dray: (Default)
Dray ([personal profile] dray) wrote in [community profile] rainbowfic2013-07-05 06:00 pm

Iceberg #2, True Blue #5

Name: [personal profile] dray
Story: Edilion
Colors: Iceberg #2 (Ice), True Blue #5 (Penpal)
Supplies and Styles: Canvas, Stickers (Random Fact: "The traditional cure for burns among blacksmiths is to blow their noses and apply snot liberally to the affected part.")
Word Count: 1738
Rating: G
Warnings: Mention of child discipline that's pretty strict
Summary: Fara and family finally arrive in Navale!
Notes: Constructive criticism is always welcome! I'm still getting a feel for Fara, so she seems a little flip-floppy. Hopefully that will become more clear with practice.


The carriage crested the top of the hill that overlooked Navale's harbour, and Fara cried out in awe at the sea-side city. Beyond the happenstance stacking of houses, the bizarre mix of architecture of humans, Asandae and daemons built into, around, even on top of one another, the ports stretched long, spindly fingers out into thick grey water. The water-front changed from one side of the harbour to the other: on the northernmost edge, white strips of beach cupped against the most colourful, beautiful buildings. Huge, stately ships were moored at long, out-jutting piers to the center of the harbour and southwards, in tiny fingers that grew smaller and more cluttered, docks full of local boats petered into an expansive maze of market. Out beyond the gentle curve of the harbour, Fara could see shapes bobbing in the water. From here it was hard to tell if they were natural icebergs or Cascatan Asandus structures, or maybe something else entirely. Squinting did not reveal any new information, nor did shouting out everything that she saw to her parents, despite her best efforts. Everything was so jumbled, and tiny, and new!

"Fara," her mother's voice was sharp as a whip, and the young girl jumped and turned, pulling her head back into the carriage to reveal her cold-reddened cheeks and nose to her mother. Colette, hands folded firmly in her lap and body straight and tense, had that steely glint to her pale eyes that suggested she was ready to snap. "We will be arriving on your Uncle's doorstep within the hour and you are acting like a backcountry, puff-brained daemon! Control yourself!"

The girl's cheek's reddened with deeply felt horror, but she would not allow herself to cry in front of her mother despite the sting of the woman's uncalled for cruelty. She was only excited because she had never seen a ship, had never seen the ocean; it touched the sky, it went on so far! "I'm sorry, mother," she forced from her lips, despite the hot shame that came with the apology. Sitting quickly back on her seat -- so familiar after a month's-worth of travel -- she pulled a baby blue handkerchief from her pocket, ducking her head beneath her huge winter hat to hide the tears that had come to her eyes. Her mother had become more and more easy to anger over the course of the last few weeks: preoccupied, Colette had been sending horse-riding runners ahead of the carriage with little notes that she had been busy writing whenever it was light enough to do so. Sometimes she would retreat to one of the other two carriages that the Edilion family had brought with them, but ultimately those weren't built for comfort, and the elder woman would return to put up with Fara and Jael's rambunctious attitudes and Baar's sometimes over-exuberant lessons for the day.

Fara knew that her mother was in the wrong: the glance she snuck from her cousin, Jael, suggested that the other girl was sympathetic rather than smug, and that almost never happened. Even more poignant, her father had cleared his throat in an attempt to redirect his partner's frustrated anger his way. For the entire rest of their short trip, Fara was privy to her parents as they discussed the finer points of arrival in style to Navale, and shameful as that was, it was more embarrassing that Fara knew Jael was overhearing every word.

When the two adults were well and truly into their debate, Jael tugged on Fara's sleeve. "Let's take Radis and Seldos and ride away," the six-year-old suggested. The look she gave Fara was one of complete solidarity, and Fara sniffed into her kerchief with gratitude at the gesture.

It was silly, though: as much as she appreciated what her cousin was suggesting, Fara wouldn't be given over to flights (literally!) of fancy. "We don't have any feed for them, they wouldn't like it in the cold."

