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cygna_himeStill nowhere close to wordcount...Gah! Help meeee!
Not quite 2000 words. Pooh.
* * *
It was a bare five minutes later when Nen Sol entered the house. The building looked no different, for its inhabitants had not been gone for long enough to produce the chilling quiet of Sei Fan’s home, yet something in the quiet that greeted him made Nen Sol uneasy.
“Rel! he called. “Rel, are you still asleep?” Only silence answered him from the newly abandoned house, not even the muffled grumbling of someone awakened against their will gave him the response he sought. “Sel? Beloved darling, are you here?” Frightened despite his casual appearance, Nen Sol searched through the house for any sign of them, but he found no one and nothing to tell him where his friends had gone.
“Where are you?” he asked the empty house. “Were you right, and did someone take you away?” He thought for a moment. “No. Definitely not. The sea has yet to dry up, luckily for those of us who are quite fond of it, and the last time I checked the stars were still there. So you are, as always perfectly fine. Not exactly considerate, but fine. Wonderful. The last thing I need is having to run around the world getting you out of trouble. Do you have the slightest idea how bad immortal peril is for my complexion? Don’t answer that.” Nen Sol talked as he always did, as if Lin Sel and Lin Rel were in front of him rather than vanished he knew not where.
“Still, it was horribly cruel of you to run away and leave me like this. I think a fitting punishment would be…leaving you completely alone to get yourselves out of whatever trouble you’ve gotten yourselves into. But that wouldn’t be very nice, now would it? No, no it would not,” he answered himself. “Therefore, since I am a nice person—I can hear you laughing from here, Sel dearest—I will not leave you to your fate, but rather do my best to hasten your explosions by terminal annoyance. Aren’t I a wonderful person? Don’t answer that either.
“Now, if I were a Lin Rel, where would I go to hide myself and my sister? Hmmm…”
“Sol!” His musings and monologue interrupted by a familiar voice from behind him, Nen Sol turned around and groaned.
“Yes, Son. That is, in fact, my name. It will in all likelihood continue to be so for quite some time. Was there a point you wished to make?”
His sister, her grey hair all but concealing her face, ignored his attempt at humor, and glared at him from the doorway. “What are you doing here, stalking Sel again? Really, it’s not as funny as you think it is. What if she thinks you mean it?”
Nen Sol laughed. “Sel isn’t a complete idiot, sister dear. She knows a, and I quote, ‘smarmy, annoying little jerk who can’t be serious about anything,’ when she sees one. You two should spend more time together; I’m sure you’d get along famously.” He pretended to write in a diary. “ ‘Day one: Discussed how stupid my brother is. Day two: Contemplated how irresponsible my brother is. Day three: Agreed that my brother has a terrible sense of humor. Day four: I think I’m in love!’”
“Not funny, Sol. Besides, how would you feel if someone never stopped teasing you?”
“The same way I do now, Son. I never stop teasing myself, after all.”
“You—“ Nen Son rolled her eyes. “I give up. Mother wants to see us.”
“Really?” Nen Sol looked up, interested. “What about?”
“She didn’t say. I think she’s worried about something.”
“Unlike you; you’re perenially worried about everything.”
“Look, are you coming or not?”
“Of course I’m coming. Shall we, sister mine?” With a last scrutinizing glance around the house, Nen Sol left with his sister, and the home under the sea settled once more into peaceful silence.
* * *
“Lei!” Fei Mei greeted her twin cheerily. “How was it? Did you find anything?”
Fei Lei tried to compose herself enough to sound natural even to the person who knew her best. “No, nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good. Mother’s house scares me. There could have been anything creeping around inside!”
“Yes. Listen, Mei, I think you were right. This whole thing is…creepy. A sight too creepy for my liking. We should leave well enough alone.”
“Lei?” Fei Mei seemed worried. “Are you all right?”
“Of course I am,” she replied as steadily as she could. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know, silly; that’s why I’m asking you! So, are you?”
