The Story of Darice and Manelin (One Sentence) COMPLETE!
A/N: (For ONCE) All of these characters belong to me, however rough they may be. :)
Sentence Prompt #1 - Walk'
Now pregnant for almost eight months, Althea no longer walked with the grace of a lady, but rather waddled about like a circus performer, clutching at her belly as though the baby inside could help to keep her balance.
Sentence Prompt #2 - Waltz
It had been easy enough, at the time that her children had been conceived, to give herself away to the man that she had only sort-of loved, but now that the twin toddlers clutched two of her fingers in their tiny little hands, she found herself unable and unwilling to leave their sides, even for the warrior that had given them to her.
Sentence Prompt #3 - Wishes
Sometimes she would lay awake at night and cry herself into fitful nightmares that made her wish she could forget him and the tragic ending that he had faced alone, because she had been too tied down to come to his side, but then two little bodies would wriggle into her bed and demand a story of something completely unrelated and she would tell them of a warrior that shared their sharp noses and fair complexion, their sandy hair and thoughtful gazes, and they would lie awake a little longer than she, and pass in their gazes to each other a promise to find such a warrior one day.
Sentence Prompt #4 - Wonder
It was a wonder, how similar they were in appearance and yet how different they were in mind and ability.
Sentence Prompt # 5 - Worry
Rumor had it that Manelin and Darice may be the son and daughter of a prince from Alberiey, and Darice had no qualms about squashing her brother's foolish dreams of someday ruling over a kingdom and marrying a princess, because ignoring your family for six years was not a princely thing to do.
Sentence #6 - Whimsy
Despite her mother's warnings to keep to the main road, Darice found herself strolling through the orchards after dark and stumbled across a giggling girl slightly older than she and a boy that could be her reflection, and swore to never again let herself loose on a whimsy; Someone had to take care of her family.
Sentence #7 - Waste
Their family was not poor, nor were they wealthy or royal, but every year the twins made something special with their mother and on this holiday she realized they no longer needed her to wipe the sticky chocolate mess from their faces herself; they were growing far too quickly, and Althea began to cling a little harder, knowing what happened to those who wasted too much time when it came to mortals.
Sentence #8 - Whiskey and Rum
Manelin screeched as he rounded a corner and almost ran head long into his sister, who upon seeing a grumbling old man following behind him, briskly handed back the bottle of booze that her mother sometimes referred to as medicine and apologized profusely, pulling Manelin away by his ear and mending his broken heart with a cup of tea and a controlled smack on the head instead.
Sentence #9 - War
Darice and Althea seemed to always be at war with each other anymore, and when he finally couldn't handle being the middle link between the two, he packed his bags and left in the dead quiet of the night, a fifteen year old runaway who wanted to find his father.
Sentence #10 - Weddings
Her father was non-existent, her mother was flighty , and her only ally had disappeared into the night: These circumstances had lead Darice to the outskirts of town where a fortuneteller spoke of marriage as her only means of escape, something which made her insides turn violently.
Sentence #11 - Birthday
It was on their birthday that the kingdom was plunged into war, and, somehow, Darice disguised as a man, stumbled across her brother sleeping soundly in the bedding of a soldier.
Sentence #12 - Blessing
At first he thought it was a blessing that his beloved sister had joined him, but after being beaten with the hilt of her sword in a stacked match he found himself cursing his misfortune.
Sentence #13 - Bias
When Darice - or rather Damian - was appointed commander of their little group, she chose Manelin as her right-hand man, ensuring that he would be as safe as she was, and ignored the others' accusations that their leader was biased, however uneasily.
Sentence #14 - Burning
Manelin burned as the strange man tugged, rather forcefully, at the buttons of Darice's shirt and hurled accusations that she was a woman, only her knowing expression kept him from drawing his dagger and stabbing the man, and he watched with fascination as she called out the name of a rather burly looking guy who quickly flew to her rescue and dragged the offender off, winking at him as he walked passed, the man in his arms looking rather dwarf-like compared to his incredible size.
Sentence #15 - Breathing
A landslide split the troop into two groups and Manelin and Darice were apart from one another for the first time in two years, only the mock solute from Ruzgar, the man who saved his sister from being discovered a week earlier and his reassurances that Darice would be fine gave him the will to breath again.
