posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mina_de_malfois at 09:05pm on 22/07/2006 under fanfiction
mina_de_malfois at 09:05pm on 22/07/2006 under fanfiction[Warr1or’s most recent update is available for public viewing here, should you know anyone whom you think would enjoy it.]
Permissions: All rights reserved. All other reproduction, transmission, or storage, in any format, is prohibited unless the author is contacted beforehand and grants specific written permission. The author may be contacted at mina_de_malfois@yahoo.com.
Title: The Dreams of Angels
Chapter: One
Author: Warr1or
Pairing: PrincessB/Jab. Sammich forever!
Dedication: For all my fellow sammiches: may the purity of PB/J illuminate your own lives as it has my own.
On his first night in the de St. Aubyn castle, Jab was woken by a noise so faint a less cautious man would have dismissed it as part of his dreams. He lay for a moment on the floor of his room (featherbeds were a pleasure he didn’t often choose to indulge in while maintaining his training), listening. There it was again, on the balcony. Jab rose silently, letting the white sheet slip from his taut belly, and walked out into the moonlight.
The creature standing there was like a man, but for the huge leathery wings that unfurled to beat the air when it took flight. It hung there, grotesquely, for a moment, looking hungrily at Jab’s naked form. Jab gazed back, upright and unafraid. Then the vampire for some reason made an admiring bow, laughed lightly, and flew away.
‘This castle is under siege,’ Jab informed Pierce the next morning while they broke bread together. He described what he had witnessed in the night.
‘I’ll set a watch tonight, and slay any of the creatures that dare approach here,’ Pierce swore, half rising from the table in his anger. Jab reached out, and laid a calming hand on Pierce’s arm, wordlessly pulling him back down on the bench they shared.
‘I admire your bravery, my dear friend,’ Jab said, ‘and the anger that heats your blood is a righteous anger. But we must prepare. This could be a long, hard battle, and it will take more than valor and physical strength to win it. You must prepare for all eventualities. If we were killed, my prince, the princess and your father, and all your household servants and retainers, would be defenseless. We need to proceed slowly. These people rely on you. We can stockpile food and water so that, however long we are occupied elsewhere, we at least know the castle can shut itself up safely. We can begin to train men at arms, but secretly. And we can get word to the households of this island to store food and water, and supplies, and to keep their locks and shutters in good repair. Before we can fight darkness, Pierce, we must look to our own standards and correct our own weaknesses.’
Pierce sat beside his friend, and hugged him manfully for a long moment, too overcome with emotion to speak. At last he released his tight hold and sat back. ‘It shall be as you have outlined,’ he promised. ‘My dear Jab, you’re right: we are under siege. The bloodsuckers aren’t content with their stranglehold of the mainland. They envy what we possess, here on this island, and they hunger for us. I think our very lack of corruption tempts them somehow, and it enrages them that we set ourselves apart and hold to a higher, more pure ideal. We must make plans to protect ourselves, before we engage with them.’
He broke off quickly when PrincessB entered the room, not wishing to frighten her, but her gentle gaze saw the worry in his face. ‘Cousin, what troubles you?’ she asked, reaching for the blue stoneware jug full of fresh, still-warm milk. She poured a mug for Jab, and then one for Pierce, before filling her own.
‘Nothing you should trouble yourself with,’ Pierce said, but Jab shook his head.
‘The child should know, Pierce,’ he said, his voice low and somehow reassuring. ‘How can we trust her not to stray from the castle’s safety, unless we give her some good reason? Princess Beta,’ he went on, turning to her. She blushed, unused to being addressed by men, especially commoners, but he could tell from her expression that she was listening intently to his words. ‘The creatures of the de Gravina clan, who infest your father’s former stronghold on the mainland, hover around this castle at night.’
‘You must be very careful,’ he warned her. ‘We all must take precautions. Do not go outside after dark. No one should sleep alone. Even by daylight you should not go outside unaccompanied. We don’t know what their precise intention is, but it cannot be good. They are evil beings. They know hungers you cannot begin to understand; they are in the grip of appetites such as you have never even imagined.” He fell silent abruptly, sweat beading his handsome face. His strong arms, which looked to her frightened eyes near as thick as Beta’s own waist, trembled slightly.
