[Wild Roses] Trickwood Unification
Title: unexpected company
'Verse/characters: Trickwood Unification; Hernén, Belladonna
Prompt: 10A "unfamiliar territory"
Word Count: 544
Notes: when poked with a stick, coastal_physics gave me 'the smell of fresh cut wood' as a spark. Pretty early on.
He woke to the sound of hammers on wood, the bright hollow sound of construction or repair, and lay in his bedroll for a moment wondering how in Lost Winter he'd managed to have such a very involved dream, from the cursed Sandovals to allying himself with werewolf packs, if he was just going to wake up on a ship again.
Teeth closed around his booted ankle and tugged gently.
His heart stopped for a second, then he began mentally drawing lines in the air, sketching a bubble around his foot, when Belladonna said in a muffled voice "y'need c'm se 'his," and tugged on his ankle again.
"Please don't do that," he said as he let go of the proto spell, raised his head to glare at her.
She spat out his boot, licked her chops a couple of times. "Worked."
"Could have got you killed," he replied, sat up, started extracting himself from the bedroll.
"Didn't," she said placidly, her tail wagging in something he couldn't decide about. Mockery, maybe. Amusement.
There were mages down at the edge of the water, he found when he emerged from the tree line, Belladonna at his heels. Several were reducing new-cut trees to boards and blocks with styluses and clouds of steam, others were whacking down pillars into the bed, one at the bottom of what should be water well over their heads but hollowed out like an eggshell, guiding the placement while another used a wide-headed hammer to smack the pillar down.
" . . what are you building?" he asked when he got in range of one of the cutting mages.
She looked up, spat out the pencil she was using as a drafting tool, smiled like he was slightly dimwitted. "Dock."
" . . Why?"
She pointed.
There was a ship--a Navy ship--out there anchored in the river, nearly obscured by the steam of the drying wood.
He had time to think 'Oh, no, they tracked me down from the supplier--' before there was a puff of displaced air and the feeling of something extremely solid punching his shoulder because he'd dodged instinctively.
Squirming backwards up the slope, trying not to curse out loud, he froze when a very familiar voice said "Kid, you got some 'splaining to do."
"Oh," he said out loud, word slipped past his mind in the shock of things going from unfamiliar dangerous ground to sure-footed knowledge.
Belladonna looked like she was considering growling, but refraining until he gave her a sign.
"Hi, Ulysse," he said instead, and accepted the hand up.
"Hey, Hernén," his brother replied, pulled him into a brief, rough hug. "Rumour had you dead."
"Not from lack of trying," Belladonna muttered, too softly for normal ears to catch, but Ulysse tilted an eye down towards her.
"You a crazy mageblood too?" she said, not retreating but her tail suddenly far lower than it had been.
"Nope," Ulysse told her. "Crazy mage."
"Oh, there's an improvement," she muttered again, this time so soft only someone keyed to air currents could have caught it.
"You'd be surprised," Hernén replied, then eyed Ulysse. "Come to drag me home?"
"Dunno yet," his brother said cheerfully. "You haven't told me what you're up to, and why you left without so much as a goodbye."
'Verse/characters: Trickwood Unification; Hernén, Belladonna
Prompt: 10A "unfamiliar territory"
Word Count: 544
Notes: when poked with a stick, coastal_physics gave me 'the smell of fresh cut wood' as a spark. Pretty early on.
He woke to the sound of hammers on wood, the bright hollow sound of construction or repair, and lay in his bedroll for a moment wondering how in Lost Winter he'd managed to have such a very involved dream, from the cursed Sandovals to allying himself with werewolf packs, if he was just going to wake up on a ship again.
Teeth closed around his booted ankle and tugged gently.
His heart stopped for a second, then he began mentally drawing lines in the air, sketching a bubble around his foot, when Belladonna said in a muffled voice "y'need c'm se 'his," and tugged on his ankle again.
"Please don't do that," he said as he let go of the proto spell, raised his head to glare at her.
She spat out his boot, licked her chops a couple of times. "Worked."
"Could have got you killed," he replied, sat up, started extracting himself from the bedroll.
"Didn't," she said placidly, her tail wagging in something he couldn't decide about. Mockery, maybe. Amusement.
There were mages down at the edge of the water, he found when he emerged from the tree line, Belladonna at his heels. Several were reducing new-cut trees to boards and blocks with styluses and clouds of steam, others were whacking down pillars into the bed, one at the bottom of what should be water well over their heads but hollowed out like an eggshell, guiding the placement while another used a wide-headed hammer to smack the pillar down.
" . . what are you building?" he asked when he got in range of one of the cutting mages.
She looked up, spat out the pencil she was using as a drafting tool, smiled like he was slightly dimwitted. "Dock."
" . . Why?"
She pointed.
There was a ship--a Navy ship--out there anchored in the river, nearly obscured by the steam of the drying wood.
He had time to think 'Oh, no, they tracked me down from the supplier--' before there was a puff of displaced air and the feeling of something extremely solid punching his shoulder because he'd dodged instinctively.
Squirming backwards up the slope, trying not to curse out loud, he froze when a very familiar voice said "Kid, you got some 'splaining to do."
"Oh," he said out loud, word slipped past his mind in the shock of things going from unfamiliar dangerous ground to sure-footed knowledge.
Belladonna looked like she was considering growling, but refraining until he gave her a sign.
"Hi, Ulysse," he said instead, and accepted the hand up.
"Hey, Hernén," his brother replied, pulled him into a brief, rough hug. "Rumour had you dead."
"Not from lack of trying," Belladonna muttered, too softly for normal ears to catch, but Ulysse tilted an eye down towards her.
"You a crazy mageblood too?" she said, not retreating but her tail suddenly far lower than it had been.
"Nope," Ulysse told her. "Crazy mage."
"Oh, there's an improvement," she muttered again, this time so soft only someone keyed to air currents could have caught it.
"You'd be surprised," Hernén replied, then eyed Ulysse. "Come to drag me home?"
"Dunno yet," his brother said cheerfully. "You haven't told me what you're up to, and why you left without so much as a goodbye."