"Who cares, we'll find somebody who can spell us a heat blanket and we'll ride them all the way back to Edilion," Jael argued, her whisper conspiratorial. "They wouldn't even know we were gone."

"They would so," Fara interjected.

"No they wouldn't, nobody's even guarding the horses."

"I don't want to run away," Fara retorted. It was hard to keep her voice tiny, but she thought she was slipping under her parent's radar mightily given the content of her treasonous talk! "I want to meet Uncle Saum, and see the Lodge, and they have many more horses than anything in Edilion."

Jael made a face.

Fara pouted at her friend. "Uncle Saum is the best," she pulled her final defense. "He writes to me every birthday and sends me beautiful furs and things, he'll make everything better, trust me."

"Can we at least take Radis and Seldos out after we meet your stupid uncle?" Jael finally consented, finding haggling a better option given Fara's sudden shift of allegiance. "We don't have to go all the way back to Edilion." Just mostly, the rest of her suggestion dangled, unsaid, between them.

Fara kicked her feet out, very careful not to thump the heels of her boots against the wooden frame of her bench lest she re-invoke the ire of her mother. "Maybe," she agreed. She slipped her handkerchief back into her pocket and, finding the whistle the yellow Asandus elder had given her, she wrapped her hand tightly around it. She didn't want to go back to Edilion, even if being cooped up in here with her mother was driving everybody crazy. Fara could withstand the shame of being told not to be her because she knew that once they were outside of this box, she could do more than she ever had before. The whistle, with it's ornate beauty, was solid proof. She looked back out the window, but they'd crested the hill and now tall, multifaceted facades of buildings were leaning up over the paved road. The sound of the carriage had long since changed from the creak and rattle and occasional jolt of rutted snow highway to the alien sound of shovelled city road, so while Fara listened to the constant crunching of gravel and chunks of ice, she occupied herself with counting the colourful doors they passed. Her heart threw off her mother's rebuke in short order: this place was colourful in a way that Edilion was not. It was all messed together like a brush painting pressed in on itself, and Fara felt her insides filling up with excitement that she tried to contain. She didn't even care that her nose was cold and had been trying to drip for the last week. This made everything worth it!

The carriage came to a clear and sudden halt just as Fara had reached nearly her two hundredth door, just as she was having to wait between brightly painted fences and mural-covered walls and having to remind herself what number she was on because she was continuously getting distracted. She had been paying attention to the latest mural of pink and green clouds and beautiful creatures on an alien landscape when she realized that they were there. They were in Navale, at the Lodge!

Jolted out of her reverie, Fara scrambled to her feet and wrung her gloved hands together. She bit her lip hard because she wanted to announce her discovery to everyone, but of course they already knew that the carriage had arrived, they were all reacting and gathering things and Jael was leaning out of the open window again to look in through the open gate.

Fara was nearly shivering with excitement. She looked up at her parents, who were gathering their necessities and putting on their big fur gloves and hats and muffs -- Baar was pulling on his huge boots, for he'd been hogging the heating stone under his stocking feet for the last few hours of their ride. When she met her father's eyes she could see that his were twinkling with just as much excitement as hers, and Fara couldn't help but squeal, "We're here!" She grabbed Jael's hand when the smaller girl pulled back into the carriage, dancing her around in their limited space. She didn't care if she got a reprimand or even a spanking, she was too excited.

That was how Uncle Saum found the visiting family as he pulled open the double-doors of their great big carriage himself: the two girls were prancing in a circle, Baar was wriggling his toes into his boot, and Colette was nursing what appeared to be a swiftly exploding migraine. "Who are these two little pixies?!" the man cried, throwing his arms wide open, inviting chaos.

Catching onto the enthusiasm like a bird taking to a draft, Fara decided on the most obvious option: she flung herself at the man who looked so much like her father. "Uncle Saum!" she screeched, laughing when he caught her and swung her in several circles. When he finally set her down, she screeched again when she slipped on the polished pavement. Falling flat on her behind, Fara made a face that had the man laughing uproariously, and then apologizing with great regret as she finally burst into real tears. It had been such a long journey and she had been looking forward to this day for more than a month, and now she was sitting with her behind growing colder and colder and she was a laughingstock to the man that she had admired for years and years and years!

