Day two: Fairy tale/fantasy
I chose East of the Sun, West of the moon, but only actually finished the first half of it. Ill post that now but ill try to finish up the rest before the end of yjweek
The last thing she expects when the dragon Draper sets her down is to be faced with three more animals, two of whom Cissie couldn't name if her life depended on it. And the way they're looking at her, it just might.
One of them, a large golden cat-like animal looks unimpressed. The other, a golden bipedal thing that had a pouch in front and two long ears like a rabbit (mmm rabbit, Cissie's belly growls to remind her that she still hasn't eaten. Not since killing that wolf, that wolf that happened to be property of a dragon, hence why she was here. A life for a life, a fair trade. Not like her mother couldn't wait to get rid of her). Fluttering between them is a sparrow. The sparrow drops onto the big cat's head and says, in a voice too human to make Cissie at ease: "so, you're the new one?"
Cissie blinks at the bird. She shouldn't be surprised, not really. She's been forced into indenture to a dragon, why wouldn't his house guests speak?
The bird leans towards the cat. "Maybe she can't speak?" It asks.
"I can speak!" Cissie says, a little affronted. The bird flutters, like Cissie startled it.
"Ignore him," the man-sized brown rabbit says. "Bart doesn't see new people very often."
"Bart?" The bird certainly has a human name.
"Yeah!" Bart crows--or, well, sparrows. "This is Kon," Bart says pecking at the cat it rides on who harumphs, "and that's Cassie." He points to the rabbit-thing. "We're going to be your new friends!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Bart," Kon, apparently, says. He shakes his fur and Bart flutters off, only to land between Cassie's ears. "We don't even know if she's staying."
Cissie frowns at the animals. "Why wouldn't I be staying? I'm indentured."
If the looks could kill, the rabbit-thing certainly would have murdered the cat. "No reason, he's just grumpy. Come on, I'll show you to your room."
Clearly Cissie doesn't know anything about the world outside of her small town because if someone had asked her before she'd accidently indebted herself to a dragon where dragons lived, she would not have said 'a palace of ice,' but, here she is. In a palace of ice.
Cassie knows where she's going and as they walk she gives Cissie a low-key tour. "Dining hall is through there, library through there, me and the boys sleep down that hall. And you're down here."
"Can I ask you a question?" Cissie asks hesitantly.
Bart the sparrow turns around to face her. "You just did!" He chirps.
"Sure," Cassie says, ignoring him.
"What am I supposed to... do here?"
Cassie slows down to hop by Cissie's side. "Mainly cleaning and hunting." At Cissie's expression, Cassie adds, "you do hunt, right?"
Well, that was what got her into this mess. Cissie's mother refused to hunt or work at all, practically, so Cissie did most of it. Then when she'd killed a wolf for what was going to be tonight's (maybe last night's, she wasn't sure what time it was) dinner, she hadn't even walked through the door, dragging the animal carcass behind her when Dragon Draper desended from the sky and told her mother in no uncertain terms that as punishment for killing an animal of a dragon she must work off her penance. With a healthy sack of gold, Cissie's mother practically threw her out of the house (even Bonnie King-Jones knew there was only so much you could bleed a dragon before they made you wish you hadn't).
So yes, Cissie can hunt, but that doesn't mean she likes to. Then again, she isn't going to make that distinction to a very scary looking animal larger than she is. "I hunt," she says.
"Good, there's no need to cook since all of us who take our meat, take it raw. Though you'll probably want to cook for yourself, I suppose." Cassie uses her oddly shaped hands to open Cissie's door. "You can put your stuff down here. Anything I can get you? We've all already eaten, so after you're done just head to sleep, and tomorrow we'll stsrt you on your chores."
Cissie blinks at the room. Unlike the rest of the castle, which seems to glow with a pearlesent light, her room is dark. It contains one wardrobe and a large canopied bed, too big for one person. Beside one side is a small table and an unlit candle in a holder.
Cissie's belly growls and she remembers how hungry she is. "Something small to eat if you could."
