(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{From here}

Sinric walks calmly till he is away from the bar and then runs. Something about Eric terrified him. Or thrilled him. Neither of which was good.

He ran till he came to a familiar door, Athelstan's. Having no place of his own and feeling that he owed Athelstan for interceding with Eric, he let himself in, meaning to wait for Athelstan's return to thank him.

He finds himself drawn to the window, sitting on the sill with his feet drawn up under him. He rests his head on his knee as he looks out over the lake, singing the elven song he learn this morning. The sound of it is soothing and he eases himself into a half doze.

Comments

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"They do," Ragnar says. "Especially Floki."

[athelstanthescribe]

"But I do like lamb." He smiles. "For fifteen years, I had only the plainest fare, and little enough choice in that."

[thewidewideworld]

"Then you will like the soup. Good strong flavour." He pours it into little bowls, eating rice and lamb off delicate fingers, looking very at home sharing a meal like this.

"Who is Floki?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"My boat-builder and best friend since youth," Ragnar says. "he is very tall, very thin, and very hungry. He eats like three bears in spring."

[athelstanthescribe]

"His talent for woodcraft is second to none", Athelstan contributes honestly.

[thewidewideworld]

"The thin ones often do. You should see how much Probus eats and he's thinner than I am."

Sinric smirks, catching the lack of expression in Athelstan's tone. "But you don't like him?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"He talks to the trees and can invent anything," Ragnar says.

He doesn't comment on the tensions between Floki and Athelstan, he doesn't like it, but he can't forbid them.

[athelstanthescribe]

He could try, but it wouldn't change anything. Feelings are feelings.

"We tolerate one another", Athelstan says calmly. "Sometimes things are even better than that."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric reaches out to run his fingers over the inside of Athelstan's wrist in a little gesture of comfort. "Sometimes that's the best you can ask."

"Does he come here?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"He does," Ragnar says. "He was a dragon at Cubefall, when we were birds. Things were better then. We rode on his ail when he went to hunt demon bunnies."

[athelstanthescribe]

"One of the better moments", Athelstan agrees with a smile, turning his hand to brush Sinric's fingers. "Even if the bunnies' meat wasn't to his taste."

[thewidewideworld]

He keeps contact through the touch, fingers brushing and curling around Athelstan's in an almost absent sign of affection.

"A dragon? And there are demon bunnies here? Should I be worried?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"They're in the woods," Ragnar says. "But we've never been attacked by them. And Floki only was a small dragon, and only the once."

[athelstanthescribe]

"There's a holiday celebrated here where you can choose to change your shape for the space of three days", Athelstan tells him. "Into one of whichever choices are presented to you. As for the demon rabbits, I think it's only a name because they're red and breathe fire."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric laughs and pushes his hair back from his face. "Some times I think I've not travelled at all but gone mad somehow."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Oh yes, that's typical of this place," Ragnar says. "And Athelstan has seen stranger things than that, as he's been here longer. What was the strangest thing you've seen here, Athelstan?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"...do I have to pick only one?"

He isn't even really joking.

[thewidewideworld]

"Yes, you do." Sinric teases, stretching out to rest one delicate foot on Ragnar's thigh chair. "I want to hear all the tales of madness."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar takes a sip of his mead.

"Perhaps the three weirdest things," Ragnar concedes.

He reaches out to tickle Sinric's ankle.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Am I allowed to claim the wonders of the future as strange things?"

[thewidewideworld]

"Yes, but only if you show them to me later." Sinric's ankles are ticklish and Ragnar might get a gentle kick if he's not careful.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar might be tickling him again, because he doesn't mind gentle kicks as long as Athelstan's food doesn't get upended.

"Do tell, Athelstan!"

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan eyes them with amusement and moves to where he can defend the food from errant feet.

"The first thing that struck me here was how people dress, but I quickly got used to that. The second, the technology." He turns towards his desk. "Sinric, you must see my microscope."

[thewidewideworld]

His food is in no immediate danger and there's easily enough to feed all three of them. "Micro is small, scope - to see. Something for seeing very small things?" Sinric has a gift for language.

A second foot is in play now, wedged under Ragnar's hip to try to push him off the chair. Sinric doesn't stand a chance but the struggle is fun.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar dabs a bit of bread into the yoghurt-and-cucumber sauce, and eats it.

Then, he shifts a little to trap that foot between his thigh and the chair -- of course, not heavily enough to hurt, just to cause a bit of a struggle.

"Is it that weird to see small things?" he says. "I've seen tiny frogs no larger than the nail on my little finger every spring of my childhood."