Flo's Challenge to me

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"You're just a silly girl!"

813 words

Tiger lily never enjoyed visiting her grandparents.
Her grandfather never spoke to her, never spoke to anybody really, just sat in his chair, a long necked bottle never absent from his hand.
Her grandmother never stopped talking, never stopped worrying: she worried about her sons on the fishing ship, whether they would bring back a large enough catch, whether they would come back at all, she worried if she would have enough food to feed everyone, she worried that there might not be enoug blankets to go around.
She worried constantly and she let everyone know that she was worried.

It made Tiger lily feel tired and sick at the same time.
Playing with her cousins wasn't much fun either. Most of the time they teased her about her clothes, which were comparatively nice, in the fact tha when she tore them, her mother had enough money for the thread to repaire it.
They said she was growing up a privileged sop. She didn't understand those words, but she knew by the tone of their voices that it wasn't a good thing.

So she compromised between a drunk grandfather and a worrying grandmother and teasing cousins and hid with her aunts, who for the most part just put her to work in the kitchen, which she enjoyed.

But even in the kitchen she couldn't escape the trouble.

She'd just finished scrubbing the last of the breakfast dishes. Skipper had gone outside with Martin and Lily had hiked back up to the little village of Plage, so Tiger was alone with her aunts.

"You did such a good job, Tiger," Jermima gushed as the little otter finished drying the last fork "You're going to be a very good mummy some day."

"Nope," Tiger lily replied flippantly, gathering up the forks and knives and organizing them in the drawers.

Jermima stopped short "What?"
"Oh," Tiger lily turned with a sweet smile "Mum says I don't have to be a mummy when I grow up if I don't want to."
"Oh honey," Jermima shook her head "But don't you want to grow up and get married and have children?"
Tiger lily shook her head "I don't want to grow up."
Jermima utter a short barking laugh "You don't get a choice darling. You won't be happy unless you grow up and get married."
Tiger lily stared at her in shock "I...won't?"
"No-o. You'll be missing out on the greatest experiences in life!"
Tiger lily hesitated "But what about Aunt Yvette? She's not married and doesn't have kids, but she's happy."
Jermima leaned down over Tiger lily "Oh sweetheart she's just pretending. Some people think that they have to pretend to be happy."
"But...but I don't want to..."
"Don't worry, you're just a silly girl! You'll change your mind when you get older."
Tiger lily brushed away the tears that had started to slip down her cheek "But-"
"Don't argue child! Now finish with those dishes."

Tiger lily dumped the rest of the silverware into the drawer and slammed it close, then fled the kitchen.

She wanted to run until the rundown house was out of sight, but the sand slogged down her steps and she only made it to the next sand dune before her lungs hurt so bad she couldn't take in another breath. There on top of the mountain of sand she collapsed and let the little tears slip down her face.

"Tiger lily?"
Tiger heard her mother's voice calling her, but she didn't respond.
Lily dropped down next to her daughter, breathless from calling and climbing at the same time
"Are you alright Tilly?"
Tiger lily looked up with a sniffle, her face soaked with tears.
"What's wrong?" Lily gasped, reaching out, concerned "Are you hurt?"
Tiger lily shook her head "Aunt Jermima...Aunt Jermima said that I couldn't be happy..." she broke off into a breathless sob.
"Aunt Jermima said what?" Lily pulled her daughter close "She said you couldn't be happy?"
Tiger lily sniffled "She said I couldn't be happy unless I got married and stuff!"
"Oh sweetheart," Lily rubbed away the tears from Tiger lily's face "That's not true."
"But she said-"
"Doesn't mean it's true. Remember what I told you?"
Tiger lily shook her head.
"There's a plan for every creature, including you, and in that plan is whether or not you'll get married and have children. If that's the plan for you then you'll be happy married and if it's not in your plan to get married then you'll be happy not married. Understand?"

Tiger lily nodded, the tears drying up "She also called me a silly girl."
"Well... I can't argue with that. You are a very silly girl.That's part of your plan."
Tiger lily giggled "Really?"
"Yes, really. Don't you like being silly?"

