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runicloreAny King Will Do
Author: Amber Michelle
Day/Theme: August 10 - Funeral season
Series: Twelve Kingdoms
Character/Pairing: Taiki, Risai
Rating: K
Words: 534
Notes: takes place after Nine Syllables (June 26th), but it's not essential reading.
.............................................
The plainsmen weren't prepared for Taiki's arrival, but they were generous with their winter stores, what little there was he found edible: cheese, flat wafers of bread, and dried fruit. They didn't cultivate grains or vegetables on the plains. Their diet was meat, dairy, and whatever could be foraged from the land during Tai's temperate season. Risai ate well, but he couldn't stomach the scent of meat, much less the sight of it.
Snow fell thickly and buried the plain in white. Rugs and blankets were heaped into their small shelter with apologies for its size, for asking him to bed down with a servant; wool was scarce because youma attacked the flocks, the flax burned early that summer, the wild wisteria never bloomed. A family gave up their tent for his sake and moved in with another household. Risai wouldn't let him protest.
"Won't they resent us?" he asked that night, when Risai lit the bricks of dung they were given for fuel and fanned the spark into flame. "They're straining to feed themselves."
"They'll raid a garrison before the next moon cycle," she said. "It's their way during the winter months."
"But the soldiers--"
"They're Asen's." Risai rose and unrolled another blanket to drape over his shoulders. Then she settled on her knees beside him and watched the fire. "I think there's justice in his larders feeding free men."
Taiki didn't reply, pulling the rough-woven cover closed around his arms. He wouldn't ask these people to starve after taking him in. Giving shelter to Risai meant certain death, and the same was probably true of himself. She assured him many times nobody would have the heart to kill their own kirin, but he remembered a time when he'd never have thought Asen to be capable of such a thing.
He rubbed his forehead. It was flat, smooth, very much as it was in Hourai. Maybe he was there so long - too long - his taika shell couldn't be shed any longer. Maybe Gyousou wouldn't recognize him when they met again.
When. Definitely when.
While he clung to that thought, his mouth opened and betrayed him. "What if we can't find him?"
Risai glanced at him. In the reddish firelight her hair was like a sunset, shades of red, orange, and gold bleeding into shadows. He couldn't even tell she was missing an arm in the dark.
She looked away again. "They don't expect you to."
Taiki swallowed hard and hunched, drawing his knees beneath the blanket. He wanted to say something, but his throat squeezed shut when he opened his mouth. Oh. When he was ten he might have protested. He didn't want to understand now, but-- could he ask an impoverished people to search with him to eternity for a man that might not be alive?
Yes.
No. No, he couldn't. To a starving, embattled people, any king would do as long as he was Tentei's chosen.
"We're going to find him anyway."
Risai's hand on his shoulder was too heavy to bear. He wanted to fold under its weight.
..........................................
I need a better title.
Author: Amber Michelle
Day/Theme: August 10 - Funeral season
Series: Twelve Kingdoms
Character/Pairing: Taiki, Risai
Rating: K
Words: 534
Notes: takes place after Nine Syllables (June 26th), but it's not essential reading.
.............................................
The plainsmen weren't prepared for Taiki's arrival, but they were generous with their winter stores, what little there was he found edible: cheese, flat wafers of bread, and dried fruit. They didn't cultivate grains or vegetables on the plains. Their diet was meat, dairy, and whatever could be foraged from the land during Tai's temperate season. Risai ate well, but he couldn't stomach the scent of meat, much less the sight of it.
Snow fell thickly and buried the plain in white. Rugs and blankets were heaped into their small shelter with apologies for its size, for asking him to bed down with a servant; wool was scarce because youma attacked the flocks, the flax burned early that summer, the wild wisteria never bloomed. A family gave up their tent for his sake and moved in with another household. Risai wouldn't let him protest.
"Won't they resent us?" he asked that night, when Risai lit the bricks of dung they were given for fuel and fanned the spark into flame. "They're straining to feed themselves."
"They'll raid a garrison before the next moon cycle," she said. "It's their way during the winter months."
"But the soldiers--"
"They're Asen's." Risai rose and unrolled another blanket to drape over his shoulders. Then she settled on her knees beside him and watched the fire. "I think there's justice in his larders feeding free men."
Taiki didn't reply, pulling the rough-woven cover closed around his arms. He wouldn't ask these people to starve after taking him in. Giving shelter to Risai meant certain death, and the same was probably true of himself. She assured him many times nobody would have the heart to kill their own kirin, but he remembered a time when he'd never have thought Asen to be capable of such a thing.
He rubbed his forehead. It was flat, smooth, very much as it was in Hourai. Maybe he was there so long - too long - his taika shell couldn't be shed any longer. Maybe Gyousou wouldn't recognize him when they met again.
When. Definitely when.
While he clung to that thought, his mouth opened and betrayed him. "What if we can't find him?"
Risai glanced at him. In the reddish firelight her hair was like a sunset, shades of red, orange, and gold bleeding into shadows. He couldn't even tell she was missing an arm in the dark.
She looked away again. "They don't expect you to."
Taiki swallowed hard and hunched, drawing his knees beneath the blanket. He wanted to say something, but his throat squeezed shut when he opened his mouth. Oh. When he was ten he might have protested. He didn't want to understand now, but-- could he ask an impoverished people to search with him to eternity for a man that might not be alive?
Yes.
No. No, he couldn't. To a starving, embattled people, any king would do as long as he was Tentei's chosen.
"We're going to find him anyway."
Risai's hand on his shoulder was too heavy to bear. He wanted to fold under its weight.
..........................................
I need a better title.