strawberry banana 3 | green tea 14 (+ chopped nuts)
artist: Frances J./Meep
title: Like You've Seen a Ghost
verse: Jazz Remix
prompt: strawberry banana #3: hallucination
rating: G
word count: 672
summary: Mariel looks like she's seen a ghost. (Or, the start of a very hectic day.)
note: a few weeks ago I posted an illustration of this scene
"Are you feeling just fine, sheik?" asked Aya, turning to look at Mariel, her perfectly arched brows knitted together with concern. She stopped at the corner of the street, tugging Mariel by the hand along behind her. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Mariel had stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk, earning her a jostles and angry looks, plus a gruff "hey mister, watch where you're going!", but she didn't notice. Now Aya pulled on her shirtsleeve, dragging her back to reality. Mariel shook her head to clear it and let Aya twist their fingers together.
"Hm?" Mariel looked over her shoulder, but the apparition disappeared into the crowd of shoppers, dapper young men and their pretty girlfriends carrying boxes and bags. "It's … nothing," she said, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. Once they stepped out onto the street and into the sunlight from the shade of the tall buildings, she seemed to brighten up, her ghost lost to the shadows of the city. "Come on, or I'll be late for work."
They hurried across the street as soon as the light changed, Mariel ahead of Aya now. She checked her watch and took off at a run down the street, Aya clinging to her hand and laughing, struggling to keep her hat on in the wind. They dodged through the crowds, Mariel skidding into the tailor shop just moments before her shift and Aya just behind her, daintily smoothing her rumpled skirts.
"Fancy seeing you here," said Nikos, from behind the till.
"I still have," Mariel looked back at her watch, her husband's watch, "two minutes, Vallas."
"Minute and a half," said Nikos, but he stepped aside and let Mariel duck behind the counter. She leaned across to kiss Aya, who smiled and pecked her cheek, before disappearing into the back room while Aya flitted through the shop, examining the new dresses on the mannequins in the front window.
When Mariel didn't reappear again, Aya went to Nikos to pout. "You're going to hide her in the back all day?" she asked, pursing her lips. She leaned across the countertop, giving potential shoppers a particularly flattering view of her hemline and kicking off her heel. The intended effect was lost on Nikos, who stepped out past her onto the shop floor.
Nikos raised an eyebrow. "You know, most employers might not like you hanging around flirting with the shopkeep, but I'll allow it because you're such good advertisement for the merchandise," he whispered as he passed.
"I'm not wearing one of yours today," Aya told him, wiping imaginary dusty from her sailor collar as she righted herself, and her skirt.
"I know," said Nikos. "So skedaddle, miss." Aya hmphed, but he ignored her and held open the door with a little flourish. "Employees take lunch at noon."
Aya huffed, but stepped out into the sunny morning. Nikos didn't worry about her out alone without an escort. This might be New York, but they were in a modern age, the 1920s! A pretty young girl like her didn't need to be accompanied while she spent the morning out shopping on Fifth Avenue. He waved her off and wiped his hands on his apron.
He turned back into the shop and stuck his head in the back room, where Mariel had already settled in to complete the tailoring on the piecework brought in by the seamstress girls. She had pins in her mouth and didn't look up from her work when Nikos came in.
"You look a little green around the gills," he commented. "Haven't been hitting the bottle again, have you?" His tone was light, but Mariel felt the undercurrent of distrust. She didn't blame him, but she still gave him the finger. "I'll take that as a no," he said, and let himself back out into the shop to change the sign from closed to open and start what he didn't yet know would be a very hectic day.
artist: Frances J./Meep
title:
verse: Ballad Remix
prompt: green tea #14: historic (+ chopped nuts)
rating: G
word count: 1823
summary: Mariel and Aya find shelter from the storm at an ancient priory, but Silas and Koji can't enter the consecrated ground.
"No man may enter the consecrated ground sacred to the goddess." On this, the prioress refused to budge. She stood serenely in the pouring rain, hands folded inside her wide sleeves, but she spoke with a voice full of compassion and understanding. Silas nodded in understanding, but Koji positively ground his teeth with frustration. Already, his hair and clothing clung damply to his skin, and the heavy rain showed no sign of stopping.
"Even if he's the woman when he - ow, Si!" Koji winced as Silas stepped down hard on his foot.
