jalenstrix (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jalenstrix) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
labyfic2024-10-01 11:47 am
jalenstrix) wrote in labyfic2024-10-01 11:47 am
Entry tags:
Drabble #178: Tides
...we had a nice response to my last posted drabble prompt of Drabble 174, with entries by
redwolf, apachefirecat, 3iggy (welcome back!!), and me (one of your intrepid drabble proposers, jalenstrix), and commenting by all four of us. Huzzah!As always, special labyfic love to
redwolf for adding entries and comments for several previous drabble prompts. You continue to be the best!For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:
Tides
Tides of what? For who? Are they shifting and changing? Or being held up? How? Why? Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.
Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit for this month 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 aim to get my next drabble challenge out on the first Tuesday of next month (Nov 5).
I'm also very happy to take suggestions if something in particular strikes your fancy -- comment on this post or PM me with your suggestions. 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.)
Tidelines
The call had woken Sarah from a dead sleep. As she struggled to extricate herself from the bedding, her bleary eyes finally focused on the imposing figure of a fully armour clad Goblin King standing beside the bed.
“I’ll take this one, love.” Jareth gently laid her back in bed and kissed her softly, before he faded out with dramatic flair.
When Sarah later woke at a more reasonable hour, she just assumed that Jareth was still tied up with the run, but a query of the Labyrinth placed him in the metal workshop. She summoned a scrying crystal which showed him seated in an outside yard, shirtless and dripping with sweat, as he sharpened a knife. There were enough finished blades beside him to indicate that he’d been working for quite some time.
If the run was over and Jareth was working with weapons, Sarah took it as a fair indicator that he’d had a rough night. A query to one of the castle goblins informed her that the wished aways were still in the infirmary.
When she consulted the medical staff, she soon understood why Jareth was distracting himself with pointy objects. The brothers were young, but were emaciated enough that their ages were difficult to determine. According to the staff, aside from malnutrition, there was evidence of recent bruising and healed fractures in both boys, but they were more concerned with psychological damage suffered by the older child.
It seemed that they’d been wished away by a guardian, in this case their mother’s boyfriend. Sarah wasn’t certain if he believed his wish or if the Labyrinth made an executive decison to protect the children. What did surprise her was that he’d opted to run rather than taking his dreams, but when she learned that his motivation wasn’t the welfare of the boys, but the return of what he regarded as his property, she started to get a burning urge to reverse time and curtail his run.
She had to force herself to keep a calm facade, so as not to scare the children, when the worst of her fears about their erstwhile father figure were confirmed.
As Jareth was sharpening blades rather than carving the runner into small pieces, and the Labyrinth was in its default mode, Sarah was left to wonder if the runner lost more than the children.
The goblins weren’t much help in providing details. All she’d managed to get out of them was that the shouty man had headed for the forest before they descended into wild cackling.
Sarah had to wait until Jareth tired himself out and returned for the day before she learned that while the runner had managed to miss the firies, he had run afoul of the cassowary and left a tideline of arterial spray in a clearing before being quickly reduced to enough components parts to keep the firies amused for days. She suspected that there would eventually be a very happy rose bush growing on the spot.
Re: Tidelines
Re: Tidelines
Re: Tidelines
And I definitely agree that the siblings wishing away their own baby brothers would be an anomaly. There really are FAR too many parents who abuse the tender lives with which they've been blessed!
Contented Queen
When she was a girl, the ocean had made her feel small. No matter how great her troubles, standing beside the water's edge had made anything seem both possible and ultimately insignificant. But today, as a grown and happily married woman, standing on the shore with her husband's arms wrapped lovingly around her, watching the tide roll in together, it is the perfect culmination to a perfect day.
It also marks the first time Sarah can honestly say she has no remorse in leaving this world again. "Sarah, my Sarah," Jareth croons softly against her ear, kissing her raven hair, "what would you have us do now?" He expects, fully, to stay for a while yet, for her to request to peek back in on her brother if not her father as well. He is not prepared for the answer he does receive.
Her fingers wrapped around his forearm, Sarah answers, "Let's go home." She leans back into his embrace, her head pressing against his chest.
"Home?" he asks, and her smile grows at his quizzical tone. Although she cannot see his face, she easily pictures the questioning arch of his elegant brow.
"Yes," she repeats, firmly but gently. She knows why he is so surprised and turns in his arms to face him. "Let's go home," she repeats again, cupping his handsome face in her loving hands. "Home to our castle. Home to our bed. Home to our people."
This world has nothing left for her, she realizes, although she will always love her brother and father. Her blood family has moved on without her, as well they should, but they have a family who needs them, a family they share. She wonders what kind of mischief the Goblins have gotten into in their absence. They are not unlike children in their own ways, and even Sir Didymus and Hoggle working together can oft do little to contain their curiosity.
"As you wish, my Queen." He takes her lips with his. Sarah feels his magic pour from him, wrapping around them both, but is content to stay in his arms, kissing him lovingly and deeply, as they move through time and the cosmos, through spaces that are both there and not, until the scene shifts around them. She can no longer smell salt on the air, and she knows they are home, home at last. She sighs, completely contented.
The End
Re: Contented Queen
Re: Contented Queen