He must, she thought, be shaken by his loathing and disgust for the fiends that flocked through the night air. She, too, had seen them. They flew past her windows; she had crept from her bed to watch them, curiously. They looked, she had decided, like her cousin Pierce, but their skin was even more pale, and of course the creatures were winged.
‘I wish I could make you forget all about them,’ she said impulsively, moved by a sudden sympathy for this rough-clad stranger who valiantly struggled to conceal how badly the vampires disturbed him. She blushed then, confused and embarrassed to have spoken, and even Pierce looked taken aback by her boldness. Jab, however, merely smiled.
‘Your cousin will help me,’ he assured her, and gave Pierce an affectionate glance. ‘Not help me to forget them, but help me to resist them—and, if our hearts are pure, to defeat them, and rise above them to our own triumphant victory.’
PrincessB, though frightened by the memory of how the vampires outside her window had looked, felt reassured to be in the presence of men possessed by such simple, yet noble, virtues. It was as she had always thought: simplicity was united with true worth. With Jab and her cousin Pierce in the castle, surely no harm could befall them. ‘I shall pray for you,’ she said, her still-childish voice solemn.
‘To whom do you pray, little cousin?’ Pierce asked her playfully, and she tossed her hair.
‘To the angels, of course,’ she told him. 'If we are in danger from winged demons, then surely the angels will come to help us.’
‘We must help ourselves,’ Jab said, seeming to answer her, but looking meaningfully at Pierce as he spoke.
Pierce laid one hand on Jab’s rock hard thigh. ‘I’m willing to do all that I can,’ the prince promised. ‘Honorable men may still achieve memorable deeds, Jab, even in these troubled times. We shall protect the Princess, and those who live on this island, at all costs.’
‘Are you sure these creatures are a danger to me?’ PrincessB asked, as she buttered a slice of toast. ‘They’re only ever here when you’re home, Pierce. I don’t think they mean me any harm at all, even if they are evil.’
For a moment the prince did not respond, ignoring her prattling voice, but then he realized what she’d said. Tearing his gaze from Jab’s, he turned to her. ‘What do you mean, they’re only here when I’m home?’ he demanded.
She shrugged. ‘Just that. When you were last here, the servants whispered that they saw the vampires at night. The whole time you were away, no one reported any sign of them.’
Jab looked concerned. ‘Perhaps, my prince,’ he said to Pierce, ‘it is not your young cousin who is in the gravest danger, after all.’
Permissions: All rights reserved. All other reproduction, transmission, or storage, in any format, is prohibited unless the author is contacted beforehand and grants specific written permission. The author may be contacted at mina_de_malfois@yahoo.com.
Title: The Dreams of Angels
Chapter: One
Author: Warr1or
Pairing: PrincessB/Jab. Sammich forever!
Dedication: For all my fellow sammiches: may the purity of PB/J illuminate your own lives as it has my own.
On his first night in the de St. Aubyn castle, Jab was woken by a noise so faint a less cautious man would have dismissed it as part of his dreams. He lay for a moment on the floor of his room (featherbeds were a pleasure he didn’t often choose to indulge in while maintaining his training), listening. There it was again, on the balcony. Jab rose silently, letting the white sheet slip from his taut belly, and walked out into the moonlight.
The creature standing there was like a man, but for the huge leathery wings that unfurled to beat the air when it took flight. It hung there, grotesquely, for a moment, looking hungrily at Jab’s naked form. Jab gazed back, upright and unafraid. Then the vampire for some reason made an admiring bow, laughed lightly, and flew away.
‘This castle is under siege,’ Jab informed Pierce the next morning while they broke bread together. He described what he had witnessed in the night.
‘I’ll set a watch tonight, and slay any of the creatures that dare approach here,’ Pierce swore, half rising from the table in his anger. Jab reached out, and laid a calming hand on Pierce’s arm, wordlessly pulling him back down on the bench they shared.