Tiger lily sat up grinning, the crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"Oh no...he has a sword too."

1,161

Rin felt like a fire had been lit in her chest and every step she took added another log to the blaze.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been running, but she sensed that her ordeal of stamina was coming to an end.
Blood was the only scent on the wind and the ground was gouged with claw marks and weapons.
Sooner or later she'd find her companions.

Most likely sooner as she began to hear the clash of metal and the shout of angry voices.

She burst into the clearing the same moment that all the sounds died.
The last rogue warrior collapsed, a messy hole in his chest.

"Jade it's Soong!" The wolf dropped to her knees and pulled her arms up to shield her face as the tiger leapt towards her, swords swinging.
She felt the rush of air as the katanas passed by her and the spray of earth as they buried into the ground either side of her.

"Rin," the tiger gasped, her voice rough and heavy "You're alive."
Rin lowered her arms slowly to find Jade's entire body hunking over her.
"Yes, I still live. Where is your sister?"

Jade's face collapsed into worry and she pulled away "She wasn't with you?"
"A moment ago you assumed me dead, did you really think to find her with me?"
"No. No..." Jade turned and surveyed the clearing eyes dark "She must've doubled back to the camp."
"For her sake I hope so," Rin straightened and swept her ears back listening for the sound of pursuit that surely would be coming "I've passed several groups of warriors, each group numbering no less then twenty.
"That was about how many there were in this group," Jade absently and Rin winced. "Had been" was definitely the correct phrasing, though she didn't care to count to see if the tiger's estimate was right.
"We should report back ourselves," Rin squinted up at the sun as the tiger continued staring dully "Are you injured?"
Jade held up her arm "Just a few cuts."
Rin frowned as she studied her fellow soldier, noting the many dark patches spreading through the orange fur "I will tend you as soon as we reach a more secure area."
Jade shrugged and sheathed her swords "You lead tracker."

Rin's limbs complained despite their training as she again dropped to all fours and began to trot slowly to accommodate Jade's much slower pace.
It was only a short while before they broke the tree cover and began climbing the cold gravely slope of the higher part of the mountain.

Rin stopped her eyes sweeping the still horizon.
"Jade! Do you see those boulders?"

Slowly the tiger lumbered up to her and squinted up at the pile of rocks that Rin was pointing to.
"Y....es."
"Good, we'll get up there and then I will bandage your wounds as well as I can."
"M fine, Singsong...really fine..."

Rin paused as she caught sight of Jade's eyes. The pupils were contracted, leaving an almost empty glaze of green.
"No. You are not. You are ill. It's the battle fever again, isn't it?"
"I'm fine.. Don't worry about me... Jasmine I'm fine."

Rin felt her heart sink. The battle fever granted Jade extraordinary strength during a fight, but left her totally disoriented and extremely weak afterwards, meaning that Rin would not only have to fight any enemies alone, but she would have to defend Jade as well.
If only the tiger had retreated rather than expending herself on a single group of warriors, now it might be days before she was back to full strength.

Jade sank down the moment Rin stopped moving and her eyes closed.
Rin shook her head as she listened to the tiger's painfully shallow breathing. She should've bandaged her wounds the moment she found her.
"I'm going to dress the cuts now, Jade, so please refrain from fracturing my skull," Rin enunciated each word, hoping that Jade would at least make sense of them.
"Kay, have fun."
Rin shook her head "I do not believe this will be enjoyable for either of us."

Miraculously though Jade was quiet and still as the wolf cleaned and bandaged the many injuries as best to her abilities.
She had almost run out of bandages when her listening ears caught what she'd been dreading: the sound of paws crunching in the loose gravel, coming steadily nearer.
"D-do you hear that?" Jade asked, trying to sit up.
"Yes, now hush," Rin crouched at the edge of the boulder and peered down at the figure trudging up directly towards them "I can't tell if they're an Empire soldier or not."
As the unknown creature came clearer, Rin identified them as a deer, but still could not determine if they were a rogue or a soldier.

Finally she gathered her nerve and stepped ou from behind the rock, teeth gritted.

