[Tales of Legendia] Memento
Jul. 1st, 2011 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runicloreMemento
Author:myaru
Fandom: Tales of Legendia
Prompt: numinous
Word Count: 1362
Notes: I can't remember where Grune planted all of her seeds, but I could swear she put one at the bottom of the Waterways some time. I can't find a reference to it to check, so I'm just guessing which one it was. Apologies if I get it wrong.
....................................................................................................
Norma couldn't say she hated the Waterways, exactly; they were annoying, all twisty and turny, dead ends when you least expected them, but the engineering was top-notch. Nothing like it existed on the continent - and she didn't say this in public anymore because it got her strange looks, but she'd seen most of the sewers and waterways in Gadoria and Rexalia, and the ruins from Terises were miles ahead in every way.
They were also miles long, and Norma was starting to wish she'd brought more than just a few sandwiches and a cold slice of Senny's pizza.
She ran her fingers along the smooth red stone of the guard rail, tracing the curlicue carvings with one hand while the other fed her face with cold ham sandwich made the way Sven used to do it - with sharp yellow cheese and bitter greens, so the bite would keep you awake just when you got to the boring part. The channel slanted more sharply down from where she was, sinking into the red glow of emergency lights and then into darkness, and Norma knew she'd hit the last stretch finally. When she looked up, the space above her was dark enough, dense enough that she thought there should be stars. The water channels could be an ancient highway, deserted except for adventurers like her, who sought the sinister red glow of the seed down at the very bottom of the ruin.
That is, she thought it might be the red one. She couldn't remember which ones G-Girl planted where, only that she wanted to find them, all of them, and see what they were supposed to grow into. Flowers? Maybe-- magic flowers? Norma didn't think she was the type to plant monsters.
The smell of burning wood tickled her nose, and she sneezed. No, it was more like sulfur, brimstone, the kind of thing one smelled when hit in the face with a fireball spell. Norma paused halfway down the ramp, stuffed the last two bites of sandwich into her mouth, and wondered if she should've dragged Will along after all. That big hammer was nice to have around in a fight, and he totally would've gotten a kick out of whatever G-Girl put down here, if he'd just listened--
Then again, there was Harriet. Little troublemaker.
Norma took a deep breath - ugh, sulfur - and wiped her hands on the front of her dress. Here went nothing.
She took off down the ramp, yelling "Chaaaaaarge!" like she used to and only feeling a little misty-eyed when she remembered G-Girl shouting with her, and ran into the red mist. It cleared like water splitting before the prow of a ship, swirled in again behind her when she chanced a quick look back. Norma hit the dirt at the bottom running. The ground was still scarred from their last battle here against a shadowy Will, gouges cut into the stone and dust by Thunder Blade incantations and grooves the size of Senny's shoes from when he was shoved back. Her toe caught in one, her arms cartwheeled. She hit the dirt and got a mouthful of dust. "Ow, where did that come from--" Her curses echoed back to her from the twisting water channels.
"Geez," she said, again out loud as she picked herself up, like the others could hear her. Sweat beaded on her brow, even though she hadn't run very long or far. "I foil every Ferines trap, every old security system, and trip on a stupid clump of dirt." Charcoal mud smeared the front of her jumper when she tried to wipe it off. Norma tried some of Will's curses, the ones he didn't think anybody heard. Hah, she heard everything in that town - and he was pretty unimaginative for someone whose nose was always in a book.
Okay then, she told herself, righting her hair, her pouches, her wand, and circling the area slowly. Her knees still smarted. The throb distracted her. "What were their names again? Rem. Rem!"
Nothing.
"Celcius!"
The blackness stayed black, the air stayed hot. Emergency lights glowed beyond the dust like artificial embers, or a long line of eyes. Norma shivered and tried a few more names. "Shadow!" Nothing. "Efreet!"
The ground jerked out from under her feet. Norma shrieked and fell flat on her back, right on a rock. That was gonna bruise. She flipped onto her stomach and pushed back up, spread her feet far apart to stand against another rumble in the earth, and felt her knees tremble slightly when a big fireball - the same color as those lights - leaped out of the ground and spun bigger, bigger, until it took the form of a musclehead with flaming hair.
"You called?" His voice was like a hiss of steam from a hot iron.
Norma kept her feet spread, just in case he decided to slam the ground with those big arms of his and send her flying again. "E-Efreet?" Duh, that was the last name she called! Stupid Norma, stupid! "Yeeeah, uh..."
