Which contains sombreros, rain, a staircase, and a fairytale
But is probably not as interesting as that makes it sound. Yesterday was the last day of the school term over here, and school finished at 11 o'clock. About two classes' worth of people were spotted afterwards wearing tacky sombreros. I'm not sure why, but who needs to know the reason behind all of life's mysteries? That would ruin the fun. So far, the length of every line I have written has been the same, although it took a bit of editing on that last one. I wonder if I can keep up the streak? If so then I will add a screen-shot somewhere down there below.
It has been warmer these last couple of days, and the snow has been busily melting. That's a trifle upsetting, as I was hoping for a white Christmas, but that was really more of a poetic wish than a heartfelt one. I don't mind. Yesterday I bought a Christmas present for my host sister/exchange partner what-have-you. It was a book she'd seen the previous day and wanted. There was only one copy left when we went there yesterday with another of her friends. While they were looking at some other books, I sneaked down, grabbed that last copy, and bought it; then I got it wrapped as well. A little while later, Jenny and her friend came down, and she went to show Caro the book; it wasn't there. Later again, when Jenny was in a different part (historical novels, I believe) of the shop and Caro and I were sitting on resting our feet, I managed to convey in fragmented German to Caro that I had bought the book. I felt she seemed quite impressed that I'd managed it without either of them noticing.
That's two paragraphs of perfectly lined up lines. I think I might stop now. Here's a screen-shot:
On Tuesdays the Zoo club has a cheap night. We went there and danced and so on. The interesting bit was getting home; walking for about ten minutes in the drizzle, all fun and games, I got quite damp, especially since my shoes are in fact broken: the soles are coming away at the toes. So my toes keep getting wet. Grr.
Then home - water, and food, since I was hungry - they have really really good mandarins here - and the dreaded staircase. Sarah Monette described a staircase in The Virtu as "creaking like hell's own hand organ". I remembered that description last night. It got stuck in my head in the way that some phrases do. I have a lot of phrases written down in my writing-things-down-book. Though for most of them I don't know the source.
And that brings me, in a slightly round about route, to my fairytale...
Once upon a time there was a servant who was friends with the king's son.
Now, the king had many sons, and the servant was not friends with the eldest, or with the youngest, or the third child; he was friends with the second-eldest prince. And they were good friends, and they had gown up together; they spoke together of all things, and trusted each other best of all.
The kingdom they lived in was not large, but neither was it poor; it had the best harbour for miles, and the deep river allowed for much trade. The people grew olives and oranges and lavender around the kingdom's one large river, and many had some small talent at music or magic. But that was not uncommon, and the kingdom was but one of several small kingdoms on a large peninsula that stretched eastward into the sea.
And there the two young men grew up; and their lives were good, and they were, for the most part, happy.
North, however, beyond the kingdom, was a larger empire that had been growing for some time; and the emperor wanted use of the the kingdom's harbour for his armies. The king valued the harbour's trade and was afraid that if it were used by soldiers the trade would be damaged; and he tried to keep out the emperor's armies. After several years of failed negotiations, the emperor went to war against the kingdom.
And the second prince and his friend the servant went to war against the empire.
If it was a happy story, the outnumbered heroes would win, and the prince and his friend would lead the triumphant army home in weeks; but it is not. The prince was killed in the first engagement and the war stretched out for two years. In that time the servant, the prince's friend, became a soldier.
By the summer of the second year of the war the king's army had been forced back halfway to the kingdom's capital; they were camped in the dry forests in a wide valley, several hours from a small village. One evening the soldier was searching for blackberries and he strayed far from the camp; as evening was falling he saw a lantern light moving toward the north, and the enemy. He followed it, but he lost the light in the night and thuogh he searched, eventually he had to return to the camp.
The next night he waited in the same place again, and the night after; it was the night after that that he saw the lantern light again. This time he followed closer, careful not to make any noise; and he followed the lantern until he came to a river where no river should be. The lantern was set on the ground, with a woman's dress, one he recognised; it belonged to a woman in the nearby village. Kneeling by these things, drinking from the river was a large, dark-furred bear. As he watched it raised its head and turned toward him, standing up on its hind legs: it was half again as tall as the soldier, and he was not short. And it spoke to him in the woman's voice: "Do not drink the water."