Sentence #16 - Breaking
After breaking his mother's heart and abandoning his twin sister, Darice knew that Manelin was not a good person, but still, when the other group broke through the clearing after days of trekking through the forest and around the waste left from the avalanche, she felt her heart break as she realized that he had run away for the second time.
Sentence #17 - Belief
He'd always believed that he and Darice could survive anything, but after a few weeks apart Manelin realized that it wasn't her that he was missing, and a poster dancing past him in the wind promised riches should he hunt down and capture a runaway like himself, so he left his horse with his new found friend and ignored the look of contempt in the man's eyes as he threw away his position in the army in favor of a life on the run.
Sentence #18 - Balloon
A hot air balloon took Manelin high into the sky, and he used the bird's eye view to search both for the escape route used by the woman who had chosen to flee from her home a few months before and to see if he could catch the long green feather that protruded from his sister's helmet.
Sentence #19 - Balcony
A balcony view in the room of the girl's sister provided a better place for gleaming information, and as always, Manelin gave little thought of being caught in the act until a large form burst from the door and he found himself in an ally as a man tried to break his face for ruining his first child; he was saved by the arrow of a member of the troop that was resting in the town and condemned by the rough hands of Ruzgar who took far too much pleasure in hauling him back to his sister.
Sentence #20 - Bane
Darice declared her brother the bane of her existence before promising the father of the missing woman that she would handle him herself, without ever giving away that she knew his face, even after the man had left, without questioning their physical similarities.
Sentence #21 - Quiet
It was in the darkness of the night that Manelin caught the youngest member of the troop gathering his things and heading for the nearby stream, and he followed, interest piqued, and watched what was clearly a woman strip down and enter the water, kept quiet by Ruzgar's restraining hand and Darice's eyes glaring into his.
Sentence #22 - Quirks
He noted all of Roseclere's little quirks after his discovery, and wondered at how he had managed not to notice the subtle waves of her womanly curves over her slight figure, her long girlish lashes and pretty face, or, most importantly, the way that her eyes shown with admiration at the only other woman he knew of in the army.
Sentence # 23 - Question
He questioned Darice one night, asking out of curiosity if she knew of any other women living secretly among the men, and was surprised as she she pointed out two other figures that sat together playing cards and a third, who he now knew as Roseclere, the missing girl he had searched for earlier, mixing herbs to make some sort of a salve.
Sentence #24 - Quarrel
The two bickered constantly, and their were times when they refused to acknowledge each others existences but their first real quarrel came before the first battle since the troop had formed, and ended with Manelin apologizing to his sister and promising to stay beside Darice during the fight.
Sentence #25 - Quitting
Cries of pain and the smell of death invaded Darice's 's senses, and she watched sweet Roseclere cut a man's head from his torso, and Ruzgar break the arm of a man half his size, offering Manelin all the comfort she could by protecting him with her sword like she had with her words when they were small, almost wishing that she had let him quit the army when they were still on patrol the year before.
Sentence #26 - Jump
Roseclere ran to make more medicine as soon as they reached the boats that would take them to their next destination, and Manelin jumped at the chance to accompany her, and avoid the gash his sister had received while trying to defend him.
Sentence #27 - Jester
He could make Rose laugh, it seemed, and he took comfort in the sound of a woman's happiness, remembering a time before his sister had hated him and thought him weak.
Sentence #28 - Jousting
In their battles along the Northern borders, Darice's brilliance was rewarded with a promotion, and she and her troop were taken to the nearest town to celebrate by letting the soldiers watch and participate in the jousting tournament currently taking place in the Colosseum.
Sentence #29 - Jewel
A woman, it was said, was a jewel to be polished with pretty clothes and cherished in a safe home, something which, Manelin had always believed, until Darice knocked him off his horse and Roseclere threatened to do the same should he boast of his imaginary skills as a man ever again.
Sentence #30 - Just
Manelin was an ass, but Darice was noble and just, so on their short vacation, Rose had chosen to accompany her as a woman when the elder twin went to visit their mother.
Sentence #31 - Smirk
He hadn't even been able to manage a smirk when he finally saw Althea again, exactly the same physically as when he left, save for a bit of baby fat making her middle protrude just a little more than he remembered and a dark-haired toddler wailing in her arms.
