Short Story: Of Daisies
Jun. 9th, 2011 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xhesikaThree in one day.
Takes place about a week after the biscuit one. Lilly as a character is hilarious and awesome.
had to research hand pump wells for this one, oh the research, it all has to be chronologically correct.
welp, we all knew this was coming.
Of Daisies
It was another humid day, a chain of them had made their way into the countryside where the Covington Estate and Manor stood tall, the children of the house soon found themselves longing for the dreary weather that England had become so friendly to.
"I'd run about in the rain stark naked." Lillaine stated with her head on the ground next to Artemis'.
The grass had grown so high with the past rains that the two thirteen-year-old girls were quite well hidden with Lillaine's older brother.
Kamen scoffed from the other side of Artemis, "And we'd all be blind."
Lillaine sat up abruptly, "Kamen Nyles Covington! You're just an awful sort of gentleman to say that sort of thing!"
Kamen sat up slowly, sighing with his action, "And I suppose you're just the most proper sort of lady to make a comment like that in the first place."
"Artemis, I do hope my brother isn't this dreadful to you when I'm locked up in my room." She looked down to the red-haired girl still laying in the grass, too used to the siblings' type of bickering to move from her comfortable tuffet.
"No, he's much worse. All vulgar and scandalous advances, really." Artemis said, crossing her arms behind her head.
"Hey!" Kamen exclaimed, shooting his attention to the reclining girl, and then back to his flaxen sister, blue eyes blazing at him, "I do nothing of the sort!"
Artemis yawned, not through with her instigation, "Don't let him tell you otherwise. The touching, the small embraces he steals, the whispers…you don't really think I blush for no reason?"
Kamen scowled at Artemis, "You are not helping."
Artemis rolled her eyes and slowly raised herself up onto her arms, bent behind her, "Really, Lillaine. He's a bully, but not that sort. Really, the two of us together? Your brother is far too stupidly stubborn. We'd kill each other."
Lillaine huffed and returned to her spot laying on the grass quite abruptly, leaving her brother sitting and feeling as if he had been cut off mid-sentence and mouth still agape. Following his sister's example, Kamen gave a huff of his own and returned to his own spot; giving Artemis a tight-lipped glare to which she merely smiled.
"Do you do much cloud-watching where you come from?" Lillaine asked quietly to Artemis, her eyes intent upon the shapes of water vapor high in the sky, "I know we do it an awful lot here."
"Sometimes, usually from my window, never from the ground. There isn't really any field I can go out to, either." Her eyes now searched the clouds, "Oh, I see a boat!"
Lillaine giggled, "I see it too!" She reached up a hand to the sky, extending her index finger, "There's an old man, with a pipe. Oh, and a whale."
Artemis laughed, "There's always a whale."
"Well I can't much help it if the clouds want to be fish!"
"But it’s a mammal!" Artemis was laughing harder now, back arching up from the ground slightly, arms reaching up to the red curls mixed with the bent blades of grass, and curling with the earth as if she were a flower herself. Her eyes fluttered open, and her smile immediately diminished as she was met with something new, an intense gaze from Kamen that Lillaine had not yet noticed. Artemis couldn't say for certain how long Kamen had been looking at her like that, propped up on his side and almost leaning towards her—not taking part in the game at all like he would have normally—as if he had seen something new.
"We really ought to come out here at night." Lillaine said, still not turning to look at her brother and Artemis, "The stars would be lovely, why have we never been out here to see the stars? We have all those old books of the constellations."
Kamen swallowed, and without moving from his spot, flicked his eyes to his sister, "Do you think Father would be alright with that? All of us out here past the witching hour?"
Lillaine gave an aggravated sigh, still not turning to look at the pair, "Daddy is in London for the next two weeks. I highly doubt Mum would mind much, especially if we told her it was with scholarly intent."
"Scholarly intent?" Kamen tested out the phrase in his own mouth, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"Well? It isn't too far from the truth." She looked over to him now, his face now skeptical rather than the gaze he had given Artemis, and provoking no suspicion of him. She glanced at Artemis, now blushing, "Did you ever watch the stars?"
