Post by Bryden on Mar 20, 2010 11:34:22 GMT -5
Librarians save the world all the time! Its just that nobody knows, because we do it using our inside voices.
He stood on the bluff, wind whipping the black coat and red hair around him, flapping strands and folds hitting his face and body, stinging like little strikes. He ignored them with a smile, cold and slow as egg whites, a substance which, if dripping down the back of your spine, would closely resemble the feeling that the smile gave a person. Almost. The egg would be slightly more pleasant. And less slimy.
The horizon he looked over from his higher vantage point was bleak- empty. The ground melded into the rusty sky. Void of anything save the tiny, worthless dots of communes that occasionally appeared in the desert valley.
Tiny dots... and one giant behemoth of structure. His target.
Wode's smile widened wickedly as he turned around.
"Make for that tower!" he ordered loudly to the small army waiting behind him, "We will be there by the end of the day."
Then the flames would light the night sky.
Late, late, LATE. Gah, how could she have let herself be late? How useless WAS she? And of all the days?
Aja tore down the shelf-lined hall, lungs burning. This wasn't like her a t all. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd sun anyplace! Inconceivable. But not time to stop- she was runnng for her very life as hse knew it.
Today was the day. THE day. The day when she had a test to pass. By all rights, she ought to have passed two years ago. It was administered at age twelve, after all. The exam that either made you a REAL keeper or flunked out. Seriously flunked out.
She hadn't taken it at the usual age. She'd lucked out. A lot. Grandfather had still been around them. He'd had so much influence. He'd persuaded them to give her time, wait it out, hopefully until her stutter was gone.
And then, last year... she had just had her birthday. But it had been a miserable birthday. She'd just lost him. It had only just become clear that Grandfather was not going to come back anytime soon. If at all.
They had pitied her. They had let her wait it out another year, for emotional duress reasons.
But no more excuses. It was now or never... she was doomed.
And then she was there. The room that would decide her fate for her. She flung to door open. To reveal her test-administrator. Oh no.
"Nice of you to show up, Miss Relina," said a cool female voice.
"I-I-I'm suh-sorry," she mumbled, stopping dead and breathing hard, "I d-didn't-"
"Have a seat."
Figured that the tester she got would be a woman who seemed to despise her. She never did know why Keeper Orthina hated her so much. But either way, she was here now.
She sat. She was about to face the biggest test of he rlife. It was for kids. Easy stuff! She could do it in her sleep!
IF she could manage to speak at all.
Aja took a deep breath, lifting the book before her. The brunette woman tsked disapprovingly from the other side of the table. She hadn't even started yet and she was doing something wrong.
And she began to read.
OR not.
He stood on the bluff, wind whipping the black coat and red hair around him, flapping strands and folds hitting his face and body, stinging like little strikes. He ignored them with a smile, cold and slow as egg whites, a substance which, if dripping down the back of your spine, would closely resemble the feeling that the smile gave a person. Almost. The egg would be slightly more pleasant. And less slimy.
The horizon he looked over from his higher vantage point was bleak- empty. The ground melded into the rusty sky. Void of anything save the tiny, worthless dots of communes that occasionally appeared in the desert valley.
Tiny dots... and one giant behemoth of structure. His target.
Wode's smile widened wickedly as he turned around.
"Make for that tower!" he ordered loudly to the small army waiting behind him, "We will be there by the end of the day."
Then the flames would light the night sky.
Late, late, LATE. Gah, how could she have let herself be late? How useless WAS she? And of all the days?
Aja tore down the shelf-lined hall, lungs burning. This wasn't like her a t all. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd sun anyplace! Inconceivable. But not time to stop- she was runnng for her very life as hse knew it.
Today was the day. THE day. The day when she had a test to pass. By all rights, she ought to have passed two years ago. It was administered at age twelve, after all. The exam that either made you a REAL keeper or flunked out. Seriously flunked out.
She hadn't taken it at the usual age. She'd lucked out. A lot. Grandfather had still been around them. He'd had so much influence. He'd persuaded them to give her time, wait it out, hopefully until her stutter was gone.
And then, last year... she had just had her birthday. But it had been a miserable birthday. She'd just lost him. It had only just become clear that Grandfather was not going to come back anytime soon. If at all.
They had pitied her. They had let her wait it out another year, for emotional duress reasons.
But no more excuses. It was now or never... she was doomed.
And then she was there. The room that would decide her fate for her. She flung to door open. To reveal her test-administrator. Oh no.
"Nice of you to show up, Miss Relina," said a cool female voice.
"I-I-I'm suh-sorry," she mumbled, stopping dead and breathing hard, "I d-didn't-"
"Have a seat."
Figured that the tester she got would be a woman who seemed to despise her. She never did know why Keeper Orthina hated her so much. But either way, she was here now.
She sat. She was about to face the biggest test of he rlife. It was for kids. Easy stuff! She could do it in her sleep!
IF she could manage to speak at all.
Aja took a deep breath, lifting the book before her. The brunette woman tsked disapprovingly from the other side of the table. She hadn't even started yet and she was doing something wrong.
And she began to read.
OR not.
Congrats grimn! You're in the real mode, now. I've no doubt that you'll surprise yourself on just how tough and mature you can be.