So, in all honesty, this is probably going to be a little weird. I'm warning you now.
Disclaimer: I don't own Leviathan.
Eight-year-old Deryn Sharp loved being outside, but mostly in the willow tree behind their house in Glasgow.
It was sturdy, unlike most willow trees, and the vine-like leaves were like a curtain. She could draw there alone, or just look up at the sky. It was pretty on a nice day, and her sketchbook was filled with drawings of the clouds or just the wide open sky.
The willow tree was also a place where she could get away from society. Jaspert was always teasing her about her love of being outside, he told her that soon Ma would lock her out of the house so she could live there always. Deryn just scowled, and turned away. She knew he didn't mean it, but it still wasn't very nice.
She hid from Ma too. Her mother was too scared to go by the willow, for whatever reason Deryn didn't know, and once she could scurry up to the top, Deryn knew she was safe from her mother's primping and pruning.
And she hid from the neighborhood girls. There was one who she really disliked, but Deryn being Deryn didn't even bother to learn this girl's name. The girl would always say crude things about Deryn and her Da, and .. flirted .. (was that what it was called?) with Jaspert. (Deryn didn't think ten-year-olds could get married, but she didn't know everything.)
The only person she didn't hide from was her Da. Da would take her up in the hot air balloons every few days, and she loved it up in the free, open sky. Their small home looked tiny from up in the air and the view was brilliant.
Today was not one of those days.
Today was one of those days were Deryn wished she could just go up in a hot air balloon all by herself and let her problems fly away like the birds did. That wasn't going to happen, since today, she was up at the very top of her willow tree, curled up in a small ball.
Her mother had been particularly mean to poor Deryn Sharp today, and Jaspert wasn't helping, that ninny. Mrs. Sharp had yelled at Deryn for her language, her boy-ish qualities, why she wouldn't act more like a lady, and why she had beat up the girl who Deryn didn't bother to learn her name.
The name was Melanie Witte, apparently, but that's all Deryn got from their conversation.
Jaspert just added cruel comments in, especially when they were talking about Melanie. She had a good reason for beating up Melanie, truly, but her family wouldn't listen to her, and the poor girl was forced to flee to her sanctuary.
At the top of the tree, she wished her Da was here. Da always stood up for her, but he was at work. What she would give to go up into the skies right now..
"Sitting up there crying, huh Deryn?" Jaspert leered from the ground. "I always knew that someday you'd break and you'd turn into the delicate creature Ma wanted. It'd be better than what you are now."
"Shut it, you bum-rag!" She shouted irritated, using one of the worst swear words she knew. There was no reply and maybe, Jaspert had left. I was saving that one for a special occasion. Deryn thought smugly and leaned back into the trunk of the tree.
He was probably going to tell Ma about her choice of language, but that couldn't be helped. One more yelling wouldn't kill her.
But Da might be mad about what she was saying, so Deryn decided it would be best if she pleaded her case innocent. If her mother decided she did say it, she would just say Jaspert taught her that language and blame it all on him.
Because what goes around comes around.
She was happily thinking about her revenge when a small, furry spider crawled up her arm. She scrunched up her eyebrows, this was odd, since the spiders in the tree weren't usually furry and they left her alone. Was this some sort of Darwinist creation?
"Hello beastie," Deryn cooed, petting the wee animal softly on the back. And it started to .. purr. She knew now that it must have been some sort of new of messenger animal, but one that got away.
"Where'd you come from?" She asked softly, pulling the spider off her arm and onto the tree trunk. The creature scurried closer to her and that's when it began to get weird.
It began to bark.
Like a small dog, the barks were quick and high pitched, but after a few, it stopped. The "barking spider," as Deryn dubbed it, examined her closely behind crawling away onto another part of the tree.
"Barking spider," She breathed, and then said it again, but plural. "Barking spiders." That sounded better, and Deryn decided it would be her new use of foul language. Since she couldn't get away with clart and bum-rag, her mother would never suspect her swearing when she said, "Barking spiders."
As she hopped down from the tree, still contemplating her revenge, Deryn knew that she would have to bring her sketchbook up to the top and look for that inspiring spider again. It was a certainly interesting Darwinist creation and she wanted to draw it before it left the tree.
When she reached her house, she saw Jaspert the ninny talking to her mother, and she guessed that he was telling her about how Deryn called him a bum-rag. She rushed into the house and said, "Barking spiders, Ma, I did no such thing!"
It turns out that Jaspert was telling their mother about something that happened earlier that day. And it turns out that "barking spiders" was a real, true swear word. She congratulated herself on learning one without any help.
Her mother washed out her mouth with soap in hopes to get rid of her foul language and scolded her for calling Jaspert a bum-rag, but Deryn wouldn't let that damage her pride. She would be saying it her whole life, and her Ma couldn't stop her.
Barking spiders, indeed.