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Drabble #206: Run
...we had a nice response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 205, with entries by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
apachefirecat and redwolf, and comments by apachefirecat and redwolf
For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:
Run
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 aroundjalenstrix'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.)
apachefirecat and redwolf, and comments by apachefirecat and redwolfFor this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:
Run
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.)
Growl
Sarah set her pen aside and shook the cramp from her hand. She’d finished the morning’s correspondence and needed a break before she had to deal with her slate of afternoon meetings.
While she’d dearly love to see if her latest projects were out of the kiln so she could start glazing them, she didn’t have time. With a sigh she contemplated the wisdom of tracking down Jareth as a distraction, but she knew well enough that he excelled in that capacity and it would be at the detriment of her schedule.
As a power nap was her only current option, Sarah stretched out on the lounge with an arm flung over her eyes and had just started to relax when a cacophony arose from the city below.
“What the hell?” Sarah sat up and glared at the open window, as Bishop let himself into her office.
“It appears to be a parade.”
“Why?” Sarah shook her head. The goblins had several officially recognised celebrations, but if someone had found a shiny rock that was particularly beautiful, there was an even chance of a fight breaking out over ownership or a party in celebration of its discovery. From the repurposed percussion she could hear, it was difficult to determine which side of the line this event fell.
Lifting up the basket he’d brought, Bishop suggested they find somewhere quieter for lunch. “How about the rose garden by the greenhouses?”
Jumping at the opportunity to be elsewhere, Sarah gratefully took Bishop’s arm. While she could transport herself, her magic could be unpredictable under stress and she still wasn’t comfortable transporting anyone other than herself.
They appeared in the garden and Sarah had just sunk into a chair woven of living vines, when the sounds of the goblin festivities reached them. “Seriously?”
“The pond by the stables?” Sarah nodded and once again took Bishop’s arm.
Bishop had just placed his basket down when the clamouring of revelry echoed across the pond.
“How are they this far out?” Bishop shrugged as Sarah considered her options. “Okay, that field of wildflowers between the lake and the woods is far enough from the city.” Bishop agreed and transported them once more.
Sarah stood in the field with her eyes closed. Just listening to the sounds of nature brought a smile to her face. Which lasted until the faint sounds of goblins arose again, causing her magic to spark down her arms in her frustration.
“I can make them go away, but you’ll need to hold onto me.”
Sarah wrapped her arms around Bishop and startled at the growl he made. It was so deep she was uncertain if she was hearing it or feeling it in her chest. If she wasn’t held tight, the warning growl of an apex predator would have caused her to flee the area along with the goblins and surrounding wildlife.
Sarah grinned at Bishop in delight at the silence. “If today’s meetings run overtime, feel free to do that again.”
At Last
She feels like she's been running this entire time, trying so hard through every avenue open to her and a plethora more which she has forced open over years of hard work and dedication to this very moment. She's breathing hard, entire body aching from her latest journey to the truth, when she first sees the owl. As she watches him transform, though, hardly daring to believe her eyes, the pain seems to seep away from her body, replaced instead by hope and excitement the likes of which she has not felt in decades.
All this time -- all this time, she has tried so hard, endured so much, yet the answer was so easy and plain once she learned it. There's never been anything she's wanted more than to be with him, ever since she first abandoned him when she was a kid. She'd not wanted even then, but she had seen no other way. Now she knows. Now she understands better than she ever did before.
He is as beautiful as ever when he appears before her in a swirl of magic, color, and sparkling lights. He's grinning, but she doesn't want to wipe away his cockiness this time. No, they've both endured she much, and she's grown steadily more in love with him as she's read of his journeys, his trials, his curse. He'd never wanted to take Toby, but she had asked him, just as his mother or sister or whoever had abandoned him when he'd been a baby and asked for him to be taken. Only unlike most of the other girls, she had instantly realized her mistake and fought and sacrificed everything, far more than she'd understood she was at the time, to bring him home.
And she had sacrificed everything again to get to this moment. It was so easy -- once she'd learned the truth -- to wish herself away to the Goblin Kingdom. After all, for her, it wasn't a fairytale place at all, but the only place she'd ever felt could truly be a home to her since she'd been a young child.
"Sarah -- "
His voice is as crooning and beautiful as ever. There's so much she wants to tell him, so much for which, she realizes, she wants to apologize. But instead, the words that escape her surprise even her. Her next words are not a command but a plea: "Hold me."
"With pleasure," he says, smiling, as he closes the distance between them. His strong arms embrace her; she feels both his power and his love instantly. Perhaps she's not meant to hear his next words as he murmurs them so softly, "As long as you don't abandon me again."
"Never," she whispers, pressing her face against his shoulder, her tears against his leather, "never again." It had all been so simple once she understood, but it's taken her years. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, she has fought her way back to him. She'll never leave again.
The End
Re: At Last
Re: At Last