Drabble #82: Hurricane
Friday, 5 July 2019 11:58![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jalenstrix in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
labyfic...we had a quieter response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 81, with an entry by me (your intrepid drabble proposer
jalenstrix).For this prompt, we continue with our one-word drabble roots, relying on a word with so many possibilities:
Hurricane
Is this literal or metaphorical (or maybe a bit of both)? What's causing it? Who's caught in it? Tell us all about it labyfic-style.
Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the 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
Drabble: $your_beautiful_drabble
I'll aim to get the next drabble challenge out on the first Friday of next month (August 2).
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.)
Drabble 82
2019-07-18 02:04 (UTC)Words: 563
A/N: I have been AWOL. Forgive me please! Here’s a somewhat hasty and possibly horrible token!
Sarah felt as if she’d ran to the edges of the world.
The wind tore at her hair, teasing tears from eyes that—even in the near dark—burned a brilliant shade of green. Her heart pounded in her chest, as loud as the surge of the sea, as the thunder overhead.
It was getting harder to breathe.
Her heart was a cracking, shattering, thing buried beneath her ribs, hiding from the truth as she fell to her knees in the sand. Beyond the point of thinking or wishing or waiting.
She was so full of wanting.
A hurricane was building beneath her skin, breaking her down, little by little as the sun sank into the western sky.
He hadn’t loved her.
They never did. That wasn’t the point. It was that, over and over again, she didn’t love them either. Her heart poisoned anything that tried to take root or grow. It was filled with thorns and dreams of kohl rimmed eyes.
She was a disaster.
As if Sarah had gone deaf, the world quieted and all she could hear was her own struggle to draw air into her panicked lungs. The sand beneath her fingertips blackened.
Snapping her head up, Sarah sucked in a deep breath, her lungs joyfully received it.
The black sands stretched out endlessly on either side of her as fog clung to the edges of the placid water. It was hard to distinguish where the sand met the dark waves.
Sarah stood, taking in the black dress she’d worn to dinner. It was the same and different. Now there was something about it, an illusion of feathers.
“Will you ever stop fighting me?”
Sarah’s head whipped around and her eyes locked with the Goblin King’s. He too was dressed in black, his discordant gaze taking her measure, as his head canted to the right.
“It always come back to you doesn't it?” Sarah felt the storm raging within her find its center. Everything was silenced as her focus narrowed on the man before her.
“Did you think it’d be so easy to turn my head and then slip away?” Jareth smiled.
“You didn’t love me. You don’t. You can’t!” Sarah rushed toward him her hands clutched in the dress and it’s impossible feathers. “Let me go.”
“I’m not holding you,” Jareth said, whisper soft although his voice lost none of its steel.
The air charged around them. Sarah felt the hurricane in her heart break loose once more, gathering strength, threatening to rend them both in two.
“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl and what no one knew was that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and he had given her certain powers…” Jareth breathed the words between them.
“Love is a dangerous game Sarah and you made the first move. How I could do anything but what you asked of me? How could I not love you?”
Sarah let go of the dress, taking a tentative step forward, she let her fingers find the cool fabric of Jareth’s shirt, she could feel the beating of his heart. “How could I not love you?” She asked in return.
Jareth grinned, taking her chin in his hand.
Sarah felt the storm begin anew as his lips found hers, once more, she couldn’t quite breath.
Re: Drabble 82
2019-07-21 04:49 (UTC)Re: Drabble 82
2019-08-13 22:37 (UTC)Re: Drabble 82
2023-03-07 10:17 (UTC)no subject
2019-07-26 15:20 (UTC)Drabble:
We stared at each other, fingers still entwined tightly together to provide a touchstone during the fury that had just engulfed us.
Jareth blinked slowly at me, his thumb beginning to trace a gentle pattern pattern over my skin. “I believe it’s quiet now.”
I finally remembered to start breathing. “For now. It’s not clear when she’ll be back.”
“We must take the time we have.”
“Damn right.” I shook my head. “Your mother—“
“I know.”
