RATING: G. (Non-slash, non-language). GENRE: General.
Paired Drabble: A Kindling Of Kindred Spirits
by Wayfarer
(closetwayfarer at yahoo dot com)
Always he strove to gain his lord's favour, though he was ever the lesser choice. But he forshook himself never, and in kinship and his teacher in grey he took refuge. Even when their guardianship failed upon the bridge and his brother was sent chasing his dream, faith in neither lord nor his own captaincy faltered; until the day the Halfing and his pitiful companion barged into his ward. And ever after he was seared by death and nearly burnt in his father's grief, who could rekindle his smile but a kindred spirit wandering the Houses of Healing with him?
Bound in solitude, beset by licentious gaze, in service to a dispirited ruler, her thoughts ever consumed by flights of heroics. Her hobbled spirit yearned for a place beyond the hall, a place in the Eored, until the day the strangers intruded and she saw the way, faithful to a fancy that withered ere her tears were dried. Wile and obstinacy bought a place in the weapontake, a new friend, the ride into heartbreak. The sheen of steel glimmering as she allayed her grief to break unassailable might, fading away until bonds of kindred spirits kindled her smile at last.