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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Mar 6, 2015 5:25:34 GMT
The moment they had was momentarily interrupted, Kiet's surprise visible as he glanced back at Lucille. Given the situation, her question almost seemed innocent, which earned a bit of a cheeky grin. "The problem with trees near fences," he began softly, quite conspiratorially, "Is it's harder to see where repairs are needed." A quick wink to encourage Lucille, and Kiet kept pushing on. It wasn't too long before they were faced with parts of a fence, which had been damaged where a fallen tree limb had cracked the panels, likely in a storm. A bit of a tight squeeze, but a successful one.
The path he took was a little longer than it necessarily had to be, but it was a trip that soon brought them into progressively taller grass, hidden in the shadows of the trees that continued to loom around them. Rather than being frightening, the beams of the fading sun brought a warm glow to the air that made it feel more enchanted. Eventually the grass began to shorten, the trees becoming more and more sparse. By the time they reached the edge of the meadow, the light had begun to fade from orange towards violet, covering the open field in a soft glow of light. A small grove of trees bordered the edge of a small lake, which held a dominant position within the field. Covering most of the lake were large red lilies, the water's surface contrasted in color by mirroring the darkening sky. This was the time of day that the fireflies were beginning to flutter in the fading light, adding the final tranquil touch to the scene.
"How's this?" Kiet finally asked after giving Lucille a chance to absorb the scene before them before speaking.
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Post by Kelathi on Apr 2, 2015 12:12:53 GMT
In that moment, her mind was flooded with information of the scene before her. She was reminded of the whitewashed walls, the smell of books. The boredom, the press of the desk on her forehead, the scalding voice of Nelly. “Pay attention, child.” She would say, to which Lucille would groan. “Don’t you understand? The world is full of such beauty! Look,” and she’d rattle on with the names, the French, English, Thai and Latin, whilst Lucille would force herself up, although she would still slouch in her seat, and flip through the pages of the book listlessly. She remembered gazing through countless images of trees and flowers, and pretending to be listening as she day-dreamed about stepping outside into the sun, and playing in the acres of field that surrounded the mansion. Yet she must have absorbed more information than she thought, for as she surveyed their surroundings, all the names came back to her. It was hard to believe that these plants were the same she had seen in dusty old books, for a book can never fully capture the beauty, nor the scents of those around her.
And so she noted not only the beautiful panorama, but also the names of the trees, the insects and the wildflowers. The golden sunlight trickled from behind the leaves of the huge kapok tree, which was surrounded by the only slightly smaller margosa trees, the leaves of which rustled excitedly as if discussing the human newcomers. Lining the lake were mangroves, their ever-thirsty roots breaking the surface of the water, above which busy fireflies flitted back and forth, streaking their yellow trails of light behind them. Lampyridae, a voice seemed to utter in her mind. Despite the waning light, the warmth did not yet fade too much, and it was likely to remain constant now throughout the night. It was a pleasant reprieve from the suffocating blanket of searing heat it had been only a few hours ago, and all was still as the wind, too, gently took it’s leave. Her gaze moved to the lake, taking in the emerald lily pads, accompanied with pink lotus flowers and crimson lilies. All about them were clusters of wild flowers, most were unfamiliar to her, even with her sudden burst of knowledge, and all were beautiful.
“How’s this?” Kiet’s voice seemed very far away. She almost wavered, her knees feeling very suddenly weak. It’s perfect. She wanted to say, but the words died in her throat, strangled with the pleasingness* of it all. She took a step forwards, her legs remaining steady. Confidence growing, she began to walk. She picked up pace. Then she was running, running through the meadow, running towards the lake, seemingly chasing the departing light.
All of a sudden she tripped, tumbling with a rustle of skirts, over and over she rolled before coming to a sudden stop. After a short pause, she rose so that she was now sitting, legs stretched out before her, hands and bare knees muddied with the fall. Her curls had tumbled down and created a curtain over her face, a wild flaxen waterfall. But there was no muffled cry of pain or surprise. Instead, undoubtedly quite surprisingly, laughter was what left her lips. Pure, unadulterated joy. She lifted a hand to sweep away the blonde curls, and it could be seen that her cheeks were now rosy, life filling them with colour, replacing the grey pallor that had characterized her face since that fateful day. Her face glowed, laughter in her eyes, laughter spilling from her mouth. Worry was gone, and now there was only beauty.
