Legendland Battle 19 round up
Mar. 10th, 2015 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseLegeand battle 19 round up
Fanworks made for the penultimate Legendland battle.
GRAPHICS
Panorama icons ( 5 icons from one pic)
Icon Story Tell a story by making 3 icons using 1 pic
Header Image click for full size
Wallpaper click through for full size
FICTION
Previously mentioned, a gift fic featuring Cara/Leo, Picture Perfect
To Seek the Seeker (381 words) by meridian_rose
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Verna Sauventreen, Annalina Aldurren
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, POV Female Character, Female Characters, Religion
Summary: For the Legendland Challenge: write about a character from the Old World. Pre-canon, Verna prepares to go on her quest to find and protect the Seeker until he can be trained by the Sisters of the Light.
Horror Story Worse Things Than Confessors
The D'Haran soldier paused to take a drink from his water skin. He was the only survivor of his Quad, who'd had the misfortune to come up against a Confessor. The white-clad monstrosity had grabbed a soldier by his throat and he'd turned on his comrades in arms.
The soldier blinked angry tears away. After his fellow guards had been killed, it had fallen to him to murder the Confessed man. He had hated to plunge his sword into his friend's heart but it was necessary. Not just to save his own life, for the Confessed would show no mercy and would have killed him without hesitation. No, more than that, it was the only way to save the Confessed's soul, to set him free from the curse laid on him by the witch.
Confessors! Those despicable creatures were the worst thing in the entire Keeper damned world, looking so innocent and then enslaving with a single touch.
He'd had to choose whether to chase down the abomination, who'd fled while they were fighting, or return to the People's Palace to report his failure - and get reinforcements, the better to hunt down the Confessor.
He was exhausted from the fight, bleeding from a number of small wounds, and he'd decided that reporting a Confessor's presence so close to the Palace took precedence. He'd taken what he thought was a shortcut through a dense woodland, and it wasn't until now he'd lost sight of the narrow entranceway that he realised these woods were the ones said to be haunted.
He told himself the tales were just stories. He pressed on, reasoning he was halfway through the woods and might as well go forward as backward. Wicked thorned bushes and thick trunked trees with twisted branches laden with dark leaves lined his path, making it dark as midnight.
He froze when he thought he saw a glimpse of white cloth, drawing his sword to attack the Confessor. Trembling he took a step forward. There was a noise at his side and he spun. A tall woman gazed at him, her green eyes cool, her blonde braid reaching to the waist of her red leather outfit. A Mord'Sith! He was saved.
"You're a long way from home," she said.
He nodded, sheathing his sword. "I must report to Lord Rahl," he said.
"Come."
He followed her along the winding path but the way became even darker and narrower. "I do not question you, Mistress, but are you certain this is the way out?"
"Out?" she asked, turning to face him, and her eyes glowed like the Underworld and her teeth were now fangs that dripped a sticky fluid. "Oh, no. This isn't the way out at all."
The shapeshifter who haunted the woods pounced.
There were worse things in the world than Confessors after all.
Resolutions Traditional, PG-13
"Resolutions?" Cara asked, wrinkling her nose. "Like vows?"
Kahlan hesitated, smoothing her white dress over her knees. "Not exactly like vows. They're sort of promises that you make, but not to anyone but yourself."
"Vows you make to yourself?" Cara frowned. "Who punishes you if you break them?"
"No one!"
Richard chuckled, poking at the campfire with a stick. "Everyone breaks them," he said, "or at least we did back home."
"Then what," Cara asked, exasperated, "is the point?"
Zedd, who'd been lying, eyes closed, against a tree log, cleared his throat. "The point is to think of something you wish to change about yourself and work towards it. Not out of fear of punishment, but because you genuinely wish to better yourself." He sat up, blinking. "If you break your resolution so easily it is because you chose the wrong one. Something you don't truly desire, or something that is too difficult to accomplish all at once. You ought to be reasonable and kind to yourself when choosing a resolution."
Cara considered this a moment. "Perhaps an example would help."
Zedd sighed. "It would be a foolish resolution for me to give up persimmons because I love eating them. And it would be a rather large task to never use any magic not strictly necessary. But I could make a resolution to be more considerate – and to ensure it is a measurable goal, I could resolve to do this by never taking seconds until everyone else at a meal has had their fill."
