Fifteen Minute Ficlet - Calm
Mar. 18th, 2011 04:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kc_obrienIt was a good night. For all the talk that flew around this time of year of drunken disorder, shitty beer dyed green and the gutters running thick with vomit, Kyle was filled with a sense of calm. Sure, it helped that his "local" (as he liked to call it) was a little hole in the wall that felt like a traditional Irish bar while not screaming to the world that it was to drum up more business. Sure it was easier when the only unfortunate scent that came with him from the bar was of a good beer mistakenly spilled on his shirt. Sure, it was beautiful out, the first truly warm night of the year after a brutally cold winter.
He was protected against all the negative of this thrice co-opted day and was left to walk home under the moonlight, just a little bit buzzed, calm as still water and content to be alive. He wore it well, people would say if they had seen him then; his steps had a gentle swagger to them, as his words had when he was still at the bar. He felt like he was floating, and the fact that before he went out he'd had a long day of work, and that once his head touched the pillow, his alarm clock would be waking him for another before long couldn't touch him.
It was the sullen glow of fire that drew him from his calm. As he approached his home, he noticed a gentle halo around the back patio, barely noticeable from the street. He turned, then, forgoing his usual path up the driveway to the front door and slipped towards the back yard, drawn on by sheer curiosity. Something was in his backyard, something was ablaze, but the thought didn't fill him with dread; couldn't.
The backyard had found itself cleared of all the debris that winter's ice had drawn down from the gnarled trees that flanked it. In the center was a massive bonfire, the kind Kyle thought of when he remembered summer camp and pep rallies in college. It towered over the patio awning and threatened to tower over the house. On any other day, it may have been too much for him;seeing the massive fire, worrying about the aged trees and the house, considering what the neighbors would think.
Tonight, he was just amazed. He approached the fire slowly, basking in its warmth. Though gentle winds swirled around him, the smoke was never drawn to his face. A voice spoke in the back of his head, warning him that there was no smoke, but he was enamored. His footsteps drew him closer and closer, until he was standing at the very threshold of the thing, standing three feet taller than he was. "Wow," he murmured in reverent awe.
"Wow is right!" A high, feminine voice called from the other side of the fire. Whoever it belonged to giggled and danced around the side, stopping in front of him. Sprightly was the first word that came to mind when he saw her, followed quickly by beautiful. She was short and pale with milky skin that drew firelight as a pale draws water, glistening and glowing.
"Are you some sort of Leprechaun?" he asked, blushing the second the words passed his lips.
Luckily, he thought at least, she giggled, "A cousin, perhaps," her voice had the slighted lilt of Erin to it. "But Leprechauns are sour niggards who play with themselves. I'm here because Spring comes, here and now, and the wood drew me. Right here." She smiled and took another step towards him, reaching out for his hands with her own.
"But it's not Spring yet," he remarked as he took her hands in his.
She drew in close and pressed her lips against his. Her lips tasted of honey and strawberries that burst of ripeness. Unbidden, she drew him closer, her lips parting before him. It was a good kiss. They stood there for what felt like hours before she finally pulled away. "Come, it is time to go."
"Go where?" He asked, drunk all over again on the fae girl standing before him.
She drew him once around the fire, widdershins a voice in the back of his head told him, moving gently to a beat that he couldn't hear. Once their circuit was complete, she led him towards the back of his property and through a gate that he never knew was there.
"To embrace the spring, of course, and ward off the ice of winter, lest it damage the early growth." She kissed him again and all questions, all thought left him completely.
He was protected against all the negative of this thrice co-opted day and was left to walk home under the moonlight, just a little bit buzzed, calm as still water and content to be alive. He wore it well, people would say if they had seen him then; his steps had a gentle swagger to them, as his words had when he was still at the bar. He felt like he was floating, and the fact that before he went out he'd had a long day of work, and that once his head touched the pillow, his alarm clock would be waking him for another before long couldn't touch him.
It was the sullen glow of fire that drew him from his calm. As he approached his home, he noticed a gentle halo around the back patio, barely noticeable from the street. He turned, then, forgoing his usual path up the driveway to the front door and slipped towards the back yard, drawn on by sheer curiosity. Something was in his backyard, something was ablaze, but the thought didn't fill him with dread; couldn't.
The backyard had found itself cleared of all the debris that winter's ice had drawn down from the gnarled trees that flanked it. In the center was a massive bonfire, the kind Kyle thought of when he remembered summer camp and pep rallies in college. It towered over the patio awning and threatened to tower over the house. On any other day, it may have been too much for him;seeing the massive fire, worrying about the aged trees and the house, considering what the neighbors would think.
Tonight, he was just amazed. He approached the fire slowly, basking in its warmth. Though gentle winds swirled around him, the smoke was never drawn to his face. A voice spoke in the back of his head, warning him that there was no smoke, but he was enamored. His footsteps drew him closer and closer, until he was standing at the very threshold of the thing, standing three feet taller than he was. "Wow," he murmured in reverent awe.
"Wow is right!" A high, feminine voice called from the other side of the fire. Whoever it belonged to giggled and danced around the side, stopping in front of him. Sprightly was the first word that came to mind when he saw her, followed quickly by beautiful. She was short and pale with milky skin that drew firelight as a pale draws water, glistening and glowing.
"Are you some sort of Leprechaun?" he asked, blushing the second the words passed his lips.
Luckily, he thought at least, she giggled, "A cousin, perhaps," her voice had the slighted lilt of Erin to it. "But Leprechauns are sour niggards who play with themselves. I'm here because Spring comes, here and now, and the wood drew me. Right here." She smiled and took another step towards him, reaching out for his hands with her own.
"But it's not Spring yet," he remarked as he took her hands in his.
She drew in close and pressed her lips against his. Her lips tasted of honey and strawberries that burst of ripeness. Unbidden, she drew him closer, her lips parting before him. It was a good kiss. They stood there for what felt like hours before she finally pulled away. "Come, it is time to go."
"Go where?" He asked, drunk all over again on the fae girl standing before him.
She drew him once around the fire, widdershins a voice in the back of his head told him, moving gently to a beat that he couldn't hear. Once their circuit was complete, she led him towards the back of his property and through a gate that he never knew was there.
"To embrace the spring, of course, and ward off the ice of winter, lest it damage the early growth." She kissed him again and all questions, all thought left him completely.