"Who do you stand with warrior!?" She shouted, holding shoulders straight and baring her teeth.

The deer paused, then shrugged off their coat and turned it inside out, showing the yellow sun ring with rays of red.
"They're with us," Rin let out an uneasy breath waved to them "Come on soldier! I need your help."
"What's wrong?" The deer asked as she bounded up the last few paces.
"I have injured," Rin frowned "Were is your weapon soldier?"
"Lost in a fight, I was lucky to get out unharmed."
"Indeed you were," Rin stepped back "Do you have your medical pack?"
"No, lost that too," the deer dropped down next to Jade, panting heavily.
"Brilliant," Rin muttered under her breath as she turned, rummaging through the last scraps of bandages.

"Are you hurt?" She heard Jade ask.
"No, I'm fine."
"But you have blood on your coat."
"Must've splattered on during the fight."
"That's a lot of blood."
Rin glanced back and the deer shrugged "I wasn't exactly paying attention to my clothes."
With a roll of her eyes Rin went back to organizing her meagre supplies.

"Hey...That's a nice sword."
Jade said it so nonchalantly that for a second the words didn't register. Then they hit her like a lighting bolt and she whirled in time to see the deer poised to drive her blade into Jade's chest.
She hurled herself straight into the deer, legs curling up as she was in the air, then kicking straight out, meeting the deer's stomach and throwing her backwards.
Rin had less than a second to recover as the deer regained her breath and whipped her sword towards Rin's head, missing by a whisker as the wolf rolled to the side and leapt back to her feet.
"Rican scum," the deer snarled, hurling herself towards Rin, sword swinging "You don't even have a knife!"
Unexpectedly Rin lunged forwards, grabbed the deer's wrist and snapped it.
With a scream she let the sword drop.
"Now you don't either," Rin said breathlessly and pounced, teeth bared.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"I can't hug you"

492 words

Markus slipped through the rows of tall pots to the potter at his wheel. The otter didn't hear him, or if he did, didn't think much of whatever he heard.
Grinning to himself, the fox slowly reached out and tapped the otter on the shoulder.

Rowan jumped and whirled around on his stool. For a second he stared in confusion at the green shirt, then he craned his neck back, laughing.
Markus laughed with him and pulled him up "I've missed you!" Rowan grinned "I missed you too, brushytail! But I thought you weren't coming back for at least another month!"
"The training got called off short, so give me a hug and tell me what's been going on."
Rown pushed away as his friend tried to hug him.
"Uh, I can't hug you, I don't think you want to hug me."
"What?" Markus glanced down at Rowan's shirt and found it smudged with clay "Ah. Well get that filthy thing off and we'll go to lunch, my treat."
"Alright!" Rowan flashed his all too familiar grin and pulled the shirt of and let it fall to the ground with a wet thump "Lets go!"
"Rowan! No! Go get a shirt on!"
"Aww, don't I get a hug though?"

Though thoroughly taken back, Markus was less than surprised. Three months and absolutely nothing had changed.
"No. You do not get a hug! You'll get a big punch in the nose!"
Rowan disappeared, cackling, then from out of site he called.
"How was it?"
"Grueling and awful. Have you been having fun here in your nice warm shop with your nice warm bed having nice warm baths and nice warm dinners?"
"So it was cold too?"
"What gives you that idea?"
Rowan laughed "I'm an expert at reading between the lines."

Markus shook his head to the empty room "How're your parents doing?"
"Fine. Dad still refuses to retire."
"Can't say I'm sorry. I'd miss his cooking too much. What's your sis up to?"
"Nothing new, she and Kenan are keeping to themselves. Sometimes I drag her out to go shopping with me."
Markus laughed. He was positive that Rowan was the only brother ever to take his sister shopping.
"Oh, how are your parents getting on?"
"They're fine. Missed them like crazy the whole time I was gone."
"Betcha did," Rowan reappeared with a fresh set of clothes "Now will you give me a hug? I missed you too."
"Same," Markus wrapped his arms around his much shorter friend and squeezed until Rowan was shouting "I just want to give you tons of hugs."
"No more! No more! I only wanted one!" Rowan wriggled away and snatched a clod of clay and smeared it down the front of his shirt "Look I'm dirty! I can't hug you!"