Sentence #32 - Sorrow
A new child meant that she no longer needed her old ones, so after listening to his mother sing the new baby to sleep just as she had when he was a child, and taking note of what the baby had done to the look of anguish that had been on her face before he left as a teenager, he bade her goodbye and stole a horse, riding it back to the campsite where his friends were all stationed.
Sentence #33 - Stupidity
Darice knew of her brother's stupidity as well as his need to be a first priority to everyone, and she knew that the longer she left him the worse he would be, so she sent ahead a note requesting permission to head east into a battle between the neighboring countries, and sent Roseclere to camp as she said her goodbyes, not even sparing a glance at the child clinging to her mother's hip.
Sentence #34 - Serenade
Sometime during their travels, Manelin had picked up a lute, which shone in his hands like he was every bit as much an immortal as his mother was as he serenaded the fully mortal girl that was known as Roseclere.
Sentence #35 - Sarcasm
A few weeks of the couple's open affection was all that it took to make Darice start in with her sarcasm; His dear sister did not believe in love.
Sentence #36 - Sordid
Blood splashed across the snow told a sordid tale of the violent side of war and Manelin, who still shuddered at the thought of death, unconsciously sank a little deeper into the space between Ruzgar and Roseclere, taking comfort in the happy chatter of the cousins, and also in the vision of his sister poised and ready for anything in front of him.
Sentence #37 - Soliloquy
The mortal child that his sister had imprisoned in name of the king looked too similar to his mother for Manelin to ignore, and the way he spoke to himself for reassurance became another similarity that Darice didn't seem to notice.
Sentence #38 - Sojourn
By now the man was an expert escape artist, so he stole the child Rene and took him to the last place anyone would ever look for him, dropping him off to a group of island natives who would protect him merely because he was a child, and never once bothered to share a word with the boy, angry with himself for betraying his sister yet again.
Sentence #39 - Share
They had shared a mere week together without exchanging so much as their names, but as he went to leave the boy and the country (He had stolen from the government, and from what he understood, the child was a very important tool in their search for world conquest.), he was handed an instrument of intricate design far too advanced for someone without and tools or an education, and cursed his sister for making him feel guilty for accepting it.
Sentence #40 - Solitary
Alone was how he liked it, and solitary days gave way to shared nights on ships passing around the world.
Sentence #41 - Nowhere
Darice decided to pretend that Manelin was nowhere and had never existed, and on her way to meet the king to deliver the weapon that he had stolen, she swore to never say his name again.
Sentence #42 - Neutral
Roseclere seemed fairly neutral about the whole thing until one night she crawled into bed with the woman who bore such likeness to the man she had hoped she could love, finding comfort too in the slight swell of her breasts and the tickle of cropped hair.
Sentence #43 - Nuance
They were almost grateful to pretend to be happy together until they approached the castle and a slight change in camp atmosphere made Darice close up again, even to her lover.
Sentence #44 - Near
"The time for a final battle is near," the king began, in the high bell-like voice of an immortal, "and our weapon is missing for what reason, Damian?"
Sentence #45 - Natural
"That child was unnatural, and now our enemy may have more power than we can handle; are your troops prepared to face this battle without such aid?" his question hung in the air, offering a way out to which Darice hastily agreed.
Sentence #46 - Horizon
Along the horizon the army was met with the stench and racket of inhuman monsters that threatened to destroy their world, and still Darice raised her sword above her head and demanded bravery, catching her reflection and feeling another soul mingle with hers in a brief flash of her immortal half giving everyone the courage to fight, and stave off the creatures with heavy casualties on both sides.
Sentence #47 - Valiant
A thousand miles away sat a man who sang for food and money, a tale of a woman warrior who led an army of mortals into war against evil, and prevailed in a valiant effort.
Sentence #48 - Virtuous
They were not virtuous or beautiful, lovely or respectable, but both continued to forge their own paths until word spread of a child with a monster lurking in her soul, the daughter of the immortal Althea, the woman soon to give birth to an heir to the throne of their birth country, and both understood exactly what that meant, and for once, neither chose to let things be.
Sentence #49 - Victory
Darice considered it a small victory when she found her brother sitting in his favourite tree back outside of their school.
Sentence #50 - Defeat
Neither wanted to move, but Darice glared until Manelin twisted his way down the trunk and straight into her outstretched fist before pulling her into a hug that, for once, made no false promises.