"Respect, Koji," he muttered. To the prioress, he bowed and said, "Our respects, prioress."
"It is our custom to care for travelers," she said, "but a dragon burned the lodge in a rampage but weeks ago."
"Uh really big one?" asked Koji, spreading his hands wide.
"The biggest any of us have seen or heard of in the last hundred years," agreed the prioress, mournfully.
"Well, Si kilt it," he said, exasperated. Water dripped down into his eyes. "An' Mariel," he added hastily. "But yer gonna let her an' Aya stay anyway."
The prioress smiled, but said nothing. Two of the young women in pale green and yellow robes came to the gates, bearing with them a large and heavy bundle. "Sister Luna and Sister Dove will help you make camp," said the prioress, as Sisters Luna and Dove bowed - but only very shallowly, hampered as they were by the tent they carried between them.
Mariel and Aya followed the prioress in, while Koji and Silas, accompanied by the two vestals. Aya waved sadly, and Mariel gave Silas a companionable nod - but didn't offer to spend the night out in the rain as comrades when she could sleep in a warm, soft bed indoors, bathing and eating with the famously hospitable vestals of the Sisterhood in their ancient home.
The warmth and light of the hall came as a relief from the cold rain outside, but their clothes and hair still dripped and stuck unpleasantly to their skin. Mariel felt as though she had gone for a swim in the river, not gotten caught in a sudden cloudburst. Aya looked only marginally better, although her dress clung to her in a way that accentuated her womanly curves. On a good day, Mariel might have appreciated this more, but wet, and cold, and hungry, she only marveled - with some annoyance- that while she looked (and felt) like a drowned rat, Aya mysteriously remained gorgeous despite the rainwater puddling at her feet and dripping down her face.
Sister Epona and Sister Niamh beckoned to Mariel and Aya, who followed them gratefully down a rough hewn flight of stairs into an underground room, full of steam and the scent of jasmine. After handing them each a fluffy towel, she bowed and left the two women alone for the first time since their nights together in the lord's castle, weeks ago before they started their journey home.
"Unfortunate for Silas and Koji," said Mariel, unselfconsciously stripping off her wet clothing as Aya did the same; the time for awkwardness between them had passed. Unsure, and uncaring, what to do with their clothes, they left them on the stone floor and sank contentedly into the hot water.
Aya stretched out, soaking in the mineral water bubbling up from underground. "Poor things, stuck out in the rain," she said, and she sounded genuinely sorry for them, but she kicked her feet happily in the hot bath, glad to be clean and warm; traveling had not suited her well, at least, not with vagabonds like her new friends.
Mariel nodded in agreement, but she wasn't about to give up a hot bath and a soft bed out of a misguided feeling of companionship; discretion, she knew, was the better part of valor. She leaned back, aching muscles relaxing after weeks of travel and injury.
They remained in the water, sometimes in silence and sometimes talking quietly between them, until their skin wrinkled. Climbing out from the bath, their skin felt stiff and salty from the natural hot springs, and gratefully rinsed off with the cool, clear water from a basin nearby. They dried themselves and dressed in loose orange robes provided to them by the sisters; Aya laughed at the horrific clash of the tawny robes and Mariel's reddish hair.
"A nice green would be prettier, I think," she said, as she helped Mariel adjust the billowing sleeves. "Dark, like the prioress."
"Then I would be a prioress," countered Mariel. Aya sighed so dramatically that Mariel had to laugh. "Sorry," she said, but Aya shook her head and kissed her cheek.
"I'll have you yet." Aya's eyes twinkled with mischief, but it was Mariel's turn to shake her head.
"Not in a convent," she said. Aya gave a little bow, a token gesture of respect to a maiden goddess.
Hand in hand, they climbed the steps back into the main hall, but not before Mariel insisted on draping their wet clothes over an edge of a bench to dry. Sister Epona and Sister Niamh met them in pale robes like Sister Luna and Sister Dove, and ushered them through the hall to a little room, like an inn or a dorm, although they were the only two visitors in the room with six beds.
"You arrived after supper," whispered Sister Epona. Aya let out a disappointed little sigh before she could help herself, but the sisters smiled, and Sister Niamh went on, "but we have prepared a meal for our guests."
