This is a test for how this genre might work, so please be kind- but also
review. Review well, if possible, but at least review. I am quite
interested in what people think of this attempt.
This is technically song-fic, involving Mariel and Dandin as they start on their second adventure (set after the Bellmaker). Dandin feels the call to go home, and cannot bear it. IF I get at least two reviews, I will add on the second part that explains what happens next. If I don't get two reviews, I will not add it.
So there. *sticks tongue out, adolescent style*
Oh yeah, and as always, I don't own Redwall or its characters, or the Elton John song. . .
Yet. I am a director after all, and I have BIG plans for Redwall if I can get permission to do anything with it in about- say, ten or twenty years. We'll see what happens there.
Anyway, read. *jedi mind trick*
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mariel had been expecting her dearest friend and companion to come up to her ever since they exited Mossflower this time. He'd seemed so troubled, looking back as if he left his duty behind him. And in his eyes was doubt. Now he slowed down to where she walked, and the two of them watched the slowing pace of their newest adventurer friend. Bowly had started out so gung-ho and excited, yet was beginning to slow realizing how travel felt on the footpaws. Yet Mariel knew that was not why Dandin felt the need to walk beside her.
There could be little denying that what they shared was beyond normal friendship. Mariel had known, ever since she'd seen his sure face waiting for her on the bend out of Redwall as she went off on a hopeless search, that she felt differently about him. It was not the simple love of a companion, or the gentle toying of camaraderie. They were closer than friends- they were playful lovers at times, when possible; that part of their relationship could not exist in Redwall, so they left.
Mariel knew, in her heart, she loved Dandin. And now, he was there, beside her, intent on breaking her heart. . .
"My duty is elsewhere," he whispered into her ear.
"I know," was the mournful answer. "If you go back, we may never see each other."
"Yet Redwall is my home and there I belong. Not with you, though I long to join you yet again."
Mariel couldn't say she understood, but she knew some things were more important than the love they shared. Home, and family, for two. And if Dandin was called home she would not stand in his way.
// I am here to tell you we can never meet again.
Simple really, isn't it? A word or two and then-
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why, or when
You think of me or speak of me or wonder what befell
The someone you once loved so long ago so well. \\
"I don't want you to go," Mariel sighed softly, yet suddenly, when they stopped along the road for the first time.
"I know," was Dandin's reluctant response. "But the abbey is my home, and returning made me realize how much I belong there."
"Dandin? You do know how much I love you, don't you? And if you go- well, I will never feel differently."
"You could return with me. . ."
"We would be, what, then? Illegal lovers, going behind their backs? They think what we have is impossible, Dandin! Either two people will get married and have children while protecting the abbey, or they will join the ranks of the brothers and sisters. I refuse to do either."
"Then," he said, standing, "I have to go. Tell Bowly for me?"
Mariel stifled her tears, nodding.
Was this a trick being played on her? Everything was going wrong!
As Dandin walked off, Mariel looked to the cleared path and saw through the trees as the sun started to slowly dip behind the visible line. A single star had become visible, and Mariel wished on it with all her heart, asking the dusk sky why that which she shared with Dandin was wrong- and why he was being summoned from her.
//Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by!
You don't have to ask me and I need not reply;
Every moment of my life from now until I die
I will think or dream of you and fail to understand
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand
Is it written in the stars?
Are we paying for some crime?
Is that all that we are good for:
Just a stretch of mortal time?
Is this God's experiment,
In which we have no say:
In which we're given paradise,
But only for a day!\\
Dandin walked away with tears in his eyes. Yes, he knew he loved Mariel, and his heart cried out to go back to her. But when he'd left with her, and gone away, his heart had cried just as much to return to the abbey. In his mind, he was still a creature of Mossflower. Nothing would change it. It was unable to be changed. No way to turn back, and no will to do so. He was going home, leaving the mousemaid he loved behind forever.
He spoke to the emptiness of the woods, telling it what he could not tell her.
"I love you, Mariel."
//Nothing can be altered; there is nothing to decide.
