Monday, Sweet Monday

[benebu.livejournal.com]

Hello, I'm benebu and I'll be your host for this week. I'm so excited! Today's theme is 5+1. Themes can be anything as long as they follow the 5+1 pattern.

The rules still haven't changed:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
No spoilers in prompts.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space.

Prompts should be formatted as follows:
Fandom, Character+/Character, Prompt

Some examples...
+ Hana Yori Dango, Tsukushi, 5 things she regretted saying, and 1 she shouldn't have kept to herself
+ any, any couple, 5 endearing habits of my significant other, and 1 I won't be able to endure much longer
+ any, any, 5 times they got lost, and 1 they didn't wish to be found

Not feeling any of today’s prompts? Visit the lonely prompt archive and brighten someone’s day. For more recent prompts to write, you can also use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community.lonely prompt archive and brighten someone’s day. For more recent prompts to write, you can also use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community.

tag=5+1

Comments

Re: Dealing with Princess 2/5a

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

“I’m in here!” Cimorene called, sticking her head out of the second treasure cave.

Kazul snaked her head around the corner and nodded when she saw her. “Very good. I’m off to the vanishing mountain, I shall return before dinner tomorrow.”

Cimorene came out into the hallway, dusting her hands on her skirts before reaching up to pat Kazul’s neck. “Fly safely,” she said, smiling when the dragon rolled her eyes, swinging her neck around to come face-to-face with Cimorene.

“You know,” the dragon said, her voice rumbling deeper than usual, “I survived many years without having a princess to nag at me to be careful. This human habit of yours to hover and worry is very bothersome.”

Cimorene rubbed at the scaly ridge over Kazul’s left eye. “I’ll take it under consideration. Oh, speaking of princesses, is it possible that one of yours ever practiced magic? Before me, I mean?”

Kazul snorted and Cimorene skipped back, tossing a pinch of feverfew and reciting the fireproofing spell. “In a manner of speaking. Why?”

“Oh.” Cimorene blinked, and glanced over her shoulder, back into the treasure room. “I’ve just been finding odd spell ingredients all over the caves, kind of hidden away in, well, dragon-proof places.”

Kazul’s eyes sparked and the smoke trickling from her nostrils did not abate. Cimorene spared a moment to be grateful that, whatever Kazul thought about magic-wielding princesses, she and Alianora had discovered the fireproofing spell. “Yes. That was Calandra. She was…well. That story shall have to wait until I return. Ballimore is expecting me and if you ever want me to be allowed to borrow her cauldron of plenty again, I shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

Cimorene rather suspected that Kazul was making more of the importance of punctuality than necessary for the sake of calming herself before telling a story that she found clearly upsetting. So Cimorene patted her again and waved farewell, and when Kazul returned next night she had a handsome roast lamb dressed just the way Kazul liked it, and a tub of cherries jubilee.

“So, princess, tell me. What are these spell ingredients you’ve been finding tucked away?”

Cimorene smiled faintly and led Kazul to the library. Spread out on one of the sturdy tables were all the little pots, jars and pouches she’d been collecting, along with a stack of parchment that seemed to be written in some kind of code. Perching on one of the armchairs, Cimorene listened as Kazul told her about Calandra — a powerful sorceress who’d posed as a princess when Kazul raided her city and allowed herself to be carried off.

“But why?” Cimorene asked.

“All dragons carry powerful magic within them. You know the power of a dragon’s scale, but have you considered what one might do with a dragon’s blood or bone?”

Cimorene shuddered. “She was going to…harvest your magic bits? How horrible!”

“Exactly,” Kazul nodded grimly. “I figured out she wasn’t who she said she was quickly enough, and luckily for her I decided to ask questions before simply eating her. As it turned out, her brother had been kidnapped by the Society of Wizards and they were holding him for ransom. They’d return him once she got them what he needed.”

“That sounds like Zemenar,” Cimorene said darkly.

“Oh, this was well before Zemenar’s time,” Kazul waved a hand. “His great-great-grand-uncle, I believe, was worse than him, if you can believe it.” Kazul picked up the stack of papers and looked them over carefully until her expression suddenly cleared, then relaxed into a toothy grin. “But come here, princess, I’d forgotten about this.” Kazul traced over one of the pieces of parchment with a delicate claw. “When Roxim and I helped her recover her brother, in gratitude she made me this. You might recognize it.”

Re: Dealing with Princess 2/5b

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

“Is that…is that a plan for the enchanted wardrobe in my room?”

“It is. Calandra seemed to think it was a kind of joke. She was quite clever, in a very human kind of way. She would have made a good princess for me, I see that now,” Kazul added, turning a speculative eye on Cimorene. “But at the time I thought it simply couldn’t be done; she could not be my princess for she was not a princess, but she left me with a gift for all my future princesses; a wardrobe to provide them with the clothes to fit the part.”

Cimorene nodded slowly. “There’s a certain kind of irony there, I suppose. She would have gotten on well with Morwen, I think.”

“Yes,” Kazul nodded. “And speaking of Morwen, perhaps I’d better have her up here to go through all this with you. I don’t doubt some of it will be useful for something-or-other, if only warding off scale rot, but I’d be even less surprised to learn that there were dangerous things in here and it’d be best to know what’s what before we put it all away. Yes, I’ll call on her as soon as may be and see if she can’t come up some afternoon.”

That decided, Cimorene turned out the light in the library and went to clean up from dinner.