The soldier ran away. He ran from the bear, from the impossible river, he ran until his lungs were burning and he could run no longer. And he crept back to the camp in the night, and said nothing of what he had seen.
Two days after that the emperor's soldiers over-ran the camp; the king's army had been betrayed. nearly all the king's soldiers were killed, and most of the rest taken prisoner; but the soldier, though he was badly injured, escaped. He made his way slowly to the village; and there, he went to the house of the woman whose clothing he'd seen by the river. She was waiting for him, and she said "You did not betray me; I owe you. What can I do for you?"
"Tell me you did not betray us," the soldier said. "Tell me you didn't know the attack would fall. And help me escape this war."
The woman looked him in the eye and told him the truth: she had not betrayed them. She did not know the attack would fall. And she could help him escape.
However, long and hard though she thought, in the end she could only think of one way to achieve it: so after the soldiers wounds had healed, the woman gave him a polished copper disk and took him to the impossible river, where she set him asleep and placed him in a boat and set him to drift on the river that sprang from the earth and was swallowed back into it.
The boat carried its enchanted contents along that river; and in time the river's magic returned the boat to the world of the kingdom and the empire, and their war; but a year had passed. And still the river carried the soldier safely, ponderously towards the east.
In time the current slowed and the river widened. The water split into deep braided channels, and became a fen; and the boat came to an island, close grown about with reeds and drooping willows. One caught the boat in its branches and drew it close; in that harbour the boat lay secret and hidden for seven years, its enchanted burden held asleep.
It was there, one day in summer, that a farmer's daughter found it. Though at first she thought that the soldier was dead, she realised that he still breathed; and she called her father. He knew that no man in the soldier's uniform had been seen for years; and so he sent her to the city that was once the royal capital, to speak with the woman who ruled there, and was still called queen, though her country was under the control of the northern emperor.
The queen came, and brought with her a lady of predigious magical talent; and they saw the soldier lying there asleep and they bore him back to the castle where he had grown up. There the lady took back her medallion, for it was she who had set the soldier asleep, all those years ago; and she woke him. And the queen spoke to him, for she was the youngest sister of his friend the prince, and she recognised him; and the soldier recognised her as well, for he had once loved her, and he found he still did.
...That's about where I get stuck. This is a summation of a larger story, and it tells some of the backstory and so-on more definitively than that longer story will... but what do you think? Is it interesting? Would you be interested in reading a story like that? Where would you go next? Am I merely shouting into a void?
It has been warmer these last couple of days, and the snow has been busily melting. That's a trifle upsetting, as I was hoping for a white Christmas, but that was really more of a poetic wish than a heartfelt one. I don't mind. Yesterday I bought a Christmas present for my host sister/exchange partner what-have-you. It was a book she'd seen the previous day and wanted. There was only one copy left when we went there yesterday with another of her friends. While they were looking at some other books, I sneaked down, grabbed that last copy, and bought it; then I got it wrapped as well. A little while later, Jenny and her friend came down, and she went to show Caro the book; it wasn't there. Later again, when Jenny was in a different part (historical novels, I believe) of the shop and Caro and I were sitting on resting our feet, I managed to convey in fragmented German to Caro that I had bought the book. I felt she seemed quite impressed that I'd managed it without either of them noticing.
That's two paragraphs of perfectly lined up lines. I think I might stop now. Here's a screen-shot:
On Tuesdays the Zoo club has a cheap night. We went there and danced and so on. The interesting bit was getting home; walking for about ten minutes in the drizzle, all fun and games, I got quite damp, especially since my shoes are in fact broken: the soles are coming away at the toes. So my toes keep getting wet. Grr.
Then home - water, and food, since I was hungry - they have really really good mandarins here - and the dreaded staircase. Sarah Monette described a staircase in The Virtu as "creaking like hell's own hand organ". I remembered that description last night. It got stuck in my head in the way that some phrases do. I have a lot of phrases written down in my writing-things-down-book. Though for most of them I don't know the source.
And that brings me, in a slightly round about route, to my fairytale...
Once upon a time there was a servant who was friends with the king's son.
Now, the king had many sons, and the servant was not friends with the eldest, or with the youngest, or the third child; he was friends with the second-eldest prince. And they were good friends, and they had gown up together; they spoke together of all things, and trusted each other best of all.
