Growing Up
Jan. 27th, 2007 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
measured_wordsThe first of the meme stories. 100 words or more - I opted for 'or more'. This may or may not continue for other responses, we'll see! This one is for Julie - Kolya and Silas in ten years (so when Silas is ~16).
Growing Up
Kolya looked out into the shifting grey water of Cardigan Bay. There was a very definite chill in the air, and had been ever since the Queen arrived. Even still, he preferred Aberystwyth to the Cardiff court. He still felt as though he fit in better here, and that he was accepted as more than just some up-jumped Kinain or, worse, Diamond’s pet. It was easy to settle into old patterns here, shrug off courtly duties along with the robes, dig out a warm sweater and a walking stick and find himself while strolling through the sheep dotted hills.
Monster barked happily, drawing him out of his daydreams. The dog toddled down the path towards a new arrival, who crouched down to allow himself to be licked. Kolya grinned in spite of himself at the wilder Satyr’s youthful exuberance, already unloading treats for which Monster obligingly rolled over on his back to play ‘dead dog with a spastic wagging tail.’
“Silas!”
“I knew I’d find you out here.” He bounded over to give Kinain a quick hug, his unruly red hair blowing wild in the wind. “I see the beard is back.”
“Yeah, I know, I know – it makes me look old.” A few months had passed since he’d been out this way – apparently a very busy few months for his young friend.
“Well, you *are* old. A grumpy old man!”
“Grumpy?”
“You have that look – too long with the stiff shirts, and you forget how to have fun. I know just the people to take care of that, though.”
“What, more new friends?”
Silas shrugged, but avoided Kolya’s eyes. “Well, I haven’t been hanging out much at the castle anymore, so, yeah.”
“Oh?” He tried to keep his tone casual, curious to see if Silas would open up on his own. The last time he’d been here, the sixteen year old had been spending all his free time chasing after servant girls and making eyes at Count Gwydaine’s young Italian apprentice, Rafaella D’Agostino.
“Yeah… Uh. About that.” He crouched again to receive more of Monster’s unconditional love. “I, ah, kinda have this problem…”
Kolya sighed. “I know.”
“What! That’s not *fair*! We didn’t tell anyone.”
It wasn’t fair, really. Kolya had only limited control over his Second Sight. He could induce visions sometimes, but only rarely influence their content. They were most often linked to the fortunes of the Gwydaines, his patrons, or to others with whom he was close. Part of the price of his patronage, however, was that he was required to relate all he Saw to the queen or her chief advisor Windrider. “I’m sorry, Silas.”
“I bet you are.” He kicked a rock, watching it bounce down the face of the cliff and shatter on the stones of the beach below. “Bloody hell, now what?”
“Now… It’s political. Rafaella will be sent home. It’s early enough – I think they’ll try to pass it off as a Beltane child.”
“So… I’ll never see her again. For real.” Another stone went crashing to its doom.
“I don’t know.”
“And…. The baby?”
“She’ll be well taken care of. A princess…”
“It’s a girl?”
Kolya nodded, thinking of the laughing red-haired beauty he’d seen in his dream. She seemed to smile coyly at him from the mists of his memory.
“Raffa wanted it to be a girl… And then she said that I couldn’t come around anymore – that her father would kill me. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No,” Kolya agreed. Silas was a Satyr, and growing into a particularly handsome and charming one at that. The dreaming had fairly custom designed him to get involved with all the wrong women along the road of some grand adventure… “This will pass. You will always have a home here, but right now, it might be easier if you make yourself scarce for a bit. Maybe you and Lina could go off with Andrea for a while.”
“Yeah, that would be fun.” He stuck out his tongue. The otter Pooka was thirteen, on the cusp of becoming a wilder, and thought she knew what was best for everyone. “Maybe Andrea will throw Miss Bosssypants overboard.”
“Maybe.” Andrea was exceedingly patient, but even she had her limits.
“Anyway I don’t want to go away. I want to go with Raffa.”
Still smitten, then. Kolya knew too well how easy it was to fall under the spell of the enchanting but off-limits Sidhe. He tried a different track. “Maybe these new friends of yours have someplace fun you could go.”
“I dunno. Maybe. Hydd is from Bangor, and he is always talking about the parties they have there, and the music, and girls…“
“Sounds like a start – just to get your mind off things for a while.” And get away from the scene when D’Agostino came to collect his daughter.
Silas shrugged, and sat quietly for a minute. “Kolya… do you think maybe I could send Louie with Raffa? To look after the baby, I mean. If he’ll go.” Louie, a frog prince, had been Silas’s companion ever since they’d appeared together from the mysterious trod on Pen Dinas over ten years before. As Silas matured, however, he spent less and less time with the chimera, claiming that the frog was jealous now that Silas was the better looking of the pair.
The Seer smiled, a distant look in his cool blue eyes. “I think that will be just fine.”