- - - - - - -
Sentence Prompt #1 - Walk'
Now pregnant for almost eight months, Althea no longer walked with the grace of a lady, but rather waddled about like a circus performer, clutching at her belly as though the baby inside could help to keep her balance.
Sentence Prompt #2 - Waltz
It had been easy enough, at the time that her children had been conceived, to give herself away to the man that she had only sort-of loved, but now that the twin toddlers clutched two of her fingers in their tiny little hands, she found herself unable and unwilling to leave their sides, even for the warrior that had given them to her.
Sentence Prompt #3 - Wishes
Sometimes she would lay awake at night and cry herself into fitful nightmares that made her wish she could forget him and the tragic ending that he had faced alone, because she had been too tied down to come to his side, but then two little bodies would wriggle into her bed and demand a story of something completely unrelated and she would tell them of a warrior that shared their sharp noses and fair complexion, their sandy hair and thoughtful gazes, and they would lie awake a little longer than she, and pass in their gazes to each other a promise to find such a warrior one day.
Sentence Prompt #4 - Wonder
It was a wonder, how similar they were in appearance and yet how different they were in mind and ability.
Sentence Prompt # 5 - Worry
Rumor had it that Manelin and Darice may be the son and daughter of a prince from Alberiey, and Darice had no qualms about squashing her brother's foolish dreams of someday ruling over a kingdom and marrying a princess, because ignoring your family for six years was not a princely thing to do.
Sentence #6 - Whimsy
Despite her mother's warnings to keep to the main road, Darice found herself strolling through the orchards after dark and stumbled across a giggling girl slightly older than she and a boy that could be her reflection, and swore to never again let herself loose on a whimsy; Someone had to take care of her family.
Sentence #7 - Waste
Their family was not poor, nor were they wealthy or royal, but every year the twins made something special with their mother and on this holiday she realized they no longer needed her to wipe the sticky chocolate mess from their faces herself; they were growing far too quickly, and Althea began to cling a little harder, knowing what happened to those who wasted too much time when it came to mortals.
Sentence #8 - Whiskey and Rum
Manelin screeched as he rounded a corner and almost ran head long into his sister, who upon seeing a grumbling old man following behind him, briskly handed back the bottle of booze that her mother sometimes referred to as medicine and apologized profusely, pulling Manelin away by his ear and mending his broken heart with a cup of tea and a controlled smack on the head instead.
Sentence #9 - War
Darice and Althea seemed to always be at war with each other anymore, and when he finally couldn't handle being the middle link between the two, he packed his bags and left in the dead quiet of the night, a fifteen year old runaway who wanted to find his father.
Sentence #10 - Weddings
Her father was non-existent, her mother was flighty , and her only ally had disappeared into the night: These circumstances had lead Darice to the outskirts of town where a fortuneteller spoke of marriage as her only means of escape, something which made her insides turn violently.
Sentence #11 - Birthday
It was on their birthday that the kingdom was plunged into war, and, somehow, Darice disguised as a man, stumbled across her brother sleeping soundly in the bedding of a soldier.
Sentence #12 - Blessing
At first he thought it was a blessing that his beloved sister had joined him, but after being beaten with the hilt of her sword in a stacked match he found himself cursing his misfortune.
Sentence #13 - Bias
When Darice - or rather Damian - was appointed commander of their little group, she chose Manelin as her right-hand man, ensuring that he would be as safe as she was, and ignored the others' accusations that their leader was biased, however uneasily.
Sentence #14 - Burning
Manelin burned as the strange man tugged, rather forcefully, at the buttons of Darice's shirt and hurled accusations that she was a woman, only her knowing expression kept him from drawing his dagger and stabbing the man, and he watched with fascination as she called out the name of a rather burly looking guy who quickly flew to her rescue and dragged the offender off, winking at him as he walked passed, the man in his arms looking rather dwarf-like compared to his incredible size.
Sentence #15 - Breathing
A landslide split the troop into two groups and Manelin and Darice were apart from one another for the first time in two years, only the mock solute from Ruzgar, the man who saved his sister from being discovered a week earlier and his reassurances that Darice would be fine gave him the will to breath again.
