Drabble #154: Tired

[redwolf]

...we had a nice response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 153, with entries by redwolf.

For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:

Tired

Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.

Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:

Word count: # of words
$your_beautiful_drabble

I'll be running weekly challenges in the space around jalenstrix's monthly challenges.

You can see our current collected suggestions here.

Remember: Feedback is LOVE. So do reply to your fellow labyficcers' drabbles if so inclined. (Though be careful of concrit unless specifically okayed by the author beforehand. Authors generally write for love.)

Comments

Tired

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

Sarah stretched her arms over her head until she heard a satisfying pop from her lower back. Bishop snorted in amusement as he poured her a glass of wine. “It has been a long day, my dear.”

Humming in agreement as she sipped her wine, Sarah rested her forearms on the balustrade and looked out over the Labyrinth as the late afternoon light played across its vast expanse.

She’d spent the day sorting out an infrastructure issue with a group representing several small communities from the outskirts of the Goblin Kingdom. As much as she wished Jareth had been at her side, his absence likely shortened the length of discussions considerably. The spokesman of the group turned into a stammering wreck in his presence, while Jareth swore he’d done nothing to cause such distress.

Privately, Sarah suspected that the last time Jareth had dealt with the man he’d been bored to tears with the proceedings and his thoughts were instead on some thorny metallurgical problem and his contemplation had allowed his resting bitch face of indifference to drift into fierce belligerence. While Sarah may have found this adorable, she did have to concede that mistakenly believing yourself to be the subject of such a look from your monarch was possibly a tad disconcerting.

She shook herself from her thoughts as a howl sounded from the Labyrinth that echoed eerily up the castle walls. A smile graced her lips as she noted Bishop angling his head to triangulate its origin. She startled as he threw back his head and howled a response that should not have been possible from a human throat. A second howl sounded from closer to the castle.

“Erich, then Rook.” Bishop set his glass aside and curled his fingers over the stone of the balustrade. He frowned at a third howl coming from a different area and looked over at Sarah. “I’m not familiar with that one, George maybe. It sounds adolescent.”

Sarah grinned in delight as she recognised a screech. “There’s Jareth.” A higher pitched, very human attempt at a howl followed. “And I would guess that’s Ada. What are they doing?”

“Right now, they’re probably heading home, but I believe they’ve spent the day hunting goldfish.”

“I’m sorry.” Sarah coughed as she accidentally inhaled wine. “Did you say goldfish?” She had difficulty picturing something so dependent on human care being anything other than a snack to most of the creatures within the Labyrinth.

Holding his hands apart to illustrate a sizable fish, Bishop tilted his head in thought. “The big, Japanese ones.”

“Koi?” Bishop nodded. “That makes more sense, aside from why they’re being hunted.”

“Ada and George have a project that requires koi. They’ve been wished away in the past and the Labyrinth moves their pond around.”

“So they’re hunting goldfish, I see,” Sarah smiled as another cascading call and response chorus of howls sounded. “I’d love to know how three wolves, a small girl and an owl plan to wrangle large ornamental fish.”