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kh_drabble2005-05-13 10:28 am
riddled.livejournal.com) wrote in kh_drabble2005-05-13 10:28 am
Entry tags:
Importance
Challenge: Importance
Title: A Hollow Bastion
Word Count: 195
A Hollow Bastion
"Your family is what matters."
He heard the words. He understood them, of course. But they did not register, and their importance was lost on him. What was the little girl worth, when there were so many phenomena to discover, so many things to learn from the foreign king? Small droplets of light breaking and falling from the sky – could they not understand how exceptional this was?
The walls between worlds had broken. A lifetime of research had been waiting for this moment, and he was prepared to seize his chance.
"Daddy?"
Small words, tentative and soft. He glances up from his books, his papers, his endless neat handwriting across yellowing pages. He looks into her eyes -- his own, weary from lack of sleep, and hers bright and hopeful and full of youthful naivité.
"Go play outside," he finds himself saying, coldly, emotionlessly, how could he have forgotten emotion? "Your grandmother is there, I believe."
She stares back, crest-fallen.
"Did you not hear me, Kairi? Outside. I'm busy."
Her mother dead; her father neglectful; the princess mutely leaves the library.
The king returns to his notes, already forgetting she was ever there.
Title: A Hollow Bastion
Word Count: 195
"Your family is what matters."
He heard the words. He understood them, of course. But they did not register, and their importance was lost on him. What was the little girl worth, when there were so many phenomena to discover, so many things to learn from the foreign king? Small droplets of light breaking and falling from the sky – could they not understand how exceptional this was?
The walls between worlds had broken. A lifetime of research had been waiting for this moment, and he was prepared to seize his chance.
"Daddy?"
Small words, tentative and soft. He glances up from his books, his papers, his endless neat handwriting across yellowing pages. He looks into her eyes -- his own, weary from lack of sleep, and hers bright and hopeful and full of youthful naivité.
"Go play outside," he finds himself saying, coldly, emotionlessly, how could he have forgotten emotion? "Your grandmother is there, I believe."
She stares back, crest-fallen.
"Did you not hear me, Kairi? Outside. I'm busy."
Her mother dead; her father neglectful; the princess mutely leaves the library.
The king returns to his notes, already forgetting she was ever there.
no subject
That is so sad. That poor thing..
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(no subject)
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