"That's very noble," Richard said, surprised.
"It was just an example," Zedd countered hastily.
"I resolve to be more open with my feelings," Kahlan said. "If I want to hug someone and they'll let me, I'm going to do it. If I want to say I love someone, I will. If I feel angry, I will speak about it." Her features softened. "I love you all, and I want you to know that."
Richard leaned over to kiss her. Cara tried not to roll her eyes. She understood that Confessors were raised, as Mord'Sith were, with a emphasis on self-control. Still, if Kahlan were any more open with her feelings they would all drown in her affection.
Perhaps that was it. Cara made a silent resolution to try and roll her eyes less, at least outwardly. Just one a day. And if she failed, well, Richard, her Lord Rahl, said it was not only acceptable, but traditional to do so.
Love prompt Found Family, PG-13
Cara had been trained that anger, loyalty, and pride were feelings that made her a powerful weapon. Sadness, remorse, love; those were feelings to be avoided, emotions that would make her weak.
There was logic in these teachings, and yet when she had chosen to follow Richard Rahl instead of her former master Darken Rahl, and joined his merry band, she had been thrust into a new world where no-one believed as she did.
Instead, Richard saw love as a force for good, one that made him powerful and willing to make any sacrifice in its name. Kahlan insisted that remorse was necessary to atone for wrongdoing, and it was the remorse she saw in Cara's eyes during her trial that had led her to spare Cara's life. Zedd thought grief was a natural part of life, and that refusing to acknowledge sadness was to refuse to acknowledge oneself, to harden one's heart and mind against good memories and the chance of happiness.
It took time for Cara to accept these things but she was adaptable and willing to learn. Anger was powerful but doubly so when she was angry over the mistreatment of those she'd come to care about. She'd chosen loyalty to the true Lord Rahl, Richard, and, in serving him she found that loyalty could be an expression of love. Even sadness had its place, and allowing herself to grieve over the loss of Leo let her carve a place in her heart where he would always reside and never be forgotten.
She would always be proud of being Mord'Sith, but she was also proud of her new found family. She may have lost her Sisters of the Agiel, but Cara had found a place amongst people who loved her, and she had to admit that she loved them all in return.
Rhymes 3 limericks and 2 haiku
There once was a wizard named Zedd
Some thought he was odd in the head
But his powerful magic
So very dramatic
Meant it went largely unsaid
Rahl was a terrible tyrant
He wanted the people compliant
But the Seeker arrived
With hope on his side
Filling Rahl's life with disquiet
Cara Mason wore leathers of red
Before her so many had fled
When Rahl went to the Keeper
Her Sisters they beat her
So she joined up with Richard instead
The Sword of Truth is
A weapon of great power
To be used wisely
White silk and dark hair
Swishes, swirls; her blades flash, eyes
Darken. Confession.
Four Times Four times Cara wondered why she stayed with these idiots and one time she knew why
"You went into the swamp, Lord Rahl?"
Richard beamed. "Yes, to rescue fluffy."
Cara quirked an eyebrow. "Fluffy?"
The muddy lamb in Richard's muddier arms bleated and urinated down Richard's shirt.
"Isn't he adorable? Yes, he is!"
Cara made no comment.
Cara watched Richard and Kahlan sitting by the fire, caressing and kissing each other. Foolish, that's what it was. If Richard became Confessed, all was lost. Richard liked to take unnecessary risks, though, she'd learnt that early on. Luckily for the two idiotic lovebirds, she had a plan. Should Richard be Confessed, she'd kill Kahlan, and use the breath of life to bring her back.
The baby sat, gurgling, swamped by the wizard's robes.
"Oh, dear," Richard said.
"You would think he had learnt his lesson about eating suspicious fruits," Cara said, arms akimbo. Clearly he had not.
They'd have to find a wizard to age Zedd back up. In the meantime, Cara was not going to be on baby sitting duty.
Kahlan had the decency to look sheepish as Cara freed her from her bonds.
"Thank you, Cara."
What would they do without her?