She didn't have a reason to be down here, exactly. All she wanted was-- something, a memento, even a strand of Grune's hair. Anything would've done, but these seeds sounded interesting. They had to be. G-Girl talked to them like they talked back, and maybe, just maybe, she'd thought... maybe they did, and Grune wasn't crazy after all. Hell, they knew that now.
"So..." Norma cleared her throat. The air had dried up and become parched, like she was breathing a desert wind. "What do you do, exactly?" Besides drain the moisture out of the air - and maybe people. She was gonna get back to Werites Beacon all shriveled like a raisin. "What are you?"
He - it? there was only half a body to go by - gave her a long look from under stern eyebrows, kind of like Will.
"Come on!" Norma aimed her best pout at him. It didn't work. "You guys just appeared after Grune left, and I think we should know what you are at least. Spirit? Demon? God?"
Grune, he murmured, bowing his head. Maybe he missed her too. "I am not here for idle chit-chat, human. Come back when you've grown up."
"Hey! Listen here, Efreet--" She should've called him Efreak, maybe that should be his nickname-- "I'm plenty grown up, thanks, and my questions are legitimate! There isn't even a whiff of you in the Relares manuscripts or the Ferines records, or even the old files on the Bridge. If you're as dangerous as you are big and ugly, someone is gonna have to take care of you."
A big, ugly grin cracked his face under a fall of flaming hair. Norma thought calling him Efreak might've gone too far, and was glad she kept her mouth shut. The brimstone smell got stronger, stifling. Sweat trickled down her spine, her face, wet her palms. This guy was hot, and not in the good way. She called icy energy to her fingertips just to cool herself down, but his dark red eyes narrowed.
"I propose a deal," he said, suddenly all proper, with his chin on his hand. "We fight. If you win, I will do as you say. If I win, we see if you will make a human-shaped hole when I throw you back up to the surface."
Norma's jaw dropped just before she caught herself. That was going too far - way too far. She should've called him every name in the book. "Oh, you are going to regret this," she said, letting her own grin spread, clenching her fists around the pulse of her sacred eres. "Bring it on, freak!"
She threw her first ice spell, and the shattering turned everything white.
..................................................................................................................
Norma, the first summoner of Shining Blue? :D
.
Author:
myaruFandom: Tales of Legendia
Prompt: numinous
Word Count: 1362
Notes: I can't remember where Grune planted all of her seeds, but I could swear she put one at the bottom of the Waterways some time. I can't find a reference to it to check, so I'm just guessing which one it was. Apologies if I get it wrong.
....................................................................................................
Norma couldn't say she hated the Waterways, exactly; they were annoying, all twisty and turny, dead ends when you least expected them, but the engineering was top-notch. Nothing like it existed on the continent - and she didn't say this in public anymore because it got her strange looks, but she'd seen most of the sewers and waterways in Gadoria and Rexalia, and the ruins from Terises were miles ahead in every way.
They were also miles long, and Norma was starting to wish she'd brought more than just a few sandwiches and a cold slice of Senny's pizza.
She ran her fingers along the smooth red stone of the guard rail, tracing the curlicue carvings with one hand while the other fed her face with cold ham sandwich made the way Sven used to do it - with sharp yellow cheese and bitter greens, so the bite would keep you awake just when you got to the boring part. The channel slanted more sharply down from where she was, sinking into the red glow of emergency lights and then into darkness, and Norma knew she'd hit the last stretch finally. When she looked up, the space above her was dark enough, dense enough that she thought there should be stars. The water channels could be an ancient highway, deserted except for adventurers like her, who sought the sinister red glow of the seed down at the very bottom of the ruin.
That is, she thought it might be the red one. She couldn't remember which ones G-Girl planted where, only that she wanted to find them, all of them, and see what they were supposed to grow into. Flowers? Maybe-- magic flowers? Norma didn't think she was the type to plant monsters.
The smell of burning wood tickled her nose, and she sneezed. No, it was more like sulfur, brimstone, the kind of thing one smelled when hit in the face with a fireball spell. Norma paused halfway down the ramp, stuffed the last two bites of sandwich into her mouth, and wondered if she should've dragged Will along after all. That big hammer was nice to have around in a fight, and he totally would've gotten a kick out of whatever G-Girl put down here, if he'd just listened--
Then again, there was Harriet. Little troublemaker.
Norma took a deep breath - ugh, sulfur - and wiped her hands on the front of her dress. Here went nothing.
