A/N: I'm currently experimenting with a style of writing called a "50 Sentences" challenge – you are given a table of fifty prompts and have to write one sentence to go with each prompt. Naturally, sometimes the grammar gets a bit flimsy, but it's a fun exercise. For 2011, I am writing a series of 50 Sentences challenges (four per month – or, if I miss a month, it will be covered elsewhere) covering many different fandoms and characters. Since I couldn't find a decent category to put the series in (this really isn't a crossover, so the crossover options are out), I am posting each entry separately in its own fandom. This is the ninth ficlet in the series, and if you'd like to keep track of them, there's an index in my profile listing the titles and fandoms of them all.
Thanks for reading!
Empyrean
1. Arise
All men were born and all men died, but heroes were remembered for eternity.
2. Cradle
Helen pressed the shimmering pearls between her fingers, luxuriating in their soft, cool touch – they were a precious gift she could not bear while she was Queen of Sparta.
3. Twine
Thetis did not weep when her son departed; despite her own wishes and desire, it was impossible to avoid the twisted hand of fate.
4. Ardour
Agamemnon was not a good king, but his people loved him – with a charismatic smile and the looming threat of simple annihilation, he could bend the world to his whims.
5. Cascade
The rain of Trojan arrows flew down the great banks of the beach, felling lesser men whose time had come.
6. Turbulence
When the Greeks came, Briseis reacted on instinct, abandoning her training – she left Apollo's altar to be desecrated by madmen and hid in a dark place, praying the Sun God would not take vengeance on her for her dereliction of duty.
7. Blossom
The flowering trees gently welcomed Helen as she walked in the palace garden, the only place where one could pretend there was no war.
8. Leaf
As the war raged on, Odysseys began to wonder ow many times the leaves would change colour before he saw his home again.
9. Stem
When Priam reflected on what had past, he thought history would remember Helen and Paris as the ill-fated lovers who began the war – but their actions were merely a romantic façade shielding the needs and desires of petty kings.
10. Branch
Once when he was young, Paris fell from a tree and broke a leg, and once it had healed, he climbed back up and fell again – Hector doubted it was in his nature to learn from his mistakes.
11. Nature
Briseis looked at the sleeping face of her abductor, knowing that though he had saved her from the hands of a few slimy, malicious Greeks, killing was embedded in his character and that would not change.
12. Fever
Patroclus stormed across the beach, kicking up sand – was he undeserving of the same glory and immortality his famous cousin sought?
13. Soil
The land before the great gates of Troy were soaked with the blood of thousands of men, and still the war raged on.
14. Chrysalis
As he received the girl's fiery glare, part of him wondered whether he could truly be anything other than a slayer of men.
15. Gust
A wind blew across the silenced battlefield, carrying sand and the stench of dead bodies.
16. Breeze
Odysseys felt the burning heat on his face as he ran through the destroyed streets of Troy, knowing the deaths of thousands of innocents were on his hands.
17. Breakaway
These days she went through the motions of prayer, but her heart was not in it – if Apollo truly cared or listened, why had he not answered her pleas?
18. Elysian
Troy burned around him as he succumbed to his wounds, but he was at peace – he would soon join the men he had killed in the afterlife.
19. Feather
Her kiss was light, filled with uncertainty and awkwardness, as if she did not know what to do.
20. Warble
The birds still sang the next morning, oblivious to the fiery destruction that had swept through the city the night before.
21. Thaw
She had detested him, hating what he was, what he represented, but she had slowly come to the realisation that he was simply a man trying to leave his mark on the world.
22. Zest
The celebrations had been spirited when the princes returned from Sparta, but Priam could already feel the thunderous disaster following them across the sea.
23. Capricious
Briseis had not expected to be released; but when he refused to look at her, she knew something within him – however small – had changed.
24. Seed
As Aeneus took the sword from the Trojan prince, he felt the great weight of responsibility take its place on his shoulders.
25. Sprout
The first arrow speared his heel unexpectedly, and as the pain spiralled up his leg, he knew the end had finally come for him.
26. Shift
Paris looked out from the battlements, knowing the Greeks could not have abandoned the war so easily.
27. Fragrance
Even after weeks of captivity, the girl still smelled like a royal – and it was not an entirely unpleasant scent.
28. Balm
Helen carefully tended to his wounds, knowing that while she could stitch him back together, there was nothing she could do to heal is overwhelming guilt and damaged pride.
29. Frenzy
He stood before the walls of Troy, calling the name of his cousin's slayer – no words could dissuade him, and no force on earth could protect Hector from his vengeful wrath.
30. Abound
When the sun rose each morning, the Greek camp appeared like a dark shadow on the horizon.
31. Verdant
Patroclus could have been a great warrior – there were many who envied his position – if not for his cousin.
32. Unfurl
Agamemnon threw the wine-filled cup across his tent, his seething anger barely controllable – if the Trojan slut came between him and his victory, he would reclaim the girl and slit her throat himself.
33. Fervour
The arrows slammed into the practice target again and again as Paris drew and took aim, his silent anger guiding him to perfection.
34. Hatch
Caught between the bloodthirstiness of various Greek leaders, Odysseus knew he was the only one with the brains to save the Greek soldiers from mass-slaughter against Troy's walls.
35. Delicate
Briseis was not as breakable as her royal appearance implied – her disdain for me, for Greek men, gave her spirit.
36. Dew
Though the smoke stung her eyes, though her very being felt broken and torn, Briseis could not allow herself to cry even as Paris led her away from the burning city.
37. Puddle
As she did everything in her power to aggravate him, it was far too tempting to tip over the basin of fresh water and dump it on the floor.
38. Rain
The second night after Hector's death, the heavens poured forth their tears to the earth.
39. Storm
Priam did not need a seer to tell him what he knew in his gut – Troy was at a crossroads of fate and he would likely not live to see her destiny.
40. Thunder
"Do you hear the gods' displeasure?" she said one night, pulling at her bonds in the dark as thunder rolled through the air.
41. Lightning
"If the gods are displeased, there is little weather can do to change Agamemnon's mind," he said as a brief flash of light illuminated his face.
42. Deluge
Self-hatred and loathing swelled within her and threatened to flood the growing spark in her heart when she realised she did not truly object Achilles' presence.
43. Vernal
She was young, she was youthful – Briseis would have made a fine priestess had the Greeks left her and her people alone.
44. Equinox
She had not known that she would come to love her enemy – if it could be called "love" – but she found that despite her captivity, she felt more alive now than she ever had before.
45. Roulade
Troy wailed to the night as the fires ravaged her people.
46. Whisk
Paris had always been quick to find the easy solution to his problems, but even he could not be naïve enough to believe the Greeks would leave Troy alone if he and Helen disappeared.
47. Idyllic
He had wondered whether he would ever live a normal life, but even as he held Briseis in his arms he knew such a charming vision was nothing more than a dream.
48. Rebirth
Their city was ransacked, their people slaughtered, but those who escaped Troy that night would find a way to survive.
49. Cycle
She wanted to kill him the night he returned with Hector's body dragged behind his chariot, but she could not bring herself to even touch the knife.
50. Anew
The legends would spread, told and re-told throughout the centuries – and perhaps then they had all achieved immortality.
fin