paid in halves

bastien

—crow

1710

summer

dance to forget in drunken seagull with lorelei
between the devil and the deep blue sea in sussex with savard
le coeur de la mer in tir na nog with vela
arctic storm, clear me a path in rionna with lorelei
the woods are lovely, dark and deep in yorkshire with nicharion

autumn

on the road again in maiden's braid with lorelei
amber is the color of your energy in melrose with baelfire

winter

only fangs and sweet beguiling in maiden's braid with nicharion
last call for sin in inverness with valerian
repay what you invest in drunken seagull with amoux
in the blind in rionna with savard & nicharion
play your card, be who you are in naiad's lagoon with nicharion
broken me and broken you in naiad's lagoon with lorelei
the crooked are smiling in sussex with drusilla
savages in perth with rue

1711

spring

when the crows come knocking in sussex with amoux & nicharion

(This post was last modified: 04-23-2024, 04:21 PM by Bastien.)

summer 1704

"what are you doing, gar?" annie's tremulous voice approached her mate as if even sound tiptoed around the brute.

bastien heard his father's cruel response through the wall, so close he could almost taste the booze on his breath. "what we should have done when they were born." his bitterness was sour and wafted through the cracks in the door, "i want our life back annie, don't you? we can take it back." bastien didn't need to see those wild red eyes to know their feverish glow; gar's eyes only shone for his children when he spoke of murdering them.

he stood to silently position himself between the door and his sleeping siblings, braced for the reaper to barge in, but the reckoning never came.

watching the shadows creeping under the door, he saw his mother join her mate and cup his face in her paws. "gareth," she spoke in the adoring tone reserved only for him and their shared love. "the boys are big enough that they can work, and we'll find some use for the girl." if he hadn't already known that annie's intervention wasn't out of a place of motherly devotion, what she said next confirmed it: "no need to make a mess that we'll have to clean up."

"fine," gar grudgingly relented. bastien wondered how many threads of resistance he had left to unwind before even annie was powerless to stop him.

their shadows melded into a dark embrace before they started to retreat, annie's soft voice fading. "i have something that will cheer you up. we'll need to find twitch soon for more but..."

bastien released the breath he'd been holding and collapsed where he stood. all the energy he'd summoned to face gar fled from his body and made his eyelids heavy. he resisted sleep for as long as he could, until he was sure the haze would keep his parents occupied long enough to forget about the three children asleep in the next room over.

autumn 1704

"tell me the story again, bas." bastien wasn't in the mood for fingal's cheerfulness or that star-speckled stare he leveraged to get his way. he grunted... and felt a good-natured thump against his shoulder. "come oooonnn. we're gonna be out here for hours. i wanna hear it again."

bastien groaned, but his vaguely agitated expression failed to hide the mischief blooming in it. "you're supposed to be learning to hunt. has anyone told you you're as annoying as your namesake?"

fingal grinned too, "nope. why don't you tell me just how annoying he was?"

it was just as well that they were coming up on the high peaks in ayr. bastien always thought this story was best told on the cliffs that overlooked the raging sea. "the dobber fingal liked to come out to the sea because his nemesis lived on a distant island. benandonner couldn't retaliate against a foe he couldn't reach." he cast a sidelong look at his brother, who was staring across the endless blue with his white-spotted chest puffed out a bit further and a divine light frothing like the sea spray in his light turquoise eyes. he was a fair bit shorter than bastien, but his dreams were larger than life.. and bastien could only hope they would survive gar's abuse.

fin noticed the look and adopted a petulant scowl. "we 'aven't got all day," he grumbled, only because he felt a bit sheepish when attention was on him. he felt safest when he existed only within periphery, a ghost at the edges of existence.

"now who's worried about the time?" bastien chuffed, amused, but relented. "they parried insults across the sea until a giant stomped down from the heavens and erected a bridge. the giant said 'you will settle this with a duel so we can all get some godforsaken sleep.' our dobber – i mean, hero – strode forward but quailed at the sight of his enemy. he knew he could not win. but if you think it was fingal's wits that won him the fight," he nudged his brother playfully, "then you'd be dead wrong. it was the dobber's wife that saved his sorry ass. she devised a scheme the likes of which no one had ever seen. by wrapping fingal in cloth, she made benandonner believe her husband was away, leaving her to tend to their newborn son. ole ben took one look at the babe and figured that fingal must be enormous to have produced a son so large. thus, he wan back home to his mommy and fingal wan back home to his wife and took all the credit for her plan."

"hey!" the non-mythical fingal laughed so heartily, bastien swore it shook the mountains. "i bet he would have won anyway. if you named me after him, he's got to be at least half as impressive as i am, and i'd never fight so dirty," he enthused, which earned him an eyeroll.

"oh, yeah? you're that impressive, eh? then i suppose you won't 'ave any trouble catching more dinner than me." they'd finally crested the peak by the time bastien's tale concluded, and as he turned from the sea to peer down at the forest below, he scuffed loose grit up with his claws and flung it towards fin's face, causing the charcoal wolf to shake his head furiously. "loser's a benandonner," he called over his shoulder before the other could fully recover, laughing at the frantic shriek his antics earned him.

summer 1705

she stormed into the den carved into the mountainside, her identical red eyes piercing bastien sharper than any blade. "go and get him out," she snarled.

fingal's desperate plea still echoed in his mind. please don't leave me. and he had done so anyway, turning his back and leaving his brother alone in the dark. "there's nothing i can do for him, nessa."

nessa's reply was instant and cutting, "so you can save your own ass but can't lift a paw to save fin?" she stepped forward to look down at him, but bastien refused to meet her eyes, the shame so heavy he felt the added weight of her disapproval and hatred would bury him in the earth. he was tempted to let it. "are you worth fucking anything or have you always been this useless?"

"i don't see you doing anything," he spat, but there was no fire behind it. there was nothing left of his heart to feed it, and it had died pathetically in its own embers.

but nessa had enough within her to burn them both alive. "you're the soldier, bastien! who are you protecting and serving, if not your own blood?"

now he looked up, and though there was no light in his eyes, they were glowing, fervent and wild. "i'm serving rionnach, nes. i can't clean up every mess fin makes. it's high time he learns a lesson."

he couldn't help but notice how she backed away. nessa couldn't help but to notice the similarity between her brother and the man they both hated. she gritted her teeth together, sparing him one last resentful glare."i'm glad you found your real family, bastien. go ahead and serve the people. you can pretend they've done anything for you. in the meantime i'm going to rescue my brother." she turned and strode away, leaving him alone in the dark.