Tybalt, you ratcatcher! Will you walk?
Oct. 30th, 2014 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowandsnark [OOC: All dialog and events herein come from the short story Rat-Catcher which is from the anthology A Fantasy Medley 2.]
June, 1666. London, England.
"I do love the way they stage the duels here," Rand commented to me as we perched up in the rafters of the theater the Duke Company used for their productions.
I sat cross-legged and scowled at him. "You've seen this show a dozen times!"
"Closer to a dozen dozens, more likely, and yet I never tire of it," he said, glancing away from the actors long enough to grin at me. "Can't you relax for one evening, and enjoy a little entertainment?"
"No, I can't, and neither should you," I replied, and folded my arms. "Father wants you."
"So he sent you to retrieve me?" Rand scoffed. "Did he consider, for a moment, that I might refuse to come?"
"He did, yes."
"And?"
"And if I fail to retrieve you, I'm to be put to work minding the kittens for a week's time, to teach me obedience," I replied with a baleful scowl. "I won't mind kittens for you, Rand. You're coming with me, whether you like it or not."
"Am I, then?" Rand asked, raising an eyebrow. "Will you fight me in order to bring me home? Much as I love you, darling Jill, I doubt you'd come out the winner in that particular contest."
"I won't fight you."
"Then what?"
"I'll sit here and cry through your precious performance if you refuse to come. And tomorrow night, when my time in the nursery ends, I'll do the same. And the night after that, until such time as you apologize to me." I replied and smiled sweetly. "You can save us both a great deal of time and suffering if you simply come with me now."
Rand cast a longing look towards the actors. Mercutio was preparing to die, and in the process was layering curses down on both waring houses. "Are you sure father can't wait?"
"Come on!"
June, 1666. London, England.
"I do love the way they stage the duels here," Rand commented to me as we perched up in the rafters of the theater the Duke Company used for their productions.
I sat cross-legged and scowled at him. "You've seen this show a dozen times!"
"Closer to a dozen dozens, more likely, and yet I never tire of it," he said, glancing away from the actors long enough to grin at me. "Can't you relax for one evening, and enjoy a little entertainment?"
"No, I can't, and neither should you," I replied, and folded my arms. "Father wants you."
"So he sent you to retrieve me?" Rand scoffed. "Did he consider, for a moment, that I might refuse to come?"
"He did, yes."
"And?"
"And if I fail to retrieve you, I'm to be put to work minding the kittens for a week's time, to teach me obedience," I replied with a baleful scowl. "I won't mind kittens for you, Rand. You're coming with me, whether you like it or not."
"Am I, then?" Rand asked, raising an eyebrow. "Will you fight me in order to bring me home? Much as I love you, darling Jill, I doubt you'd come out the winner in that particular contest."
"I won't fight you."
"Then what?"
"I'll sit here and cry through your precious performance if you refuse to come. And tomorrow night, when my time in the nursery ends, I'll do the same. And the night after that, until such time as you apologize to me." I replied and smiled sweetly. "You can save us both a great deal of time and suffering if you simply come with me now."
Rand cast a longing look towards the actors. Mercutio was preparing to die, and in the process was layering curses down on both waring houses. "Are you sure father can't wait?"
"Come on!"
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Date: 2014-11-06 09:46 pm (UTC)Across the room, Father turned with an expression half-boredom and half-gloating. I caught the briefest glimpse of the figure before him as he moved. She was pale and unmoving, and I did not need to see her face; her hair was like the London fog. My heart died a little in that moment.
"She did nothing wrong," I half-whispered.
"She failed to counsel you to patience," Ainmire, my once Father, replied. "She was never fit to be a Queen."
"She was my sister, and I loved her."
"Then you should have thought before you struck me." He began to circle, setting the edges of what would be our battleground. "You knew what you did. You did it all the same."
"If we stay here, all of us will die." I said, clearly, using the tricks of the stage so that every cait sidhe would hear me.
"How would you know that? The mortal world has burned before, and the seal-kin are not of our kind. Their prophecies do not bind us. The world can always do with fewer human rats."
"She was my sister!" I repeated, and leapt. Not toward him--into the darkness. The shadows opened for my passage, closing behind me. Ainmire was stronger than myself, this I knew, but I was the more cunning. Besides, I had the right in this contest and the shadows, besides.