Gt July Day 9 – Rainy Day

Decided to revisit the How to Train Your Sawyer AU after a while! Good to have giant Sawyer back in action.

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The rain was coming down in buckets- the entire forest was caught in the deluge, raindrops falling thick and fat onto leaves before pooling off onto the ground, where it ran in currents through newly carved streams in the dirt. All creatures big and small found somewhere to wait out the torrential downpour.

Sawyer, all seventy-some odd feet of him, definitely counted as one of the “big” creatures. To him the downpour was a little less severe, the raindrops relatively fine, but he was huddled in his cave all the same. Big or not, he would still get wet if he went out in the rain, and he didn’t really have a way to get dry aside from waiting and hoping. It was just easier to sit underneath the cool stone of his cliff face and watch the water falling from the sky.

Normally he got antsy, being stuck in his cave, but when it rained, he found it a little easier to just sit and relax. The only reason he was worried at all right now was because it was later than he usually had company.

Sure enough, within a few minutes he perked up as he heard the sound of small, hurried footsteps splashing through the field. He wanted to stick his head out and make sure, but the thought of being wet kept him waiting impatiently instead. His predictions were confirmed as Charlie scrambled into the mouth of the cave and stopped, dripping and heaving for breath, just a few feet past Sawyer’s shoes.

“Hi,” Sawyer cheerfully greeted him, taking in the small human with some amusement. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d decided to stay home because of the weather.”

“I should have,” Charlie replied, sounding exasperated. He shook the water from his arms, droplets flying off of the sleeves of his jacket. Sawyer barely felt a couple hit his ankle. Charlie slicked his wavy blond hair back, slinging more water around, and it fell wet and dark around his pale face. His cheeks were a little pink from the chill; Sawyer didn’t really feel it, but he’d learned to tell when little humans like Charlie would. “I’m soaked, that rain came out of bloody nowhere.”

Sawyer chuckled, the sound filling his relatively small cave and rumbling through Charlie where he stood shivering. “The clouds looked dark enough,” he mildly countered. He watched as Charlie set his backpack up against the wall of the cave, and remembered that sometimes Charlie had books in there. He would probably be upset if they got wet. “Is your backpack okay?”

“Fine,” Charlie huffed. “Thankfully I didn’t have anything much in there today, just a water bottle.” Certainly some luck on his part, though it was only because Charlie had gotten most of his homework done earlier. He sighed and peeled off his jacket, since it was soaked and only serving to make him colder, and set it by his backpack.

A genuine smile crossed Sawyer’s face. “That’s good,” he enthused. He reached forward, crossing the length of the cave in moments, though Charlie didn’t so much as flinch. He was so used to this by now that he didn’t even wiggle as Sawyer cupped both hands around him and lifted him off the floor of the cave.

Instead of holding him close and getting him warm immediately, Sawyer set Charlie on his curved stomach. He picked up the hem of his shirt in both hands and began gently rubbing Charlie dry. Charlie opened his mouth, probably to protest, but Sawyer moved a thumb to ruffle his hair dry and Charlie was too covered by cloth to manage that. By the time Sawyer was done, Charlie was bright pink but a great deal drier than he had been before.

“Thank you,” Charlie said, sounding more than a bit aggrieved and embarrassed, but Sawyer just grinned.

“You’re welcome,” he happily replied. Charlie’s sheepishness rolled right off of him; He might as well help his friend get dry, after all. It was the least he could do when Charlie was really his only friend, and also walked on his little human legs all the way out here all the time. Besides, he was pretty sure having other people around was the reason for humans to get embarrassed like that, and there were no other humans to worry about. “Here.” He scooped up Charlie and held him close, his lingering shivers muffled against Sawyer’s broad chest. Sawyer rubbed his thumb over Charlie’s little arm, barely feeling the miniscule goosebumps there. “You can warm up for a bit. There’s nothing else to do in the rain like this.”