Growing Up
Kolya looked out into the shifting grey water of Cardigan Bay. There was a very definite chill in the air, and had been ever since the Queen arrived. Even still, he preferred Aberystwyth to the Cardiff court. He still felt as though he fit in better here, and that he was accepted as more than just some up-jumped Kinain or, worse, Diamond’s pet. It was easy to settle into old patterns here, shrug off courtly duties along with the robes, dig out a warm sweater and a walking stick and find himself while strolling through the sheep dotted hills.
Monster barked happily, drawing him out of his daydreams. The dog toddled down the path towards a new arrival, who crouched down to allow himself to be licked. Kolya grinned in spite of himself at the wilder Satyr’s youthful exuberance, already unloading treats for which Monster obligingly rolled over on his back to play ‘dead dog with a spastic wagging tail.’
“Silas!”
“I knew I’d find you out here.” He bounded over to give Kinain a quick hug, his unruly red hair blowing wild in the wind. “I see the beard is back.”
“Yeah, I know, I know – it makes me look old.” A few months had passed since he’d been out this way – apparently a very busy few months for his young friend.
“Well, you *are* old. A grumpy old man!”
“Grumpy?”
“You have that look – too long with the stiff shirts, and you forget how to have fun. I know just the people to take care of that, though.”
“What, more new friends?”
Silas shrugged, but avoided Kolya’s eyes. “Well, I haven’t been hanging out much at the castle anymore, so, yeah.”
“Oh?” He tried to keep his tone casual, curious to see if Silas would open up on his own. The last time he’d been here, the sixteen year old had been spending all his free time chasing after servant girls and making eyes at Count Gwydaine’s young Italian apprentice, Rafaella D’Agostino.
“Yeah… Uh. About that.” He crouched again to receive more of Monster’s unconditional love. “I, ah, kinda have this problem…”
Kolya sighed. “I know.”
“What! That’s not *fair*! We didn’t tell anyone.”
It wasn’t fair, really. Kolya had only limited control over his Second Sight. He could induce visions sometimes, but only rarely influence their content. They were most often linked to the fortunes of the Gwydaines, his patrons, or to others with whom he was close. Part of the price of his patronage, however, was that he was required to relate all he Saw to the queen or her chief advisor Windrider. “I’m sorry, Silas.”
“I bet you are.” He kicked a rock, watching it bounce down the face of the cliff and shatter on the stones of the beach below. “Bloody hell, now what?”
“Now… It’s political. Rafaella will be sent home. It’s early enough – I think they’ll try to pass it off as a Beltane child.”
“So… I’ll never see her again. For real.” Another stone went crashing to its doom.
“I don’t know.”
“And…. The baby?”
“She’ll be well taken care of. A princess…”
“It’s a girl?”
Kolya nodded, thinking of the laughing red-haired beauty he’d seen in his dream. She seemed to smile coyly at him from the mists of his memory.
“Raffa wanted it to be a girl… And then she said that I couldn’t come around anymore – that her father would kill me. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No,” Kolya agreed. Silas was a Satyr, and growing into a particularly handsome and charming one at that. The dreaming had fairly custom designed him to get involved with all the wrong women along the road of some grand adventure… “This will pass. You will always have a home here, but right now, it might be easier if you make yourself scarce for a bit. Maybe you and Lina could go off with Andrea for a while.”
“Yeah, that would be fun.” He stuck out his tongue. The otter Pooka was thirteen, on the cusp of becoming a wilder, and thought she knew what was best for everyone. “Maybe Andrea will throw Miss Bosssypants overboard.”
“Maybe.” Andrea was exceedingly patient, but even she had her limits.
“Anyway I don’t want to go away. I want to go with Raffa.”
Still smitten, then. Kolya knew too well how easy it was to fall under the spell of the enchanting but off-limits Sidhe. He tried a different track. “Maybe these new friends of yours have someplace fun you could go.”
“I dunno. Maybe. Hydd is from Bangor, and he is always talking about the parties they have there, and the music, and girls…“
“Sounds like a start – just to get your mind off things for a while.” And get away from the scene when D’Agostino came to collect his daughter.
Silas shrugged, and sat quietly for a minute. “Kolya… do you think maybe I could send Louie with Raffa? To look after the baby, I mean. If he’ll go.” Louie, a frog prince, had been Silas’s companion ever since they’d appeared together from the mysterious trod on Pen Dinas over ten years before. As Silas matured, however, he spent less and less time with the chimera, claiming that the frog was jealous now that Silas was the better looking of the pair.
The Seer smiled, a distant look in his cool blue eyes. “I think that will be just fine.”
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-27 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-27 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-27 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-27 11:56 pm (UTC)I'll fix the spelling of her name, though. I misremembered -_-
no subject
Date: 2007-01-28 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-28 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-28 04:48 am (UTC)Besides, she only kissed him once that I know of, and it might have been a huge surprise and perhaps even unwanted. Drabbles don't allow you to go into that much detail. ;)