She took off down the ramp, yelling "Chaaaaaarge!" like she used to and only feeling a little misty-eyed when she remembered G-Girl shouting with her, and ran into the red mist. It cleared like water splitting before the prow of a ship, swirled in again behind her when she chanced a quick look back. Norma hit the dirt at the bottom running. The ground was still scarred from their last battle here against a shadowy Will, gouges cut into the stone and dust by Thunder Blade incantations and grooves the size of Senny's shoes from when he was shoved back. Her toe caught in one, her arms cartwheeled. She hit the dirt and got a mouthful of dust. "Ow, where did that come from--" Her curses echoed back to her from the twisting water channels.
"Geez," she said, again out loud as she picked herself up, like the others could hear her. Sweat beaded on her brow, even though she hadn't run very long or far. "I foil every Ferines trap, every old security system, and trip on a stupid clump of dirt." Charcoal mud smeared the front of her jumper when she tried to wipe it off. Norma tried some of Will's curses, the ones he didn't think anybody heard. Hah, she heard everything in that town - and he was pretty unimaginative for someone whose nose was always in a book.
Okay then, she told herself, righting her hair, her pouches, her wand, and circling the area slowly. Her knees still smarted. The throb distracted her. "What were their names again? Rem. Rem!"
Nothing.
"Celcius!"
The blackness stayed black, the air stayed hot. Emergency lights glowed beyond the dust like artificial embers, or a long line of eyes. Norma shivered and tried a few more names. "Shadow!" Nothing. "Efreet!"
The ground jerked out from under her feet. Norma shrieked and fell flat on her back, right on a rock. That was gonna bruise. She flipped onto her stomach and pushed back up, spread her feet far apart to stand against another rumble in the earth, and felt her knees tremble slightly when a big fireball - the same color as those lights - leaped out of the ground and spun bigger, bigger, until it took the form of a musclehead with flaming hair.
"You called?" His voice was like a hiss of steam from a hot iron.
Norma kept her feet spread, just in case he decided to slam the ground with those big arms of his and send her flying again. "E-Efreet?" Duh, that was the last name she called! Stupid Norma, stupid! "Yeeeah, uh..."
She didn't have a reason to be down here, exactly. All she wanted was-- something, a memento, even a strand of Grune's hair. Anything would've done, but these seeds sounded interesting. They had to be. G-Girl talked to them like they talked back, and maybe, just maybe, she'd thought... maybe they did, and Grune wasn't crazy after all. Hell, they knew that now.
"So..." Norma cleared her throat. The air had dried up and become parched, like she was breathing a desert wind. "What do you do, exactly?" Besides drain the moisture out of the air - and maybe people. She was gonna get back to Werites Beacon all shriveled like a raisin. "What are you?"
He - it? there was only half a body to go by - gave her a long look from under stern eyebrows, kind of like Will.
"Come on!" Norma aimed her best pout at him. It didn't work. "You guys just appeared after Grune left, and I think we should know what you are at least. Spirit? Demon? God?"
Grune, he murmured, bowing his head. Maybe he missed her too. "I am not here for idle chit-chat, human. Come back when you've grown up."
"Hey! Listen here, Efreet--" She should've called him Efreak, maybe that should be his nickname-- "I'm plenty grown up, thanks, and my questions are legitimate! There isn't even a whiff of you in the Relares manuscripts or the Ferines records, or even the old files on the Bridge. If you're as dangerous as you are big and ugly, someone is gonna have to take care of you."
A big, ugly grin cracked his face under a fall of flaming hair. Norma thought calling him Efreak might've gone too far, and was glad she kept her mouth shut. The brimstone smell got stronger, stifling. Sweat trickled down her spine, her face, wet her palms. This guy was hot, and not in the good way. She called icy energy to her fingertips just to cool herself down, but his dark red eyes narrowed.
"I propose a deal," he said, suddenly all proper, with his chin on his hand. "We fight. If you win, I will do as you say. If I win, we see if you will make a human-shaped hole when I throw you back up to the surface."
Norma's jaw dropped just before she caught herself. That was going too far - way too far. She should've called him every name in the book. "Oh, you are going to regret this," she said, letting her own grin spread, clenching her fists around the pulse of her sacred eres. "Bring it on, freak!"
She threw her first ice spell, and the shattering turned everything white.
..................................................................................................................
Norma, the first summoner of Shining Blue? :D
.