DREAMS of a CLOUD
Peruse the many random ramblings of a writer-in-training as I build stories and develop my craft.
31 December 2022 part 2
“I’m Moira. You can call me ‘Captain’ or ‘Ma’am’. From now on, you’re not princes or servants or any of that. You are deckhands aboard the Dragon’s Flight, and that means you answer to me. Is that clear?”
Charles saluted and said, “Yes, Ma’am!”, but Elliott just glowered. “I’m not some lowly deckhand; I am a prince, and–”
“You were a prince, you mean,” Moira cut in. “You have no country, no authority, and no reason for me to respect you. If you want to change that–any of it–you start by doing what I say. Am I clear?”
“But–”
“Am I clear?”
31 December 2022
She glared at the boy who threw it, an ebony oni bigger than the rest with a single horn. All the kids shrank back, terrified. Out of one of the houses nearby a bookish-looking blue oni rushed out and stood between Hanako and the kids, arms outstretched. “Don’t! They’re only children!”
Hanako’s eyes went wide, and she turned away. What did he think she was going to do? To herself, she muttered, “Even among other yokai, they only see me as a monster.”
30 December 2022
The tanuki handed the swordt over, and Lord Isshin inspected every inch of the blade. “Did you know I had a student once, who wanted to learn the sword?”
Hanako cocked her head. Where had that come form? The tanuki meanwhile just shook his head.
“He was a young man. A human, actually, of all things. He had a purity I’d never seen before or since; he was devoted to the sword, but he used it only to protect what was important to him. He had no love for the shedding of blood.” He looked first at Hanako, and then the tanuki. “His name was Kojima.”
Hanako’s eyes widened, and the tanuki’s face turned white as a sheet. With the barest hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth, Lord Isshin asked, “Do you still wish to claim this sword belongs to your family?”
29 December 2022
I was dead tired, and had no idea what I should write. So I decided to brainstorm, because I wanted a clearer image of who the guy in Elsenaia’s story is. A lot of it was based on me, but not everything, and I want him to be clearly distinct from me. Hence the brainstorming below.
28 December 2022
Jasper the Pirate King was intimidating. He wasn’t a large man, per se - he was only of average height, and wiry, rather than bulky. But there was a sharpness to his gaze, and he had a subtle tension that made Charles feel like a mouse caught in a serpent’s gaze.
27 December 2022
Hanako’s rage flared awake, but she kept a lid on it, and even managed to make a convincing smile as she approached the tanuki. “Hey, hey. Owner-san. Where did you get that sword?”
When the tanuki replied, he seemed utterly at ease, as if that wasn’t clearly the sword Hanako had brought in just the evening before. “Oh, that? Old family heirloom. My grandfather used it in battle a hundred years ago.”
26 December 2022 part 2
The pigeon carefully looked around from his perch on the branch. There was a pizza with a beautiful, golden crust the humans had thrown out for whatever reason, and the pigeon wanted to grab what he could of that crust and carry it home to his family. However… This was the Cat’s territory. And if the Cat was around… Well, it wasn’t worth risking his neck for.
Once he’d watched and waited long enough to feel safe, the pigeon flew down to the pizza, only to come face to face with a mouse.
26 December 2022
When she arrived, she found a warm, inviting inn with an image of a dancing tanuki hanging from the sign post. Inside, she found a rotund, cheerful tanuki behind the counter, and off to the right a handful of other customers milling around the dining area. Among them was a kappa with graying hair, sitting by himself in the corner, sipping tea.
The tanuki gave her a big wide smile. “Welcome, welcome! What can we do for you today?”
24 December 2022
It’s hard to believe it’s already been almost two weeks since I left home, Mama. Or that it’s the end of Summer’s Fall already. I feel free, more than I have in a long time.
I think you’d like the Dorwitts. They’re fun, and they’ve been teaching me a lot of different things. Mostly more sign language, so I can talk with them better, but also things like keep track of your money, or how to juggle. Even though she didn’t want us to stay at first, Vy’s even been teaching me some tricks to get the most whenever I have to sell some of the jewelry you left.
