[Wild Roses] Trickwood Unification
Title: new building off old
'Verse/characters: Trickwood Unification; Hernén, Belladonna
Prompt: 38D "abandoned"
Word Count: 504
Notes: And with this, I am done with the current run. Thank you all for tagging along. <3
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They stumbled, nearly literally, over the remains of the fort.
The site was good--not perfect, but good--sheltered from winter winds but high enough up the slope to catch sun, and from the crumbling edge of the outer wall he could see the roads that had once curved up the hill to the fort, and up past it to the ridge.
None of the buildings still had a roof; they were setting up camp in the courtyard, instead, taking advantage of level ground and stones that weren't big enough to hide a stalking manticore.
The site was old, long since fallen to the weeds and the trees--he found a tree growing in what looked like the ruin of the armoury that was as thick around as Belladonna's torso--but there'd been humans there, once.
There wasn't much question as to why it had been abandoned, considering the manticore packs in the area they'd spent the last four months exterminating. Big and bold and smart enough to climb, armoured across their chests and heads in a way that had nearly cost him people before they finally found the weak spots.
He still couldn't get the image of one of the bigger wolves, two-legged in a last desperate attempt to get loose, reaching up and smashing a rock into a corner of a snarling mouth and the sound of the manticore's accompanying pained shriek out of his head. He could see the humans who'd inhabited the chiseled stones here all too easily in the same position, without the strength to back up the rock.
It wasn't a pleasant thought.
His horse whickered a half-warning, half-greeting, and Hernén turned his head to see Belladonna, two-legged at the moment, wandering up to join him on the high point. He scooted over a little on the warm stone, though there was plenty of space, so she'd know she was welcome.
Crouching down next to him, her weight balanced on the balls of her feet, she gave him an 'I'm curious' glance, before looking down over the camp, and beyond that the wall, and the slope.
"Nice view," she allowed, and he half-laughed.
"Be better if there were a few fields down there," he replied, jerking his chin to the slope. "Without people in the area the manticores are just going to come back, after we move on."
She grunted--he heard agreement in the noise, but half-hearted. This was a long, long way from the tall trees where he'd met her, with rather more winters between than he'd planned on. But then, he hadn't been planning when he started this, had been running on fury and instinct at the time.
"Know of anyone who might want to settle here, if we rebuild the fort?" he asked, after the sun had moved the shadows from the standing stones a little farther, because he wasn't running on instinct and fury anymore.
"I'll ask around," the wolf next to him replied.
He assumed he was imagining the faint note of pride in her voice.
'Verse/characters: Trickwood Unification; Hernén, Belladonna
Prompt: 38D "abandoned"
Word Count: 504
Notes: And with this, I am done with the current run. Thank you all for tagging along. <3
---------
They stumbled, nearly literally, over the remains of the fort.
The site was good--not perfect, but good--sheltered from winter winds but high enough up the slope to catch sun, and from the crumbling edge of the outer wall he could see the roads that had once curved up the hill to the fort, and up past it to the ridge.
None of the buildings still had a roof; they were setting up camp in the courtyard, instead, taking advantage of level ground and stones that weren't big enough to hide a stalking manticore.
The site was old, long since fallen to the weeds and the trees--he found a tree growing in what looked like the ruin of the armoury that was as thick around as Belladonna's torso--but there'd been humans there, once.
There wasn't much question as to why it had been abandoned, considering the manticore packs in the area they'd spent the last four months exterminating. Big and bold and smart enough to climb, armoured across their chests and heads in a way that had nearly cost him people before they finally found the weak spots.
He still couldn't get the image of one of the bigger wolves, two-legged in a last desperate attempt to get loose, reaching up and smashing a rock into a corner of a snarling mouth and the sound of the manticore's accompanying pained shriek out of his head. He could see the humans who'd inhabited the chiseled stones here all too easily in the same position, without the strength to back up the rock.
It wasn't a pleasant thought.
His horse whickered a half-warning, half-greeting, and Hernén turned his head to see Belladonna, two-legged at the moment, wandering up to join him on the high point. He scooted over a little on the warm stone, though there was plenty of space, so she'd know she was welcome.
Crouching down next to him, her weight balanced on the balls of her feet, she gave him an 'I'm curious' glance, before looking down over the camp, and beyond that the wall, and the slope.
"Nice view," she allowed, and he half-laughed.
"Be better if there were a few fields down there," he replied, jerking his chin to the slope. "Without people in the area the manticores are just going to come back, after we move on."
She grunted--he heard agreement in the noise, but half-hearted. This was a long, long way from the tall trees where he'd met her, with rather more winters between than he'd planned on. But then, he hadn't been planning when he started this, had been running on fury and instinct at the time.
"Know of anyone who might want to settle here, if we rebuild the fort?" he asked, after the sun had moved the shadows from the standing stones a little farther, because he wasn't running on instinct and fury anymore.
"I'll ask around," the wolf next to him replied.
He assumed he was imagining the faint note of pride in her voice.