No escape, no change of heart, nor anyplace to hide.\\
Mariel looked over at Bowly, smiling at the cheeky young thing as he fell into a light sleep. When it reached total darkness she would awaken the young hedgehog so they could continue on their journey. Until then, she was willing to take a form of ease which was troubled and unsure.
Mariel knew she could not go back to Redwall for life. She had too much of a wanderer's heart, too much spirit. She loved Dandin- but she couldn't be a good, subservient wife for him. No, this was how it had to be: forever parted, in spite of their feelings.
Maybe it would have been better if they'd never met. She wouldn't be feeling ripped apart like this! If the bell hadn't been made; if her father, Joseph, hadn't stayed behind in Redwall; if Dandin had been raised by woodlanders instead of in the abbey. . .
No. Mariel had experienced that before, yet she knew even now that was despair and darkness talking, and that those feelings would disappear as surely as Dandin had.
"I'll miss you," she sighed, snuggling in. Now that she thought about it, a moment's sleep might be a good idea.
//You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned
What it is to be in love and have that love returned.\\
Mariel and Dandin looked up, seeing the same stars come into the sky. Dandin kept walking though, sure in his decision; he might feel love for Mariel, but duty called. And in the end, duty had to come before his emotions. Redwall wouldn't accept them, because the love they shared was not normal. It was based first on mutual attraction, but then friendship and respect. Yet Mariel realized that there was a connection between her and Dandin that nothing could break; she'd felt it many a time, when there was trouble and when they were joking around most carelessly and accidentally flirting.
They would meet again, somehow.
It was not over that day.
//Is it written in the stars?
Are we paying for some crime?
Is that all that we are good for:
Just a stretch of mortal time?
Is this God's experiment
In which we have no say?
In which we're given paradise
Only for a day.\\
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Unlikely? Possibly. But it ought to be something a little different, right?
Just so I don't get yelled at: I LOVE Mariel, and always thought that she and Dandin had a stronger relationship than was written. I always felt a strong love between the two as they wandered- after everything they went through together, it would be unlikely in my mind if they hadn't fallen for each other completely! So- how bad was it?
*points to box, hits it, gives adder's eyes to get a review*
This is technically song-fic, involving Mariel and Dandin as they start on their second adventure (set after the Bellmaker). Dandin feels the call to go home, and cannot bear it. IF I get at least two reviews, I will add on the second part that explains what happens next. If I don't get two reviews, I will not add it.
So there. *sticks tongue out, adolescent style*
Oh yeah, and as always, I don't own Redwall or its characters, or the Elton John song. . .
Yet. I am a director after all, and I have BIG plans for Redwall if I can get permission to do anything with it in about- say, ten or twenty years. We'll see what happens there.
Anyway, read. *jedi mind trick*
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mariel had been expecting her dearest friend and companion to come up to her ever since they exited Mossflower this time. He'd seemed so troubled, looking back as if he left his duty behind him. And in his eyes was doubt. Now he slowed down to where she walked, and the two of them watched the slowing pace of their newest adventurer friend. Bowly had started out so gung-ho and excited, yet was beginning to slow realizing how travel felt on the footpaws. Yet Mariel knew that was not why Dandin felt the need to walk beside her.
There could be little denying that what they shared was beyond normal friendship. Mariel had known, ever since she'd seen his sure face waiting for her on the bend out of Redwall as she went off on a hopeless search, that she felt differently about him. It was not the simple love of a companion, or the gentle toying of camaraderie. They were closer than friends- they were playful lovers at times, when possible; that part of their relationship could not exist in Redwall, so they left.
Mariel knew, in her heart, she loved Dandin. And now, he was there, beside her, intent on breaking her heart. . .
"My duty is elsewhere," he whispered into her ear.
"I know," was the mournful answer. "If you go back, we may never see each other."
"Yet Redwall is my home and there I belong. Not with you, though I long to join you yet again."
Mariel couldn't say she understood, but she knew some things were more important than the love they shared. Home, and family, for two. And if Dandin was called home she would not stand in his way.
// I am here to tell you we can never meet again.
