keeperofthelostnerds

She!!!

Tiertice prompt #3– AU

goddess biana vacker. for purposes.

I'm tired of it

But I built my home in the countryside

And now this is where I live.

The war comes, the winter comes, the fire, the plague.

I watch it all and I keep re-seeding my garden.

Hoping the plants grow up well.

Hoping the stories stay good.

Hoping that each way I mess up canon isn't the one that places another stone on the fence that separates me from it.

Because if you build a house you ought to know who you're walling in or walling out.

And every time the town goes up in flames I walk a tiny bit further away.

I expect the town to go up in flames.

I expect enemies in the night.

I expect the ruins to never be rebuilt the same.

I stand at the edge of my farm and I watch.

People go by and tell me what's happening in the town, and I take their word for it.

"There are enemies," they say, "there is war. There is love. There is madness. There is forgiveness. There is joy."

I look at them.

Their eyes don't look like they used to. There is smoke in their gaze.

I nod, and take their answers as truth.

The walls are still low, just the thought of a barrier between me and what's coming.

People still walk by.

I offer them apple slices. I offer them stories that don't match the lore they grew up with. The world they live in.

And sometimes they like it.

And I turn back to my garden. Back to my house. I will not let the fire rest at my door. I will put it out.

There's space between me and the town with the happenings. My own mind knows exactly what lurks at the end of the road. Sometimes I walk it to remind myself of why the space is there.

Sometimes I shout questions at my neighbors, and they tell me what the town is up to.

But I cannot help but keep building my wall, watching smoke rise up from the town.

It's on fire again. It's burning down again. It burnt down last week, too. It will burn down again.

Part of me thinks the fires are invented, not solved. Part of me thinks the fires are purposeful.

If my town caught on fire so many times, I would build it back with more stone. I would invest in a fire department.

But every fire is worse than the last. Every nightmare longer.

My neighbors come to tell me that the city is burning down.

I nod, and answer, "I knew."

"How could you know?!"

"It burns down every year. Same story, same pattern. Just a little worse each time. Each time things get darker, the sun blocked out a little more, each collapse a little more painful that the one prior. Each broken breath is more shaken. But the town burns down all the same."

"This time," they say, "It's different!"

I nod.

This time it's different, I think. I expected it. I waited for it. The smoke doesn't mean fear. It means exhaustion.

The town is burning down again.

I'm still in my garden.

so did Shannon add that detail and then find herself unable to work it in when Keefe was gone so now it’s null? or will it make a reappearance in the final book? and what circumstances would have to come into play for that to be logical? is it just biding it’s time?

lol = laughing out loud

brb = be right back

ttyl = talk to you later