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31_days2006-02-03 05:50 pm
code-epic.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2006-02-03 05:50 pm
[3-Feb-'06] [Alichino] ash thoughts
Title: ash thoughts
Day/Theme: 3-Feb-'06/lemongrass summer
Series: Alichino
Characters/Pairing: Ryoko x Myobi
Rating: PG
ash thoughts
K. Leigh Clapp
)()(
. . . . . Learn the thinness
of the window that is
between you and life, and how
the mind cuts itself as it goes through.
– R.S. Thomas, “The Calling”
)()(
He smelled in the dry, crackling air drought and the chance of wildfire, here at the long, slow end of summer. His eyes swept the broad field of lemongrass, an unhealthy golden from lack of water, then settled on her.
She stood ahead of him at the edge of the field, her body and face in profile. Balanced over one lace-encrusted shoulder was an incongruous parasol, and she held a hand out, palm up, as if gauging raindrops invisible to him. Her dress had wilted in the heat, but the skin of her hand was milk-and-lily white, moon-struck white.
“It would take only one ember,” she said, turning her head to look at him, blood-violet eyes huge and lambent. “One spark.”
The world yawned briefly and, feeling vertiginous, he beheld themselves standing here in this very same configuration in this very same field year after year, Matsurika always just beyond the horizon, always receding only to abruptly draw near and glance over her shoulder, sudden and malevolent, always waiting to accept his next sword-thrust with her ironic smile. He saw Myobi multiplying into an infinity of parasols and upraised hands, her eyes always full of that strange, dreadful love, eternally waiting for her own murder which would never come as long as they could not find a Kusabi.
“Ryoko.” The non-question brought him back to this present, this sour-sweet citric odor of lemongrass, and he nodded to her. He thought her eyes had changed somewhat, perhaps sensing both the impossible and the inevitable result of their contract.
“I’m coming.” He began striding toward her, the tall, parched stalks crunching under his heels.
Day/Theme: 3-Feb-'06/lemongrass summer
Series: Alichino
Characters/Pairing: Ryoko x Myobi
Rating: PG
ash thoughts
K. Leigh Clapp
)()(
. . . . . Learn the thinness
of the window that is
between you and life, and how
the mind cuts itself as it goes through.
– R.S. Thomas, “The Calling”
)()(
He smelled in the dry, crackling air drought and the chance of wildfire, here at the long, slow end of summer. His eyes swept the broad field of lemongrass, an unhealthy golden from lack of water, then settled on her.
She stood ahead of him at the edge of the field, her body and face in profile. Balanced over one lace-encrusted shoulder was an incongruous parasol, and she held a hand out, palm up, as if gauging raindrops invisible to him. Her dress had wilted in the heat, but the skin of her hand was milk-and-lily white, moon-struck white.
“It would take only one ember,” she said, turning her head to look at him, blood-violet eyes huge and lambent. “One spark.”
The world yawned briefly and, feeling vertiginous, he beheld themselves standing here in this very same configuration in this very same field year after year, Matsurika always just beyond the horizon, always receding only to abruptly draw near and glance over her shoulder, sudden and malevolent, always waiting to accept his next sword-thrust with her ironic smile. He saw Myobi multiplying into an infinity of parasols and upraised hands, her eyes always full of that strange, dreadful love, eternally waiting for her own murder which would never come as long as they could not find a Kusabi.
“Ryoko.” The non-question brought him back to this present, this sour-sweet citric odor of lemongrass, and he nodded to her. He thought her eyes had changed somewhat, perhaps sensing both the impossible and the inevitable result of their contract.
“I’m coming.” He began striding toward her, the tall, parched stalks crunching under his heels.