Markus stared at hin silently for a few seconds "You do your own laundry now, right?"
Rowan groaned "Don't remind me. I'll be right back."

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"The greatest thing is you"

416

Skipper Trevoiant stared down at his son, who looked back up at him expectantly.
Skipper took in a deep breath and Raven leaned forwards, eager for his father's words.

"Dad! Your grandson's got a question for you!"
Raven frowned in unamused disappointment as Martin's hat poked around the corner of the house.
"He does? What is it?"

Skipper nudged Raven and with a sigh the little boy trudged over to his grandfather who was sitting crosslegged with a sketch pad in the middle of the garden.

"What's your question Raven?" Martin asked with a smile, setting aside his sketchbook and pencil.
"It's a hard one," Raven warned "I asked Grandmum and she told me to ask Mum and she told me to ask Dad and he told me to ask you."
Martin laughed softly "Well it must be a very complicated question then, if you had to come all the way to me."
Raven nodded solemnly "I think it is."
"Well, go ahead then."
Raven took a deep breath then blurted unceremoniously "What am I?"
"Well, that's not hard. You're an otter."
"No. No,no,no,no, that's not what I meant."
"Oh," Martin bit down on the tip of his pencil "What do you mean?"
"I mean like...What country?"
"...Navoire?"
"No," Raven shook his head energetically "My mum isn't from Navoire and Grandmum isn't from Navoire. What am I?"
"Oh! You mean like your...what's that word....Heritage!"
"Hair age?"
"Heritage. It's the history of where your family's from."
"Yeah! That! What am I?"

"Well," Martin leaned back on his elbows "Let's see, we'll start with your grandparents."
"Are you my grandparent?"
"Yes, silly, I'm your Granddad!"
"Oh right."

Martin scratched under his hat "Let's see, I'm all Navoiren and Grandmum's all Moutain, so that makes your dad half Navoiren and half Moutain."
"So I'm Mountain-Navoiren?"
"Well, no, because of your mum."
"Oh right, what's she?"
"Well, her mum's Forest and her dad's Tworan, so she's half Forest and half Tworan."
"But what am I?"

Martin paused, then picked up his sketch pad and scribbled furiously "You are...One fourth Mountain, one fourth Forest, one fourth Navoiren, one fourth Tworan."

Raven was silent for a long time, then blinked "I'm a lot."
"Yeah," Martin ruffled his grandson's ears "You're pretty special. Why don't you go tell your dad?"
Raven grinned and shot to his feet and trotted off yelling to his dad to come hear how special he was.
Martin shook his head and laughed.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"DON'T SHOOT!"

561 words

Ashlin stared down the range, measuring the distance.

The wind whispered in her ears and so did the words of the children from the street.

Look at her scars
her scars
how did she get those scars
she looks mean
Look at her scars
she's not even ashamed of them

No.
She wasn't ashamed of those scars.
Those burns.
She refused to be ashamed of the scars.

Her fingers wrapped around the shaft of her arrow and her arms whipped around, fixing the bow and the arrow into place. In a heartbeat she aimed and released.
Dead center hit.

She refused to be ashamed of her scars. The scars that her own country had branded her with.
She would not hide, she would not cover them.

With the same swift movement she drew and fired again.
Dead center hit.

She would not cower.
She would not pretend that she was beautiful.
She would not pretend that it had been anything but fire that had seared her skin.

Dead. Center. Hit.

Now she poured arrows into the target, covering it with her missiles. In several seconds it was bristling with arrows and still she shot, waiting. Waiting to feel something. Anger.
Pain.
Hurt.
Regret.
Anything.

But all she felt was the string between her fingers.

"I am not ashamed," she whispered, trying to cry, blinking and trying to force the tears so that she could pretend that she was angry "I am not ashamed. I...am...not...ashamed."

And she wasn't.
But she wasn't angry. Or hurt. Or at peace.

