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semblanche · 5 years

Text

gutterpups - ch ? snippet

featuring bits of the tentative first meeting between the traveler's daughter & the town prophet.

status: unedited

(ask to be added/removed from my tag list!)

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"Alright," Penny said. She sat down at the edge of a chair. "Tell me about them. Your gods."

Luke stared at her hesitantly. "They're yours too," he said softly, a question lining his words. Penny shrugged it off, impatient.

"Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean."

Luke still seemed hesitant, but at Penny's irritated gesture looked back down obediently, turning his book's pages like he feared the words would come alive under his hands. "What do you want to know?"

"The stories."

Luke blinked. "The ... stories?"

"Yeah, you know. The stories." Penny squirmed in her seat, scraping at the bottom of her memory's barrel for something to use. "Like the guy who got his legs cut off and made the railway so he could run again or whatever."

"Technically the railway rose from the trails his blood left behind," Luke noted. Penny nodded eagerly.

"Yeah! That stuff."

"The fables," Luke said, coating his words in emphasis, "come later." He dug his hand under a good deal of the pages and turned them, the pages in question thumping on the other side of the table loudly. Dust rose, dancing in the windows light like fireflies, and Penny watched them, spellbound.

"Then skip to them," she said. Luke swallowed, and Penny watched as the small bump in his throat bobbed.

"I don't skip."

"What, you just read that book in order again and again?"

Luke looked sheepish. "I guess it sounds a little strange when you put it that way."

Penny groaned. The sun was beaming down on the back of her neck, and she shifted so she could get a better angle. Her feet already itched to get out of there. "Okay, fine," she relented. "Do whatever you want."

Luke nodded. He turned his book's pages back over again, and peered down owlishly, eyes running up and down the first like he was searching for a needle in a haystack. Penny propped her chin on her hands and waited, feet kicking back to hit wood. Luke flinched with every kick.

"Well," he finally said. "There's Iliak'tida. His most loyal, but also most wandering follower."

Penny stopped kicking. "Okay. Tell me about her."

Luke didn't answer. His fingers traced his text like he was committing its cover to memory. His lips opened, then closed again, unwilling.

Penny groaned. "Now what?"

"Nothing," Luke said. His fingers dug into his cover, bone white. "It's just." He swallowed. "You've never." He sweated. "Heard of her?"

"I have," Penny said. It wasn't a lie, not really. She was pretty sure the name rang a bell from her old days at service. "I just don't remember."

Luke regarded her warily. "Everyone knows Iliak'tida. Everyone who believes in Him and the power He holds."

"Well, I forgot. I told you I wanted to brush up on this stuff." She rubbed her knee absently. She'd scraped it the other day climbing a tree. "I mean, why would I be here if I already knew everything?"

"This isn't everything. These are the basics."

"Well, maybe I don't know the basics either. Why does it matter?"

A pause, in which Luke stared at her like it was his first time actually seeing her. Penny met his gaze evenly, eyebrows arched and jaw jutted out defiantly, and finally he gave in, looking back down again almost ruefully.

"I know you," he said quietly. "You're that girl that always skips service to go and steal from the shopkeepers and visit the forest. The town says I'm not to talk to you."

Anger suddenly bubbled in Penny, red hot and spiking. "Yeah?" she said, standing up. Her chair scraped across the marble floor, and Luke flinched like he'd been hit. It made her feel worse. "Well, I know who you are too. You're the church suck up. Just because you can recite the scripts back to back doesn't make you better than me. All the other boys hate you."

That was true too. She'd heard them say it. Luke's eyes widened, then blinked quickly, like he was trying to push back tears. Penny went on, ruthless.

"You can't toss a ball. You can't run a race. The town grown ups might love you, but you know what? The kids sure don't. So why don't you write that down in your scripture and suck it."

Luke looked like she'd slapped him. He ducked his head over his book again, his curls falling almost babyishly to hide his eyes from sight, and despite everything Penny found herself thanking whatever stupid god was up there for small mercies.

Turning on her heel, she stormed out of the church, leaving behind nothing more than an echo, a stricken prophet, and a seat still warm from where she'd been sitting.

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #folklore #ya fantasy #mythology #religion #gutterpups #luke heathcote #penny isinglass #this escalated faster than the popes ascending to heaven #she writes

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