A Distraction from Politics

[in_the_blue]

miriammoules challenged me to do another writing challenge, so here goes.

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Rules:

Fandom: any fandom, original or not. If you're feeling nostalgic and confessional, Real Person Stuff^(TM) allowed too.

Word count: oh, let's don't limit ourselves. Go for it. Any length.

Main theme: Life is measured in song.

Ratings: No restrictions.

Duration: Challenge opens now (October 25) and closes at the end of day Friday, November 7.

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Post your fics as comments to this entry but if the rating on yours is >PG-13, please post them in your own journal with appropriate flagging and link to your story below. Feel free to do as few or as many as you want, and if you see one you really like, be sure to leave a review or a comment. Everyone's welcome, so have fun.

P.S. Can't wait for Season Five of Lost? Write with us at 815survivors.

Comments

Astraea's Song: Part one

[siriusstar.livejournal.com]

This is so late I'm sureno one will even know it is here, but I said I had something for this and here it is! I'm sure it'll get edited more and the second part will get longer.

Fandom: Original
Word count: Erm... 1,123 to be exact.
Title: Astraea's Song

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On the last day of my Astraean life I remember the sound of bells playing. Thousands of them, great and small, with voices as deep as my oceans once were and as high as the thin winds that sang through my mountains. The bells rang with the voices of my younger children, with their song of love and of mourning for what they had lost and for what I could no longer give them. But their song was also laced with hope and with desire to know what lay beyond my boundaries. I knew my younger children would endure their loss. They would embrace the challenges their new world would offer to them. They would cherish their bells and remember me in their songs but their lives would go on. They would lend their wisdom and their understanding to others and become wiser and more beautiful. My pride for the Lemari- my gentle Bell People- was without bounds.

With the bells of the Lemari I heard also the glorious voices of my cherished elder children. Voices that pierced my soul with the depth of their feeling. There was no joy or hope in the songs of the Mithic. Their cries of despair and of their devotion to me broke my heart. They who had sought in vain to change what must be; what is the fate of every world when the star to which we are irrevocably bound perishes. They could not accept my fate and toiled ceaselessly against it. They grew greater in power and deeper in the wisdom of the universe, but it could not avail them. I pleaded with my elder children to look to their own fates, but they would not listen.

Yet all of my pleas had not been vain. At the end of all my hope one among the Mithic listened and understood. He who would now save all of my people from sharing in my fate. He who learned more of my secrets than any other. He who discovered the secret pathways that lie hidden in the darkness between worlds. I heard his voice above all, singing of his love and his sorrow, but also of his determination. I heard the vow he made to me in his heart. He knew I would find life again and swore to return to me, no matter how long he had to seek for me. As I listened to his vow and felt his tears falling I knew that Fate would hear his words and would heed them.

Despite the heats of my parent star stealing away my oceans and my rivers. Despite my rains having long ago ceased to fall; upon the face of my beloved as he sang fell my last tears.

Part Two: Altennimer

[siriusstar.livejournal.com]

Altennimer’s song faltered when he felt the sweet, cool raindrops fall upon his face. It had not rained naturally upon Astraea in many years, as her atmosphere grew hotter and drier with the immanent death of her star. He knew too well that Astraea had no rain left to give.

He watched with astonishment as two tiny green shoots sprang forth from the droplets in the parched dust at his feet. They grew quickly, their leaves unfolding to reveal deep violet and gold buds. He fell to his knees and gathered the precious seedlings before the heat withered them. It was over as quickly as it began; the bloated red star quickly burned away the frail wisp of cloud which had given him his priceless treasure.

He held the little plants in his shaking hands, watching with wonder as they continued to grow, their roots entwining around his fingers and feeding off the magic that protected him from the heat. He did not recognize their shape but he knew their significance. Astraea had heard his vow and had answered it with a promise of her own.

As evening fell on Astraea’s last day the Lemari stilled their bells and the Mithic ceased their singing. By nightfall not a sound could be heard upon her surface.

Altennimer closed his eyes and listened.

In the perfect silence he heard her begin to sing. Her song was of regret, of love and of the anguish that echoed in the hearts of all her people. It was played by the hot wind through the dry grasses and keened mournfully in the deep hollows of her valleys and canyons.

