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July is Flash Fiction Month! I’ll be sharing short short stories here through the month of July. This is the direct sequel to FFM 27: Sleepless in Tír na nÓg. More notes at the end of the story.
Gráinne ran at her trainer, thrusting forward with her rapier. He easily parried the blow. “You’re being too obvious, Your Highness.”
She glowered and took a step back. “Fair.”
Scurry, her trainer was a svelte man with a busy red tail and fingers with an extra knuckle, lowered his sword. “You can’t let your emotions rule you on the battlefield, Ma’am.”
“I know.” She shook out her arm and resumed her stance. “Again.”
He tipped his head one way, then the other. “No, I don’t think this will help you today. I think you need to hit something.”
“I am hitting something,” Gráinne said through gritted teeth.
Scurry’s tail waved playfully. “You haven’t managed to land a single hit on me yet. You’re a pixie in a tankard of ale.”
The comparison was not a flattering one. She was flailing with no real purpose, and couldn’t manage to get herself out of what she’d fallen into. But, unlike a pixie, Gráinne actually wanted to get out.
“Again,” she demanded.
“Very well,” Scurry said with a sigh.
They sparred for two minutes more, until Scurry disarmed Gráinne and knocked her on her arse. He chittered, disappointed, then offered the princess a hand. “Let’s take a break. Then we’ll work on something new.”
“Fine.” Gráinne sheathed her sword and went to the wooden benches that ringed the practice yard. Unsurprisingly, Alex was sitting next to her gear “What are you doing here?” She snapped.
“Waiting for you,” he told her.
“And you couldn’t wait in the castle?” Gráinne took several gulps from her waterskin. “Find something to do with Uncle Lex.”
Alex shook his head. “He had to help in the medical wing.”
That explained it. Alex had never liked the medical wing, a dislike that had turned to dread since the war began. Uncle Lex, who’d been trained in both magical and mundane healing, was often called there on his visits to the castle. With their parents gone at the moment, Alex had few options for someone to tail.
“Will you please stop following me?” Gráinne turned her back to him.
“But Gráina…” He tugged on the hem of her tunic.
She spun around and slapped him. “I said go away! How hard is it for you to just go away?”
This time, Alex listened. He ran back to the castle, holding his stinging cheek while tears ran down his face.
Uncle Lex was called in for negotiations. The agreed upon course of action was bed with no supper for Gráinne, and a talk with Alex about “alone time,” for both Gráinne and himself.
“We all need to be by ourselves sometimes,” Uncle Lex told the prince, while silently giving thanks that he didn’t have children. “I know you like to be with people, and I know that things are scary right now. It’s okay to be scared. But when your sister tells you she needs some space, you need to listen. Do you think you can do that for me?”
Alex looked down at his feet. “Okay.”
“Good.” Uncle Lex smiled at his nephew, and namesake. “I need to visit the library. Do you want to go with me, or go to your room for a little bit?”
It was a hard decision: a room with nothing but books, or being left alone? After a minute, Puck said, “Can you find me another book about electricity?”
“Can do.”
“And read Caps for Sale and do funny voices?”
Uncle Lex smiled. “Of course.”
Later, when Alex was totally absorbed in a book about circuits, Uncle Lex went to check on his niece. She had flung herself on her bed and was crying.
“Gráinne, I brought you supper.” Uncle Lex sat at the foot of her bed with a plate of battered fish and mashed potatoes.
Gráinne sat up slowly. She wiped her cheeks and sniffed. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to have supper.”
“You’re a growing girl. But no dessert.”
Gráinne accepted the plate and silverware from her uncle. “Thanks.” She didn’t eat right away, but stared sullenly at her food. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“I’m sure you didn’t.” Uncle Lex put his hand on top of her head. “But it happened. Do you know why?”
Tears swam in Gráinne’s eyes again. “Why can’t he learn to fight? Why do I have to?”
“You don’t have to. You like to. Your brother doesn’t like it, and he’s not very good at it, so he doesn’t have to,” Uncle Lex said.
“But if he could fight then maybe–” she hiccuped. “Maybe I wouldn’t have to protect him and…”
Realization dawned over Uncle Lex. “And maybe he wouldn’t have fallen?”
Gráinne nodded, tears falling from her chin. “I couldn’t protect him, and…and…”
Uncle Lex put his arm around his niece’s shoulders. “You did the best you could.”
“But it wasn’t enough and we were only at the ruins ‘cause I wanted to go and…” She threw herself down on the bed, hiding her face in her pillow.
“Shh…shhh. It’s okay.” Uncle Lex rubbed her back. “You saved him, and you’re both safe. That’s the most important thing.” He gave Gráinne another minute to cry. When she finally raised her head and caught her breath, he said, “He feels safe with you. That’s why he follows you around so much.”
Gráinne tipped her head to get a better look at her uncle. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
Night fell, and with it came Alex’s nightmares.
But when he woke up gasping, Gráinne was there, with a wooden sword in hand. She didn’t have the right words like her parents always seemed to, but she held up her sword so he could see it in the pale crystal light. “Go back to sleep,” she said. “I’ll keep all your nightmares away.”
Another challenge day!
CHALLENGE: IDIOMATIC
Element 1: Your story must contain an idiom or idiomatic expression; by which we mean an expression that is used non-literally. Confused? You’ll probably recognize some examples here.
Element 2: Your expression must be entirely made up.
A pixie in a tankard of ale = flailing, but not trying to hard to get out of the current situation. Fantasy lends itself very well to new idioms.
Other FFM stories from this universe:
FFM 3: Love is a Battlefield
FFM 8: Queen of Nothing
FFM 15: It’s Not Rocket Science
FFM 18: The Goddess in the River
FFM 24: Summer Blues
Overlooked Books 