The Real Stories of Merry-Chase: Pistachio and Candy Apple!
Title: The Real Stories of Merry-Chase
Main Story: Cryptomancy
Flavors: Pistachio #30: Not so happily ever after; Candy Apple #6: foot/feet
Toppings/Extras: Sprinkles! (It's still Chaill's POV, but this one's about Bug, Thorne, and Jenny Three-Toes)
Word Count: 989
Rating: PG (I think this is probably G but I'm going to start hitting all my stuff with PG so when things get crazy I don't feel guilty XD)
Summary: Chaill learns
Notes: I really want to write pumpkin pie prompts but I needed to get this out of me. I was driving down the street actually saying these stories out loud and I knew I had to tell them. It's kinda long-ish but I think it goes fast. :)
“Alright,” Bug said. “I will teach you. But you have to promise something.”
“What’s that?”
Her face grew very serious. I couldn’t see her eyebrows behind her mask, but the way her forehead creased told me they were knotted. “You have to promise not to hurt people with it.”
I frowned, and I was sure that she’d sensed the change in my mood, but she didn’t say anything. I didn’t really know what to say. It wasn’t that I’d intended to hurt anyone, but there was really just no telling. I’d wanted Bug’s very specific set of skills originally to ingratiate myself to Lady Bloodrose, and our mistress was not exactly known for her magnanimity. Still, even removing the Lady from the equation, I realized that I wanted Bug’s skills and knowledge more than anything. Her abilities seemed so mysterious and wondrous to me. So, I said, “Yes. I promise.”
The next few weeks passed as a blur, and there was so much to learn; but I was a fast learner. I always had been, and now that Bug was teaching me a sort of weird science, I felt all the parts of my brain that I’d used back in London coming to life inside me again. It had been what felt like years since I’d been challenged, and Bug knew how to challenge me. In time, I even began learning the real stories of Merry-Chase. Ones that didn’t have anything to do with White Ladies and Red Ladies and old kings in Black Towers.
I learned that Jenny Three-Toes had once been beautiful, when she’d come to Merry-Chase. She’d fallen in love with a golden-haired gentleman and followed him into a wood. It was only when she spotted the red tower of the Rookery that she realized she’d never learned his name. When she got to the tower, the Lady had given her food and wine, and she’d stayed and stayed, and begun to serve. Jenny Three-Toes was the only one of us at Merry-Chase who still remembered her name, though she didn’t dare to speak it. Once, she had tried to leave the Red Castle, but Lady Bloodrose had hunted her down. That was why she was called Jenny Three-Toes; when she was caught, the Lady had cut off all but two toes on her left foot and one on her right. She still had enough to limp and work, but she would never try to run again.
I learned that Thorne had a brother, and that brother was very sick. One day, he had been taken with some wasting disease. First, he’d stopped walking. Then, his eyes had glazed over and he’d stopped seeing. Finally, he stopped talking, he just lay in his bed day after day. Thorne had never been the praying sort. He was Catholic, and he thought it was just as well to let the priests talk to God for him. But one day, he’d had enough, and he spoke out loud. He said, “Take me instead, just let him live,” and an angel appeared, a red haired angel who smiled and told him that she would let him live, all Thorne had to give her was his name. He thought he was getting a pretty good deal, but as soon as he spoke it, he forgot it. His brother did keep living, but he never got his sight back, or his voice, or his legs. He’s probably still wasting in that bed. Thorne often thought that if he could go back to the mortal world, he would lay a pillow over his brother’s face and let him go and be with God.
And then there was Bug. She and I would play a game, where we would guess what the other was thinking. She always won, but one day I reached out and I managed to find her story. I don’t know if it was in her scent, or if she was just slipping out of her body and whispering it in my ear. I know she wanted me to have it, and I carry it with me like a precious jewel.
She’d been the youngest of seven children, and she’d only been ten years old when the plague whipped through London. One by one, it had taken them all, and one day there was just Bug and her sister alone in their rickety house.
The plague hadn’t stopped, but they hadn’t had anywhere else to go. They stayed, until one day dark black welts popped up under Bug’s sister’s armpits. Come sunrise, she was dead. Bug was still laying on the floor, clutching her sister’s spotted body to her chest when the fires started. She barely noticed.
This is the only part Bug told me out loud: if she could go back, she would have stayed in that house as it collapsed under the fire. She fled, leaving her sister’s shell behind, but taking her ghost along with her.
She wandered the streets long enough for the sun to rise and set more than a few times. Nights, she would curl up in the gutters or in churchyards or in any place she wouldn’t be seen, and every day that passed, she grew more invisible. People stopped feeling sorry for her. Then, they stopped being repulsed by her. They stopped seeing her at all.
One day, a red-haired lady approached her and told her that if she followed her home, she’d let Bug live with her and be her daughter. What else could she do? She followed Lady Bloodrose back to Merry-Chase, and the Lady gave her food and wine, and next thing she knew, she’d forgotten her name and she’d forgotten her way home. But it didn’t matter, at any rate. Bug didn’t have to tell me she was never leaving, and I didn’t need to smell it on her skin. I already knew; she didn’t have anything left.