As if on cue, another pair of vestals came, bearing trays full of fruits and bread and cheese. Aya clapped with delight, but quickly muffled the noise and beamed silently instead; the sisters never spoke above a whisper, barely audible over the swish of their heavy robes.
"Thank you," whispered Mariel, bowing; Aya gave a little curtsy of gratitude as the sisters placed the trays on bedside tables for the travelers.
"We share freely," said Sister Epona.
"What the Merciful Goddess has given freely," finished Sister Niamh.
Mariel began to feel uneasy about the companionship of the vestals, but then she remembered her husband, and how easily they completed each other's thoughts. She glanced at the retreating forms of Sister Epona and Sister Niamh, wondering… She didn't dwell for long, however, as Aya settled onto the bed beside her and reached over for a slice of the bread, still warm. Weeks after leaving the lord's castle, they had grown used to eating what they could hunt or find along the way. In summer, fruit and game were bountiful, but still couldn't compare to hot bread and soft cheese.
Aya positively wiggled with delight. A wealthy lord's daughter herself, she grew up on fine foods, and not what a pair of skinflint mercenary dragon slayers could catch on the road. She ate more than Mariel thought possible, then settled back onto the bed with a happy sigh: full, warm, and well fed, Aya crawled under the blankets and pulled them up to her chin. Mariel tidied up their meal before joining her; the vestals had only prepared one bed of the six in the room, and she thought again about their habit of completing each other's sentences.
She didn't dwell for long, but nudged Aya over and settled into bed. Even in the room with wooden walls, in a stone castle- turned- convent, she could hear the rain and worried about Silas and Koji. With Aya snuggled up against her, tucked in under a warm blanket against the chilly night, her worries soon faded away and she fell into the deepest, most restful sleep since she left home weeks, nearly a month ago and woke late the following morning with the sun shining through the window on a rain-drenched world. Even her shoulder didn't ache as it had done, reduced to a dull pain around the edges of her consciousness.
Aya woke up shortly after Mariel, already up and preparing to leave.
"Good morning, gorgeous," purred Aya.
"Not in a convent," said Mariel, laughing. She pulled the stapes on the pack and picked it up, slinging it across her back now that she could manage again. "We should go. Koji and Silas will be awake."
Aya stifled a giggle and shed her nightdress without any hint of shame. "Can't we have another bath?" she asked.
"We shouldn't keep them waiting," said Mariel. "They'll be eager to be getting on."
With a sigh of regret, Aya dressed herself and together they went back into the main hall, where the sisters had prepared food for them and their companions; more than enough to last them their journey, but the sisters refused any payment.
"We are happy to share with our sisters," said Sister Epona
"What the goddess has shared with us," finished Sister Niamh.
The two sisters bowed, and showed Aya and Mariel to the prioress. She sprinkled them with pure spring water and kissed them both upon the forehead, giving them her blessing on their journey home. Mariel shouldered the heavy pack without complaint, and took Aya's share as well. To her surprise, Sisters Epona and Niamh took the other supplies and carried them out into the dewey morning sunlight, the prioress following behind to give her blessing to Koji and Silas.
Both of their companions looked worse for the wear, rain drenched and dirty. Their tent had collapsed in the nighttime storm, leaving them to sleep under a makeshift lean-to. Aya clucked and fretted over Koji while Mariel helped Silas to his feet. The prioress bowed apologetically.
"There is an inn not far from here," she said. From her robes, she pulled a hidden pouch full of coins. "I would have sent you there in the night, but it was over the river and too dangerous to cross in a storm. Stay there now, if you have the time to spare on your journey, and rest well. There is medicinal tea in your packs to drink each night before bed, and again when you wake. It will help."
Silas bowed in thanks and accepted her charity. Mariel gave him a nod of approval that he could be so polite after spending a night outside in a rainstorm.
"Go now, with our blessing, and our apologies, and our thanks," she said. "Return to us in one years' time, when we have rebuilt the visitor's house, and we will show you the proper hospitality of our sisterhood, dragons slayer."
