had taken them to the local inn, rewarding Mariel and Silas for their efforts against the bandits. "I'm fine, Aya. I'm just tired."
Mariel had stripped almost immediately when they got to the inn, and gratefully accepted the offer of a hot bath. Now clean and freshly dressed, she sat with Aya in the room next to Koji and Silas, her feet sticking out over the edge of the bed. The two women leaned together against the wall, Aya curling up against Mariel's side.
"Did I do right?" asked Aya, after awhile. She looked up at Mariel with hopeful eyes. "You and Silas are so brave. I wanted to help."
"You did wonderfully," said Mariel. Without Aya calling the villagers for aid, Mariel and Silas might have escaped, and they might have even dragged Koji out of the mess, but they would have lost their supplies and significantly more blood. The cut on her arm was already healing over.
"I'm glad," said Aya. She leaned her head against Mariel's shoulder. "I wanted to be brave like you and Silas."
"We're not brave," Mariel said, shrugging uncomfortably. "More like stupid. Discretion is the better part of valor, they say."
"But you kill dragons," said Aya, "like a knight. That's brave."
"I have to," said Mariel. "So does Silas. My husband is ill, and Silas's wife has two children already, with a third on the way. Killing dragons pays the bills better than counting cards at the local inn, or smithing."
"Well," said Aya. "I still think you were very brave, and I want to be brave, too."
"You were brave," said Mariel. "Just don't be stupid."
author: Frances J./Meep
title: Before the Dragon (Sunrise)
verse: Ballad Remix
prompt: green tea #2 "morning"
rating: G
summary: Aya tries to reassure Mariel the morning before she goes off to slay a dragon.
"So tell me about your husband," Aya asked Mariel. They sat together in the common room of the inn over breakfast, although Mariel barely picked at her soup and bread. Instead, she kept looking over shoulder out the window to the west. Aya handed her an apple to eat, but instead of eating it, Mariel carefully peeled the skin off in one neat spiral, then cut it into rabbit shapes that she arranged on her plate and pushed back towards Aya.
"Tristan?" asked Mariel, distractedly spearing a bunny apple slice on the end of her knife.
"Unless you have another husband," said Aya, tsk-tsking. In Mariel's country, Aya knew one only had a husband or a wife. In Aya's country, one had a husband and a wife, but to have two husbands or two wives was an injustice to both spouses.
"Just the one," said Mariel, although she managed a thin smile.
"He must be something special, for you to go out and kill dragons for him," said Aya. She had seen the burns up Mariel's arms while undressing the night after their fight with the bandits, and knew that Mariel was lucky to have escaped with only scars, or even to have escaped at all. It made her nervous thinking about it, although Mariel had a partner now, and more experience, and a better sword. Still, none of that was a guarantee that she would come out of the coming battle still breathing and unburned.
They would sneak up on the dragon by night, when it would be nearly blind, but Mariel rose early as always, while Koji and Silas remained in their room together. Aya followed Mariel downstairs quickly enough, unable to sleep through the commotion next door. They had been sitting at the breakfast table for almost an hour, and the sun had still just barely come up over the tall mountains to the east.
Aya leaned against Mariel reassuringly. "So tell me what he's like, if we're going to be living together."
Mariel rewarded her with a thin smile. She twisted her wedding ring around her finger. "He's a scholar," she said, voice distant. She looked out of the eastern windows, but Aya had an idea that her thoughts were somewhere else entirely, far on the other side of the mountains. "We met when I was nineteen, but he was too poor to marry. Then again," she added with a little laugh, "so was I. We didn't wed until I was twenty five, old for the girls in our town but I waited. He took ill not long after."
"What did you do before you started slaying dragons?" asked Aya, hoping to keep Mariel talking and distracted from the doom hanging over their heads.
"I was a seamstress," said Mariel.
Aya looked up at her in surprise. "I wouldn't've guessed," she said. "I suppose I imagined you were a smith like Silas."
"Not at all," said Mariel. She smiled again. "I was a maiden once, although perhaps not one so fair as you."
"Flatterer," laughed Aya, giving her a playful shove.
"Wait until you hear my husband speak of your beauty," said Mariel. "Then you can tell me about flattery. He has a way with words."
Aya felt a little jealous of the way Mariel spoke of her husband, but only a little. Someday, she hoped Mariel would speak so of her, too, but they were nearly strangers, having only known each other on the road, and then for mere weeks, maybe a month now; Aya had lost track of the moon, the further they traveled. Mariel had waited five years to marry Tristan, and gone out to slay dragons for him. Aya felt sure she had picked a good wife.
She slipped her hand into Mariel's. She had a duty to uphold, if she would be a good wife to Mariel. "You need to eat," she said sternly. "Save your strength for tonight, so you can come home to me, and to Tristan."
author: Frances J./Meep
title: Before the Dragon (Sunset)
verse: Ballad Remix
prompt: green tea #25 "countdown"
rating: G
summary: Aya and Mariel's parting conversation before Mariel goes out to slay a dragon with her partner in crime, Silas.
"You be brave, Aya," said Mariel. Aya had just finished buckling her into the light armor that had been hidden in their luggage. It was made from leather, not steel; Mariel explained that to fight a dragon in steel would do little more than slow them down and bake them that much more easily.
"I would give you my token to wear," said Aya, with surprising insight, "but I'm afraid it would only catch fire. So take this instead, and go with my blessing." She stood on her toes and placed a kiss on Mariel's lips. It was neither ladylike nor Ladylike to show such affection to a knight, let alone a mercenary, in public, but as Mariel's wife, it was Aya's right. So Aya placed threw her arms around Mariel's neck and kissed her.
"I'll carry it with me," said Mariel, feeling suddenly very noble and courtly. Half-remembered scenes from Tristan's books shimmered on the edges of her memory, him reading to her by firelight in the cold winters after they wed, teaching her to read the tales as well. She felt like a knight from one of Aya's stories now. "And return it to you by dawn."
But as she spoke, Mariel folded something into Aya's hands. Aya felt the callouses from Mariel's seamstressing and sword against her own soft fingers, and kept her hand clenched tight as Mariel and Silas walked off together into the sunset, swords at their waists and shields on their arms.
"My champion," she said to Koji. "Yours, too."
"Yep," said Koji, "but ya better hope they git back in one piece an' not all burnt up like."