FIC: The Twin Swords (a Dragons tale)

[narceus]

So, quite some time ago, the really excellent eira_cannaid made the most excellent fanart ever for The One About Dragons. I promised her a ficbit on any character of her choosing in the world of the story, and then totally failed to deliver for a while

Comments

[frumiousme]

fierce, firecat :) i like her.

[narceus]

:) I'm glad. She's a bit of a badass, indeed.

[psychacat]

This was so lovely. I really like the amount of thought that goes into the world, but there is still so much for the reader to guess at and explore :)

[narceus]

Thanks!

I think I'm constitutionally incapable of not doing crazy-full worldbuilding for a story like this, but I try to leave some gaps and not just turn it into an encyclopedia on This World. Fun for everybody that way, really :)

[deanryker]

Oh man, i LOVE this!!! I love all your work actually but this is what I needed right now

[narceus]

Thank you! And I am so glad this helped to cheer you up or whatever it was you needed.

[narceus]

Mmm. Yeah. I think it hearkens back to the whole virgin/whore, Mary/Eve thing. The dead mother is a saint and an angel because you can't speak ill of the dead, so she must be the Mary, not the whore. Or something like that. Which can get interesting as all get out.

As for Kurt's mom...the only canon information we have on her, really, is Burt sitting there and saying to Kurt, "You are your mother, you know that?" Which to me says, yeah. All the crafty complicated stuff, all the sensitive dramatic stuff, all of the high-energy wanting things to be a certain way and the occasional bossiness and yeah, some of the moral this far and no further lines--that's who Kurt's mom was. She was the kind of person who'd throw a fit over not getting an audition, and then quietly, secretly, blow the note to keep somebody she loved safe. And here it's even more pronounced, of course, because swords.

I have so much headcanon for how marriage works in these tribes. You can get engaged without a formal challenge, and back in the day formal

[manatree]

This was absolutely gorgeously written! Love all of the "background" info about the world that you've created, and how clear it is that this whole universe has been rather well fleshed out and detailed, at least in your own head!

I really liked how you worded the paragraph about the basilisk, because when you talked about how foolish she was, I momentarily assumed that she had lost, that she was lucky to have escaped with her life, but then that last sentence casually talks about what she did with the fangs, so clearly she won, even though she went poorly prepared! This also gives her so much strength, both physically and strength of character, in just this one victory. Beautifully done.

[narceus]

I am totally incapable of not worldbuilding like woah, so this was actually an awesome chance to share some of that in a side story. Glad you enjoyed it!

:) I liked putting together the part with the basilisk, because I got to say a lot all at once. Two-sword fighting is actually reasonably stupid in almost all circumstances (Kurt will not be doing it in battle, though he does in duels), and it was nice to point that out. And yeah, it builds on everything Elisabet is and accomplished, even against probability. (And then I got to parallel it against that time with the wyvern at the end, when she did go properly prepared, and it wasn't enough--because sometimes you just get unlucky.)

In short, she's awesome, and I'm really glad you like her :) Thanks for the comment!