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31_days2006-11-30 04:27 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2006-11-30 04:27 pm
[Nov. 30, 2006][Suikoden] Parched Earth
Title: Parched Earth
Day/Theme: Nov. 30, 2006 and the little ones chewed on the bones
Series: Suikoden
Character/Pairing: Kayfalei and others
Rating: PG-13
Yay! I have finished the whole month! (Now if only I could finish my paper...)
All that remained of Kayfalei's associates were some scraps of ripped clothing and water damaged books mixed with bones. Leaning over the ledge to gaze down into the pits where the remains lay she frowned, then shivered. What an inauspicious way to begin her ministry. Wildcats prowled the caves and tunnels connecting the battered catacombs and they had licked the bones clean in just a few weeks. Those who had given her authority to spread the sacred words had long since passed to the other side.
"What are you staring at?" scowled a Harmonian soldier acting as a guard. He narrowed his sea blue eyes at her and spat on the dusty ground.
Kayfalei ignored his attitude and moved on silently. She could not risk doing anything reckless that would lead her to the same fate as her late comrades. They were counting on her to keep the words alive in the people. Working secretly around the Harmonian menace would be quite a task, but it was one she was ready to tackle. She moved slowly across the wooden bridge stretching over the pits to the fields where the people did their work. She fell into line and was handed a hoe to use for the day by the overseer, a portly man with a thick, blond beard.
"Kay, don ger yerself inta troubles," a gray-haired, stooped woman cautioned her softly as they strained to stir the hard, dry earth.
Kayfalei smashed a dirt clod with her tool and resumed the general scratching and scraping at the soil that group of Third Class Citizens was involved in today. Some of this land was just never going to be good enough to farm on. Didn't the Harmonians understand that? What was their insistence that every last field be overturned? ...Perhaps it was just punishment. She would not venture to ask the reason. It would only led to some kind of cut in rations or other retribution.
"Bah, if I'da headed on ta Murna-town afore the 'ttacks," the old woman muttered, "If only I'da headed ta Murna-town, I coulda bin wit my son. Them folks in Murna-town are all second class jus' by a little turn a fate. Differnt ways up nor' a ways. The Quolac too."
The overseer's local assistant, a dark-skinned man with thin, sneering lips, shot them a piercing glare, "Enough with your yap, old woman! Save your energy for work!"
The woman hung her head and fell silent, focusing on the tedious task. Kayfalei gripped the wooden pole of the hoe tightly, feeling the rough wood dig into her palms. The assistant overseer was a traitor. He had sold them all out. ...She understood why- it was to protect his family. While he worked for the Harmonian overlords, Ropar's wife and children lived in a real house, not a leaky hut, and were spared from tending the fields. His children went to a Harmonian school and learned how to be proper citizens of the Holy Kingdom. Perhaps in Ropar's lifetime they would be granted Second Class Citizenship. They were good students and quite obedient. It seemed likely. Of course, none of Ropar's reasoning stopped his former neighbors from hating him. But he was surviving in the way he thought best. Kayfalei shook her head. What a situation this was to put Ropar the cooper in a position to make that choice.
The sun beat down on their thinly protected backs and sweat dripped from their reddened faces to the parched earth below their feet. Had anything ever grown here aside from tumbleweeds and briars, Kayfalei wondered. It seemed impossible. And these efforts were not going to change that.
Day/Theme: Nov. 30, 2006 and the little ones chewed on the bones
Series: Suikoden
Character/Pairing: Kayfalei and others
Rating: PG-13
Yay! I have finished the whole month! (Now if only I could finish my paper...)
All that remained of Kayfalei's associates were some scraps of ripped clothing and water damaged books mixed with bones. Leaning over the ledge to gaze down into the pits where the remains lay she frowned, then shivered. What an inauspicious way to begin her ministry. Wildcats prowled the caves and tunnels connecting the battered catacombs and they had licked the bones clean in just a few weeks. Those who had given her authority to spread the sacred words had long since passed to the other side.
"What are you staring at?" scowled a Harmonian soldier acting as a guard. He narrowed his sea blue eyes at her and spat on the dusty ground.
Kayfalei ignored his attitude and moved on silently. She could not risk doing anything reckless that would lead her to the same fate as her late comrades. They were counting on her to keep the words alive in the people. Working secretly around the Harmonian menace would be quite a task, but it was one she was ready to tackle. She moved slowly across the wooden bridge stretching over the pits to the fields where the people did their work. She fell into line and was handed a hoe to use for the day by the overseer, a portly man with a thick, blond beard.
"Kay, don ger yerself inta troubles," a gray-haired, stooped woman cautioned her softly as they strained to stir the hard, dry earth.
Kayfalei smashed a dirt clod with her tool and resumed the general scratching and scraping at the soil that group of Third Class Citizens was involved in today. Some of this land was just never going to be good enough to farm on. Didn't the Harmonians understand that? What was their insistence that every last field be overturned? ...Perhaps it was just punishment. She would not venture to ask the reason. It would only led to some kind of cut in rations or other retribution.
"Bah, if I'da headed on ta Murna-town afore the 'ttacks," the old woman muttered, "If only I'da headed ta Murna-town, I coulda bin wit my son. Them folks in Murna-town are all second class jus' by a little turn a fate. Differnt ways up nor' a ways. The Quolac too."
The overseer's local assistant, a dark-skinned man with thin, sneering lips, shot them a piercing glare, "Enough with your yap, old woman! Save your energy for work!"
The woman hung her head and fell silent, focusing on the tedious task. Kayfalei gripped the wooden pole of the hoe tightly, feeling the rough wood dig into her palms. The assistant overseer was a traitor. He had sold them all out. ...She understood why- it was to protect his family. While he worked for the Harmonian overlords, Ropar's wife and children lived in a real house, not a leaky hut, and were spared from tending the fields. His children went to a Harmonian school and learned how to be proper citizens of the Holy Kingdom. Perhaps in Ropar's lifetime they would be granted Second Class Citizenship. They were good students and quite obedient. It seemed likely. Of course, none of Ropar's reasoning stopped his former neighbors from hating him. But he was surviving in the way he thought best. Kayfalei shook her head. What a situation this was to put Ropar the cooper in a position to make that choice.
The sun beat down on their thinly protected backs and sweat dripped from their reddened faces to the parched earth below their feet. Had anything ever grown here aside from tumbleweeds and briars, Kayfalei wondered. It seemed impossible. And these efforts were not going to change that.