Ash

[lord_nor]

Ash liked the mountain. He would come here often, when he was upset, or when he was feeling happy and free. He came here because he felt alone, or because he felt surrounded. Ash liked the mountain.

 

Today Ash was here because of what had happened in the village. He had been coming in from haying fields with the other peasants, and he saw her.

 

The princess Alana was riding though the village in a carriage pulled by six pure white horses. She was announced by four ladies in waiting, riding their own white ponies, and there were guards walking outside the carriage. After her came several courtiers, resplendent in their glittering silk robes. However, Ash saw none of these. When the ladies in waiting passed him, he nodded his head politely and gave them a wide berth on the narrow road. He stepped fully off the road to let the carriage go past, but even then, there was little room. One of the guards roughly pushed him aside into the ditch as he passed, and Ash looked up just in time to see Alana, as she had leaned out the window for a breath of fresh air. Their eyes locked, though just a moment, and Ash was sure that she had felt it too. Then she was gone, and he was coughing in the dust of the feet and horses.

 

"Why did I have to be born a peasant's son?" he demanded of a tree as he worked slowly up the West side of the mountain. "If I were anyone else, I might have had a chance to go to the court, and maybe even become a knight!"

 

As he made it up past the tree line, the path became smoother, and the incline wasn't as bad as it was below. Ash watched his shadow getting longer and longer, as the sun slid down the dome of the sky.

 

"Ah, I suppose it wouldn't have worked out anyway," he said to himself, as he paused by a stream and refilled his leather canteen. He sat down to rest on a large stone and watched the sun setting down for the night. He wasn't afraid of being left on the mountain for the night. He had done it before, and would do it again. He sat there and watched the sunset, and listened to the wind in the pines for what seemed like hours, thinking.

 

His dusty leather jerkin matched the stone he was perched on almost exactly, and if you came up behind him, you might have not noticed he was there until he spoke to you. A small doe did exactly that, and he smiled as he watched her white tail flashing back into the trees away to his left. He was hungry, but Ash never killed on the mountain. It was just so peaceful here, he felt that it was somehow sacrilegious. He pulled out the remains of a small loaf of bread his mother had baked the day before, and chewed thoughtfully.

 

Ash got up, stepped forward a couple paces, and then lay back with his head on the stone, where he had been sitting, and watched the stars begin circling overhead, and slowly began drifting off into the darkness.

 

Just before sleep took him, Ash realized that in a way, he was glad that he was the son of a simple peasant, and not noble. True, he would never get to know Alana, or any other royalty better than he knew them now. But then again, would he really enjoy living in a cold, damp castle? Would he enjoy being dressed in stiff, starchy clothes, and being waited on? No, he wouldn't like that. Ash liked the mountain.

[purple_shadows]

*muses* I liked this, and I really enjoyed the turn it took, from wanting what you can't have, to enjoying better the things that you do. I for one know that I would hate stiff, starchy colthing. Good job and I hope to see more from you.

[lord_nor]

Thanks!

[Wyvern]

Lord_nor sighs and fidgets in his applicant easychair, toying with a large calculator in order to pass the time while waiting for the Elder of Initiates' arrival. The eager applicant rolls his eyes as he solves the Fuurier Series yet again on his powerful contraption, yawning and leaning back in his comfortable easychair. Proving algebraic formulas was always fun, but the anxiety evoked by Wyvern's extensive absence from the Office was causing him to be off by a couple of decimal places in his responses. Besides, the thought of entering the Pen and adding one to every Pen variable involving members was tempting enough to break his otherwise disciplined concentration...

 

The slamming of the Office door suddenly breaks lord_nor's concentration as Wyvern speedily dashes into the room, immediately running towards the Recruiter's desk and crash landing into his favorite seat. The overgrown lizard begins rapidly shifting through the enormous amount of paperwork there, searching for lord_nor's application in the mess.

 

"Mr. Wyvern, I presume?" mumbles lord_nor glumly, staring at his watch. "You are currently fourty eight hours, twenty seven minutes, and thirteen seconds late in responding to my application... fourty eight hours, twenty seven minutes, and fourteen seconds late... fourty eight hours, twenty seven minutes, and fifteen seconds late... fourt-"

 

"I get the picture!" exclaims Wyvern, practically tearing the scales out of his head in frustration as he finally manages to find lord_nor's application amidst the piles of paper. "My apologies for being late, lord_nor. I'll be responding to your application shortly."

 

Lord_nor smiles and nods as Wyvern immediately begins reading over his application, jotting various notes over the writing in a sloppy almost dragonic scrawl as he goes along. After he's finished, the reptilian Elder turns his scaly snout towards nor and hisses:

 

"Hmmm... so you're the almighty Saint Lord of Mathematics eh? Would you happen to be a disciple of Pythogorus, Descartes, Einstein, or BelZspock?"

 

Lord_nor stares at Wyvern blankly in a silence that can only suggest a negative response, to which the overgrown lizard hisses:

 

"Ah well... hey, truth be told, I might be able to use an Almost Dragonic accountant to go through all these tax return papers around here, and you seem pretty good at math. Then again, the whole theme of wealth not equating to happiness found in your application story goes against one of my most basic principles in life."

 

Noticing that lord_nor is paling at thought of going through Wyvern's paperwork, the greedy Elder sighs softly and stamps his application ACCEPTED.

 

;-)

 

OOC: An ACCEPTED application story, lord_nor. Welcome to the Mighty Pen! I look forward to reading more of your writing, as well as participating with you in group projects. Sorry for the small delay in getting to your application response, and welcome once again!