Artemis swallowed the lump in her throat, the pounding in her chest caused her breaths to come slightly faster, "When I can see them, there's a lot of light from the city that usually blocks them out." She was suddenly unsure of how she would feel about being outside in the middle of the night, and laying in the grass with Kamen so close, even now he almost seemed too close. Her stomach seemed to flip—a sensation strange and delightful at the same time. She shook her head mentally, she had never thought of him in that way before and there was no reason to start now. He was her best friend's older brother, his intentions were honorable.
Kamen hummed, falling onto his back and clasping his hands over his waist and bending a knee, "I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. I assume Michealis would be supportive enough as well, the fellow barely sleeps, if at all."
Artemis closed her eyes and gave a harsh breath, "I don't know that I'll be up for something like that tonight, I think I may be falling ill."
Lillaine turned her head, "What? Why?"
"I don't think lunch agreed with me." Artemis blinked several times, almost speaking through her teeth.
"That is now and this is then." Kamen smirked, "Besides the house is much hotter than out here, you'd be better off staying cool out here with us than inside in bed."
Sitting up and making a move to stand, Artemis scrambled to her feet to find the pump at the well, "I think I need some water."
Wading through the grass and running towards the well, Artemis could still hear Lillaine yelling at Kamen, immediately blaming him for her friend's discomfort—not far from the truth at all as far as Artemis was concerned. The hand pump needed a few good pushes before any water spilled out of it, and the contact of the cool substance on the girl's hand was much more calming than she could have hoped.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the raspberry-stained handkerchief she had been given only a few days prior and soaked it to pat the sweat from her face. She immediately searched the event for a clue that would have lead her to this point, a comment, or even a gesture, but ending up with hands more empty than she had begun. She wrapped the cold, wet cloth into a roll and wrapped it around the back of her neck before cupping her hands for a drink.
The shadow approaching the well was one that Artemis knew all too well and she kept a close eye on it while sipping the liquid that slowly escaped through the cracks and crevices of her hands.
She stood straight and looked slightly past the curious Kamen, over to where his sister now watched from afar, then back to the dark-haired boy in his usual rough brown slacks and off-white shirt.
"Are you feeling alright?" Kamen asked, running a hand through his hair almost nervously.
Artemis nodded quickly, adding a small nervous laugh as she wiped her hands on her pinafore, "My stomach is just a little out of sorts." She walked past him, going back to Lillaine and trying to keep her face away from his sight, her blush quickly returning.
"I think," Kamen started, causing Artemis to slow slightly and look back to acknowledge that he spoke, "I think I fancy you."
She turned back to him completely; heart skipping beats with each breath to look back at the rumpled boy. He stood with hands at his sides and expression quite serious with the same gaze that had set her stomach on its side in the first place. The breeze ruffling through their hair, ending the stillness they had entered with his confession, and she swallowed carefully before wetting her lips with her tongue, "I don't think I fancy you the same."
She turned, forcing her legs to carry her back to Lillaine as cavalier as possible.
"You're blushing." Kamen called out to her, "I don't believe you."
There would be no time for Artemis to fully react to what had been said, Lillaine had already grown tired of her game with the clouds and instead pulled Artemis to the wild daisies, immediately saying that they ought to pick as many as they could to dry and keep in their room during the cold winter.
Lillaine barreled through the flowers, taking any and all in her path and setting them into a pile next to where her brother had merely taken a sigh and fallen into a lotus-position. Artemis was more choosy in her decisions, passing by the flawed daisy and carefully inspecting the symmetry and length of the petals before making her decision.
As her hands wrapped around the stem of a flower, she closed her eyes slowly, fluttering with the last few blinks and she pulled the stem apart, opening her eyes only to look at the blossom now twirling in between her fingertips. She glanced back to Kamen and then to the daisy, swearing that such attention couldn't be healthy for either him or her.
Kamen reached into the pile of flowers that his sister had set next to him and began to knot the stems, threading the flowers through, and making a small chain of three before standing and holding it out to Artemis, "A daisy chain. You said you'd never seen one?"
Artemis chewed on the inside of her mouth, "It's small."
"They can be bigger." He reached out for her hand and slipped the chain onto her wrist, "I didn't want this one to be too big."
Lillaine watched the gesture quietly before raising an eyebrow and deliberately turning back to the trail of daisies she had yet to tear into, whistling boyishly and singing various fragments of a song, "…the pipes, the pipes are calling…"
Kamen half scowled at his sister, well-aware that she had seen the gesture, and although he took her badly-feigned ignorance as a sign of approval, he assumed that she insinuated much more than was actually going on in his head.