Simple really, isn't it? A word or two and then-
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why, or when
You think of me or speak of me or wonder what befell
The someone you once loved so long ago so well. \\
"I don't want you to go," Mariel sighed softly, yet suddenly, when they stopped along the road for the first time.
"I know," was Dandin's reluctant response. "But the abbey is my home, and returning made me realize how much I belong there."
"Dandin? You do know how much I love you, don't you? And if you go- well, I will never feel differently."
"You could return with me. . ."
"We would be, what, then? Illegal lovers, going behind their backs? They think what we have is impossible, Dandin! Either two people will get married and have children while protecting the abbey, or they will join the ranks of the brothers and sisters. I refuse to do either."
"Then," he said, standing, "I have to go. Tell Bowly for me?"
Mariel stifled her tears, nodding.
Was this a trick being played on her? Everything was going wrong!
As Dandin walked off, Mariel looked to the cleared path and saw through the trees as the sun started to slowly dip behind the visible line. A single star had become visible, and Mariel wished on it with all her heart, asking the dusk sky why that which she shared with Dandin was wrong- and why he was being summoned from her.
//Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by!
You don't have to ask me and I need not reply;
Every moment of my life from now until I die
I will think or dream of you and fail to understand
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand
Is it written in the stars?
Are we paying for some crime?
Is that all that we are good for:
Just a stretch of mortal time?
Is this God's experiment,
In which we have no say:
In which we're given paradise,
But only for a day!\\
Dandin walked away with tears in his eyes. Yes, he knew he loved Mariel, and his heart cried out to go back to her. But when he'd left with her, and gone away, his heart had cried just as much to return to the abbey. In his mind, he was still a creature of Mossflower. Nothing would change it. It was unable to be changed. No way to turn back, and no will to do so. He was going home, leaving the mousemaid he loved behind forever.
He spoke to the emptiness of the woods, telling it what he could not tell her.
"I love you, Mariel."
//Nothing can be altered; there is nothing to decide.
No escape, no change of heart, nor anyplace to hide.\\
Mariel looked over at Bowly, smiling at the cheeky young thing as he fell into a light sleep. When it reached total darkness she would awaken the young hedgehog so they could continue on their journey. Until then, she was willing to take a form of ease which was troubled and unsure.
Mariel knew she could not go back to Redwall for life. She had too much of a wanderer's heart, too much spirit. She loved Dandin- but she couldn't be a good, subservient wife for him. No, this was how it had to be: forever parted, in spite of their feelings.
Maybe it would have been better if they'd never met. She wouldn't be feeling ripped apart like this! If the bell hadn't been made; if her father, Joseph, hadn't stayed behind in Redwall; if Dandin had been raised by woodlanders instead of in the abbey. . .
No. Mariel had experienced that before, yet she knew even now that was despair and darkness talking, and that those feelings would disappear as surely as Dandin had.
"I'll miss you," she sighed, snuggling in. Now that she thought about it, a moment's sleep might be a good idea.
//You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned
What it is to be in love and have that love returned.\\
Mariel and Dandin looked up, seeing the same stars come into the sky. Dandin kept walking though, sure in his decision; he might feel love for Mariel, but duty called. And in the end, duty had to come before his emotions. Redwall wouldn't accept them, because the love they shared was not normal. It was based first on mutual attraction, but then friendship and respect. Yet Mariel realized that there was a connection between her and Dandin that nothing could break; she'd felt it many a time, when there was trouble and when they were joking around most carelessly and accidentally flirting.
They would meet again, somehow.
It was not over that day.
//Is it written in the stars?
Are we paying for some crime?
Is that all that we are good for:
Just a stretch of mortal time?
Is this God's experiment
In which we have no say?
In which we're given paradise
Only for a day.\\
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Unlikely? Possibly. But it ought to be something a little different, right?
Just so I don't get yelled at: I LOVE Mariel, and always thought that she and Dandin had a stronger relationship than was written. I always felt a strong love between the two as they wandered- after everything they went through together, it would be unlikely in my mind if they hadn't fallen for each other completely! So- how bad was it?
*points to box, hits it, gives adder's eyes to get a review*