“Yes, I am perfectly fine, Mei. I’m just a little tired, I suppose. Building the night yesterday was tiring.”
“Oh, that’s all right then!” Fei Mei pulled her sister over to a chair. “Just sit down, and I’ll make you something nice.”
“Mei…you have many skills, dear, but cooking, I am sorry to say, is not among them.”
“I’ll get it right this time!”
Fei Lei’s anxiety was insufficient to prevent her from getting between Fei Mei and the kitchen as quickly as possible. “No. No, no, no. Not under any circumstances will I put out another fire. Besides,” her face darkened, “fire isn’t exactly safe.” She brightened up as much as she could. “I’m not hungry, Mei, just tired, and I expect that you are as well. We might as well go to bed, get some rest while we have a chance.”
“While we have a chance?” Fei Mei looked at her quizzically.
She forced a smile. “Well, you never know what might happen tomorrow, do you?”
“I guess not.” Yawning, Fei Mei meandered in the general direction of her bedroom. “Good…morning, Lei!”
“Good morning to you too, Mei.” Fei Lei stayed in the room for a few minutes after her twin had departed, staring into the distance and trying to calm her still-twitching nerves.
“I wish it was,” she whispered, “oh, how I wish it was.”
* * *
Mai Nal watched her younger children sniping at each other, and laughed melodiously. “Have the two of you agreed to argue about everything, or is it merely coincidence? Do calm yourselves down.”
Nen Sol smiled sunnily at her. “But of course, Mother. You wanted to talk to us about something?”
“Did I? Oh, that’s right. I’m worried about you, with all the odd things that have been happening lately. You’ve both been concerned about it, I know, but it’s really not our business, is it?”
“Mother?” Nen Sol blinked at her. “How is it not our business?”
“Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with you, does it?”
“Not directly, no, but it has a lot to do with Rel and Sel!” he said hotly. “Don’t they matter at all?”
“Yes, I suppose,” Mai Nal replied, “but they aren’t my children, so I don’t really see it that way. Can’t you at least try to think of yourself first?”
“Why should I? They’re my friends!”
“I think Mother is quite right,” said Nen Son primly. “You need to be able to take responsibility for your own life before you interfere in other people’s.”
Nen Sol turned on her, furious. “Then why aren’t you doing something? You’re the one who’s all about responsibility.”
“I happen to agree with Mother; this isn’t our business, and we should keep ourselves to ourselves.”
A high wind began whipping through the trees as Nen Sol’s hold on his temper grew weaker and weaker. “They are my business! Why can’t you understand? I would rather bother about them than about you, you stupid silly girl who worries about everything and tries to change nothing!”
“What did you say?!” Storm clouds rumbled through the sky overhead, and Nen Sol’s hair started whipping about her against the wind.
“You heard me!”
The impending fight was broken up by a blur of gold and white that cannoned into Nen Sol. “Sol!” He, or she, or possibly it shrieked. “Help me!”
The wind died down abruptly. “Mei?”
The Bai Dan girl nodded and looked up at her half-brother, eyes wet with tears. It would have been quite an attractive expression, if Nen Sol had been in the mood to notice.
“What’s the matter? Are you all right?”
“Y-yes,” she q uavered, “only…I’m worried about Lei. She’s acting so strange!”
“I’ll tell you what,” said Nen Sol, gently detaching her from his arm, “let’s go somewhere else, away from certain people,” his eyes flashed angrily over her head at his mother and sister, “who would rather not hear about it, all right?”
“All right,” Fei Mei said. She let him lead her out from under the eves of the forest, into a high meadow.
“Now, tell me what’s the matter with your sister,” he said, strangely tender.
Fei Mei sniffed. “She’s acting so…strange. She went to look in Mother’s house for some clue about what happened to her, and when she came back she was all different! She said it was too creepy, and we should stop thinking about it. It’s not like her, Sol! She’s acting frightened, and it scares me!”