Takes place about a week after the biscuit one. Lilly as a character is hilarious and awesome.
had to research hand pump wells for this one, oh the research, it all has to be chronologically correct.
welp, we all knew this was coming.
Of Daisies
It was another humid day, a chain of them had made their way into the countryside where the Covington Estate and Manor stood tall, the children of the house soon found themselves longing for the dreary weather that England had become so friendly to.
"I'd run about in the rain stark naked." Lillaine stated with her head on the ground next to Artemis'.
The grass had grown so high with the past rains that the two thirteen-year-old girls were quite well hidden with Lillaine's older brother.
Kamen scoffed from the other side of Artemis, "And we'd all be blind."
Lillaine sat up abruptly, "Kamen Nyles Covington! You're just an awful sort of gentleman to say that sort of thing!"
Kamen sat up slowly, sighing with his action, "And I suppose you're just the most proper sort of lady to make a comment like that in the first place."
"Artemis, I do hope my brother isn't this dreadful to you when I'm locked up in my room." She looked down to the red-haired girl still laying in the grass, too used to the siblings' type of bickering to move from her comfortable tuffet.
"No, he's much worse. All vulgar and scandalous advances, really." Artemis said, crossing her arms behind her head.
"Hey!" Kamen exclaimed, shooting his attention to the reclining girl, and then back to his flaxen sister, blue eyes blazing at him, "I do nothing of the sort!"
Artemis yawned, not through with her instigation, "Don't let him tell you otherwise. The touching, the small embraces he steals, the whispers…you don't really think I blush for no reason?"
Kamen scowled at Artemis, "You are not helping."
Artemis rolled her eyes and slowly raised herself up onto her arms, bent behind her, "Really, Lillaine. He's a bully, but not that sort. Really, the two of us together? Your brother is far too stupidly stubborn. We'd kill each other."
Lillaine huffed and returned to her spot laying on the grass quite abruptly, leaving her brother sitting and feeling as if he had been cut off mid-sentence and mouth still agape. Following his sister's example, Kamen gave a huff of his own and returned to his own spot; giving Artemis a tight-lipped glare to which she merely smiled.
"Do you do much cloud-watching where you come from?" Lillaine asked quietly to Artemis, her eyes intent upon the shapes of water vapor high in the sky, "I know we do it an awful lot here."
"Sometimes, usually from my window, never from the ground. There isn't really any field I can go out to, either." Her eyes now searched the clouds, "Oh, I see a boat!"
Lillaine giggled, "I see it too!" She reached up a hand to the sky, extending her index finger, "There's an old man, with a pipe. Oh, and a whale."
Artemis laughed, "There's always a whale."
"Well I can't much help it if the clouds want to be fish!"
"But it’s a mammal!" Artemis was laughing harder now, back arching up from the ground slightly, arms reaching up to the red curls mixed with the bent blades of grass, and curling with the earth as if she were a flower herself. Her eyes fluttered open, and her smile immediately diminished as she was met with something new, an intense gaze from Kamen that Lillaine had not yet noticed. Artemis couldn't say for certain how long Kamen had been looking at her like that, propped up on his side and almost leaning towards her—not taking part in the game at all like he would have normally—as if he had seen something new.
"We really ought to come out here at night." Lillaine said, still not turning to look at her brother and Artemis, "The stars would be lovely, why have we never been out here to see the stars? We have all those old books of the constellations."
Kamen swallowed, and without moving from his spot, flicked his eyes to his sister, "Do you think Father would be alright with that? All of us out here past the witching hour?"
Lillaine gave an aggravated sigh, still not turning to look at the pair, "Daddy is in London for the next two weeks. I highly doubt Mum would mind much, especially if we told her it was with scholarly intent."
"Scholarly intent?" Kamen tested out the phrase in his own mouth, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"Well? It isn't too far from the truth." She looked over to him now, his face now skeptical rather than the gaze he had given Artemis, and provoking no suspicion of him. She glanced at Artemis, now blushing, "Did you ever watch the stars?"
Artemis swallowed the lump in her throat, the pounding in her chest caused her breaths to come slightly faster, "When I can see them, there's a lot of light from the city that usually blocks them out." She was suddenly unsure of how she would feel about being outside in the middle of the night, and laying in the grass with Kamen so close, even now he almost seemed too close. Her stomach seemed to flip—a sensation strange and delightful at the same time. She shook her head mentally, she had never thought of him in that way before and there was no reason to start now. He was her best friend's older brother, his intentions were honorable.