Sighing once more, though more in relief than aggravation this time, Charlie snuggled up against Sawyer. The giant really did exude body heat. Charlie looked out past Sawyer’s hands at the rain coming down outside.

“Yeah,” he said quietly, already feeling warmer. “We might as well just sit.”

Gt July Day 8 – Dream

I’ve actually been meaning to write this short drabble for a while now; though I intended to title it “Nightmare”.

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In the dream, Rowan was in danger.

He felt it in his bones, in the deepest most instinctual part of him, adrenaline numbing his limbs even as it urged him to flee. He couldn’t- his foot was stuck, thick rope pulled tight around his ankle, the other end driven into the ground with a stake nearly half his height. It was one of Ember’s snares she set up around the forest, to catch rabbits and other such creatures in. Now Rowan was the one caught, struggling helplessly and gasping out too-quick breaths, as huge footsteps shuddered through the ground beneath him.

His hands dug into the ground, pulling uselessly, doing nothing to help him go anywhere. Those enormous, powerful footsteps, shaking him with each thud, stopped just behind him. Shaking with fear, heart pounding pitifully in his chest, Rowan turned over, further tangling himself in the rope, and looked up.

Gt July Day 7 – Thief

Of course I had to come back to Stolen Hunt for this one. Rowan has some tales to tell, to be sure.

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“So there I was, preparing for one of the riskiest heists of my life.

Don’t get me wrong- I had cased the house for weeks. The problem was that the woman who lived there was one of those ‘ladies of leisure’, which really just meant she never left the godsdamned house. Her husband seemed to be kept busy between his job and his mistress, but she was always home. People came to her.

Believe me, she had more money and riches than she knew what to do with. I was just trying to figure out a way to make that load a little lighter for her.

Gt July Day 6 – AU

You may be familiar with Colfax, the court wizard? They say he has a magic mirror that allows him to see into other possible worlds: places and times and versions of people that might have been. Alternate universes, if you will.

Now, imagine that Felicia, the Queen of Winter, has a similar mirror; except, being made of high magic herself, the mirror is her mind, and it is fractured. Somebody made her break a promise- a serious prospect for any fae, but for the frozen heart of the Winter Court, this was devastating. The repercussions of this broke her – broke the entire cycle of the seasons, for a few years – and she never quite recovered. Nobody knows where the Seelie sidhe who broke her heart, broke her mind, is now; nobody even remembers their name. Wherever they remain, it must certainly be an unenviable position. Rarely are the Courts united, but in this matter, Lavinia’s wrath must have been as great as Felicia’s shattering.

The Queen of Winter has recovered, somewhat. The mirror in her mind remains splintered, however, and at times her mind wanders down paths that lead far from our own reality. The lines between worlds are blurred and ragged for Her Scarred Majesty.

Whatever effects these spiderweb cracks in the glass of possibility might have on other realities, one may never know; but I pity any world that feels the echoes of Felicia’s fracturing.

Gt July Day 5 – Caught

@neonthebright suggested the Stolen Hunt duo for this prompt, and I thought that was a great idea! After all, they got their start during this challenge last year, and it’s about time that I came back to them.

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It was hot for early spring, a cloudless day that lit up the forest brightly, with the round, yellow sun sending down heat that was frankly welcome after the chill of the last few days. Ember was between hunts – she had set some small traps in the morning, but hadn’t gone to check any yet – and was busy putting together some lunch. Rowan was taking the opportunity to be somewhere other than her hand or her vest pocket, and was jogging lightly back and forth across the top of a log. He needed to keep in shape, and maintain his sense of balance; he didn’t want to slack off on either survival trait just because a giant happened to cart him around all the time these days.

All told, this was one of the more pleasant hours Rowan had spent since he started traveling around with Ember. It felt good to move on his own for once, push his body without it being pushed for him, have his sleeves rolled up and his hair tousled by the breeze.

Of course, such luck couldn’t last forever. He never seemed to be in the gods’ favor these days, and as a shadow blotted out the sun and something big dove at him, his first honest thought was Dammit not AGAIN.