"Sure thing, be back in a bit." Cassie hops out of the room and leaves Cissie to unpack.
Cissie doesn't have much: just whatever furs she could find and stuff into a knapsack. She didn't even bring her bow and arrow (didn't really think she'd need it, hoped, maybe, that working for a dragon meant that she didn't have to hunt for food anymore). She'll have to borrow from Dragon Draper if he wants her to hunt. Huh, what a funny thought, borrowing weapons from a dragon. Cissie shakes her head a laughs to herself.
The bed is soft, but way too big for one person. A breeze blows through the room and Cissie shivers. She's exhausted from the strangeness of today, and cold. She climbs under the covers and is half-asleep when Cassie comes back with her food sans Bart.
"Thank you," Cissie says.
Cassie shifts on her feet. "You're welcome."
"Aren't you cold?" Cissie asks between mouthfuls.
Cassie shakes her head. "No, I'm-" she stops, as if she wants to say something but doesn't. She shakes her elongated head resolutely and says, "no, I'm not cold."
Cissie shrugs. These animals are weird. "What kind of animal are you anyway?" she asks. Then she flushes at how rude that sounded. "What I mean to say is, I've never seen an animal like you before."
"I'm not from here," Cassie explains, vaguely gesturing with her small hands to the ice palace. "I'm some somewhere down south. We're called kangaroos."
Kang-gah-roos. Cissie tries the word out on her mouth. "And what's Kon? I get that Bart's a sparrow."
"Kon's also from down south, but not as far. He's a lion." Cissie tries that new word out on her tongue too and decides to commit both to memory.
She finishes with her food quickly and Cassie takes back the plate.
"Sleep well," Cassie says, and Cissie's so tired that she doesn't notice the dip as someone sits in her bed, once its so dark that no one could see anything if they wanted to. She doesn't feel the warmth of his back against hers, nor does she even wake until the ice palace around her glows with morning light, and her vistor is gone. She notices the sheets though, rumpled on the side of the bed she didn't sleep on, and she notices the way the mattress is still warm there. But she can't imagine why.
The next morning she joins the animals in the dining room, even Dragon Draper is there, sitting at the head of his table but he says nothing all breakfast.
Bart and Kon chat with her amiacably, clearly Kon's hesitance yesterday regular. They're excitable but nice, and Cassie spends most of the meal rolling her eyes at them.
When Draper finally does speak, his voice is deep and stony. The other three fall silent. "I hope you've been informed of your duties."
Cassie glares at Draper but he doesn't seem to notice.
"I, um, Cassie said that I had to hunt for you. I didn't being my bow."
Draper blinks his big ruby eyes at her as he deliberates. Draper is about ten feet tall--larger than Cassie's six feet--with a large black body with green accents and golden teeth. He's pretty terrifying, especially when he's silent like this.
Finally he says, "I have weapons you can use. Kon can show you where. Cassie and I must be heading out."
"How long will you be gone?" Cissie asks, already preparing for how many animals she'll have to hunt for lunch and dinner. Both Kon and Draper are carnivores, but Cassie and Bart seem to be okay with plants. Where they find the green in the middle of winter, Cissie has no idea.
"We'll return for supper," he says. He rises off of his hunches and hobbles past Cissie. "Let's head out."
Cassie grumbles something that Cissie can't hear and hops after him.
Cissie frowns. "Would it kill him to be nice?"
"Maybe," Bart says. He fluffs his feathers and takes flight. "Come on, I'll show you."
Cissie hunts down an elk, a moose, and a fawn, and splits them preportionally between Kon and Draper.
She spends the rest of the day cleaning. Draper and Cassie come back to the palace so late that it's almost pitch black in Cissie's room when she finally falls into bed.
She's tired, but she's still awake when she feels the other side of her bed dip. Someone was getting into her bed.
Fear climbs into her throat. But the person just settles--they're smaller than her or curled up. Within seconds she can tell they're asleep by their heavy breathing.
