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Prompt #10: Fight Back

On By destiney1984Leave a comment
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Ul’dah was in full swing as noon neared. The usual streets an stalls busy and bustling. Keaira was navigating the busy streets even at the age of nine.

Not that she was supposed to be doing this errand. However her mother was not feeling very well and father was at work. That left her older sister to deal with all of their mother’s usual work with weaving. That left them without someone to run and fetch or deliver things. Thus Keaira had begged and pleaded to get her big sister to let her do this to help. The youngest was still far too young to do much besides play.

Keaira paused with a dress bundled in her arms. Looking down the side street at the voices she heard. A boy that looked her age was crying and covering his head as two slightly older boys clearly harassed and bullied him. One was even smacking the poor boy with a stick.

“Hey! Stop that!” Of course Keaira couldn’t let it continue. Frowning as she stomped towards the boys. Two on one wasn’t fair. It was cowardly. Especially when the boy clearly couldn’t defend himself from them. There was no way she was going to walk on. Or simply try to find an adult to break this up. She’d deal with this herself. Even if it meant she’d get in trouble later for fighting again. “Leave him alone, you bullies!”

“Ha! What are you going to do about it, little girl?” Sneered the oldest of the two as he put his hands on his hips and taunted as he looked down on Keaira. She was well under both of their heights.

At this point the dress in her arms was quickly forgotten as she dropped it to lash out with a fist towards the oldest bully. The boy was caught off guard, not expecting to have a small fist flying towards his face. He fell backwards and landed hard on his butt as he stared wide-eyed for a moment. His buddy had quit hitting the little boy with the stick when his friend fell.

Keaira bit her lower lip as she tried not to look as nervous as she felt. Getting into a fight with two older boys and she hadn’t even been allowed to do more then play fight with her father a few times and chase off a few mean boys but never two at one time. At most her father had wanted to teach her how to defend herself since she was often out running the streets much to her mother’s dismay.

“You hit me!” The older boy’s expression changed from surprise to anger as he climbed to his feet. He took a swing at Keaira when he lunged her way. The fist grazed her cheek as she attempted to dodge. Only to get a knee to the gut. The boy clearly knew more then she did but she wasn’t about to let that stop her as she fought to catch the air that had been knocked out of her. The other boy was still clearly staying back. However that had given the little boy a chance to flee while they were ignoring him.

A few more blows were exchanged between them before his partner cried out in alarm. “Adults!” The younger one took off fleeing. The older one cussed softly before giving Keaira a venomous look.

“This ain’t over, short stuff.” He too then fled after his buddy.

“Cowards!” Keaira shouted at their retreating forms.

Keaira wiped at her cheek with her hand before looking at the discarded dress and grimacing. Yelping in surprise when she looked towards the two adults approaching. One just happening to be her own father, still all dressed in his sultansworn’s attire. Running was pointless now as her father had already seen her. So she stood there, trying to not look guilty and slightly scuffed up.

No words were said to her though. The other adult with him went off to see if he could find the bullies. Her father simply picked up the discarded dress with a frown before finally looking towards her again. A raised brow at her disheveled state before putting a hand on her shoulder. Keaira tried not to flinch as she was worried he was about to scold her.

“Keaira… My feisty little girl. While I admire what you tried to do, your mother is going to be disappointed if she finds you got the dress all dirty to get into a fight. Come, let’s go get you cleaned up an see what we can do for this dress before heading home. Let’s not tell your mother about this if we can.” Crouching down in front of Keaira and lightly touching her unharmed cheek. “Then we’ll see about getting you some proper fighting lessons if you’re going to keep sticking up for the underdog against bullies.”

Keaira blinked in surprise. Finally throwing her arms around her father in a hug. Expecting a scolding for another fight with bullies and instead getting the promise of fighting lessons. Weaving wasn’t in her blood. No. She always had wanted to be just like her dad. Protecting people. Now he was willing to give her the chance she longed for. Plus a promise not to tell her mother about today. Everything had worked out for the best other then some minor injuries that could easily be tended.

Prompt #9: For Sana

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Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he set the box down on the counter. Just having returned from a bakery and some other shopping. His cooking skills just were not up to par yet for what he needed. Though he was sure Sana would have loved it either way. However he wanted her to have this after he had seen it in the bakery.

It looked like an adorable cat head. It was supposed to be filled with a thick rich chocolate. Now he just had to find a place to hide it till her nameday and play stupid.

He totally hadn’t done a little asking around for when Sana’s nameday was. Nope not at all. Plus he had bought her something else. Now he just had to hide them both from her till then. Surely he could play dense for a few days easily.

Prompt #5: Show of Hands

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Adelena sat around the table with several others. A mix of pirates and deckhands that were all on shore leave. Various bottles and cups littered the table in arm’s reach. The middle contained a pile of coins. The group all seemed intent on their cards in hand.

Sharp eyes on the man from a merchant’s vessel. The man seemed to be acting rather shady. Whether it was nerves from playing with some known pirates… That was harder to say but Adel’s money was on cheating.

“Alright lads and lass. Show them hands.” The dealer of the group declared.

Adel knew she had a good hand. Lady luck was with her today. Yet something was telling her to keep her eyes on that man. She spread her cards on the table, subtly keeping her eyes on him. Ready to call him out.

Her hand beat the rest of the table. Then the shifty man placed his down. Adel had noticed that subtle shift. The man was keeping extra cards up his sleeve. It gave the man a winning hand. Just as he reached for the pile of coins, Adel pulled a knife from her belt and jabbed it down into the table mere inches from the man’s hands. It startled the man enough to make him jump. The loose hidden cards in his sleeves falling free.

“Bloody scallywag. Trying to cheat us? I’ll make you shark bait.” Adel growled at the man who backed away from the table. Her fellow card players stood up and also gave the man vicious looks. The man looked about to piss his pants before he took off and bolted from the room.