"A gift?" Cara unwrapped what turned out to be a hairbrush. She eyed Kahlan with distrust.
"Your hair is getting longer," Kahaln said. "I thought you might like...it's red. Like your leathers."
Cara mustered up a smile, blinking, because she'd got something in her eye. "Thank you." She stuffed it into her pack.
"Cara, supper is ready," Richard called. "Quick, before Zedd eats it all."
Cara went to join her friends.
Collaborative Fic Team members took turns to write a short paragraph and create a coherent story. My contributions are italicised.
It was winter in the Midlands, and the snow lay crisply across the land, like a white, comforting blanket, smothering the land beneath it. It would be much prettier, Cara thought cynically, if parts of her weren't in danger of freezing right off.
Richard and Kahlan were cuddling together for warmth. Zed's robes seemed to be keeping him relatively comfortable, but he had proven useless when it came to creating wizard's fire in the snow. Cara's Mord'Sith leathers were not designed for this weather, and she wished they had been able to find somewhere warm to spend the night.
"Tell me again," Cara started, rubbing her gloved hands together to maintain some warmth in her fingers. If there day was anything to go by she would have need of them, holding her agiels up in either an offensive manner or a defensive one. "Why we couldn't have taken the road south?"
"Because that way lies the Forboden Forest," Zed said in his usual dramatic tone. Cara rolled her eyes. She wasn't afraid of a forest, forbidding or forboden or otherwise, nor anything that might be found in one.
And besides, Cara thought to herself, at least the trees of a forest would do more to cut down this chilling wind than the spot they were in. To think that at one time she was elated to see what she thought was snow falling from the sky. "I would have taken my chances."
"None of us doubt your bravery," Kahlan assured Cara. "I'm sure if it weren't so dangerous even to the Seeker, a Mord'Sith, a Confessor, *and* a Wizard of the First Order, we'd have taken the road to the south." She shivered a little and Richard held her tighter. "It certainly couldn't be colder than this," Kahlan added, with what Cara thought was a hint of bitterness that belied her words of support for the choice to turn north.
Kahlan's bitterness, however, had nothing on the bitterness of the wind. It cut through Cara's leathers more sharply than even Kahlan's blade, leaving her skin icy back no matter how closely she kept to the fire. And unlike Kahlan, she didn't have anyone to keep her warm. Except Zedd, and it wasn't that cold. Not yet.
"You sure?" as if reading her thoughts, one of Zedd's bushy eyebrows quirked. "My robes are quite voluminous and warm." Cara's attempt at keeping the grimace off her face wasn't as effective as she'd hoped. The whole group erupted into laughter.
She hadn't even realised that she'd said anything, although - judging by the twinkle in Zedd's eye, perhaps she hadn't had to say anything. Perhaps she'd spent so long tramping across the Midlands with Richard's little group that Zedd simply knew her that well. The thought was not a comfortable one.
"The one thing truly amazing about crisp cold nights, though," Zedd's eyes looked skyward, watching the twinkling of the stars. "is that everything up there looks much clearer."
"If you say so, Zed, " Cara said. "I'd much rather have some warmth than all the clear skies in the world." However, in spite of herself Cara gazed up at the night sky that was full of stars. She had to admit that Zed was right. The clear sky did hold a special beauty that she seldom got the chance to see.
"My dear..." Zedd's eyes were warm. Warm and understanding. "The night is cold, but our little family can provide all the warmth you need." He looked away from her for a second, glancing over to where Kahlan and Richard were curled up together, content in spite of the weather. "Perhaps you should take advantage of it, hmm?" His eyes were back to sparkling again, damn it. Almost as bright as the stars above.
Zedd kept moving in closer and Cara was too cold to push him away. She didn't flinch when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and the warmth of him did nothing but draw her nearer. She brought her knees in, hugging them to her chest, and relaxes against his side. She could say all she wanted about the old wizard, but he did have this ability to make her feel the tiniest bit of safety. Her eyes closed and she drifted off to the gentle sounds of the crackling fire and the breathing of her companions.
The End!
Fanworks made for the penultimate Legendland battle.