The kingdom they lived in was not large, but neither was it poor; it had the best harbour for miles, and the deep river allowed for much trade. The people grew olives and oranges and lavender around the kingdom's one large river, and many had some small talent at music or magic. But that was not uncommon, and the kingdom was but one of several small kingdoms on a large peninsula that stretched eastward into the sea.
And there the two young men grew up; and their lives were good, and they were, for the most part, happy.
North, however, beyond the kingdom, was a larger empire that had been growing for some time; and the emperor wanted use of the the kingdom's harbour for his armies. The king valued the harbour's trade and was afraid that if it were used by soldiers the trade would be damaged; and he tried to keep out the emperor's armies. After several years of failed negotiations, the emperor went to war against the kingdom.
And the second prince and his friend the servant went to war against the empire.
If it was a happy story, the outnumbered heroes would win, and the prince and his friend would lead the triumphant army home in weeks; but it is not. The prince was killed in the first engagement and the war stretched out for two years. In that time the servant, the prince's friend, became a soldier.
By the summer of the second year of the war the king's army had been forced back halfway to the kingdom's capital; they were camped in the dry forests in a wide valley, several hours from a small village. One evening the soldier was searching for blackberries and he strayed far from the camp; as evening was falling he saw a lantern light moving toward the north, and the enemy. He followed it, but he lost the light in the night and thuogh he searched, eventually he had to return to the camp.
The next night he waited in the same place again, and the night after; it was the night after that that he saw the lantern light again. This time he followed closer, careful not to make any noise; and he followed the lantern until he came to a river where no river should be. The lantern was set on the ground, with a woman's dress, one he recognised; it belonged to a woman in the nearby village. Kneeling by these things, drinking from the river was a large, dark-furred bear. As he watched it raised its head and turned toward him, standing up on its hind legs: it was half again as tall as the soldier, and he was not short. And it spoke to him in the woman's voice: "Do not drink the water."
The soldier ran away. He ran from the bear, from the impossible river, he ran until his lungs were burning and he could run no longer. And he crept back to the camp in the night, and said nothing of what he had seen.
Two days after that the emperor's soldiers over-ran the camp; the king's army had been betrayed. nearly all the king's soldiers were killed, and most of the rest taken prisoner; but the soldier, though he was badly injured, escaped. He made his way slowly to the village; and there, he went to the house of the woman whose clothing he'd seen by the river. She was waiting for him, and she said "You did not betray me; I owe you. What can I do for you?"
"Tell me you did not betray us," the soldier said. "Tell me you didn't know the attack would fall. And help me escape this war."
The woman looked him in the eye and told him the truth: she had not betrayed them. She did not know the attack would fall. And she could help him escape.
However, long and hard though she thought, in the end she could only think of one way to achieve it: so after the soldiers wounds had healed, the woman gave him a polished copper disk and took him to the impossible river, where she set him asleep and placed him in a boat and set him to drift on the river that sprang from the earth and was swallowed back into it.
The boat carried its enchanted contents along that river; and in time the river's magic returned the boat to the world of the kingdom and the empire, and their war; but a year had passed. And still the river carried the soldier safely, ponderously towards the east.
In time the current slowed and the river widened. The water split into deep braided channels, and became a fen; and the boat came to an island, close grown about with reeds and drooping willows. One caught the boat in its branches and drew it close; in that harbour the boat lay secret and hidden for seven years, its enchanted burden held asleep.
It was there, one day in summer, that a farmer's daughter found it. Though at first she thought that the soldier was dead, she realised that he still breathed; and she called her father. He knew that no man in the soldier's uniform had been seen for years; and so he sent her to the city that was once the royal capital, to speak with the woman who ruled there, and was still called queen, though her country was under the control of the northern emperor.
The queen came, and brought with her a lady of predigious magical talent; and they saw the soldier lying there asleep and they bore him back to the castle where he had grown up. There the lady took back her medallion, for it was she who had set the soldier asleep, all those years ago; and she woke him. And the queen spoke to him, for she was the youngest sister of his friend the prince, and she recognised him; and the soldier recognised her as well, for he had once loved her, and he found he still did.
...That's about where I get stuck. This is a summation of a larger story, and it tells some of the backstory and so-on more definitively than that longer story will... but what do you think? Is it interesting? Would you be interested in reading a story like that? Where would you go next? Am I merely shouting into a void?