"Hey Ash!"

She whipped around, arrow drawn and taught, breathing hard.

Jon-tai flung his arms up in the air "Don't shoot! It's just me."

With a gargle of disgust she turned back around and let the arrow fly.

"Hey."

She reached for another arrow and found the quiver empty.

"Hey, Ash."
She ignored him, slipping over the fence and starting down range.
"Ashlin don't ignore me."
Oh how she wished she could.

She was trapped between hating him and wishing she could be him.
Before the rebellion he had nothing and she had everything. A family, a home, a path to follow and a body that didn't ache like fire.
He was an orphan scratching his life out on the streets.
Now more of her family was scattered ashes than drawing breath and at night she couldn't sleep for the nightmares and her father couldn't even speak.
Now he had a mother and a step-father and home.

Oh how she hated him and wanted to be him.

He was grateful for what he had in replacement of what he didn't.
She was burning for what she had lost and what little she now had.

"Ash-?"
"I need to be alone right now," she said brusquely as she began to yank the arrows from the target.

"Are you sur-"
"I'm positive!"

It was a relief to feel the familiar heat of anger flood her chest "Leave me alone or I will shoot you."
"Okay," he backed away, palms spread out "I just wanted to ask if you and your dad wanted to have dinner with us at the Daja."
"We don't!" without thinking she drew, but didn't aim "Now just get out of here."

She saw confusion flash in his eyes and pain.
He thought they were friends.
He didn't understand.
How could he.

[Ranger of the North]

Yeet, I really love the messages behind ‘You're just a silly girl!’ and ‘I did not want this.’

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Thanks ^-^, I feel like I don't put enough effort into making a point in my prompts sometimes and then other times I'm afraid of sounding preachy or cheesy.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"Can you not?!"
334

"Hi Churva," Shifter chirped.
The old wolverine growled and drugged herself back into the travelling patch of sunlight "Is dinner ready?"
"Nope."
"Then why are you talking to me?"
Shifter made a face at the grouchy wolverine "Cause I love you."
"Be quiet."
"No," he spun in a circle "LALALALALALALALAL!"

"Oh my word," Churva stumped up on her legs and with a heavy paw cuffed the young otter upside the head "Be quiet!"

Shifter was very quiet as he lay sprawled on the ground, staring blankly up at the ceiling.
Churva settled back down with a sigh "Thank you."

She won herself several moments of peace before the effects of the heavy cuffing began to wear off.
Then slowly Shifter crept across the room and with spring loaded legs pounced on her tattered scrap of a tail.
"You little-!" she turned but not quick enough and he darted away and she couldn't be bothered to follow him "Just stop it!"
With a long growl she settled back down and screwed her eyes shut.

He edged across the room, barely breathing, then as he got close enough, he tensed his whole body for the jump. He took a deep breath, grinned and launched himself for the middle of her back.

Churva yelled and turned over, trapping Shifter beneath her bulk.
"You little ant! I warned you!" she snagged him by the nape of his neck and drug him up. He was giggling and terrified.

Then someone cleared their throat loudly.
"Can you not strangle my son before dinner Churva?"
Shifter still dangling in her grip Churva turned, teeth gritted "Your son Ashlin-"
"Yes, my son," Ashlin marched over and pried away Churva's thick fingers away from Shifter's neck "Let go of him."
"Can you not....can he not!?"
"He's going straight to his room and you can go back to your nap as soon as you stop strangling him."

Churva let go with a loud sigh "Fine. Just...keep an eye on him."

[Ranger of the North]

Thanks ^-^, I feel like I don't put enough effort into making a point in my prompts sometimes and then other times I'm afraid of sounding preachy or cheesy.

Oh, tell me about it! That's so hard to juggle /: We'll work it out one day, I guess XD

Faaar OUT, I loved 'DON'T SHOOT!'. I love Ashlin's character The perfect kind of darkness warring with the perfect amount of light. She's relatable in that she really resonates with my hard seasons c:

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Ashlin is probably one of my most well developed side characters, got a lot to work with there.