Part 4...I like serialized fiction
Apr. 17th, 2007 02:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dethoratsPrompt: Strategy
Word Count: 561
Miera blinked. It was quite possible that she hadn’t seen Siere correctly. After all, her eyes had been assaulted by smoke and then by jumping from moonlight to nearly absolute darkness to the shadowy, torch-lit gloom she was now peering out into as she plotted her next move. A second look didn’t change anything. Siere, pale and blond, nineteen and topless, hanging from ropes about the wrists to the wall of the chamber below where she waited, was decidedly flat-chested. And not flat-chested as in, ‘aw, poor girl barely has bug bites on her chest’ or ‘how will she ever nurse a babe,’ but completely flat. As in, Siere was decidedly NOT a female. This would definitely put a bit of a kink into her plans.
It wasn’t that she was beyond rescuing men. Far from it. Miera believed in helping any in need, male or female, human or animal or even some of the strange beings from beyond the mountains, should they ever need her assistance. But in her experience, men could be quite prickly about being saved by a woman. Out of the three major times she’d retrieved a male captive only one had ended decently. As for the other two, the less said the better. At least Siere was as waifish as many women. If she needed to carry him from the temple, she’d certainly be able to manage without much difficulty. As long as the lad didn’t put up any fight, that was. Sometimes they struggled even more with her than they had with their captors, the indignity being – stupidly – worse than the threat of death itself. Stubborn creatures, most lowland men. Where she came from, anyone strong enough to wield a weapon did so, and those incapable did other work as suited them, male or female.
No matter, she’d deal with Siere when it came time to retrieve the young man. What mattered more than his gender at the moment was how she was going to get to him. Miera inched further out of the shadowed protection of the hall, one hand on the weapon at her back as she studied the rest of the sanctum’s layout. Roughly circular, a ledge about the width of a good horse covered the circumference of the room. Her hallway lay opposite of another on the far side of the circle with at least two other doorways also lining the ledge. Several jugs and wall hangings decorated the area around the ledge but it was otherwise unobstructed. The focal point of the room was the smaller, equally round chamber carved into the rock itself. A hollowed out bowl, it was accessible by steps leading down from both her hallway vantage point and another set on the other side. Siere was tied up to her right and opposite from where the lad was bound was what appeared to be a flat altar flanked by two torches.
There was no sign of the sorceress and Miera was in the middle of offering up a silent prayer of thanks to her patron god, more out of the hall than in it, when a scraping noise jerked Siere’s head off of his chest and sent her scurrying back to the protection of the shadows. The sound had come from above and, as Miera gazed upward, the previously seamless gray, soot-stained roof began to move.
Word Count: 561
Miera blinked. It was quite possible that she hadn’t seen Siere correctly. After all, her eyes had been assaulted by smoke and then by jumping from moonlight to nearly absolute darkness to the shadowy, torch-lit gloom she was now peering out into as she plotted her next move. A second look didn’t change anything. Siere, pale and blond, nineteen and topless, hanging from ropes about the wrists to the wall of the chamber below where she waited, was decidedly flat-chested. And not flat-chested as in, ‘aw, poor girl barely has bug bites on her chest’ or ‘how will she ever nurse a babe,’ but completely flat. As in, Siere was decidedly NOT a female. This would definitely put a bit of a kink into her plans.
It wasn’t that she was beyond rescuing men. Far from it. Miera believed in helping any in need, male or female, human or animal or even some of the strange beings from beyond the mountains, should they ever need her assistance. But in her experience, men could be quite prickly about being saved by a woman. Out of the three major times she’d retrieved a male captive only one had ended decently. As for the other two, the less said the better. At least Siere was as waifish as many women. If she needed to carry him from the temple, she’d certainly be able to manage without much difficulty. As long as the lad didn’t put up any fight, that was. Sometimes they struggled even more with her than they had with their captors, the indignity being – stupidly – worse than the threat of death itself. Stubborn creatures, most lowland men. Where she came from, anyone strong enough to wield a weapon did so, and those incapable did other work as suited them, male or female.
No matter, she’d deal with Siere when it came time to retrieve the young man. What mattered more than his gender at the moment was how she was going to get to him. Miera inched further out of the shadowed protection of the hall, one hand on the weapon at her back as she studied the rest of the sanctum’s layout. Roughly circular, a ledge about the width of a good horse covered the circumference of the room. Her hallway lay opposite of another on the far side of the circle with at least two other doorways also lining the ledge. Several jugs and wall hangings decorated the area around the ledge but it was otherwise unobstructed. The focal point of the room was the smaller, equally round chamber carved into the rock itself. A hollowed out bowl, it was accessible by steps leading down from both her hallway vantage point and another set on the other side. Siere was tied up to her right and opposite from where the lad was bound was what appeared to be a flat altar flanked by two torches.
There was no sign of the sorceress and Miera was in the middle of offering up a silent prayer of thanks to her patron god, more out of the hall than in it, when a scraping noise jerked Siere’s head off of his chest and sent her scurrying back to the protection of the shadows. The sound had come from above and, as Miera gazed upward, the previously seamless gray, soot-stained roof began to move.
