Writing drabbles has always been a favourite of mine. Whilst I love telling a story in long parts, I really enjoy writing drabbles that centre around a theme. This is something I've been playing with for a while, drabbles based on the saying "Red Sky at Night, Shepherds Delight. Red Sky at Morning, Shepherds Warning' I've got about 15 roughly planned at the moment. They will mainly be Derek/Addison centric with Amelia also getting a set of five drabbles. This is the prologue. As always, I hope you enjoy this (hopefully new) idea. Please feel free to drop me a review, let me know what you think!
Ever since Derek Shepherd had been a little boy, he'd always been oddly fascinated by the colour of the sky. The vibrant blue of a sunny day meant warm dry weather, being able to escape the house to play outside with Mark, away from a house full of his 4 sisters and well meaning but clucky mother. The inky black of the sky at night meant following the curves of the moon, its lunar cycles, stargazing, making up names for the constellations, and trying to find the North Star before it was time to go to bed.
And while he loved the clear blue and pure black, it was red that fascinated him the most; it was pale red in the morning, the clouds light pink and fluffy with deep red at sunset, almost like the sky was on fire.
"Derek, get away from that window and get ready for bed" he heard his Mama yell. Ignoring her, he stayed by the window and gazed at the crimson clouds that were touched with a hue of dark pink. She tutted as she came down the stairs and saw her son still by the window. "Derek Christopher Shepherd what are you still doing there?" He tore his gaze from the window to look at his mother.
'The sky is red Mama. Isn't it beautiful?"
Carolyn Shepherd sighed.
"You're just like your Dad and your Nana Shepherd."
He looked at his mother curiously.
"How?"
"When your Dad was a little boy, just like you he also loved staring at the sky, and your Nana used to tell him this old fable about Shepherd's."
Derek tilted his head slightly.
"What was it?"
Carolyn sat down and pulled Derek onto her lap.
"Well they was an old saying 'Red Sky at night, Shepherd's delight, Red sky at morning, Shepherds warning. It was supposed to be a fable but because our family name is Shepherd, it had personal meaning to them. Your Nana's mom told it to her, and she told it to your Dad, and now I'm telling it to you, because you seem to be just as fond as looking at the sky as they did."
Derek listened to his mother carefully, committing the phrase to memory in his young mind. From that day on he continued his watchful gaze on the sky; and whilst he still loved all the hues of daytime blue through to night time black, red still remained his favourite, and when he saw a girl with hair as red as the sky that he loved, it was love at first sight; and the phrase wound into their lives becoming the backdrop to their story.