fifty words
Secure: Debris from the shattered walls still littered the ground, but as Brendan stepped into Kells, he felt safe for the first time in over a decade.
Thinner: "You idiot! You don't give blood thinners to a child that cut his leg open!" Abbot Cellach roared over the prone body of his nephew.
Flood: Controlling the boat took all of his strength, and Aidan wouldn't remember much beyond the utter terror and the flames fading far behind.
Lessening: As Brendan rushed to tell him of the places he traveled to show the Book, Cellach felt the crushing weight of his guilt lifting, if only a little.
Hideous: Crom Cruach was awfulness beyond Brendan's imagination.
Drop: Brother Tang sometimes woke long after sunset, swearing he heard bodies hitting the snowy ground; Abbot Cellach always did.
Angel: of course it's coming for me cowering in the dark weak old useless I need time but please please let me see him again before I go to Hell-"Uncle?"
Monochrome: He stared out at the remnants of Kells from the tower, remembering that it was once more than grey and red.
Purchase: Sometimes Brendan wondered why the Vikings were so desperate for gold.
Guest: Aidan stared into the fire after the Abbot had left, painfully recalling that he was naught but a guest, alone with only his memories…
Emotion: …and then Brendan returns with the Eye and optimism, and Aidan returns to his high spirits.
Mumble: Aidan smiled at the child-he acted the same way, the first time he met Columb-Cille.
Graphic: Aisling's human form shattered and was torn apart and eaten by the darkness…
Heart: …but when Crom Cruach was defeated, her soul condensed into her wolfish form and she could simply be again.
Hiding: After Brendan returned, the Abbot sometimes stood behind the scriptorium door, listening to the tales of other lands he spun for the other brothers.
Lifetime: Aisling would live a hundred times longer than any human, and she would get attached to quite a few of them; the only one she would remember forever was Brendan.
Mathematics: Calculating angles and weight distribution out loud helped him think, as well as taught Brendan math.
Spreading: The Vikings were everywhere, an epidemic of terror.
Cuddling: He held his three-year-old nephew to his chest tightly. You are innocent, yet you have lost everything… I will protect you.
Bed: He was awake, yet Brendan was already there-and he wasn't screaming curses or burning or bleeding-the first night without nightmares.
Wrath: Every moment of every day, Cellach regretted that the last memory Brendan would have of his uncle was his rage.
Slowing: Aidan's body was slowing, but his mind was as sharp as ever; he didn't bother avoiding the truth. "I'm dying, Brendan."
Compelling: Brendan watched as his uncle drew a magnificent picture of Kells before the attack, inspired by the book.
Food: Brendan soon learned that explosions of smoke were only good with ink, not lunch.
Leap: The white wolf ran far ahead of him, leaping over roots taller than herself, and Brendan realized how much he had missed this.
Anybody: Brendan never turned anyone down when they requested for him to read the Book aloud.
Freezing: Cellach dug though the cold ashes in the scriptorium even as the snow covered it, even as his fingers numbed, even as the tears froze to his face, looking for the slightest evidence that they hadn't been entirely incinerated.
Overhead: They flinch whenever a crow flies overhead, convinced that the Vikings were on their trail, set on avenging the three the wolves took down.
Tackling: Brendan learns that Faerie wolves like slamming into humans for their own amusement.
Relative: The Abbot acted so defensive about his title, Aidan was surprised that he let Brendan call him 'Uncle'.
Prayer: No matter how many were being buried that day, no matter how tired he was, the Abbot prayed over every single soul that was lost.
Capture: Sometimes Brendan wondered what might've happened if the Vikings took prisoners…what his imagination supplied gave him nightmares of his Uncle, refusing to build defenses for the Vikings and whipped or burned on a fire or swallowed by Crom. And then he wakes up screaming.
Pose: "Stop moving," Aisling ordered. "I'm drawing a picture of you!"
Poverty: "Uncle? Why do the monks have beautiful robes and the villagers don't?"
Story: "Aisling isn't a story, Uncle," he said quietly. "I'm going to visit her right now."
Cat: Pangur Bán could pass through any barrier with Aisling-after all, cats know no boundaries.
Stop: We cannot stop. We cannot stop. We cannot stop. He chanted it over and over in his head until a worried Brendan mentioned that he was doing so out loud.
Hazard: Broken walls no longer stopped the winds, which blew the ashes throughout the town so that everyone had to stay inside or risk suffocation.
Catalogue: Aidan had only the finest inks in Iona, and was surprised when Kells had the supplies to make them.
Telephone: When paper could be spared, Brendan wrote messages to Kells and threw them into the wind, wishing there was a true way to communicate with home.
Cuddly: Pangur's favorite spot to sleep was in Brendan's robes…while he was wearing them.
Unlucky: Cellach lost everything; a decade's work, his hope, his confidence, his ability to illuminate, his only family.
Scratch: Pangur was proud that he had Viking blood on his claws.
Tender: At Brendan's plea, Aisling stood above the ill Abbot's bed, trying to heal him and humming along to Brendan's whispered prayers.
Coal: "The Abbot cannot light the fireplace anymore," Tang whispered sadly. "He falls into madness at the smell."
Reluctance: Cellach stood just inside the border of the wall, Brendan just outside of it.
Tired: Howling woke him up faster than splashing water over his head, though whether it was fear or hope, even Brendan couldn't be certain.
Slant: Now that there was no Wall, Cellach threw himself into improving the huts -- making them warmer, letting the water slide off the roof better, and such.
Giggle: Aisling giggled as the old man put himself in front of his nephew-"I'd never hurt him, silly!"
Foundation: Abbot, artist, faerie, cat, all stood in a circle, their worlds mixing, building a strange new one...