GRAPHICS
Panorama icons ( 5 icons from one pic)
Icon Story Tell a story by making 3 icons using 1 pic
Header Image click for full size
Wallpaper click through for full size
FICTION
Previously mentioned, a gift fic featuring Cara/Leo, Picture Perfect
To Seek the Seeker (381 words) by meridian_rose
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Verna Sauventreen, Annalina Aldurren
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, POV Female Character, Female Characters, Religion
Summary: For the Legendland Challenge: write about a character from the Old World. Pre-canon, Verna prepares to go on her quest to find and protect the Seeker until he can be trained by the Sisters of the Light.
Horror Story Worse Things Than Confessors
The D'Haran soldier paused to take a drink from his water skin. He was the only survivor of his Quad, who'd had the misfortune to come up against a Confessor. The white-clad monstrosity had grabbed a soldier by his throat and he'd turned on his comrades in arms.
The soldier blinked angry tears away. After his fellow guards had been killed, it had fallen to him to murder the Confessed man. He had hated to plunge his sword into his friend's heart but it was necessary. Not just to save his own life, for the Confessed would show no mercy and would have killed him without hesitation. No, more than that, it was the only way to save the Confessed's soul, to set him free from the curse laid on him by the witch.
Confessors! Those despicable creatures were the worst thing in the entire Keeper damned world, looking so innocent and then enslaving with a single touch.
He'd had to choose whether to chase down the abomination, who'd fled while they were fighting, or return to the People's Palace to report his failure - and get reinforcements, the better to hunt down the Confessor.
He was exhausted from the fight, bleeding from a number of small wounds, and he'd decided that reporting a Confessor's presence so close to the Palace took precedence. He'd taken what he thought was a shortcut through a dense woodland, and it wasn't until now he'd lost sight of the narrow entranceway that he realised these woods were the ones said to be haunted.
He told himself the tales were just stories. He pressed on, reasoning he was halfway through the woods and might as well go forward as backward. Wicked thorned bushes and thick trunked trees with twisted branches laden with dark leaves lined his path, making it dark as midnight.
He froze when he thought he saw a glimpse of white cloth, drawing his sword to attack the Confessor. Trembling he took a step forward. There was a noise at his side and he spun. A tall woman gazed at him, her green eyes cool, her blonde braid reaching to the waist of her red leather outfit. A Mord'Sith! He was saved.
"You're a long way from home," she said.
He nodded, sheathing his sword. "I must report to Lord Rahl," he said.
"Come."
He followed her along the winding path but the way became even darker and narrower. "I do not question you, Mistress, but are you certain this is the way out?"
"Out?" she asked, turning to face him, and her eyes glowed like the Underworld and her teeth were now fangs that dripped a sticky fluid. "Oh, no. This isn't the way out at all."
The shapeshifter who haunted the woods pounced.
There were worse things in the world than Confessors after all.
Resolutions Traditional, PG-13
"Resolutions?" Cara asked, wrinkling her nose. "Like vows?"
Kahlan hesitated, smoothing her white dress over her knees. "Not exactly like vows. They're sort of promises that you make, but not to anyone but yourself."
"Vows you make to yourself?" Cara frowned. "Who punishes you if you break them?"
"No one!"
Richard chuckled, poking at the campfire with a stick. "Everyone breaks them," he said, "or at least we did back home."
"Then what," Cara asked, exasperated, "is the point?"
Zedd, who'd been lying, eyes closed, against a tree log, cleared his throat. "The point is to think of something you wish to change about yourself and work towards it. Not out of fear of punishment, but because you genuinely wish to better yourself." He sat up, blinking. "If you break your resolution so easily it is because you chose the wrong one. Something you don't truly desire, or something that is too difficult to accomplish all at once. You ought to be reasonable and kind to yourself when choosing a resolution."
Cara considered this a moment. "Perhaps an example would help."
Zedd sighed. "It would be a foolish resolution for me to give up persimmons because I love eating them. And it would be a rather large task to never use any magic not strictly necessary. But I could make a resolution to be more considerate – and to ensure it is a measurable goal, I could resolve to do this by never taking seconds until everyone else at a meal has had their fill."
"That's very noble," Richard said, surprised.
"It was just an example," Zedd countered hastily.
