[Witches' Horses] Witches' Horses
Title: closing in
'Verse/characters: Witches' Horses; Sinclair, Grammont
Prompt: 53A "illusions", 'a mess of wires' (coastal_physics)
Word Count: 254
Notes: follows rumours like fish
He hated having to work among live wires, but she couldn't really turn them off, so he used heavy gloves and resigned himself to an interesting afterlife whenever she needed work far away from Martin's yard.
He was half inside one of her walls, tracing what she could only describe as 'an itch', trying to ignore the way the mess of wires he was touching kept shivering under his hand, when she spoke and the vibration made him think he'd hit something wrong and was about to be electrocuted in retribution.
But she was only speaking to the local stablemaster, discussing fees and facilities in the subtly accented Russian of the woman who'd started running back-up recently on le Chevalier de Grammont. Several rumours had the woman one of the engineers who'd helped build the horse that was just a little faster than she should be. No rumour yet held a grain of truth, which considering that the woman never left the horse was a little impressive.
"Catch me up on the news," she eventually commanded, which meant that she was projecting an image for the stablemaster as she circled closer, matching spin and angle.
He grinned, began extracting himself from the wires. The plan as it stood was to sell off the current cargo--torso-sized spools of silk thread and wool yarn--before tracking down the engineer from the rumours and getting the man aboard Grammont to see how much truth the story held. But plans could change, and he'd be ready if they did.
'Verse/characters: Witches' Horses; Sinclair, Grammont
Prompt: 53A "illusions", 'a mess of wires' (coastal_physics)
Word Count: 254
Notes: follows rumours like fish
He hated having to work among live wires, but she couldn't really turn them off, so he used heavy gloves and resigned himself to an interesting afterlife whenever she needed work far away from Martin's yard.
He was half inside one of her walls, tracing what she could only describe as 'an itch', trying to ignore the way the mess of wires he was touching kept shivering under his hand, when she spoke and the vibration made him think he'd hit something wrong and was about to be electrocuted in retribution.
But she was only speaking to the local stablemaster, discussing fees and facilities in the subtly accented Russian of the woman who'd started running back-up recently on le Chevalier de Grammont. Several rumours had the woman one of the engineers who'd helped build the horse that was just a little faster than she should be. No rumour yet held a grain of truth, which considering that the woman never left the horse was a little impressive.
"Catch me up on the news," she eventually commanded, which meant that she was projecting an image for the stablemaster as she circled closer, matching spin and angle.
He grinned, began extracting himself from the wires. The plan as it stood was to sell off the current cargo--torso-sized spools of silk thread and wool yarn--before tracking down the engineer from the rumours and getting the man aboard Grammont to see how much truth the story held. But plans could change, and he'd be ready if they did.