Advent #9: Greening

[beckyh2112]

Title: Greening
Fandom: Original
Classification: Gen
Rating: PG

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Get up. Get up, get up, get up.

Rogelius lay on his back, panting to get his breath back after it had been knocked out of him. The sword sheathed across his back dug into his skin as he stared up at the canopy of leaves. The stems and leaves of the underbrush he'd landed on prickled through the thin cloth of his tunic and against his cheek. Sweat trickled through his hair. It was cooler in the shade of the woods than out in the fields, certainly, but it was high summer.

He listened to the faint buzz of insects in the distance, and the pool of silence around him.

"Get up," he whispered, hands clawing at the dirt. "Get up."

The elf in the tree just smiled down at him, far too sharp teeth snow-white against its green lips. Locks of hair as green as new shoots of wheat covered some of the elf's preternatural beauty.

It looked full-grown, and Rogelius was still just a squire. Experienced knights died on elf-hunts, and here he was, not even eighteen years old by the priest's reckoning, staring into the moon-eyes of an elf.

"Get up," he whispered again. "Please, get up."

The elf began to climb down the tree, moving like a spider over the bark, its too-reflective silver eyes locked on his. Everything outside of the elf's pale, pointed face seemed to fade, but he could still hear his gasps for air. Each came more quickly and shallowly than the last.

His hands clawed at the dirt and undergrowth as the elf seemed to become everything in the world.

Get up, get up, get up.

Something in him snapped, and for the rest of his life, he had no idea what it was. One moment there was only the elf, and the next, there was the rest of the world, and he remembered that he had a steel blade.

Rogelius pushed himself to his feet and drew his sword. "Stand and face me, silver-eyes, and I'll see silver laid over your eyes."

End

(Today's situation is brought to you by sapphirebreeze. To suggest tomorrow's flashfic, comment on this entry.)

Comments

[ravynfyre.livejournal.com]

OOOooo! The worm has turned, and he's packing an uzi. Err.. a sword.

Nice! I like.


I'm renewing my plea for evil, Corrupted Perceptor. (Yes, I know... Sideways didn't corrupt him... but I wand Chaos!Perce. :P )

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

It should be noted that both Rogelius and Ezekiel (the elf) survive this encounter. Years on, they might again, leading to the following lines:

R: "You tried to eat me when I was younger!"
E: "And you tried to skewer me when you were younger. I think we're even."
R: "... No, I don't think it works that way."

[ravynfyre.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Oh, want more of THAT then!

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

There will probably eventually be more of them. I've got another piece with Rogelius and Ezekiel later in their lives, when Rogelius is getting his daughters baptized, that I wrote before this. I've really enjoyed the characters and the world I'm building up around them.

[sapphirebreeze.livejournal.com]

Oh, ROCK! I like that a lot! Also, nice to see elves-as-bad-guys for once. :)

By the way, who's this "civilianloon" person? ;)

Prompt: "Knowledge is a feast for the mind. Savor every swallow."

(Source: The 7th Edition printing of Archivist (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=13157))

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Heh. I could babble about how, traditionally, elves are not nice, even when they're inclined to be friendly, but you've probably heard it before. Suffice it to say, my Jewish-named elves are also my kind of nasty, which just adds to the fun.

By the way, who's this "civilianloon" person?

I fixed it, I fixed it!

[sapphirebreeze.livejournal.com]

I could babble about how, traditionally, elves are not nice, even when they're inclined to be friendly, but you've probably heard it before.

Indeed I have. I've read Lords and Ladies! ;)

[lunatron.livejournal.com]

Yay, evil elves!

Suggestion: Oikodomopolis.

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

Lovely! So in that world of yours, Elves are vulnerable to cold iron (or steel, as the case may be)?

Suggestion: Decepticons and roses.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're vulnerable to iron and alloys with a fair amount of iron in them. This makes fighting humans so... interesting.

It doesn't really help that most elves in this world are leaning towards carnivorous.