The prioress saw them off with her blessing, and they found the inn not long after they set out. Silas and Koji collapsed gratefully into a warm, dry bed while Mariel and Aya stayed awake, organizing their belongings for travel they wouldn't undertake for a few more days yet, ready and rested after a night spent in the sisters' famous hospitality.
title: Like You've Seen a Ghost
verse: Jazz Remix
prompt: strawberry banana #3: hallucination
rating: G
word count: 672
summary: Mariel looks like she's seen a ghost. (Or, the start of a very hectic day.)
note: a few weeks ago I posted an illustration of this scene
"Are you feeling just fine, sheik?" asked Aya, turning to look at Mariel, her perfectly arched brows knitted together with concern. She stopped at the corner of the street, tugging Mariel by the hand along behind her. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Mariel had stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk, earning her a jostles and angry looks, plus a gruff "hey mister, watch where you're going!", but she didn't notice. Now Aya pulled on her shirtsleeve, dragging her back to reality. Mariel shook her head to clear it and let Aya twist their fingers together.
"Hm?" Mariel looked over her shoulder, but the apparition disappeared into the crowd of shoppers, dapper young men and their pretty girlfriends carrying boxes and bags. "It's … nothing," she said, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. Once they stepped out onto the street and into the sunlight from the shade of the tall buildings, she seemed to brighten up, her ghost lost to the shadows of the city. "Come on, or I'll be late for work."
They hurried across the street as soon as the light changed, Mariel ahead of Aya now. She checked her watch and took off at a run down the street, Aya clinging to her hand and laughing, struggling to keep her hat on in the wind. They dodged through the crowds, Mariel skidding into the tailor shop just moments before her shift and Aya just behind her, daintily smoothing her rumpled skirts.
"Fancy seeing you here," said Nikos, from behind the till.
"I still have," Mariel looked back at her watch, her husband's watch, "two minutes, Vallas."
"Minute and a half," said Nikos, but he stepped aside and let Mariel duck behind the counter. She leaned across to kiss Aya, who smiled and pecked her cheek, before disappearing into the back room while Aya flitted through the shop, examining the new dresses on the mannequins in the front window.
When Mariel didn't reappear again, Aya went to Nikos to pout. "You're going to hide her in the back all day?" she asked, pursing her lips. She leaned across the countertop, giving potential shoppers a particularly flattering view of her hemline and kicking off her heel. The intended effect was lost on Nikos, who stepped out past her onto the shop floor.
Nikos raised an eyebrow. "You know, most employers might not like you hanging around flirting with the shopkeep, but I'll allow it because you're such good advertisement for the merchandise," he whispered as he passed.
"I'm not wearing one of yours today," Aya told him, wiping imaginary dusty from her sailor collar as she righted herself, and her skirt.
"I know," said Nikos. "So skedaddle, miss." Aya hmphed, but he ignored her and held open the door with a little flourish. "Employees take lunch at noon."
Aya huffed, but stepped out into the sunny morning. Nikos didn't worry about her out alone without an escort. This might be New York, but they were in a modern age, the 1920s! A pretty young girl like her didn't need to be accompanied while she spent the morning out shopping on Fifth Avenue. He waved her off and wiped his hands on his apron.
He turned back into the shop and stuck his head in the back room, where Mariel had already settled in to complete the tailoring on the piecework brought in by the seamstress girls. She had pins in her mouth and didn't look up from her work when Nikos came in.
"You look a little green around the gills," he commented. "Haven't been hitting the bottle again, have you?" His tone was light, but Mariel felt the undercurrent of distrust. She didn't blame him, but she still gave him the finger. "I'll take that as a no," he said, and let himself back out into the shop to change the sign from closed to open and start what he didn't yet know would be a very hectic day.
artist: Frances J./Meep
title:
verse: Ballad Remix
prompt: green tea #14: historic (+ chopped nuts)
rating: G
word count: 1823
summary: Mariel and Aya find shelter from the storm at an ancient priory, but Silas and Koji can't enter the consecrated ground.
"No man may enter the consecrated ground sacred to the goddess." On this, the prioress refused to budge. She stood serenely in the pouring rain, hands folded inside her wide sleeves, but she spoke with a voice full of compassion and understanding. Silas nodded in understanding, but Koji positively ground his teeth with frustration. Already, his hair and clothing clung damply to his skin, and the heavy rain showed no sign of stopping.
"Even if he's the woman when he - ow, Si!" Koji winced as Silas stepped down hard on his foot.