They don't try anything, and messing around was what got Cissie into this situation. So she closes her eyes, and drifts off to sleep, her toes warmed by their body-heat, so she can't really complain.
In the morning the person is gone by the time Cissie wakes, all that's left of them is the residual heat of their body and the rumbled sheets.
She asks Cassie about it at breakfast. "Is there someone else in this palace?" Because the person who climbed into her bed certainly wasn't any of the animals--ignoring size and just relying on smell.
Cassie frowns as much as a kangaroo can frown and shakes her head. "No. Just the four-well, five of us. Why?"
Had she imagined it? Maybe she was just lonely.
Cissie shook her head. "Never-mind."
"Careful out here in the cold!" Bart warns, settling on the top of her head. "It plays tricks on you humans."
"Ignore him, he's superstitious," Kon says.
A superstitious bird, Cissie is starting to wonder what else can possibly surprise her at this point.
Draper continues to be stand-offish and cold towards her. The irony doesn't escape her. Cassie openly reprimands him for it and from the way Kon and Draper speak to one another, Cissie gets the feeling that they aren't exactly the best of friends. At least not in the way Bart is with both of them.
Bart is by far the friendliest. He follows Cissie around and chirps to her as she cleans. He's forbidden to go hunting with her anymore though because he keeps scaring off the prey.
When Cissie returns to bed that night though, so did her mysterious visitor once the pitch had settled in. Cissie's glad for the extra warmth against the cold night, but now she's more sure than ever that the person on the other side of the bed from her is a human. And since Cassie seems positive that there are no other people, much less no other humans in the palace other than the five of them, Cissie isn't sure yet what she wants to do about it.
Perhaps they are someone homeless? Who stay the castle as shelter during the horrible winter blizzards and night? But then why sleep in the bed with Cissie, surely they know as much as she does that they shared the bed with another?
"You okay?" Bart asks as Cissie on her third full day with in the ice palace.
"Fine." Her mysterious bedmate was annoying her though. "Bart?" She asks.
Bart shoots into the air, flitting around her head. "Whatdoyamean?"
"Well, normal animals can't talk," at least, sparrows can't. Cissie isn't sure about lions and kangaroos. "So why can you?"
Bart bursts into nervous laughter. Then stops, says, "I think Kon's calling me, ohyes! NowIhavetogo! Byeee Cissieee!" And flies away.
Cissie knows something is wrong. Bart is trying, for some reason, to lie to her. He isn't good at it at all.
Night four of Cassie's mysterious visitor comes. She tries to stay awake for them, as long as she can but she must eventually drift off to sleep because it isn't until she wakes up in the middle of the night that she notices them.
They're still except for the rise and fall of their chest. Cissie hesitantly presses a hand to them. Definitely human. They don't awaken.
She suddenly remembers the lamp by her bed, but she has no way to light it, and it's too cold to go looking.
The person in her bed is an intrusion, but she doesn't want to get up, and it isn't as if she has anything to... worry about. Not like they try anything while they sleep. And the bed is definitely large enough for two.
Cissie snuggles back into her bed but vows to find out the next night.
Cissie is dusting in the library when something catches her eye: Spells for the Curious.
Cissie pulls it from the shelf and paws through it. She's so entranced that she doesn't notice Draper mosey up to her. He peeks over her shoulder and snaps: "Put that down!"
Cissie drops the book, jumping out of his grasp. "Sorry!" She cries.
Draper narrows his ruby eyes at her. She feels a little like she's been put on a pedastal and surveyed. "What are you doing looking at magic anyway?" He asks suspiciously.
Cissie scowls at him, clutching the duster tightly. "I wasn't. The book just looked interesting."
"Well, don't. The magic books in here aren't playthings. They're dangerous."
"Why do you have books anyway?" Cissie asks. "It's not like you can use them, you're a dragon. You don't have fingers."
Draper blinks at her for a moment before saying: "fingers?"
"Yes! No fingers! Therefore, you can't turn pages! In fact, the only one of you who seems remotely able to turn pages is Cassie, and she never comes down here!"