As he listened Altennimer remembered Astraea’s true voice. A voice as soft as her once-frequent showers and as powerful as her oceans. He knew that Astraea’s song could always be most clearly heard in her waters. He had never been able to dwell far from them for long. It was by her lakes that he first heard her disquiet when her star began to reach the end of its life. It was from her rivers he first listened to her pleas to save her people, when most Mithic still believed in the power of their magic to save her from her star’s fate. He worked ceaselessly to do as she bid, to solve her deepest mysteries and find the pathways that would, before dying Astra reappeared in the sky, see the Mithic and Lemari begin their new lives in the young and wild worlds of their exile and leave Astraea’s spirit free to be reborn.

Altennimer gazed down the dark valley that lay before him. He did not share the hunger of the Lemari to see new lands and impart Astraea’s wisdom to the primitive children of other worlds, but nor would he sever himself from the world the Mithic had chosen for their exile. His desire was to learn and to observe. He could not yet guess what power would lead him back to Astraea, but he knew it would not be found by forever looking behind him and forgetting to listen.

Astraea’s farewell song died in the valley. The last of her power spent in its making. In Altennimer’s hands the seedlings burst into exquisite flowers of deep violet shot with gold. In their petals he heard her voice as it had been long ago. As it would be when he found her again.

Altennimer turned away from the valley and headed quickly down the path where his people waited for him to open the portals. He was now anxious to be away, before the terrible silence settled too deeply upon the people of Astraea. Before the aching beauty of her last song ceased to buffer him from the emptiness and robbed him of his strength. He held the seedlings of her promise close to his heart. Despite his conviction, he knew he would need all the help she could still give him to complete his task.

**

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Wow, those are both strong and lyrical and evocative. I take it they're part of a longer work? I had to go back and read the first one after the second to fully grasp what was going on and how they were related. These are really, really nice.

Thank you for sharing!

[siriusstar.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) They are just two pieces of my forever-growing epic. There are literally thousands of years and dozens of interwoven stories before and particularly after. The tale of Astraea and Altennimer is among the longest and most important story-threads. It has been on my mind a lot lately and the challenge idea helped me pull this part together in a way that is very fitting.

I will take note of the fact that it was not as clear as it should be. That is a big challenge area for me in part because, aside from the fanfic, I have only been writing for myself so far. I’ll work on it for next time to see if I can do better in that area. I appreciate all feedback very much!

Re: Part Two: Altennimer

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

oh my god your writing has grown in leasp and bounds. wow! do you still have my emai laddy? iwantthe whole story for christmas. i can't beleive it's been this logn since I last read some of this stuff (and that must have been back when it was still hp fic?)
yup. another of those cases of 'what are you doing here'where i'm glad you left jkr's playground. but i'mals oglad i'm not an agent. because i think i'd be someone to take on every manuscript that makes me say 'wow!

anyways yeah. i wish i could compose the music for this. aand i invented a new genre category for books. how does etheric fantasy sound?

Re: Part Two: Altennimer

[siriusstar.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) I have been quietly writing away and hopefully slowly improving my skills. Do you still have the same address? What year's Christmas would you like the whole story by? ;) It is one of the core storylines and spans thousands of years! I'll be working on it, though. We will see if it wants to go backward or forward from here. I'm having fun worldbuilding Astraea and her people's cultures.

If I get very rich I will commission the music of Astraea. I could hear it as I wrote about it. Not note for note, but the power and emotion behind it.

Re: Part Two: Altennimer

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

i don't know. i thougth whatever you have in state of finished-so-far. it' sbeen ages since i read some of your stuff. i don't knwo which address of me you still have. i'm thinkin the boxesofthoughts one still works but i am not even sure if i ever changed my email for livejournal comments. we'll see though. maybe it's best for me mot to loook, or i'd fall in a swamp of stuff and get completely lost, lol.
i hereby offer to write the music. i heard somethign too. remember me and my sprite-character and kenneth? i sorto f threw the stuff out the window. felt abit like i was tryign to steal one of your bunnies insteat of writing my own stuff. oh well...

Re: Part Two: Altennimer

[siriusstar.livejournal.com]

I have the boxesofthoughts address.

I'll be expanding this piece a bit and maybe posting it on my LJ eventually.