Adel sighed and put her dagger back into it’s sheath before sitting back down. “Now where were we? Another game, boys? Rums on me this round.”

Prompt #4: Bad Shortcuts

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Valen sighed as he patted Hikari’s neck. Somehow his shortcut to save time had ended up costing him more. He’d somehow gotten himself and his chocobo lost. He wasn’t usually so bad at directions.

“I should have just stuck to the normal path. Then we wouldn’t be forced to camp tonight instead of having a nice soft bed. I’m sure you would have appreciated a nice pile of hay yourself, my friend.” Valen talked as he cared for his feathered companion. Making sure the chocobo was more then comfortable for the night.

Returning now would just cost more time then his ‘brilliant’ idea to save time with the shortcut. So here they were. Camping for the night in the woods. Hopefully he could make it by dawn after catching a couple hours of sleep. This job was unlikely to wait too long on him to show up before offering it to another hunter.

After all being a wandering minstrel only earned him so much coin. Especially now that he couldn’t charm every person out of some easy gil for a night in his company. He was determined not to disappoint Virae. Plus this gil would help with buying her a Starlight present.

Valen placed his roll down before getting comfortable. One last glance up towards the branches above the camp. “Good night, Lily. Good night, Hikari.” A soft chirp from the magpie only as Hikari was already napping.

Prompt #3: Sanctum

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Stefan paused outside the doorway to this section of the ruins. Esper halted at his feet. Giving the place a quick look over with a glance before moving forward again when Esper gave him no warning.

This place had long since been looted of all the obvious items worth taking. However that did not erase everything. There was still the architecture and the carvings. All the little things that most looters paid zero attention to. The things that told people who lived here before. How they lived. Granted the items taken often helped immensely but Stefan could make due without them. It was good practice as well. Even if he would have preferred to have something to return with other then information.

Stefan paused at what looked to have once been an alter to the Twelve. Or maybe just one of the Twelve. It was hard to tell with the age of the ruins and the lack of items. All the same, this was clearly the inner sanctum of the ruins. A divine room where the people who had lived here would come to pray.

Continuing past the alter to check the walls for any further clues. Leaving Esper to guard his back as he studied. Especially since the mage often got far too absorbed in his work. It was the carbuncle’s job to watch over him. Esper always had his back.

Thankfully though this trip was peaceful. There was no real reason for most to come to a building long forgotten and already looted. Stefan practiced his skills of study for a couple of hours before Esper reminded him of the hour. Just a simple tug on his pant leg. Stefan tried not to be caught in ruins after dark.

One last look around the Sanctum before heading towards the door with Esper in tow.

Prompt #2: Silenced

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Freedom. That was what flight was. Soaring those seemingly endless skies had always been a source of freedom to her. Even in the less then favorable weather to most. Storms? She loved them. Flying in them never scared her.

Marielle set down on bare feet in the grass and moss of the forest floor. Something was off here though. Everything was too… Quiet. The usual sounds of wildlife were totally absent beyond the gentle flowing water of the small stream. Her eyes narrowed as she looked around.

The strange silence suddenly broken by a hiss of pain. Mari covered her right eye with a hand. Heavens above the pain… Mari staggered, turning as a sudden cackle sounded off to her right. But there was nothing there. Nothing that she could see. Trying to grasp her power only caused her agonizing pain. Dropping to her knees as she tried to figure out what was going on.

Only to find herself suddenly opening her eyes to the starry sky above. Fingers gently touched the mark over her right eye. There was no pain. But her power… It was still effectively silenced. Her freedom gone.

Mari sighed softly as she climbed to her feet. She hadn’t really needed the sleep. Instead she went back to gathering some more herbs nearby. Even some more berries. Needed more berries to share with Bodge after all.

Tonight was just a bad night for rest. The dream didn’t come about all that often. But it was a painful reminder of what she had once had.

Prompt #1: Cooking Thoughts

On By destiney1984Leave a comment
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Alex picked up the spoon from the counter as he came back to the kitchen. Stirring the stew idly while he thought. Making sure everything had been submerged enough to cook thoroughly. Cooking certain things had become so easy at this point. Enough anyways that he could think about other things while working.

There were a couple things he needed to sit down and talk to Sana about. Definitely the things that happened at the last Gin Mill. He had purposely found a job to do during the most recent one. There was no way he wanted to deal with Roka again. Not yet. Odds were still highly likely he might try to kill her after the crap she pulled. Trying to blame him for the risk to her unborn child… The whole incident had left a bad taste in his mouth and he knew it had to be hard for Sana.

The stew needed more carrots. Alex angrily chopped the carrots since thoughts of Roka’s lack of care for her unborn child pissed him off. He tossed the carrots in and stirred.

The other thing he wanted to discuss with Sana… He wasn’t sure he was ready or not. But having her opinion on the idea would still be nice. He was debating maybe trying to cook for more then just the two of them and the occasional meal he took Anata. Maybe some sort of small eatery. Nothing big. Well beyond a bigger kitchen of course. Though he was thinking he might need someone to be the person to deal with other people. It was something that sounded like it might be both good and very bad. Hence why he wanted to run the idea past Sana before even moving anywhere with the idea.

Alex raised the spoon and took a taste once it had cooled enough. Needed something more. Raiding what spices he had handy at the moment. Finding a few to add a bit more flavor to the stew. At least he thought he was getting better at cooking. He was still best working with fish but that was because living near Limsa made it an easy to get ingredient. Once the stew seemed to be cooking well enough, Alex set about checking on the bread. He had decided to try and make his own today. Hopefully it didn’t turn out like a paperweight… Only one way to find out. Eat once everything was done cooking.