Draper blinks at her again. "My ability to turn pages is of no concern of yours."
But idea are sprouting in Cissie's head, questions that have been born into the back of her mind and have simmered unbeknownst to her until now, suddenly boiling. "And what about the others things?" She cries.
"This entire castle! What happened to your last humans? Who was your cleaner before me? This place was pretty clean, and what, you're going to tell me that your wolves keep getting killed and you keep indenturing humans? 'Cuz, I'll believe that. Or why do you even own wolves, or should I say wolf because I haven't seen any others since I've arrived! Every other animal here seems to be intelligent and can speak my language!
"How come there are so many empty rooms? Where is your bedroom and how come I never clean it? What about how this palace seems to be built for humans! You and Cassie duck into every room you come into! Where did Cassie and Kon come from anyway? I've never seen nor heard of lions nor kangaroos until now!" Finally exhausted, Cissie stops, heaving in angry breaths.
Draper waits patiently, as if he expects her to continue, but at least for now she's done. She motions to him so, realizing as she waves that this is the most she's spoken to him since he came to take her away half a week ago.
But Draper doesn't have anything to say. He just stares at her with those glittering deep red eyes until Bart flies right into him.
Draper fumbles and turns slightly. "Hi, Bart."
"There's an issue with the-"
Draper makes a growling noise in his voice. Bart frowns and flutters around his head.
Draper looks pointedly at Cissie, who's fists are on her hips.
Bart blanches, well, as much as a bird can. "Oh! Cissie! Hi! Ididn'tseeyou!"
"Hi, Bart. What's wrong?"
"It's a friend of mine," Draper mutters. "Should we go?"
"Kon and Cassie are waiting for you outside. I was voted to stay behind." And if Cissie isn't mistaken, she's sure that he's a little put out. She's not sure if she should be offended or not.
But that friend of his must be where Draper's been going most days. "Will you be back for dinner?" Cissie asks. She'd killed enough for everyone, but if they're leaving now...
Draper falters. "Actually, Bart-"
"You go. I'll stay here with... our... guest."
Servant, Cissie grumbles in her head.
"Bart," Draper says in a way that clearly says: I won't talk about this in front of Cissie, but you know why you have to do what I say.
Bart pouts, or as much as a bird can pout, and says "fine," before flying away.
"So, just us tonight, huh?" Cissie asks, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt.
"Yes," Draper says. He stomps away, and says over his shoulder, "I'll see you at dinner."
Cissie doesn't realize until he's gone that she has more questions now than she had before.
Draper is clearly in a bad mood. He stays in a bad mood all day, and snaps at Cissie when she tries to ask him more questions.
She's so absorbed in questions and angry at Draper that she doesn't even think about her nighttime visitor until the morning, when she sees the hole they left in the sheets.
Cassie, Kon, and Bart return the next morning, all glum.
"Where were you?" Cissie asks Cassie as she cleans.
Cassie glances over her shoulder at Draper who scowls and gives Cissie a half-shrug. "Visiting a friend." For some reason, Cissie doesn't really believe her.
But she does remember her bedtime visitor. Tonight, she brings a match and flint to bed. She climbs in, and when her visitor joins, she pretends to be asleep.
Then, when they're finally settled in her bed and their breathing has settled into a sleep-rhythm, Cissie strikes the match and lights the candle.
Cissie's dark room alights. Cissie gently pulls down the blanket, and there, back towards her, is a boy. He has sickly pale skin, and deep dark spots under his eyes. He wears a black sleeping ensamble. He must be her age, but he's certainly smaller than her. Raven black hair falls into his face.
"Ah!" Cissie cries as a drop of wax falls from the candle onto her finger.
"Gah!" The boy beneath her yelps. He opens his eyes, as blue as the ice palace around them, and glances down to where another drop of melted wax fell onto him.
He blinks up at her. "Cissie?" He asks.
Cissie recognizes that voice.
"Oh, come on," Not-So-Much-A-Dragon Draper hisses under his breath, "and I only had one night left!"
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