"I resolve to be more open with my feelings," Kahlan said. "If I want to hug someone and they'll let me, I'm going to do it. If I want to say I love someone, I will. If I feel angry, I will speak about it." Her features softened. "I love you all, and I want you to know that."
Richard leaned over to kiss her. Cara tried not to roll her eyes. She understood that Confessors were raised, as Mord'Sith were, with a emphasis on self-control. Still, if Kahlan were any more open with her feelings they would all drown in her affection.
Perhaps that was it. Cara made a silent resolution to try and roll her eyes less, at least outwardly. Just one a day. And if she failed, well, Richard, her Lord Rahl, said it was not only acceptable, but traditional to do so.
Love prompt Found Family, PG-13
Cara had been trained that anger, loyalty, and pride were feelings that made her a powerful weapon. Sadness, remorse, love; those were feelings to be avoided, emotions that would make her weak.
There was logic in these teachings, and yet when she had chosen to follow Richard Rahl instead of her former master Darken Rahl, and joined his merry band, she had been thrust into a new world where no-one believed as she did.
Instead, Richard saw love as a force for good, one that made him powerful and willing to make any sacrifice in its name. Kahlan insisted that remorse was necessary to atone for wrongdoing, and it was the remorse she saw in Cara's eyes during her trial that had led her to spare Cara's life. Zedd thought grief was a natural part of life, and that refusing to acknowledge sadness was to refuse to acknowledge oneself, to harden one's heart and mind against good memories and the chance of happiness.
It took time for Cara to accept these things but she was adaptable and willing to learn. Anger was powerful but doubly so when she was angry over the mistreatment of those she'd come to care about. She'd chosen loyalty to the true Lord Rahl, Richard, and, in serving him she found that loyalty could be an expression of love. Even sadness had its place, and allowing herself to grieve over the loss of Leo let her carve a place in her heart where he would always reside and never be forgotten.
She would always be proud of being Mord'Sith, but she was also proud of her new found family. She may have lost her Sisters of the Agiel, but Cara had found a place amongst people who loved her, and she had to admit that she loved them all in return.
Rhymes 3 limericks and 2 haiku
There once was a wizard named Zedd
Some thought he was odd in the head
But his powerful magic
So very dramatic
Meant it went largely unsaid
Rahl was a terrible tyrant
He wanted the people compliant
But the Seeker arrived
With hope on his side
Filling Rahl's life with disquiet
Cara Mason wore leathers of red
Before her so many had fled
When Rahl went to the Keeper
Her Sisters they beat her
So she joined up with Richard instead
The Sword of Truth is
A weapon of great power
To be used wisely
White silk and dark hair
Swishes, swirls; her blades flash, eyes
Darken. Confession.
Four Times Four times Cara wondered why she stayed with these idiots and one time she knew why
"You went into the swamp, Lord Rahl?"
Richard beamed. "Yes, to rescue fluffy."
Cara quirked an eyebrow. "Fluffy?"
The muddy lamb in Richard's muddier arms bleated and urinated down Richard's shirt.
"Isn't he adorable? Yes, he is!"
Cara made no comment.
Cara watched Richard and Kahlan sitting by the fire, caressing and kissing each other. Foolish, that's what it was. If Richard became Confessed, all was lost. Richard liked to take unnecessary risks, though, she'd learnt that early on. Luckily for the two idiotic lovebirds, she had a plan. Should Richard be Confessed, she'd kill Kahlan, and use the breath of life to bring her back.
The baby sat, gurgling, swamped by the wizard's robes.
"Oh, dear," Richard said.
"You would think he had learnt his lesson about eating suspicious fruits," Cara said, arms akimbo. Clearly he had not.
They'd have to find a wizard to age Zedd back up. In the meantime, Cara was not going to be on baby sitting duty.
Kahlan had the decency to look sheepish as Cara freed her from her bonds.
"Thank you, Cara."
What would they do without her?
"A gift?" Cara unwrapped what turned out to be a hairbrush. She eyed Kahlan with distrust.
"Your hair is getting longer," Kahaln said. "I thought you might like...it's red. Like your leathers."