"Respect, Koji," he muttered. To the prioress, he bowed and said, "Our respects, prioress."
"It is our custom to care for travelers," she said, "but a dragon burned the lodge in a rampage but weeks ago."
"Uh really big one?" asked Koji, spreading his hands wide.
"The biggest any of us have seen or heard of in the last hundred years," agreed the prioress, mournfully.
"Well, Si kilt it," he said, exasperated. Water dripped down into his eyes. "An' Mariel," he added hastily. "But yer gonna let her an' Aya stay anyway."
The prioress smiled, but said nothing. Two of the young women in pale green and yellow robes came to the gates, bearing with them a large and heavy bundle. "Sister Luna and Sister Dove will help you make camp," said the prioress, as Sisters Luna and Dove bowed - but only very shallowly, hampered as they were by the tent they carried between them.
Mariel and Aya followed the prioress in, while Koji and Silas, accompanied by the two vestals. Aya waved sadly, and Mariel gave Silas a companionable nod - but didn't offer to spend the night out in the rain as comrades when she could sleep in a warm, soft bed indoors, bathing and eating with the famously hospitable vestals of the Sisterhood in their ancient home.
The warmth and light of the hall came as a relief from the cold rain outside, but their clothes and hair still dripped and stuck unpleasantly to their skin. Mariel felt as though she had gone for a swim in the river, not gotten caught in a sudden cloudburst. Aya looked only marginally better, although her dress clung to her in a way that accentuated her womanly curves. On a good day, Mariel might have appreciated this more, but wet, and cold, and hungry, she only marveled - with some annoyance- that while she looked (and felt) like a drowned rat, Aya mysteriously remained gorgeous despite the rainwater puddling at her feet and dripping down her face.
Sister Epona and Sister Niamh beckoned to Mariel and Aya, who followed them gratefully down a rough hewn flight of stairs into an underground room, full of steam and the scent of jasmine. After handing them each a fluffy towel, she bowed and left the two women alone for the first time since their nights together in the lord's castle, weeks ago before they started their journey home.
"Unfortunate for Silas and Koji," said Mariel, unselfconsciously stripping off her wet clothing as Aya did the same; the time for awkwardness between them had passed. Unsure, and uncaring, what to do with their clothes, they left them on the stone floor and sank contentedly into the hot water.
Aya stretched out, soaking in the mineral water bubbling up from underground. "Poor things, stuck out in the rain," she said, and she sounded genuinely sorry for them, but she kicked her feet happily in the hot bath, glad to be clean and warm; traveling had not suited her well, at least, not with vagabonds like her new friends.
Mariel nodded in agreement, but she wasn't about to give up a hot bath and a soft bed out of a misguided feeling of companionship; discretion, she knew, was the better part of valor. She leaned back, aching muscles relaxing after weeks of travel and injury.
They remained in the water, sometimes in silence and sometimes talking quietly between them, until their skin wrinkled. Climbing out from the bath, their skin felt stiff and salty from the natural hot springs, and gratefully rinsed off with the cool, clear water from a basin nearby. They dried themselves and dressed in loose orange robes provided to them by the sisters; Aya laughed at the horrific clash of the tawny robes and Mariel's reddish hair.
"A nice green would be prettier, I think," she said, as she helped Mariel adjust the billowing sleeves. "Dark, like the prioress."
"Then I would be a prioress," countered Mariel. Aya sighed so dramatically that Mariel had to laugh. "Sorry," she said, but Aya shook her head and kissed her cheek.
"I'll have you yet." Aya's eyes twinkled with mischief, but it was Mariel's turn to shake her head.
"Not in a convent," she said. Aya gave a little bow, a token gesture of respect to a maiden goddess.
Hand in hand, they climbed the steps back into the main hall, but not before Mariel insisted on draping their wet clothes over an edge of a bench to dry. Sister Epona and Sister Niamh met them in pale robes like Sister Luna and Sister Dove, and ushered them through the hall to a little room, like an inn or a dorm, although they were the only two visitors in the room with six beds.
"You arrived after supper," whispered Sister Epona. Aya let out a disappointed little sigh before she could help herself, but the sisters smiled, and Sister Niamh went on, "but we have prepared a meal for our guests."
