(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

[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."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric tries wiggling his foot free, to no avail. So now he tries massaging Ragnar's rear with his trapped foot to get him to move.

"Sounds wonderful and strange. You'll have to show me."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Smaller even than those. So small you could never see them without the microscope - Ragnar, we talked about it, remember?" He watches them, barely restraining laughter. "I'd be glad to, as soon as Ragnar releases you."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Oh, the machine with which you can see the little bits everything is made of?" Ragnar says. "You mentioned that! I wonder if one can--"

And then, Sinric gets to a sensitive bit, and Ragnar yelps with surprise and accidentally releases the trapped foot.

[thewidewideworld]

"Ha." Byzantine body slave: 1. Mighty Viking: 0. "Poor Ragnar, did I hurt you? Shall I kiss it better?" Be careful, Ragnar. That grin is dangerous.

"I once heard the world is made of tiny, tiny things out together to make all things; like a massive mosaic."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Precisely!" Athelstan says with the light of being allowed to talk about science in his eyes. "I've heard the study of such things is very advanced in the east."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Not hurt as such," Ragnar says. He can't admit to being ticklish there, can he? "You can later."

He smiles at Sinric, liking the way he's getting bolder, less scared, more confident.

It was right to tell him about the future.

"Yes, I heard our bodies are made from tiny things called cells, like where the Irish monks live."

[thewidewideworld]

He has a future, as exactly what he dreams of being. And his future will affect theirs so their protecting is self interest and gratitude rather than some other motive. How can Sinric be anything but happy.

"Promise?" He teases to Ragnar, settling his feet back in Ragnar's lap.

"The palace library has scrolls by many of the wise men of the Greeks and Romans. And the works of more resent men. The Emperor kindly let me read from the works of Paul of Aegina. His understanding of medicine was without flaw."