Nen Sol tried to calm her down, since it looked as though she was about to burst into tears again. “There, now, it’s fine. Are you sure you’re not just overreacting? People can act different at different times. Just look at Son—around everyone else, she’s the sweetest girl in the world, or so I hear, but as soon as I appear, she becomes the most critical being in the world.”
“No, it’s not like that,” said Fei Mei. “She’s not acting different to me, just like she’s terrified of something. She was acting strange, and she locked my door after I went to bed—I had to climb out the window!”
“You’re right, that is odd for Lei. Did she say anything about why she was acting so strangely?”
“Not really. She just said she was tired, but,” Fei Mei looked speculative, an odd expression on her childish face, “I was going to cook—“
“That would have made me frightened, all right, if I were she.”
She hit him lightly on the arm. “I’m not that bad! Anyway, she always lets me at least try, but this time she insisted that I not. She said something about fire being dangerous. Does that help?”
“I’m not—“ Nen Sol saw the eager expression on Fei Mei’s face, like that of a dog who has brought a bone and does not know if it will be welcome, and reconsidered his words. “Yes, Mei, it helps a lot. Listen; I’m sure your sister just wants to take care of you, so why don’t you go home for now and let her? Just stay near her as much as you can, and if she says anything else that you think is important, tell me, or Rel if you can find him. Can you do that?”
“Sure!” Her natural cheerfulness restored, Fei Mei hugged her half-brother impulsively and skipped off through the meadow toward her home. She waved back at him. “I’ll see you soon!”
“I hope not,” Nen Sol said to himself. “I really hope not. Why is it that being nice to someone for once always ends up with them happy and me worried?”
As he flew himself away to Lin Rel’s home for another look, a pattern of light detached itself from a convenient rock where it had been standing, and resolved itself into the form of a Bai Dan. It glared malevolently after Fei Mei.
“So you’re not as silly as you look, Silver Child?” said Mar Tir. “Tell anyone you want. It doesn’t matter. I will bring you all down if I have to. But especially you.”
Working working working...
Not quite 2000 words. Pooh.
* * *
It was a bare five minutes later when Nen Sol entered the house. The building looked no different, for its inhabitants had not been gone for long enough to produce the chilling quiet of Sei Fan’s home, yet something in the quiet that greeted him made Nen Sol uneasy.
“Rel! he called. “Rel, are you still asleep?” Only silence answered him from the newly abandoned house, not even the muffled grumbling of someone awakened against their will gave him the response he sought. “Sel? Beloved darling, are you here?” Frightened despite his casual appearance, Nen Sol searched through the house for any sign of them, but he found no one and nothing to tell him where his friends had gone.
“Where are you?” he asked the empty house. “Were you right, and did someone take you away?” He thought for a moment. “No. Definitely not. The sea has yet to dry up, luckily for those of us who are quite fond of it, and the last time I checked the stars were still there. So you are, as always perfectly fine. Not exactly considerate, but fine. Wonderful. The last thing I need is having to run around the world getting you out of trouble. Do you have the slightest idea how bad immortal peril is for my complexion? Don’t answer that.” Nen Sol talked as he always did, as if Lin Sel and Lin Rel were in front of him rather than vanished he knew not where.
“Still, it was horribly cruel of you to run away and leave me like this. I think a fitting punishment would be…leaving you completely alone to get yourselves out of whatever trouble you’ve gotten yourselves into. But that wouldn’t be very nice, now would it? No, no it would not,” he answered himself. “Therefore, since I am a nice person—I can hear you laughing from here, Sel dearest—I will not leave you to your fate, but rather do my best to hasten your explosions by terminal annoyance. Aren’t I a wonderful person? Don’t answer that either.
“Now, if I were a Lin Rel, where would I go to hide myself and my sister? Hmmm…”
“Sol!” His musings and monologue interrupted by a familiar voice from behind him, Nen Sol turned around and groaned.
