![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolevalanQuick note: Sorry for the delay with fanfic100 (or any sort of update, really...). Real life has gotten extra hectic - but I should be back in about a week or so. Cheers.
Title: River
Fandom: Original, with mild references to Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy (To sum up a much longer explanation: The river setting is Nix's, the character is part of a much larger story, and is mine.)
Rating: PG
It was cold. Much colder than he expected it to be, actually, though he was mildly surprised that he had expectations to be violated. It wasn’t so much, upon reflection, that he was surprised to find something after – it was that he’d never given much thought to what “something” might be.
It was easy. Very easy, at first, to just stop fighting against something you had no chance of beating. There was no way to win, and the knowledge was liberating, if filled with regret. It was over, and his stubbornness, his love for her, his power…her power…nothing was going to stop the river, the aching coldness seeping through him as much as over him. And did he really want it to? He was so tired, after all… could he have saved her, even if he fought his way to her side? Maybe…
It was simple. Suddenly and blindingly clear. It would hurt her, deeply, assuming she was still alive and safe enough to be hurt. But this was the only way it could have ended, wasn’t it? He was swept over a fall, and hardly noticed. Because suddenly a new thought occurred to him. That perhaps she wasn’t alive to be hurt. And the thought that would have crushed his heart to splinters moments ago suddenly gave him hope. At the end of the river…at the release he could feel coming…maybe she’d be there waiting for him.
It was possible. More than possible – likely, given what he’d heard just before the end. The beginning. Whatever it had been. It hadn’t even hurt, not really – it’d been far too quick for that. And now the cold, deep water was rushing him along, back to her arms. They’d be together again, and it would all come right.
It was confusing. He could hear a bell. Up until this point, he hadn’t heard anything but the rush of the river and his own thoughts. But he wanted to stop and listen; he wanted to figure out where the sound was coming from. He needed to. And he started to fight the current, the chill to which he’d almost abandoned himself. He’d get to his destination soon enough. As soon as he investigated the bell. The clarion summons that he ached to follow in a way he could barely explain to himself.
It was difficult. Fighting through the current, through the sinkholes and traps, was much trickier than he’d expected. But if he could just reach it, just get back far enough up current, maybe he could see… and then everything stopped.
It was cold.
Title: River
Fandom: Original, with mild references to Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy (To sum up a much longer explanation: The river setting is Nix's, the character is part of a much larger story, and is mine.)
Rating: PG
It was cold. Much colder than he expected it to be, actually, though he was mildly surprised that he had expectations to be violated. It wasn’t so much, upon reflection, that he was surprised to find something after – it was that he’d never given much thought to what “something” might be.
It was easy. Very easy, at first, to just stop fighting against something you had no chance of beating. There was no way to win, and the knowledge was liberating, if filled with regret. It was over, and his stubbornness, his love for her, his power…her power…nothing was going to stop the river, the aching coldness seeping through him as much as over him. And did he really want it to? He was so tired, after all… could he have saved her, even if he fought his way to her side? Maybe…
It was simple. Suddenly and blindingly clear. It would hurt her, deeply, assuming she was still alive and safe enough to be hurt. But this was the only way it could have ended, wasn’t it? He was swept over a fall, and hardly noticed. Because suddenly a new thought occurred to him. That perhaps she wasn’t alive to be hurt. And the thought that would have crushed his heart to splinters moments ago suddenly gave him hope. At the end of the river…at the release he could feel coming…maybe she’d be there waiting for him.
It was possible. More than possible – likely, given what he’d heard just before the end. The beginning. Whatever it had been. It hadn’t even hurt, not really – it’d been far too quick for that. And now the cold, deep water was rushing him along, back to her arms. They’d be together again, and it would all come right.
It was confusing. He could hear a bell. Up until this point, he hadn’t heard anything but the rush of the river and his own thoughts. But he wanted to stop and listen; he wanted to figure out where the sound was coming from. He needed to. And he started to fight the current, the chill to which he’d almost abandoned himself. He’d get to his destination soon enough. As soon as he investigated the bell. The clarion summons that he ached to follow in a way he could barely explain to himself.
It was difficult. Fighting through the current, through the sinkholes and traps, was much trickier than he’d expected. But if he could just reach it, just get back far enough up current, maybe he could see… and then everything stopped.
It was cold.