“I mean, I thought Karen was...I thought she had opinions. But your mother—”
“I know, Sarah love.”
We both sighed in unison.
I shook my head slowly. “I mean, it’s my parents’ first grandchild, too.”
His lips twitched up. “But your family likely has children more frequently than ours does.”
“True. When was the last time for your family?”
“Oh...at least five centuries, I would think.”
I blinked. “Right. Immortal Fae with low birth rates. I keep forgetting.”
“Fear not. My mother will doubtless remind you in the coming months.”
“And heaven help us when the child actually arrives.” I smiled ruefully. “At least she seems to have finally gotten over her issues with me not being Fae. I didn’t get called ‘filthy human harlot’ once this visit.”
His smile flashed like lightning. “Well, in all fairness to her, you did seduce me.”
“Ha! Is that what you call it?”
“How could I resist your adamant claims that I was completely insufferable?”
“Which you are, of course. And your mother seems to overlook the fact that I spurned your advances for fifteen years.”
“A mere eyeblink to a Fae.”
I snorted. “Right. Parents.”
“Speaking of, I think we might need to take advantage of our current reprieve.” His fingers drifted softly up my forearm, gently scraping the skin with his nails.
My entire body zinged right to attention. “Mmm. And I’m assuming you have particular ideas?”
“I just might.”
“Do tell.”
“I’d much rather show.”
“And that’s why I married you.”
“Not the only reason, I hope.”
“I’ll let you know after the showing.”
His laughter rolled across me like thunder and there were no more words for quite some time.
no subject
2019-08-13 22:37 (UTC)no subject
2019-08-24 01:52 (UTC)no subject
2023-03-07 10:19 (UTC)Crush
2023-03-07 10:20 (UTC)Drabble:
Sarah looked around the surprisingly sparse training room. It was decidedly odd to see it without all equipment, seating and weapons that had been stored away earlier.
She stood by the door, Bishop at her side and frowned in concern at Jareth. He stood in the centre of the room, with his eyes closed and his arms tightly wrapped about himself.
Jareth had explained that he would be conducting a test of the guardian's enhanced senses. While it was something that happened fairly regularly at the Labyrinth’s insistence, from his terse explanation and his current behaviour, Sarah did not think he was pleased about the edict.
It seemed that the other specialist sensory enhancements that Sarah had categorised as first aid and trauma, did not rate a test as their use was triggered fairly regularly during sparring and weapons training. Considering that all of the guardians had the ability to heal others and there were always several members of the home team around the castle at any point in time, she suspected the ability was a safety hold over that existed before Jareth’s reign and the closer relationship he shared with the guardians negated it being essential.
As Jareth had explained earlier, he would trigger the call and he needed Sarah to witness it so she would know what to expect once the Labyrinth had selected her own personal safety team, but he had brought Bishop in to ensure that Sarah’s magic didn’t react.
Sarah’s mouth opened in shock when she heard Jareth call for help. His voice was quiet, but pitched higher than she’d ever heard it and his cry of anguish ripped her heart in two. Before she could ask anything of Bishop, she felt a fear grip her that slowly increased to the point of immobility and then Rook appeared in the room.
When Sarah looked at Rook her brain was telling her two different stories. One was that she was seeing a woman in black armed with a sword and large knife, the other was that she was looking at a void that sucked in all surrounding light. Rook scanned the room for threats and Sarah stumbled back under the weight of a dark and terrible gaze as she was assessed and dismissed as a threat. She had enough time to gasp in relief before the sensation of oppression doubled and drove her to her knees.
“Breathe,” Bishop husked in her ear.
Sarah sucked in air and saw a second figure had appeared in the room. She ground her teeth as the newcomer subjected her to the same examination and then light returned to her world.
Bishop helped her to her feet and she saw that Rook and a man with dark hair and a beard were wrapped around Jareth, their faces buried in his neck. Jareth, for his part, held them in a death grip. Sarah could see the marks around his eyes were pale with distress, but before she could say anything, they’d vanished.