To Hold the Stars
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing: Gen
Series: Becomes, a Woman
When she is ten years old, Rh'Asta breaks a boy's nose. There are five of them, Rh'Asta, Ayel, S'Talon, Lhaes, and his twin sister Latta. On late afternoons, when the sun sets low and red over the plains around Rateg, they go into the wasteland, their secret place. It is Ayel who brings Nero, on a night just after the school year has begun, when the tree limbs hang full with fruit and they spend their evenings catching insects and wrestling.
Ayel introduces Nero to them, one by one. He smiles at them all, friendly but showing his teeth. She challenges him, as she does all of the new ones, as she did with S'Talon and Lhaes and Latta. She is the oldest, the biggest. She is tall, strong and sharp. It falls to her.
Her father named her Rh'Asta. He told her, the first time he put a blade in her hands, that it means "to hold the stars." He taught her how to fight, how to kill, how to be strong.
"You have strong Rihannsu blood," he would tell her, guiding her arms into a defensive position. He stepped with her through forms, defensive to offensive, fluid, but powerful. "You are lucky to have been born so strong."
She does not doubt this.
And so she circles Nero, his hands balled up into fists, held out too far in front of him. She almost laughs, pityingly. This boy is not a warrior. He attacks anyway, crying out as his fists swing wildly around him. He has no balance; his blows are not difficult to evade.
Nero is emotional, even for a Rihannsu. This makes him admirable, deserving of respect, but it does not make him a good fighter. Within thirty seconds, Rh'Asta has him on the ground, blood pouring out of his nose.
In the Rihan language, the prefix "Rh" is traditionally male. Sometimes, Rh'Asta thinks this explains things. Sometimes, she thinks the boys forget she is a girl; they treat her just as they treat one of their own. Rh'Asta, mostly, doesn't mind. She does not dislike being a girl, nor does she shun female companionship. She simply feels more comfortable running and sparring with the boys.
When they are eighteen, Nero leaves. His father, apparently, is an important man. Hearing Nero talk, the way he adds inflection to certain words, the way he has picked up the local slang dialect, you would never know it. He doesn't speak the way the high-castes do, doesn't move with their haughty grace. Rh'Asta respects this, though, as she tells him, she can still break his nose.
After Nero leaves, Rh'Asta and Latta are the only ones who go to the plains. They lie in the tall grass and watch the stars. Latta says they are beautiful, but Rh'Asta is the one who reaches for them. She stretches her hand toward the sky, clenching her fingers around swaths of dark, grasping at stars.
Pairing: Gen
Series: Becomes, a Woman
When she is ten years old, Rh'Asta breaks a boy's nose. There are five of them, Rh'Asta, Ayel, S'Talon, Lhaes, and his twin sister Latta. On late afternoons, when the sun sets low and red over the plains around Rateg, they go into the wasteland, their secret place. It is Ayel who brings Nero, on a night just after the school year has begun, when the tree limbs hang full with fruit and they spend their evenings catching insects and wrestling.
Ayel introduces Nero to them, one by one. He smiles at them all, friendly but showing his teeth. She challenges him, as she does all of the new ones, as she did with S'Talon and Lhaes and Latta. She is the oldest, the biggest. She is tall, strong and sharp. It falls to her.
Her father named her Rh'Asta. He told her, the first time he put a blade in her hands, that it means "to hold the stars." He taught her how to fight, how to kill, how to be strong.
"You have strong Rihannsu blood," he would tell her, guiding her arms into a defensive position. He stepped with her through forms, defensive to offensive, fluid, but powerful. "You are lucky to have been born so strong."
She does not doubt this.
And so she circles Nero, his hands balled up into fists, held out too far in front of him. She almost laughs, pityingly. This boy is not a warrior. He attacks anyway, crying out as his fists swing wildly around him. He has no balance; his blows are not difficult to evade.
Nero is emotional, even for a Rihannsu. This makes him admirable, deserving of respect, but it does not make him a good fighter. Within thirty seconds, Rh'Asta has him on the ground, blood pouring out of his nose.
In the Rihan language, the prefix "Rh" is traditionally male. Sometimes, Rh'Asta thinks this explains things. Sometimes, she thinks the boys forget she is a girl; they treat her just as they treat one of their own. Rh'Asta, mostly, doesn't mind. She does not dislike being a girl, nor does she shun female companionship. She simply feels more comfortable running and sparring with the boys.
When they are eighteen, Nero leaves. His father, apparently, is an important man. Hearing Nero talk, the way he adds inflection to certain words, the way he has picked up the local slang dialect, you would never know it. He doesn't speak the way the high-castes do, doesn't move with their haughty grace. Rh'Asta respects this, though, as she tells him, she can still break his nose.
After Nero leaves, Rh'Asta and Latta are the only ones who go to the plains. They lie in the tall grass and watch the stars. Latta says they are beautiful, but Rh'Asta is the one who reaches for them. She stretches her hand toward the sky, clenching her fingers around swaths of dark, grasping at stars.