As if on cue, another pair of vestals came, bearing trays full of fruits and bread and cheese. Aya clapped with delight, but quickly muffled the noise and beamed silently instead; the sisters never spoke above a whisper, barely audible over the swish of their heavy robes.
"Thank you," whispered Mariel, bowing; Aya gave a little curtsy of gratitude as the sisters placed the trays on bedside tables for the travelers.
"We share freely," said Sister Epona.
"What the Merciful Goddess has given freely," finished Sister Niamh.
Mariel began to feel uneasy about the companionship of the vestals, but then she remembered her husband, and how easily they completed each other's thoughts. She glanced at the retreating forms of Sister Epona and Sister Niamh, wondering… She didn't dwell for long, however, as Aya settled onto the bed beside her and reached over for a slice of the bread, still warm. Weeks after leaving the lord's castle, they had grown used to eating what they could hunt or find along the way. In summer, fruit and game were bountiful, but still couldn't compare to hot bread and soft cheese.
Aya positively wiggled with delight. A wealthy lord's daughter herself, she grew up on fine foods, and not what a pair of skinflint mercenary dragon slayers could catch on the road. She ate more than Mariel thought possible, then settled back onto the bed with a happy sigh: full, warm, and well fed, Aya crawled under the blankets and pulled them up to her chin. Mariel tidied up their meal before joining her; the vestals had only prepared one bed of the six in the room, and she thought again about their habit of completing each other's sentences.
She didn't dwell for long, but nudged Aya over and settled into bed. Even in the room with wooden walls, in a stone castle- turned- convent, she could hear the rain and worried about Silas and Koji. With Aya snuggled up against her, tucked in under a warm blanket against the chilly night, her worries soon faded away and she fell into the deepest, most restful sleep since she left home weeks, nearly a month ago and woke late the following morning with the sun shining through the window on a rain-drenched world. Even her shoulder didn't ache as it had done, reduced to a dull pain around the edges of her consciousness.
Aya woke up shortly after Mariel, already up and preparing to leave.
"Good morning, gorgeous," purred Aya.
"Not in a convent," said Mariel, laughing. She pulled the stapes on the pack and picked it up, slinging it across her back now that she could manage again. "We should go. Koji and Silas will be awake."
Aya stifled a giggle and shed her nightdress without any hint of shame. "Can't we have another bath?" she asked.
"We shouldn't keep them waiting," said Mariel. "They'll be eager to be getting on."
With a sigh of regret, Aya dressed herself and together they went back into the main hall, where the sisters had prepared food for them and their companions; more than enough to last them their journey, but the sisters refused any payment.
"We are happy to share with our sisters," said Sister Epona
"What the goddess has shared with us," finished Sister Niamh.
The two sisters bowed, and showed Aya and Mariel to the prioress. She sprinkled them with pure spring water and kissed them both upon the forehead, giving them her blessing on their journey home. Mariel shouldered the heavy pack without complaint, and took Aya's share as well. To her surprise, Sisters Epona and Niamh took the other supplies and carried them out into the dewey morning sunlight, the prioress following behind to give her blessing to Koji and Silas.
Both of their companions looked worse for the wear, rain drenched and dirty. Their tent had collapsed in the nighttime storm, leaving them to sleep under a makeshift lean-to. Aya clucked and fretted over Koji while Mariel helped Silas to his feet. The prioress bowed apologetically.
"There is an inn not far from here," she said. From her robes, she pulled a hidden pouch full of coins. "I would have sent you there in the night, but it was over the river and too dangerous to cross in a storm. Stay there now, if you have the time to spare on your journey, and rest well. There is medicinal tea in your packs to drink each night before bed, and again when you wake. It will help."
Silas bowed in thanks and accepted her charity. Mariel gave him a nod of approval that he could be so polite after spending a night outside in a rainstorm.
"Go now, with our blessing, and our apologies, and our thanks," she said. "Return to us in one years' time, when we have rebuilt the visitor's house, and we will show you the proper hospitality of our sisterhood, dragons slayer."
The prioress saw them off with her blessing, and they found the inn not long after they set out. Silas and Koji collapsed gratefully into a warm, dry bed while Mariel and Aya stayed awake, organizing their belongings for travel they wouldn't undertake for a few more days yet, ready and rested after a night spent in the sisters' famous hospitality.