Challenge: 90. Board games
Word Count: 125
Characters: Halia Suin
He plucked a round-headed pin from the map before him, carefully considering the locations of his troops, his enemies’ troops, the geography, the supplies, the weather. He considered the victories he had won, the losses that he turned around. He considered his older brother, covered in blood, cutting down enemy generals with the greatest ease.
He remembered the countless hours of studying ancient texts, learning the noble art of war. He remembered his brother devoting every hour of his existence to battle and bloodshed. He remembered soldiers dead, families weeping, lands won, and tributes acquired.
War, he remembered someone once telling him, is the greatest, most exciting game humankind has ever invented.
No, he heard himself answer. It is their heritage, their life, their death.
* * *
Challenge: 65. Spilled ink
Word Count: 50
Characters: Halia, Kujang
In a malicious echo of a benevolent smile, his lips were drawn back, his face taut with hatred; Deliberately, staring into Halia’s cold blue eyes, Kujang lifted the bottle of ink, quill and all, and turned it over atop his map.
Halia smiled, the call of death in his eyes.
* * *
Challenge: 16. Fish
Word Count: 183
Characters: Cain, Konani, slightly Cain/Konani
When Konani saw Cain knee-deep in the river, she laughed.
“Are you trying to catch a fish by
hand?” she asked, amused, watching him from the green bank. Cain looked up; smiled in reply because he knew that he looked silly and she knew it too.
“I don’t have a fishing pole and Dawei said she wanted some fish,” he explained.
“That’s usually my job.”
“I know. Unfortunately for me, you were gone today.”
“I’m sorry,” Konani said, not at all sounding sorry. “Here, o Hero, let me show you how it’s done.”
She watched the river; he watched her and suddenly her brown, slender arm shot up and a fish flew into the air to be immediately incased in a ball of ice. Using her two hands, she drifted the fish ball through air and settled it gently on the grassy bank.
“That’s how it’s done.” Her blue eyes flashed and she was mocking him, but he remained unfazed. She looked away first from his even gaze. Maybe—does he?—Oh, stop, stop,
please.
“Thank you,” Cain said softly over the singing of the river.