Cara mustered up a smile, blinking, because she'd got something in her eye. "Thank you." She stuffed it into her pack.
"Cara, supper is ready," Richard called. "Quick, before Zedd eats it all."
Cara went to join her friends.
Collaborative Fic Team members took turns to write a short paragraph and create a coherent story. My contributions are italicised.
It was winter in the Midlands, and the snow lay crisply across the land, like a white, comforting blanket, smothering the land beneath it. It would be much prettier, Cara thought cynically, if parts of her weren't in danger of freezing right off.
Richard and Kahlan were cuddling together for warmth. Zed's robes seemed to be keeping him relatively comfortable, but he had proven useless when it came to creating wizard's fire in the snow. Cara's Mord'Sith leathers were not designed for this weather, and she wished they had been able to find somewhere warm to spend the night.
"Tell me again," Cara started, rubbing her gloved hands together to maintain some warmth in her fingers. If there day was anything to go by she would have need of them, holding her agiels up in either an offensive manner or a defensive one. "Why we couldn't have taken the road south?"
"Because that way lies the Forboden Forest," Zed said in his usual dramatic tone. Cara rolled her eyes. She wasn't afraid of a forest, forbidding or forboden or otherwise, nor anything that might be found in one.
And besides, Cara thought to herself, at least the trees of a forest would do more to cut down this chilling wind than the spot they were in. To think that at one time she was elated to see what she thought was snow falling from the sky. "I would have taken my chances."
"None of us doubt your bravery," Kahlan assured Cara. "I'm sure if it weren't so dangerous even to the Seeker, a Mord'Sith, a Confessor, *and* a Wizard of the First Order, we'd have taken the road to the south." She shivered a little and Richard held her tighter. "It certainly couldn't be colder than this," Kahlan added, with what Cara thought was a hint of bitterness that belied her words of support for the choice to turn north.
Kahlan's bitterness, however, had nothing on the bitterness of the wind. It cut through Cara's leathers more sharply than even Kahlan's blade, leaving her skin icy back no matter how closely she kept to the fire. And unlike Kahlan, she didn't have anyone to keep her warm. Except Zedd, and it wasn't that cold. Not yet.
"You sure?" as if reading her thoughts, one of Zedd's bushy eyebrows quirked. "My robes are quite voluminous and warm." Cara's attempt at keeping the grimace off her face wasn't as effective as she'd hoped. The whole group erupted into laughter.
She hadn't even realised that she'd said anything, although - judging by the twinkle in Zedd's eye, perhaps she hadn't had to say anything. Perhaps she'd spent so long tramping across the Midlands with Richard's little group that Zedd simply knew her that well. The thought was not a comfortable one.
"The one thing truly amazing about crisp cold nights, though," Zedd's eyes looked skyward, watching the twinkling of the stars. "is that everything up there looks much clearer."
"If you say so, Zed, " Cara said. "I'd much rather have some warmth than all the clear skies in the world." However, in spite of herself Cara gazed up at the night sky that was full of stars. She had to admit that Zed was right. The clear sky did hold a special beauty that she seldom got the chance to see.
"My dear..." Zedd's eyes were warm. Warm and understanding. "The night is cold, but our little family can provide all the warmth you need." He looked away from her for a second, glancing over to where Kahlan and Richard were curled up together, content in spite of the weather. "Perhaps you should take advantage of it, hmm?" His eyes were back to sparkling again, damn it. Almost as bright as the stars above.
Zedd kept moving in closer and Cara was too cold to push him away. She didn't flinch when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and the warmth of him did nothing but draw her nearer. She brought her knees in, hugging them to her chest, and relaxes against his side. She could say all she wanted about the old wizard, but he did have this ability to make her feel the tiniest bit of safety. Her eyes closed and she drifted off to the gentle sounds of the crackling fire and the breathing of her companions.
The End!
no subject
Date: 2015-03-11 08:13 pm (UTC)My favorite fic is the Worse Things Than Confessors horror story - that poor D'Haran soldier! It's very eerie and evocatively told.
I also like the panorama icons, although I think their effect is most impressive when seen together. It's hard to make every piece of an image equally fascinating!
no subject
Date: 2015-03-14 10:17 am (UTC)