Sentence #16 - Breaking
After breaking his mother's heart and abandoning his twin sister, Darice knew that Manelin was not a good person, but still, when the other group broke through the clearing after days of trekking through the forest and around the waste left from the avalanche, she felt her heart break as she realized that he had run away for the second time.
Sentence #17 - Belief
He'd always believed that he and Darice could survive anything, but after a few weeks apart Manelin realized that it wasn't her that he was missing, and a poster dancing past him in the wind promised riches should he hunt down and capture a runaway like himself, so he left his horse with his new found friend and ignored the look of contempt in the man's eyes as he threw away his position in the army in favor of a life on the run.
Sentence #18 - Balloon
A hot air balloon took Manelin high into the sky, and he used the bird's eye view to search both for the escape route used by the woman who had chosen to flee from her home a few months before and to see if he could catch the long green feather that protruded from his sister's helmet.
Sentence #19 - Balcony
A balcony view in the room of the girl's sister provided a better place for gleaming information, and as always, Manelin gave little thought of being caught in the act until a large form burst from the door and he found himself in an ally as a man tried to break his face for ruining his first child; he was saved by the arrow of a member of the troop that was resting in the town and condemned by the rough hands of Ruzgar who took far too much pleasure in hauling him back to his sister.
Sentence #20 - Bane
Darice declared her brother the bane of her existence before promising the father of the missing woman that she would handle him herself, without ever giving away that she knew his face, even after the man had left, without questioning their physical similarities.
Sentence #21 - Quiet
It was in the darkness of the night that Manelin caught the youngest member of the troop gathering his things and heading for the nearby stream, and he followed, interest piqued, and watched what was clearly a woman strip down and enter the water, kept quiet by Ruzgar's restraining hand and Darice's eyes glaring into his.
Sentence #22 - Quirks
He noted all of Roseclere's little quirks after his discovery, and wondered at how he had managed not to notice the subtle waves of her womanly curves over her slight figure, her long girlish lashes and pretty face, or, most importantly, the way that her eyes shown with admiration at the only other woman he knew of in the army.
Sentence # 23 - Question
He questioned Darice one night, asking out of curiosity if she knew of any other women living secretly among the men, and was surprised as she she pointed out two other figures that sat together playing cards and a third, who he now knew as Roseclere, the missing girl he had searched for earlier, mixing herbs to make some sort of a salve.
Sentence #24 - Quarrel
The two bickered constantly, and their were times when they refused to acknowledge each others existences but their first real quarrel came before the first battle since the troop had formed, and ended with Manelin apologizing to his sister and promising to stay beside Darice during the fight.
Sentence #25 - Quitting
Cries of pain and the smell of death invaded Darice's 's senses, and she watched sweet Roseclere cut a man's head from his torso, and Ruzgar break the arm of a man half his size, offering Manelin all the comfort she could by protecting him with her sword like she had with her words when they were small, almost wishing that she had let him quit the army when they were still on patrol the year before.
Sentence #26 - Jump
Roseclere ran to make more medicine as soon as they reached the boats that would take them to their next destination, and Manelin jumped at the chance to accompany her, and avoid the gash his sister had received while trying to defend him.
Sentence #27 - Jester
He could make Rose laugh, it seemed, and he took comfort in the sound of a woman's happiness, remembering a time before his sister had hated him and thought him weak.
Sentence #28 - Jousting
In their battles along the Northern borders, Darice's brilliance was rewarded with a promotion, and she and her troop were taken to the nearest town to celebrate by letting the soldiers watch and participate in the jousting tournament currently taking place in the Colosseum.
Sentence #29 - Jewel
A woman, it was said, was a jewel to be polished with pretty clothes and cherished in a safe home, something which, Manelin had always believed, until Darice knocked him off his horse and Roseclere threatened to do the same should he boast of his imaginary skills as a man ever again.
Sentence #30 - Just
Manelin was an ass, but Darice was noble and just, so on their short vacation, Rose had chosen to accompany her as a woman when the elder twin went to visit their mother.
Sentence #31 - Smirk
He hadn't even been able to manage a smirk when he finally saw Althea again, exactly the same physically as when he left, save for a bit of baby fat making her middle protrude just a little more than he remembered and a dark-haired toddler wailing in her arms.
