[fic?] Mai HiME AU
When Shizuru was very young, she heard them howling in the night, calling back and forth, or maybe serenading the moon. Their voices would echo across the hills and through the trees, drifting through the walls and closed doors of the house to reach her, where she lay awake and quiet in her futon. Sometimes they sounded very close, as if one were waiting right outside her door. Other times the howls would be so faint that in the morning she thought she dreamt them.
But they were there. The wolves.
It wasn’t good luck to talk about them so the adults told whispered stories amongst themselves. Shizuru grew up hearing their mumblings and complaints-the wolves had not always inhabited the forest. But when they came, not long after Shizuru was born, they never left and they took things, like dried meat. Or lives. People had gone into the forest and never come back. So the adults said.
Shizuru and the other kids believed them but nothing like that had happened in their memories, so no one was willing to show it. They played wolf games in the forest during the day, playing at being the beasts, the hunters, or the innocent victims. They laughed and teased each other, bared their teeth threateningly, howled at the treetops. The boys loved to dare one another to stay after dark-the longer you stayed, the braver you were-or hide in hollows and grab at unsuspecting ankles.
There was a lot of crying when they played.
Shizuru wasn’t afraid, though, not during the day. She knew the wolves were there but she’d never seen one. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she did see one or if one attacked her, but she felt safe among the other kids-and no one ever dared her to stay in the forest at night. Even if they had wanted to, her older brother wouldn’t have let them anyway. Before he grew too old to play such childish games, he’d proven himself a number of times.
Besides, they were Fujinos.
But even from their home, Shizuru could hear them at night.
“They’re coming for you,” her brother teased her once, hissing the words menacingly in her ear. She’d slapped him, hard, and called him an idiot.
Sometimes, though, at night, lying awake listening to them, she wondered if it were true.
Notes: This is just a little blurb because I like throwing ideas around and getting them out of my head and never really capitalizing on them. Mostly inspired by this fanart of Natsuki from asterisk and then making a leap to Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, I've had a little Mai HiME AU brewing in my head for a while. I think you can see where this is going, though not so much with the nature/political message.
I haven't gotten myself to look at the Drabbles again--I feel discouraged before I even start--so maybe this is me trying to keep myself from looking at them again. Hopefully not. I don't know. This weird feeling settles on me when I think about them now. Maybe it's the feeling that people are expecting something now... This is precisely why I should finish things before I ever release them. But then nothing would get releases, huh.
But they were there. The wolves.
It wasn’t good luck to talk about them so the adults told whispered stories amongst themselves. Shizuru grew up hearing their mumblings and complaints-the wolves had not always inhabited the forest. But when they came, not long after Shizuru was born, they never left and they took things, like dried meat. Or lives. People had gone into the forest and never come back. So the adults said.
Shizuru and the other kids believed them but nothing like that had happened in their memories, so no one was willing to show it. They played wolf games in the forest during the day, playing at being the beasts, the hunters, or the innocent victims. They laughed and teased each other, bared their teeth threateningly, howled at the treetops. The boys loved to dare one another to stay after dark-the longer you stayed, the braver you were-or hide in hollows and grab at unsuspecting ankles.
There was a lot of crying when they played.
Shizuru wasn’t afraid, though, not during the day. She knew the wolves were there but she’d never seen one. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she did see one or if one attacked her, but she felt safe among the other kids-and no one ever dared her to stay in the forest at night. Even if they had wanted to, her older brother wouldn’t have let them anyway. Before he grew too old to play such childish games, he’d proven himself a number of times.
Besides, they were Fujinos.
But even from their home, Shizuru could hear them at night.
“They’re coming for you,” her brother teased her once, hissing the words menacingly in her ear. She’d slapped him, hard, and called him an idiot.
Sometimes, though, at night, lying awake listening to them, she wondered if it were true.
Notes: This is just a little blurb because I like throwing ideas around and getting them out of my head and never really capitalizing on them. Mostly inspired by this fanart of Natsuki from asterisk and then making a leap to Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, I've had a little Mai HiME AU brewing in my head for a while. I think you can see where this is going, though not so much with the nature/political message.
I haven't gotten myself to look at the Drabbles again--I feel discouraged before I even start--so maybe this is me trying to keep myself from looking at them again. Hopefully not. I don't know. This weird feeling settles on me when I think about them now. Maybe it's the feeling that people are expecting something now... This is precisely why I should finish things before I ever release them. But then nothing would get releases, huh.