“Yes, Son. That is, in fact, my name. It will in all likelihood continue to be so for quite some time. Was there a point you wished to make?”
His sister, her grey hair all but concealing her face, ignored his attempt at humor, and glared at him from the doorway. “What are you doing here, stalking Sel again? Really, it’s not as funny as you think it is. What if she thinks you mean it?”
Nen Sol laughed. “Sel isn’t a complete idiot, sister dear. She knows a, and I quote, ‘smarmy, annoying little jerk who can’t be serious about anything,’ when she sees one. You two should spend more time together; I’m sure you’d get along famously.” He pretended to write in a diary. “ ‘Day one: Discussed how stupid my brother is. Day two: Contemplated how irresponsible my brother is. Day three: Agreed that my brother has a terrible sense of humor. Day four: I think I’m in love!’”
“Not funny, Sol. Besides, how would you feel if someone never stopped teasing you?”
“The same way I do now, Son. I never stop teasing myself, after all.”
“You—“ Nen Son rolled her eyes. “I give up. Mother wants to see us.”
“Really?” Nen Sol looked up, interested. “What about?”
“She didn’t say. I think she’s worried about something.”
“Unlike you; you’re perenially worried about everything.”
“Look, are you coming or not?”
“Of course I’m coming. Shall we, sister mine?” With a last scrutinizing glance around the house, Nen Sol left with his sister, and the home under the sea settled once more into peaceful silence.
* * *
“Lei!” Fei Mei greeted her twin cheerily. “How was it? Did you find anything?”
Fei Lei tried to compose herself enough to sound natural even to the person who knew her best. “No, nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good. Mother’s house scares me. There could have been anything creeping around inside!”
“Yes. Listen, Mei, I think you were right. This whole thing is…creepy. A sight too creepy for my liking. We should leave well enough alone.”
“Lei?” Fei Mei seemed worried. “Are you all right?”
“Of course I am,” she replied as steadily as she could. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know, silly; that’s why I’m asking you! So, are you?”
“Yes, I am perfectly fine, Mei. I’m just a little tired, I suppose. Building the night yesterday was tiring.”
“Oh, that’s all right then!” Fei Mei pulled her sister over to a chair. “Just sit down, and I’ll make you something nice.”
“Mei…you have many skills, dear, but cooking, I am sorry to say, is not among them.”
“I’ll get it right this time!”
Fei Lei’s anxiety was insufficient to prevent her from getting between Fei Mei and the kitchen as quickly as possible. “No. No, no, no. Not under any circumstances will I put out another fire. Besides,” her face darkened, “fire isn’t exactly safe.” She brightened up as much as she could. “I’m not hungry, Mei, just tired, and I expect that you are as well. We might as well go to bed, get some rest while we have a chance.”
“While we have a chance?” Fei Mei looked at her quizzically.
She forced a smile. “Well, you never know what might happen tomorrow, do you?”
“I guess not.” Yawning, Fei Mei meandered in the general direction of her bedroom. “Good…morning, Lei!”
“Good morning to you too, Mei.” Fei Lei stayed in the room for a few minutes after her twin had departed, staring into the distance and trying to calm her still-twitching nerves.
“I wish it was,” she whispered, “oh, how I wish it was.”
* * *
Mai Nal watched her younger children sniping at each other, and laughed melodiously. “Have the two of you agreed to argue about everything, or is it merely coincidence? Do calm yourselves down.”
Nen Sol smiled sunnily at her. “But of course, Mother. You wanted to talk to us about something?”
“Did I? Oh, that’s right. I’m worried about you, with all the odd things that have been happening lately. You’ve both been concerned about it, I know, but it’s really not our business, is it?”
“Mother?” Nen Sol blinked at her. “How is it not our business?”
“Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with you, does it?”
“Not directly, no, but it has a lot to do with Rel and Sel!” he said hotly. “Don’t they matter at all?”
“Yes, I suppose,” Mai Nal replied, “but they aren’t my children, so I don’t really see it that way. Can’t you at least try to think of yourself first?”