Sentence #32 - Sorrow
A new child meant that she no longer needed her old ones, so after listening to his mother sing the new baby to sleep just as she had when he was a child, and taking note of what the baby had done to the look of anguish that had been on her face before he left as a teenager, he bade her goodbye and stole a horse, riding it back to the campsite where his friends were all stationed.
Sentence #33 - Stupidity
Darice knew of her brother's stupidity as well as his need to be a first priority to everyone, and she knew that the longer she left him the worse he would be, so she sent ahead a note requesting permission to head east into a battle between the neighboring countries, and sent Roseclere to camp as she said her goodbyes, not even sparing a glance at the child clinging to her mother's hip.
Sentence #34 - Serenade
Sometime during their travels, Manelin had picked up a lute, which shone in his hands like he was every bit as much an immortal as his mother was as he serenaded the fully mortal girl that was known as Roseclere.
Sentence #35 - Sarcasm
A few weeks of the couple's open affection was all that it took to make Darice start in with her sarcasm; His dear sister did not believe in love.
Sentence #36 - Sordid
Blood splashed across the snow told a sordid tale of the violent side of war and Manelin, who still shuddered at the thought of death, unconsciously sank a little deeper into the space between Ruzgar and Roseclere, taking comfort in the happy chatter of the cousins, and also in the vision of his sister poised and ready for anything in front of him.
Sentence #37 - Soliloquy
The mortal child that his sister had imprisoned in name of the king looked too similar to his mother for Manelin to ignore, and the way he spoke to himself for reassurance became another similarity that Darice didn't seem to notice.
Sentence #38 - Sojourn
By now the man was an expert escape artist, so he stole the child Rene and took him to the last place anyone would ever look for him, dropping him off to a group of island natives who would protect him merely because he was a child, and never once bothered to share a word with the boy, angry with himself for betraying his sister yet again.
Sentence #39 - Share
They had shared a mere week together without exchanging so much as their names, but as he went to leave the boy and the country (He had stolen from the government, and from what he understood, the child was a very important tool in their search for world conquest.), he was handed an instrument of intricate design far too advanced for someone without and tools or an education, and cursed his sister for making him feel guilty for accepting it.
Sentence #40 - Solitary
Alone was how he liked it, and solitary days gave way to shared nights on ships passing around the world.
Sentence #41 - Nowhere
Darice decided to pretend that Manelin was nowhere and had never existed, and on her way to meet the king to deliver the weapon that he had stolen, she swore to never say his name again.
Sentence #42 - Neutral
Roseclere seemed fairly neutral about the whole thing until one night she crawled into bed with the woman who bore such likeness to the man she had hoped she could love, finding comfort too in the slight swell of her breasts and the tickle of cropped hair.
Sentence #43 - Nuance
They were almost grateful to pretend to be happy together until they approached the castle and a slight change in camp atmosphere made Darice close up again, even to her lover.
Sentence #44 - Near
"The time for a final battle is near," the king began, in the high bell-like voice of an immortal, "and our weapon is missing for what reason, Damian?"
Sentence #45 - Natural
"That child was unnatural, and now our enemy may have more power than we can handle; are your troops prepared to face this battle without such aid?" his question hung in the air, offering a way out to which Darice hastily agreed.
Sentence #46 - Horizon
Along the horizon the army was met with the stench and racket of inhuman monsters that threatened to destroy their world, and still Darice raised her sword above her head and demanded bravery, catching her reflection and feeling another soul mingle with hers in a brief flash of her immortal half giving everyone the courage to fight, and stave off the creatures with heavy casualties on both sides.
Sentence #47 - Valiant
A thousand miles away sat a man who sang for food and money, a tale of a woman warrior who led an army of mortals into war against evil, and prevailed in a valiant effort.
Sentence #48 - Virtuous
They were not virtuous or beautiful, lovely or respectable, but both continued to forge their own paths until word spread of a child with a monster lurking in her soul, the daughter of the immortal Althea, the woman soon to give birth to an heir to the throne of their birth country, and both understood exactly what that meant, and for once, neither chose to let things be.
Sentence #49 - Victory
Darice considered it a small victory when she found her brother sitting in his favourite tree back outside of their school.
Sentence #50 - Defeat
Neither wanted to move, but Darice glared until Manelin twisted his way down the trunk and straight into her outstretched fist before pulling her into a hug that, for once, made no false promises.
- - - - - - -