Beauty in the sky. Beauty in the trees. Beauty in the world.
*((Apparently this is a word! lol))
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Apr 23, 2015 4:47:01 GMT
Suddenly Lucille was running, tumbling down before she was able to stop. Kiet immediately picked up the chase once he saw her fall, skidding to a stop near her, not quite sure if he should check on how she was doing. This stayed his hands, half jumping back when she suddenly sat up. Kiet had not expected the laughter, but as the laugh escaped her, the creeping smile on his own lips showed its infectious nature. His own laugh started coming out, leaning back with one arm to keep him upright.
It wasn’t until a minute or so later, as the laughter subsided, that Kiet realized how much he himself had needed it. The escape, the release… it was freeing. Freeing enough that as he settled back, looking out over the pond, he hadn’t noticed that another weight was now lying behind where he had skidded, half obscured by the long grass.
(short short... and btw I love how you describe the scene :D )
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Post by Kelathi on May 14, 2015 19:15:00 GMT
((No worries And thanks! I tried hehe))
Instead of looking down at her like she was crazy, that look she had seen all too many times with most everyone she met... suddenly he was joining in, and they were lost in peels of laughter that no longer had any specific origin, merely laughing at the fact that they were laughing...
He settled down beside her, and they both continued to look in awe at their surroundings, at peace for the moment. But of course, peace never lasted long with the little terror in proximity... Lucille glanced at Kiet with a mischievous look in her eyes. “I bet you can’t beat me to the edge of the pond.” She announced playfully. At his look, she stuck out her tongue. “Come on, old man! I bet you can’t!” The ‘old’ part was a deliberate ploy to get him to attempt her bet, because she did not think him at all particularly old. At times he seemed slightly more mature than herself (except for now, of course), but never old.
((Did he sit? I wasn’t sure. Hope you don’t mind what I wrote! Shorty short! But thought it would give her chance to grab le mysterious object ))
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on May 17, 2015 3:34:21 GMT
(Yep, he sat down :D )
Lucille’s little look was caught in the corner of Kiet’s eye, facing her with his own mischievous little grin. His expression changed to one of indignantly injured pride for a moment, retorting, “’Old’? I’ll show you ‘old,’ you little squirt!” The tone wasn’t admonishing in the least, rather quickly mimicking her own teasing tone as he twisted his legs under him, unhindered by long skirts, and was up in a heartbeat.
In the long grass, the faded white of the letter stood out against the emerald. The paper was rumpled with one corner bent, but it was quite clearly an envelope with a red wax seal imprinted on its back. There was a neat, thin scrawl on the front, addressed to Lord Chenard. The seal itself used the image of a lion and a stag together, a symbol quite foreign to Thailand’s aristocracy, for indeed the symbol clearly stated a noble house.
Kiet clearly hadn’t noticed that it had fallen out of his jacket pocket, as he was laughing as he waited for her to join in the running. What was not as clear was the reason why he would have had such a strange document with him at least since he had arrived, given its worn appearance.
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Post by Kelathi on Jun 5, 2015 1:26:47 GMT
She scrambled to get up, stepping on her skirt as she did so, and promptly tumbling back down to her knees. A laugh, and as she lifted her skirt to try again, something on the ground caught her eye.
There was no mistaking it. An envelope. Before she had chance to really study it, she picked it up and quickly slipped it into a leather pouch, hidden under her skirts. Then she ran after him, hindered more than she had guessed by her heavy dress.
Once again she was thankful for her pre-emptive cunningness. Back when she was little, and had just started to become the little minx of the household, Nelly had tightened her grip on controlling anything that might cause trouble. After a particularly unfortunate mouse-in-Nelly’s-bed incident, the woman had begun checking Lucille’s pockets when she entered the house. To bypass this, Lucille had stolen some waterproof leather from the cobbler on one of his visits to fix her father’s shoes, and used her sewing lessons to craft herself a nifty little pouch with a strap that could be attached to her thigh and lie undetected beneath her dress. It had come in handy many a time, often she forgot it was even there, as she had gotten in the habit of wearing it every day, as you never know when she might need it. Today was one such day.
