15min fic #75
Oct. 4th, 2004 05:24 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
annarti.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
yrae
Title~ Bloody Crow
Author~ Annarti
Disclaimer~ All mine
Notes~ 15 minute fic, word 75. This is an idea I've had for a while, just been waiting for a good word to write it for X3
~ ~ ~
The crow had been in the courtyard all morning. Yamin had been awoken by the monotonous cawing more than an hour ago, and in that time she had piled both pillows over her ear and tied them securely to her head with her bed sheets. Ordinarily, she loved the rising crescendo of birdsong in the grey light before dawn, but this crow was just too much. She was glad for her inability to talk, or her voice would have joined the seven or eight others that had cursed the bird.
Finally, she gave up on sleep and untied the pillows from her head. With exaggerated fatigue, as though hoping the crow would notice and pity her, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands.
The crow fell silent.
Yamin froze momentarily. Took her hands from her eyes, as though sight would confirm what her tortured ears already told her.
“Caw, caw, caaaaaaw.”
She could almost hear the simultaneous groaning of every permanent resident in the palace as she flopped back on the bed, wishing there were some way her magic could silence the thing.
Eventually, she mustered the energy to push herself to her feet, then walked groggily to the window to glare at the crow. It sat in the middle of the courtyard, a small, black shadow in the grey dawn light, treating the wide, walled-in space as an amphitheatre. It strutted in a small circle, pecking at the red cobbles before cawing again, mournfully at the sky. How it could be so oblivious to the hatred directed at it from all corners of the palace, Yamin could never know.
Sighing heavily, she began dragging her healer’s dress on, adjusting it so her wing clasps were on the outside of the green robe. All the while she glared at the crow, hoping against hope that it could understand telepathy. It couldn’t.
She pulled a brush through her hair and yanked her door open, fully intent on shooing the bird away when she reached the bottom of her tower, when a barely-audible ‘fft’ sound reached her ears. More audible was the crow’s anguished squawk. Frowning, Yamin turned to the window again.
In the courtyard, the crow lay still, an arrow sticking like a red-feathered flag from its body.
In the tower opposite her, Nimay took up a slow applause.
“Welcome,” came the prince’s voice, tired and aggravated, from somewhere in the adjoining wing.
For all that her occupation entailed, Yamin couldn’t help but let a wry grin crawl over her lips.
Author~ Annarti
Disclaimer~ All mine
Notes~ 15 minute fic, word 75. This is an idea I've had for a while, just been waiting for a good word to write it for X3
The crow had been in the courtyard all morning. Yamin had been awoken by the monotonous cawing more than an hour ago, and in that time she had piled both pillows over her ear and tied them securely to her head with her bed sheets. Ordinarily, she loved the rising crescendo of birdsong in the grey light before dawn, but this crow was just too much. She was glad for her inability to talk, or her voice would have joined the seven or eight others that had cursed the bird.
Finally, she gave up on sleep and untied the pillows from her head. With exaggerated fatigue, as though hoping the crow would notice and pity her, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands.
The crow fell silent.
Yamin froze momentarily. Took her hands from her eyes, as though sight would confirm what her tortured ears already told her.
“Caw, caw, caaaaaaw.”
She could almost hear the simultaneous groaning of every permanent resident in the palace as she flopped back on the bed, wishing there were some way her magic could silence the thing.
Eventually, she mustered the energy to push herself to her feet, then walked groggily to the window to glare at the crow. It sat in the middle of the courtyard, a small, black shadow in the grey dawn light, treating the wide, walled-in space as an amphitheatre. It strutted in a small circle, pecking at the red cobbles before cawing again, mournfully at the sky. How it could be so oblivious to the hatred directed at it from all corners of the palace, Yamin could never know.
Sighing heavily, she began dragging her healer’s dress on, adjusting it so her wing clasps were on the outside of the green robe. All the while she glared at the crow, hoping against hope that it could understand telepathy. It couldn’t.
She pulled a brush through her hair and yanked her door open, fully intent on shooing the bird away when she reached the bottom of her tower, when a barely-audible ‘fft’ sound reached her ears. More audible was the crow’s anguished squawk. Frowning, Yamin turned to the window again.
In the courtyard, the crow lay still, an arrow sticking like a red-feathered flag from its body.
In the tower opposite her, Nimay took up a slow applause.
“Welcome,” came the prince’s voice, tired and aggravated, from somewhere in the adjoining wing.
For all that her occupation entailed, Yamin couldn’t help but let a wry grin crawl over her lips.