Jingle-pants

“None of you bird-dogs ever could,” he said without malice despite the insulting slang his people often used for hers. Then his tone changed to another one Curswoom recognized quite well. “We can work that out. Come with me.”

The dark-haired woman was already composing the next name on her list as Curswoom followed the guard down the corridor and into a small empty office.

###

Woo ducked into the room and stepped to the side; the guard followed her in. On the opposite wall hung two sets of jingle-pants. One pair was in the original style: a belt of soft leather straps with bells sewn on. The full-length straps tangled in the legs of the Bel Avi to sound their arrival and slow their pace to a walk. Many bells were missing from that pair. The other was a newer pair and in the current style: a half-length split skirt of cloth and bells. With the proliferation of [gunpowder-based weapons] [humans] no longer needed to slow the Bel Avi as much as they used to.

Except for a desk pushed against a second door, the room was empty.

[begin the rape here]

193 words on day 946

The Price of Jingle-pants

Goal: Curswoom, “Woo”, wants to convince the city to increase the water ration for her district more hours of each day, but first she’s got to see the proper people at the Pratacalla.

The dark-haired woman at the dark-wooded desk pushed her finger down the list of names until she reached the first one with no mark beside it. “This is your name. Please, make your mark here.”

“I can recognize my own name. Even when you have given me my father’s.” Curswoom ran a line through the mistake wondering if it were purposeful or accidental. Next to it she wrote: Beh Lavi Curswoom instead of Beh Lavi Curswola. She x’d beside it then looked the woman in the eye. “He’s been dead a year now.”

The woman didn’t blink or apologize, but she did smile and look to the guard. On purpose then.

“You won’t get in looking like that,” the guard standing beside the desk said. He was uniformed in the usual palace attire: a white tunic, absurd crimson utility pants, and black boots. He carried both a dagger and a sidearm, but because the Pratacalla was a civic building he did not wear any insignia indicating his rank. He distinctly avoided looking below Curswoom’s shoulders to her body, legs or tail.

Curswoom wore only a corset-like leather plackart to armor her abdomen from arrows. The remainder of her body was uncovered. Bold and scandalous to most people, but common place and obvious to the Beh Lavi. Her people with their long ostrich-like legs were runners. And runners couldn’t be weighed down or constricted by unnecessary clothing. When she whisked the auburn tip of her tail into the edge of his gaze and cracked it’s ropey length on the tiled floor he continued to stare over her shoulder like a blind man missing all the normal interests.

“She called my number. I’m signed in.”

Now he made eye contact. “That just means ‘next’.”

“I can’t afford jingle-pants.” [The truth was she could have worn her father’s.]

“None of you bird-dogs ever could,” he said without malice despite the insulting slang his people often used. Then his tone changed to another one Curswoom recognized quite well. “We can work that out. Come with me.”

The dark-haired woman was already composing the next name on her list as Curswoom followed the guard down the corridor and into a small empty office.

390 words on day 945

Beh Lavi at the Bottom

April 18th is my new end date for 1000 Days.

A FANBOY warm up:
Elizabeth and Tony made the lasagna, poured the wine and served the bread, for Gustav and Konstantine had grown too old and too important to bother themselves with such dinner preparation.

The bolter rose slowly to hover above our heads, and Terri flew away.

The servants were not allowed to light the candles to guide the old king’s feet down the hall to his bed, nor were they encouraged to assist him up the uneven steps.

Rajesh intended to prepare the beds for his guests, but the sheets he thought were clean were dusted in ash and sand.

Stan spurred his horse to a throaty gallup, or he would never make the train.

The wind tugged at the candles’ flames like a spinster plucking eyebrows, yet the little fires remained.

The barbarian threw up her shield to block my sword, so I rolled to her side and kicked her feet out from under her.

Some of those coordinating conjunctions, specifically ‘nor’ and ‘for’, are a challenge to write. I’m better at ‘yet’ than I am ‘or’ most times too.

Beh Lavi, Curswoom, Praincala or Pratacalla, Jingle-pants.

Goal: Curswoom, “Woo”, wants to convince the city to increase the water flow for her district for more hours of each day.

“You won’t get in looking like that.” The guard distinctly avoided looking to Curswoom’s uncovered legs or tail. She whisked the auburn tip of it into the edge of his gaze then cracked it’s ropey length on the concrete floor. He continued to stare over her shoulder like a blind man missing all the normal interests.

“They called my number.”

“That just means ‘next’.”

“I can’t afford jingle-pants.”

“None of you Beh Lavi-curs ever can.” He surprised her by using the [proper name of both her race and clan] rather than the denigrating slang: bird-dog. [maybe he wasn’t as bad as she’d assumed].

325 words on day 944