Quote Queste | October

Miss Melody is hosting yet another Quote Queste! *Trumpet fanfare* This month’s Quote is:

I’ll admit this one gave me a bit of trouble, as there were several couples in my head who could work in this scenario. However, I couldn’t use them because…spoilers, sweetie. :-P Then I started writing the scene, and Jason Windrider and Ember MacTavish insisted on acting it out. They’re both way in the future of my Ýdára series, but they’re two Characters who are very special to me. I look forward to working with them “for real” eventually. :-D

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via Pinterest

     Ember MacTavish sat on a nearby boulder, frowning at her snapped bowstring.

     “Sure, an’ the heroes in those books o’ yours never had to deal with skronky weapons,” she snorted, flinging a chunk of fiery curls off her face. “They’d never be savin’ their lady-loves if their swords broke in two just as they were about to slay the dragon—” She stopped short and looked at Jason with horror in her round turquoise eyes. “Och! Your pardon; I forgot.”

     “Oh—ah—that’s not—I mean, it’s all right,” Jason Windrider assured her. “Not all Dragons are good like my friends. They’re kind of—I mean, they are—the exception…to the….” He shook his head, feeling like it was full of cotton wool. As usual. “Oriános says most of the Dragons in this world—even the intelligent ones—haven’t any scruples. They wouldn’t think twice about capturing a princess.”

via Pinterest

     Ember chuckled. “Well, now, I s’pose there’s hope for the love-struck heroes o’ this world, then.” She took a new bowstring from her pouch. “Sometimes I wonder if love really be worth fightin’ for, anyhow.”

     “What do you—that is—what makes you—say—?”

     “Sure, an’ I can understand fightin’ for freedom,” she continued, ignoring his awkwardness. “Or defendin’ one’s homeland or kin. But love?” She shook her fiery head, setting her kinky curls bouncing, and threaded the string through the bottom notch on her bow.

     “It does seem almost…kind of…rather contradictory, if that makes any sense,” Jason agreed. “But then I look at you—think of all you’ve been through—think of how I’d feel if some blackguard hurt you or caused you more grief.” His brows lowered into a determined scowl. “If that ever happened,” he declared, clenching his fist, “I’d be ready to go to war, if it meant making things right for you again.”

     Ember paused, looking at him sideways over the tip of her bow. “Half a moment—would ’ee be tellin’ me ye love me, then?”

    “Oh—er—well….” Jason blushed, rubbing the back of his head. “Um…yes, I guess I do. I mean, I am—that is—not that I know anything about—well, I’ve just read—in books, you know….” He scrunched up his face and gave his hair a couple tugs. “Why is it so hard to talk to you coherently?” he sighed.

     She smiled ruefully at him as she fitted an arrow to the string. “Never mind, boy-o,” she soothed, taking careful aim at the target they had set up fifty paces away. The arrow sunk into the bull’s-eye with a satisfying thump. Turning back to face him, she gave him a merry smile, eyes dancing. “’Tis honored I am—’though we both be a mite young yet to be thinkin’ o’ love.”

     “I—yes, I suppose,” Jason admitted.

     “An’ to be sure, I be the first lass ye’ve ever laid eyes on—”

     “—so it doesn’t count?” Jason’s shoulders sagged.

     She lifted one shoulder and side of her mouth. “Who’s to say? ’Tis Elyon alone knows the future. He might ’a’ made ye an’ me for each other, or He might have someone better for us both, down the road. But for the time bein’,” she continued, fitting another arrow, “ourselves can pretend we’re brother an’ sister, an’ then we can be sayin’ ‘I love ye’ to each other wi’out shame or nonsense.”

     Jason stuck his hands in his pockets and smirked shyly. “I’ll settle for that…Sister.”

     Ember took aim at the target. “By the bye, boy-o,” she said, pulling the arrow back and squinting along its length, “what ye said about goin’ to war for a loved one….” She released the arrow and watched it fly before finishing her sentence. The arrow hit the bull’s-eye almost exactly where the first one had. She smiled at him. “That goes fer meself, too, ye know.”

      

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God bless,

~“Tom”~