Quote Queste February | Love and War. Mostly Love.

 

Joining Arielle/Miss Melody’s monthly writing challenge, using this as a starting point:

It’s admittedly rather tricky coming up with a good scenario for these…especially since I never equate being in love with going to war. Total opposites in my mind. :-P Makes it all the more challenging, wot?

Anyhoo, I dashed off this rather sappy piece of dialogue for the purpose of this exercise, using a couple originally part of my Heirs of Dunsmüir story-arc: Lisbeth and her best friend Brynhildr†, AKA Ben. You’ve met Isabella—this was going to be her younger sister. I initially cut them from the cast to avoid having too many Main Characters, but I’m toying with adding them back in again. Or I may stick them in elsewhere in the timeline. Don’t know yet. For now, they made for a good scene that wouldn’t be spoilerific. ;-)

Black text = Ben       Blue text = Lisbeth

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via Pinterest

     “I suppose this is it—our last hours in this world.”

     “It looks that way.”

     “It’s not fair! You’re the strongest man in Fjórdhaven, and I’m no weakling, myself—we should have been able to give a better account of ourselves—”

     “One man and one strong woman are no match for two-score fighting Orcs.”

     “I suppose not—but it still goes against the grain to be caught like minnows and wait about to be used as bait.”

     “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it, so let’s not spoil these last moments with bitter grumbling.”

     “What would you suggest?”

     “We could say our goodbyes. Last words and all that.”

     “Things we’ve been meaning to say, but never got around to it?”

     “Something like that.”

     “You start. I don’t know how to begin, so perhaps I can take my cues from you.”

via Pinterest

     “As you wish. You’ve really changed my life, you know. Before I met you, I just sort of drifted along, like a skiff on a current. Never really took much interest in life or got involved with much of anything. Then you crashed into my life, and I found I’d best look lively. You forced me to do more than just observe and think; you taught me to do things.”

     “And you taught me to slow down and look where I was going—sometimes literally. You taught me to think before I speak, look before I leap—that sort of thing. And you didn’t sneer at me for wanting to know all about sailing and fishing. Every useful, practical thing I know, I learned from you. I’m glad to have known you, Ben Larsson.”

     “Likewise…and more.”

     “More?”

     “Well…knowing you…learning all about you…spending time with you…well, it was a bit like going to war. I was never the same afterwards.”

     “That’s not very romantic—or flattering.”

     “I meant that in a good way. I’d…given the chance, I’d have taken an arrow to the knee* for you, Lisbeth.”

     “And I’d have done the same for you—wait, what?!”

     “You heard me.”

     “Brynhildr Larsson, did you just propose marriage to me?”

     “That would hardly be fair, considering we’re about to be killed.”

     “But supposing we weren’t? Supposing by some miracle, we were able to escape to freedom?”

     “That’s a lot of supposing.”

     “Well, if you won’t say it, I will—”

     “Nein, nein; that’s not very romantic either. Lisbeth Oláfsdóttír, if we survive this, will you marry me?”

     “Won’t I!”

    

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* Take [took] an arrow to the knee = Viking slang for getting married.

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Forgive the lack of action; didn’t have the brain wattage to figure it out. I’ve been wrestling with some Real World garbage of late that’s sapped my emotional energy for quality writing. I’m open to suggestions, though. 

How do you imagine the scene? What backstory can you think up for this scene? Should I keep these two in the HoD timeline—along with Anton and Isabella, Jason and Ember, Ciaran and Tom/Fiona—give them their own timeline, or put them back on the cut list? I want to know!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~R~

† Because Brynhildr is technically a girl's name, I've changed Ben's full name to Áldebrand [AHL-deh-brand] (Old Germanic for “old” and “sword, fire”) (so I guess I'll be putting him and Lisbeth back in the timeline after all, LOL).