Main Story: Cryptomancy
Flavors: Pistachio #30: Not so happily ever after; Candy Apple #6: foot/feet
Toppings/Extras: Sprinkles! (It's still Chaill's POV, but this one's about Bug, Thorne, and Jenny Three-Toes)
Word Count: 989
Rating: PG (I think this is probably G but I'm going to start hitting all my stuff with PG so when things get crazy I don't feel guilty XD)
Summary: Chaill learns
Notes: I really want to write pumpkin pie prompts but I needed to get this out of me. I was driving down the street actually saying these stories out loud and I knew I had to tell them. It's kinda long-ish but I think it goes fast. :)
“Alright,” Bug said. “I will teach you. But you have to promise something.”
“What’s that?”
Her face grew very serious. I couldn’t see her eyebrows behind her mask, but the way her forehead creased told me they were knotted. “You have to promise not to hurt people with it.”
I frowned, and I was sure that she’d sensed the change in my mood, but she didn’t say anything. I didn’t really know what to say. It wasn’t that I’d intended to hurt anyone, but there was really just no telling. I’d wanted Bug’s very specific set of skills originally to ingratiate myself to Lady Bloodrose, and our mistress was not exactly known for her magnanimity. Still, even removing the Lady from the equation, I realized that I wanted Bug’s skills and knowledge more than anything. Her abilities seemed so mysterious and wondrous to me. So, I said, “Yes. I promise.”
The next few weeks passed as a blur, and there was so much to learn; but I was a fast learner. I always had been, and now that Bug was teaching me a sort of weird science, I felt all the parts of my brain that I’d used back in London coming to life inside me again. It had been what felt like years since I’d been challenged, and Bug knew how to challenge me. In time, I even began learning the real stories of Merry-Chase. Ones that didn’t have anything to do with White Ladies and Red Ladies and old kings in Black Towers.
I learned that Jenny Three-Toes had once been beautiful, when she’d come to Merry-Chase. She’d fallen in love with a golden-haired gentleman and followed him into a wood. It was only when she spotted the red tower of the Rookery that she realized she’d never learned his name. When she got to the tower, the Lady had given her food and wine, and she’d stayed and stayed, and begun to serve. Jenny Three-Toes was the only one of us at Merry-Chase who still remembered her name, though she didn’t dare to speak it. Once, she had tried to leave the Red Castle, but Lady Bloodrose had hunted her down. That was why she was called Jenny Three-Toes; when she was caught, the Lady had cut off all but two toes on her left foot and one on her right. She still had enough to limp and work, but she would never try to run again.
I learned that Thorne had a brother, and that brother was very sick. One day, he had been taken with some wasting disease. First, he’d stopped walking. Then, his eyes had glazed over and he’d stopped seeing. Finally, he stopped talking, he just lay in his bed day after day. Thorne had never been the praying sort. He was Catholic, and he thought it was just as well to let the priests talk to God for him. But one day, he’d had enough, and he spoke out loud. He said, “Take me instead, just let him live,” and an angel appeared, a red haired angel who smiled and told him that she would let him live, all Thorne had to give her was his name. He thought he was getting a pretty good deal, but as soon as he spoke it, he forgot it. His brother did keep living, but he never got his sight back, or his voice, or his legs. He’s probably still wasting in that bed. Thorne often thought that if he could go back to the mortal world, he would lay a pillow over his brother’s face and let him go and be with God.
And then there was Bug. She and I would play a game, where we would guess what the other was thinking. She always won, but one day I reached out and I managed to find her story. I don’t know if it was in her scent, or if she was just slipping out of her body and whispering it in my ear. I know she wanted me to have it, and I carry it with me like a precious jewel.
She’d been the youngest of seven children, and she’d only been ten years old when the plague whipped through London. One by one, it had taken them all, and one day there was just Bug and her sister alone in their rickety house.
The plague hadn’t stopped, but they hadn’t had anywhere else to go. They stayed, until one day dark black welts popped up under Bug’s sister’s armpits. Come sunrise, she was dead. Bug was still laying on the floor, clutching her sister’s spotted body to her chest when the fires started. She barely noticed.
This is the only part Bug told me out loud: if she could go back, she would have stayed in that house as it collapsed under the fire. She fled, leaving her sister’s shell behind, but taking her ghost along with her.
She wandered the streets long enough for the sun to rise and set more than a few times. Nights, she would curl up in the gutters or in churchyards or in any place she wouldn’t be seen, and every day that passed, she grew more invisible. People stopped feeling sorry for her. Then, they stopped being repulsed by her. They stopped seeing her at all.
One day, a red-haired lady approached her and told her that if she followed her home, she’d let Bug live with her and be her daughter. What else could she do? She followed Lady Bloodrose back to Merry-Chase, and the Lady gave her food and wine, and next thing she knew, she’d forgotten her name and she’d forgotten her way home. But it didn’t matter, at any rate. Bug didn’t have to tell me she was never leaving, and I didn’t need to smell it on her skin. I already knew; she didn’t have anything left.