She ran after Kiet. She had lost, of course. She slowed as she approached him, looking defeated. “Okay... I guess you win.” Before he could celebrate in any way, that glint reappeared in her eye. She smiled sweetly, then suddenly she pushed him. Perhaps stopping at the edge of the pool had not been such a good idea, especially now as Lucille’s mischievous intentions had become startlingly clear...
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jun 5, 2015 1:58:52 GMT
Kiet turned to watch Lucille catch up, smiling despite knowing he wouldn’t admit he was a little impressed. He had been in other running matches with girls; their dresses made them about twice as slow alone. She’d managed to keep up a lot better. At her words, however, he pretended to become snobbish, dusting off one sleeve. “Not bad for an old man, hm?” he teased back in a similar tone, moments before the playful push.
For a moment, his eyes went wide as he struggled to keep his balance on the edge of the pond, but managed to pull himself back from the brink. However, he moved a few steps away, arms out warily as he laughingly threatened, “If I go down, you’re going with me!” Punctuating this was one step forward with a gesture to grab, willing to “sacrifice” himself to get her as well. It was, as had been, an unusually playful behavior that was being mirrored. Later, Kiet would wonder how two such foes could suddenly turn into childish friends. Ah, the magic of a simple meadow… or cursed, depending on how Lucille would react in the morning.
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Post by Kelathi on Jun 5, 2015 2:11:25 GMT
She had expected him to topple backwards. She had not expected him to take her with him.
A grab at her arm was all that needed, she, taken so off guard, stumbled into him easily. There was that small moment of horror accompanied with losing one's balance, a primal moment where the brain frantically tries to work out in a few seconds what exactly was going on. Then, they were both dunked in ice cold water. With a gasp as the water quickly seeped through her dress to her skin, she immediately scrambled to get up, only causing herself to become even more tangled in her skirts, and, embarrassingly, Kiet. But she was laughing again. "I... Can't believe.. you did that!" She gasped, still trying to scramble up, the sudden fits of giggles not helping her predicament, or helping her in her goal. She pressed against his chest for support and managed to stand, her feet either side of Kiet's legs on the unstable ground, lost her balance, and fell forward again into his chest with a squeak. "Oh my god! I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jun 5, 2015 4:02:31 GMT
At the last moment, he managed to snag her sleeve. A little better than he had actually intended, considering it was that pull that got her to stumble into him and in turn took them both down.
Oops.
The cold water, of course, sent a shock through his entire system, making one leg jerk in shock. As they came up for air, the laugh at first was half shock before it became focused on what had happened. Lucille began to pull away, but both of them managed to get entrapped within her voluminous skirts. “Me?” he retorted, still laughing as they tried to get up. “It’s not my fault! You’re the one who started this!”
Feeling Lucille pushing against him, Kiet found himself sinking a little deeper into the mud, and focused on not becoming more trapped himself rather than getting up first. Her crash back into him sunk him an inch deeper, and so cushioned more than injured had he landed in something hard. So her squeak and subsequent concern got a sheepish yet somewhat crooked grin in reply. “Nope, unless you’re intending to trap me here,” he noted as he lifted one mud-coated hand up out of the water to show before putting it back down. No sense in getting himself even more stuck on one side…
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Post by Kelathi on Jun 5, 2015 22:03:10 GMT
A look of relief flitted onto her face when he revealed that he was fine, and she began to get up again, carefully this time. But at his words, she smiled, and sank back down quickly, pinning him, hands on his shoulders, just with about enough strength to keep in him in place for now. “Maybe I am.” She replied, and at the expression on his face, stuck out her tongue again, showing that she was still playing. “Whatcha gonna do now, old man?” she teased, grinning, like a child who knew she was perhaps pushing her luck now. She wondered what he would do, push her off with a huff, or play along?