23 December 2022
An easy smile fell to Hanako’s lips as she squared her shoulders and walked into the marketplace. A group of kappa drunkenly belted out enka songs from an outdoor pub, while a nekomata couple fawned over each other as they walked down the street, their four tails intertwining. One yokai that looked like a giant umbrella with a long tongue hopped up and down on its single foot as it argued with a tengu merchant.
And mixed in with all that were dozens and dozens of oni. Red, blue, black, white, yellow; anywhere from a single horn to a crown of five; walking alone or whole families herding kids around for a day out. Part of Hanako wondered if she’d died and gone to heaven.
Or at least, she did until she accidentally bumped into a large, blue-skinned oni with a single horn. Hanako turned to apologize, but the oni only wrinkled his nose. “You reek of human.”
22 December 2022
Naomi squirmed and struggled to get free, but the baker’s grip on her was too strong. “Barton! BARTON!”
But the piper and the rats paid her no heed, if indeed the piper could even hear her over his own playing and the noise of the rats. He danced on his merry way until he was out of sight, and it wasn’t long before the last of the rats soon followed.
Malcolm finally let Naomi go, and she sank to her knees, too stunned to cry as she stared vacantly down the street where the piper had disappeared.
21 December 2022
“Ah, rout-tout, diddly di,
Rout-tout, do.
In for a penny, in for a pound,
Come, ye rats, and gather ‘round.
There’s many a place to rest your head,
But none here in this town.”
20 December 2022
I passed by a few more groups of people, each one twittering away, mostly about my engagement with Leah, or about the way she changed me without some big boss’s approval. Made me wonder what I was doing there and how I was going to deal with this mess.
Before long, too much was too much and I retreated upstairs. Didn’t really want to spend time with the in-laws; my first meeting with Leah’s dad had just about come to blows. So I headed up to the attic and looked out the window over their massive backyard.
A little while later, Leah came up and joined me. “Figured I’d find you here.”
19 December 2022
Before she could finish him off, the yellow one released a burst of pressure. “Do you think a lowly red oni like you could do anything to me?”
Hanako cocked her head. “Ne, oji-san. Was that supposed to be scary? Shouldn’t it be more like this?”
And with that, she released all the pressure, all the anger she felt, both from the threat they posed to the Chizu refugees and for this family who’d lost everything. Red stopped in his tracks and began cowering away from her, and both Yellow and Blue fell back on their butts, horrified.
18 December 2022
He looked disheveled, with ragged clothes and a patchy beard, but there was a ferocious gleam in his eye as he yelled out to the crowd.
“And what have they done for us? What good do their cries of love, or life, or beauty, do to solve our problems?”
Aislin watched for just a moment, and felt the emotions of the crowd shift and sway with every turn of the man’s words. She hurried away, as lead settled in her stomach.
17 December 2022
Hanako found a trio of large, male oni, each a different color but all around eight feet tall, gathered around a fire. Some creature–it looked to be the remains of a horse–turned on a spit above it.
Off to the side, a father and daughter were trussed up, quivering in fear. The girl couldn’t have been more than ten years old. The ruins of a wagon rested on the other side of the fire, its contents strewn about, either broken or devoured. A bit of bile rose into Hanako’s throat, and she desperately hoped the mother of the family hadn’t been traveling with them.
16 December 2022
Father Monroe scowled, then looked over where Naomi was trying to creep away with Barton. “Very well. You can start with that one.”
Naomi shrieked and backed away, but the piper just shook his head. “Tut, tut, tut. Now, now, good priest. You do not see me trying to tell you how to preach your sermons, do you? You tend to your duties, and I shall see to mine, you have my word.”
The priest choked back a thousand scathing replies. “Every rat, Goodman Pietr. If you want full payment.”
12 December 2022
“Welcome to the Arena,” Kali said, gesturing to the colosseum before them. “Where everyone you see is created, reworked, or borrowed whole-sale to be immortal and help the Authors practice writing combat scenes or similarly stressful situations.”
10 December 2022
He looked up and met her eyes. “If you lack even the strength to defeat one oni, then what good are you?”
It felt like the floor fell out from underneath Suzune. She wanted to protest, remind him that Hanako was no ordinary oni, of all the things Ito had said earlier. But the words wouldn’t come out. At the end of the day, he was right, wasn’t he? She’d lost.