Kamen hummed, falling onto his back and clasping his hands over his waist and bending a knee, "I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. I assume Michealis would be supportive enough as well, the fellow barely sleeps, if at all."
Artemis closed her eyes and gave a harsh breath, "I don't know that I'll be up for something like that tonight, I think I may be falling ill."
Lillaine turned her head, "What? Why?"
"I don't think lunch agreed with me." Artemis blinked several times, almost speaking through her teeth.
"That is now and this is then." Kamen smirked, "Besides the house is much hotter than out here, you'd be better off staying cool out here with us than inside in bed."
Sitting up and making a move to stand, Artemis scrambled to her feet to find the pump at the well, "I think I need some water."
Wading through the grass and running towards the well, Artemis could still hear Lillaine yelling at Kamen, immediately blaming him for her friend's discomfort—not far from the truth at all as far as Artemis was concerned. The hand pump needed a few good pushes before any water spilled out of it, and the contact of the cool substance on the girl's hand was much more calming than she could have hoped.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the raspberry-stained handkerchief she had been given only a few days prior and soaked it to pat the sweat from her face. She immediately searched the event for a clue that would have lead her to this point, a comment, or even a gesture, but ending up with hands more empty than she had begun. She wrapped the cold, wet cloth into a roll and wrapped it around the back of her neck before cupping her hands for a drink.
The shadow approaching the well was one that Artemis knew all too well and she kept a close eye on it while sipping the liquid that slowly escaped through the cracks and crevices of her hands.
She stood straight and looked slightly past the curious Kamen, over to where his sister now watched from afar, then back to the dark-haired boy in his usual rough brown slacks and off-white shirt.
"Are you feeling alright?" Kamen asked, running a hand through his hair almost nervously.
Artemis nodded quickly, adding a small nervous laugh as she wiped her hands on her pinafore, "My stomach is just a little out of sorts." She walked past him, going back to Lillaine and trying to keep her face away from his sight, her blush quickly returning.
"I think," Kamen started, causing Artemis to slow slightly and look back to acknowledge that he spoke, "I think I fancy you."
She turned back to him completely; heart skipping beats with each breath to look back at the rumpled boy. He stood with hands at his sides and expression quite serious with the same gaze that had set her stomach on its side in the first place. The breeze ruffling through their hair, ending the stillness they had entered with his confession, and she swallowed carefully before wetting her lips with her tongue, "I don't think I fancy you the same."
She turned, forcing her legs to carry her back to Lillaine as cavalier as possible.
"You're blushing." Kamen called out to her, "I don't believe you."
There would be no time for Artemis to fully react to what had been said, Lillaine had already grown tired of her game with the clouds and instead pulled Artemis to the wild daisies, immediately saying that they ought to pick as many as they could to dry and keep in their room during the cold winter.
Lillaine barreled through the flowers, taking any and all in her path and setting them into a pile next to where her brother had merely taken a sigh and fallen into a lotus-position. Artemis was more choosy in her decisions, passing by the flawed daisy and carefully inspecting the symmetry and length of the petals before making her decision.
As her hands wrapped around the stem of a flower, she closed her eyes slowly, fluttering with the last few blinks and she pulled the stem apart, opening her eyes only to look at the blossom now twirling in between her fingertips. She glanced back to Kamen and then to the daisy, swearing that such attention couldn't be healthy for either him or her.
Kamen reached into the pile of flowers that his sister had set next to him and began to knot the stems, threading the flowers through, and making a small chain of three before standing and holding it out to Artemis, "A daisy chain. You said you'd never seen one?"
Artemis chewed on the inside of her mouth, "It's small."
"They can be bigger." He reached out for her hand and slipped the chain onto her wrist, "I didn't want this one to be too big."
Lillaine watched the gesture quietly before raising an eyebrow and deliberately turning back to the trail of daisies she had yet to tear into, whistling boyishly and singing various fragments of a song, "…the pipes, the pipes are calling…"
Kamen half scowled at his sister, well-aware that she had seen the gesture, and although he took her badly-feigned ignorance as a sign of approval, he assumed that she insinuated much more than was actually going on in his head.