“Why should I? They’re my friends!”
“I think Mother is quite right,” said Nen Son primly. “You need to be able to take responsibility for your own life before you interfere in other people’s.”
Nen Sol turned on her, furious. “Then why aren’t you doing something? You’re the one who’s all about responsibility.”
“I happen to agree with Mother; this isn’t our business, and we should keep ourselves to ourselves.”
A high wind began whipping through the trees as Nen Sol’s hold on his temper grew weaker and weaker. “They are my business! Why can’t you understand? I would rather bother about them than about you, you stupid silly girl who worries about everything and tries to change nothing!”
“What did you say?!” Storm clouds rumbled through the sky overhead, and Nen Sol’s hair started whipping about her against the wind.
“You heard me!”
The impending fight was broken up by a blur of gold and white that cannoned into Nen Sol. “Sol!” He, or she, or possibly it shrieked. “Help me!”
The wind died down abruptly. “Mei?”
The Bai Dan girl nodded and looked up at her half-brother, eyes wet with tears. It would have been quite an attractive expression, if Nen Sol had been in the mood to notice.
“What’s the matter? Are you all right?”
“Y-yes,” she q uavered, “only…I’m worried about Lei. She’s acting so strange!”
“I’ll tell you what,” said Nen Sol, gently detaching her from his arm, “let’s go somewhere else, away from certain people,” his eyes flashed angrily over her head at his mother and sister, “who would rather not hear about it, all right?”
“All right,” Fei Mei said. She let him lead her out from under the eves of the forest, into a high meadow.
“Now, tell me what’s the matter with your sister,” he said, strangely tender.
Fei Mei sniffed. “She’s acting so…strange. She went to look in Mother’s house for some clue about what happened to her, and when she came back she was all different! She said it was too creepy, and we should stop thinking about it. It’s not like her, Sol! She’s acting frightened, and it scares me!”
Nen Sol tried to calm her down, since it looked as though she was about to burst into tears again. “There, now, it’s fine. Are you sure you’re not just overreacting? People can act different at different times. Just look at Son—around everyone else, she’s the sweetest girl in the world, or so I hear, but as soon as I appear, she becomes the most critical being in the world.”
“No, it’s not like that,” said Fei Mei. “She’s not acting different to me, just like she’s terrified of something. She was acting strange, and she locked my door after I went to bed—I had to climb out the window!”
“You’re right, that is odd for Lei. Did she say anything about why she was acting so strangely?”
“Not really. She just said she was tired, but,” Fei Mei looked speculative, an odd expression on her childish face, “I was going to cook—“
“That would have made me frightened, all right, if I were she.”
She hit him lightly on the arm. “I’m not that bad! Anyway, she always lets me at least try, but this time she insisted that I not. She said something about fire being dangerous. Does that help?”
“I’m not—“ Nen Sol saw the eager expression on Fei Mei’s face, like that of a dog who has brought a bone and does not know if it will be welcome, and reconsidered his words. “Yes, Mei, it helps a lot. Listen; I’m sure your sister just wants to take care of you, so why don’t you go home for now and let her? Just stay near her as much as you can, and if she says anything else that you think is important, tell me, or Rel if you can find him. Can you do that?”
“Sure!” Her natural cheerfulness restored, Fei Mei hugged her half-brother impulsively and skipped off through the meadow toward her home. She waved back at him. “I’ll see you soon!”
“I hope not,” Nen Sol said to himself. “I really hope not. Why is it that being nice to someone for once always ends up with them happy and me worried?”
As he flew himself away to Lin Rel’s home for another look, a pattern of light detached itself from a convenient rock where it had been standing, and resolved itself into the form of a Bai Dan. It glared malevolently after Fei Mei.
“So you’re not as silly as you look, Silver Child?” said Mar Tir. “Tell anyone you want. It doesn’t matter. I will bring you all down if I have to. But especially you.”
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