Fara covered her face and was surprised when hands even bigger than her father's refused to let her sit steeped in her own deep humiliation, in fact scooped her back onto her feet. "Oh, that's nothing," Saum soothed. "We'll make you an icebirdie before you know it. Welcome to Navale, Fara!"

Somehow, the girl could not hold on to her embarrassment when her uncle was holding both of her hands and keeping her upright and beaming at her regardless of how dishevelled she felt. 'Not like family at all,' Fara thought. She felt a flutter of something fragile beneath her breast, careful to avoid latching on to his kind words, to take them at face value. She barely dared to think it to herself, but a part of her was incredibly certain: she was going to like it here.
isana: parody of keep calm and carry on (don't keep calm just kill everyone)

[personal profile] isana 2013-07-06 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, poor Fara, having to bear the brunt of Colette's anger for things that have absolutely nothing to do with her. She doesn't seem so much naughty as she does extremely exuberant and curious, and given your worldbuilding, who could blame her?

I'm glad they've met Uncle Saum now--hopefully she'll be allowed to blossom for some time, however short it is!
isana: Pretty pink flower (pink flower)

[personal profile] isana 2013-07-06 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
(Oh, it's fine! <3 SWL's prompt post is on her own journal. I've got one too, but it's locked, so you'll have to friend.

We usually do RPs once in a while, but I think you're aware of that already? But basically I would think anything goes when it comes to semi-interactive activities. If you're not sure, ask the mods. They're a friendly bunch.)
isana: a rising blue-green wave (wave)

[personal profile] isana 2013-07-06 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, the next one isn't up until mid-August or so, so you've plenty of time, I'd think.

Adding you!
subluxate: Sophia Bush leaning against a piano (Default)

[personal profile] subluxate 2013-07-06 08:45 am (UTC)(link)
What [personal profile] isana said is right--pretty much anything goes in the lounge. If you want to run a game, check with us first, but we'll probably agree (unless we have something similar already planned). If you want to ask people what they think, what they'd like to see, if there are details that could be made clearer, etc., go for it. If you want to write a post about the origins of your story and how the writing process works for you, then that's cool; just use a cut.
shipwreck_light: (Default)

[personal profile] shipwreck_light 2013-07-06 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
Well, I have to say- sharp as it may be "backcountry, puff-brained daemon" is a new one that honestly lends a lot to the setting. It's intelligible, but it's different. Good show!

This is all so pictorial. I feel like I could go sledding down to the sea here. Is Navale based on New England, perchance? It sounds rather New Englandy to me.

And the end there, Saum snorfing the girls. It's just. YES. And snorf.

(Also, super yes on the discussion of running away; it's so spot-on childlike.)
subluxate: Sophia Bush leaning against a piano (Default)

[personal profile] subluxate 2013-07-06 08:54 am (UTC)(link)
I love your worldbuilding. Fara seems like such a lively kid. I hope she likes Navale as much as she thinks she will!
kay_brooke: Stick drawing of a linked adenine and thymine molecule with text "DNA: my OTP" (Default)

[personal profile] kay_brooke 2013-07-06 06:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Fara is such a great little kid. I'm "awwww"ing all over the place here. I feel bad for her mother taking out her anger and frustration on her, but Fara seems pretty resilient. Can't wait to see how she does in Navale!
bookblather: A picture of Yomiko Readman looking at books with the text "bookgasm." (Default)

[personal profile] bookblather 2013-07-07 10:20 am (UTC)(link)
I really like the exuberent joy that bursts out of this piece. No matter how Fara feels-- embarrassed or hurt or upset-- there's always that joy under there. And then there's this slight undercurrent of darkness, with Colette's worry. Great job.