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jun 8, 2015 16:54:42 GMT
Kiet had expected her to continue getting up, that the playfulness would continue once back on dry land. When she settled down again, he felt a momentary pause that had little to do with a playful attitude. The water ran down her face, sliding down the wet mass of blonde curls. The color of her lips was intensified by the wet droplets, shaping to form the words, “Maybe I am.” The momentary spell broke when her own playful attitude reemerged as she stuck out her tongue, Kiet uncertain of what had happened for those few moments as he returned to normal as well.
“Well… I could roll over and stick you in the mud,” he teased in a slightly offhanded threat, narrowing his eyes a little as he arched one eyebrow. To emphasize this, he suddenly dropped one elbow, twisting his torso half back down into the water.
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Post by Kelathi on Jun 9, 2015 21:12:36 GMT
“Ah! No!” Suddenly she pulled back, blue eyes wide, needing no more encouragement to get up. She laughed as she quickly splashed away, climbing back up the bank and leaving him to fend for himself. Suddenly she was mimicking an older ladies’ voice, one that was quite familiar. She wagged her finger at Kiet in mock rebuke. “Oh my! Kiet, whatever happened to you! Did her ladyship do this, the little terror?” She was unable to keep the grin off her face, even though she was trying to impersonate Nelly’s look of exasperation. “My good sir!” She continued, bundling her heavy skirts in the way Nelly might with her apron, and hurrying over to her like a bustling hen. “Here! Take my hand, you’ll ruin your lovely clothes!” she held out her hand to help him up.
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jun 10, 2015 16:15:04 GMT
Kiet had to restrain the sudden laugh; that had been a little too easy, but funny. He used the water to try and wash his hands off from the mud, laughing at her dead-on impression of Nelly as he started to get up. “Oh, thank you, m’lady,” Kiet responded as he took her hand, putting on a dramatic accent to parallel Lucille’s humor. “My word, I can’t understand what the young mistress was thinking!” he bemoaned, even throwing a hand up in feigned dismay before he succumbed to the laughing again.
As the wind picked up a little, the laugh changed to a bit of a shiver. “Ah! Um. I’d offer you my coat but… well, that might make you wetter,” Kiet noted, with a bit of a wry laugh. While he lost a little of the giddy high from having escaped into the meadow, with the sun setting in the distance and beginning to turn it into a sea of deep blue, Kiet felt better. It hadn’t been a typical way of relieving the stress, but it had been quite an effective one.
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Post by Kelathi on Jun 10, 2015 23:43:07 GMT
His reply was met with more mirth. But as he seemed to sober a little from their merry mood, so did she. But like him, there was also a lightness in her heart. “You are forgiven... this once.” She replied teasingly. At his words however, she shivered too, noticing the cold as evening drew in. “We should probably get back then.” She added, the sunset also drawing her gaze. She realized all at once that she couldn’t remember the way back. She was further surprised that it didn’t matter... because she trusted Kiet to take her back safely.
How had this transformation happened? One moment they had been enemies, the next...
The world truly did work in mysterious ways. She reached up to drain the water from her hair as she next spoke. “The household isn’t going to be impressed.” She warned. She didn’t mind, it was not exactly the first time the household would be in uproar because of her. But for Kiet... “You should probably go ahead when we get to the gardens, you know, sneak in and pretend you weren’t out here at all.”
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jun 22, 2015 22:56:01 GMT
"Only once?" he asked, pretending to pout. Despite this, he still offered her a hand to help her back up the hill. He had gotten lost... had had to re-find his way many a time, and so now knew the well quite well indeed. Even as twilight began to settle over them, he moved confidently, his tone remaining at a tease. "Oh, I'm sure. They'd probably blame me, too!" he replied, referencing the fact that they were both soaked and muddy with a laugh.
It was an easy trip back, aside from a few low, now hidden branches snagging on wet hair or cloth. Once the twilight sky was visible over the manor, Kiet finally withdrew his hand. "Take care, my lady," he noted with a smile, an easy one that wasn't as teasing, a more genuine sort of smile than the one he usually offered so freely. Quietly, he raced off towards the stables, hoping that if they were found at least separately drenched they could plausibly offer two unrelated stories.
(quickie one, we can start moving towards the letter :D)
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