Oedipus Rex
Disclaimers: You already know Jander doesn't belong to me. WotC gets him. Mr. M. (which is abbreviated because his name is 'so ethnic he doesn't make anyone try to pronounce it *grin*) is his own person. Unless he's really an android sent out to try and control the minds of young school children. Oedipus Rex (aka Oedipus the King) belongs to Sophocles. Except it might not cuz I don't know if they had copyrights back then… Enjoy!!!
The benefactor of the orphans had been particularly altruistic today. When someone had the temerity to ask for her assent to keep some money, she went off on them, turning from the Nire of clemency to truculent Nire, yelling at the person in unfeigned anger. The man plodded to the back of the group, grumbling to himself how someone should have warned him that she was in a bad mood today. Apparently, the elaborate warning system they had in place was not infallible.
Now, Nire lay in repose, half asleep, a book on her stomach. Her peaceful look was at discrepancy with her active mind, which was remising over the few happy times of her life. She was so indomitable that not even sleep could overcome her, without her wanting to embark on a journey to the Land of Nod.
"And what are you reading this fine evening, my lady?" Jander sat down next to her.
His chivalrous manners made her smile. The diffident elf always had the power to make her smile. She wrinkled her nose as she opened her eyes. "What's that pungent odor?"
"Oh, it's just the hypersnake."
"Hypersnake?"
"Yeah. It's been following me. So, what are you reading?"
"Oedipus the King."
"Is it better than The Pearl?"
"Much. I love this book. We get to read it in school."
"Mr. Myers' class?"
"Yep. This guy is king, and there's this whole story behind it, and he's married to his mother, and-
"What?"
"Yeah, but he doesn't know it's his mother. There's a dearth of kids in the kingdom, 'cause it's cursed. It's a facile read.'
"I'm glad you finally like something you're reading."
"Yeah. Hey, did you know that hypersnakes are extremely virulent?"
"What?!"
"Yeah! They're wicked poisonous." Nire began to laugh as Jander began to look for the hypersnake to kill it.
*fin*
(A/N: By now you're asking "What is a hypersnake?" Well, it's another inside joke from English class. We were talking about the sniper who happened to still be on the loose at the time I wrote this. And Mr. Myers said that we couldn't say 'sniper' out loud any more because it was a 'sensitive subject' (yes, he did do the quotes and everything). Mike wanted to write his composition on the sniper, and Mr. Myers said: 'Sorry Mike, but you can't write it on the iper-snay. One of the other guys (damn, I love my class!) thought he said 'hypersnake'. So he asked what a hypersnake was, and it was all funny. And I got the extra extra point this time!!!)