‘I admire your bravery, my dear friend,’ Jab said, ‘and the anger that heats your blood is a righteous anger. But we must prepare. This could be a long, hard battle, and it will take more than valor and physical strength to win it. You must prepare for all eventualities. If we were killed, my prince, the princess and your father, and all your household servants and retainers, would be defenseless. We need to proceed slowly. These people rely on you. We can stockpile food and water so that, however long we are occupied elsewhere, we at least know the castle can shut itself up safely. We can begin to train men at arms, but secretly. And we can get word to the households of this island to store food and water, and supplies, and to keep their locks and shutters in good repair. Before we can fight darkness, Pierce, we must look to our own standards and correct our own weaknesses.’
Pierce sat beside his friend, and hugged him manfully for a long moment, too overcome with emotion to speak. At last he released his tight hold and sat back. ‘It shall be as you have outlined,’ he promised. ‘My dear Jab, you’re right: we are under siege. The bloodsuckers aren’t content with their stranglehold of the mainland. They envy what we possess, here on this island, and they hunger for us. I think our very lack of corruption tempts them somehow, and it enrages them that we set ourselves apart and hold to a higher, more pure ideal. We must make plans to protect ourselves, before we engage with them.’
He broke off quickly when PrincessB entered the room, not wishing to frighten her, but her gentle gaze saw the worry in his face. ‘Cousin, what troubles you?’ she asked, reaching for the blue stoneware jug full of fresh, still-warm milk. She poured a mug for Jab, and then one for Pierce, before filling her own.
‘Nothing you should trouble yourself with,’ Pierce said, but Jab shook his head.
‘The child should know, Pierce,’ he said, his voice low and somehow reassuring. ‘How can we trust her not to stray from the castle’s safety, unless we give her some good reason? Princess Beta,’ he went on, turning to her. She blushed, unused to being addressed by men, especially commoners, but he could tell from her expression that she was listening intently to his words. ‘The creatures of the de Gravina clan, who infest your father’s former stronghold on the mainland, hover around this castle at night.’
‘You must be very careful,’ he warned her. ‘We all must take precautions. Do not go outside after dark. No one should sleep alone. Even by daylight you should not go outside unaccompanied. We don’t know what their precise intention is, but it cannot be good. They are evil beings. They know hungers you cannot begin to understand; they are in the grip of appetites such as you have never even imagined.” He fell silent abruptly, sweat beading his handsome face. His strong arms, which looked to her frightened eyes near as thick as Beta’s own waist, trembled slightly.
He must, she thought, be shaken by his loathing and disgust for the fiends that flocked through the night air. She, too, had seen them. They flew past her windows; she had crept from her bed to watch them, curiously. They looked, she had decided, like her cousin Pierce, but their skin was even more pale, and of course the creatures were winged.
‘I wish I could make you forget all about them,’ she said impulsively, moved by a sudden sympathy for this rough-clad stranger who valiantly struggled to conceal how badly the vampires disturbed him. She blushed then, confused and embarrassed to have spoken, and even Pierce looked taken aback by her boldness. Jab, however, merely smiled.
‘Your cousin will help me,’ he assured her, and gave Pierce an affectionate glance. ‘Not help me to forget them, but help me to resist them—and, if our hearts are pure, to defeat them, and rise above them to our own triumphant victory.’
PrincessB, though frightened by the memory of how the vampires outside her window had looked, felt reassured to be in the presence of men possessed by such simple, yet noble, virtues. It was as she had always thought: simplicity was united with true worth. With Jab and her cousin Pierce in the castle, surely no harm could befall them. ‘I shall pray for you,’ she said, her still-childish voice solemn.
‘To whom do you pray, little cousin?’ Pierce asked her playfully, and she tossed her hair.
‘To the angels, of course,’ she told him. 'If we are in danger from winged demons, then surely the angels will come to help us.’
‘We must help ourselves,’ Jab said, seeming to answer her, but looking meaningfully at Pierce as he spoke.
Pierce laid one hand on Jab’s rock hard thigh. ‘I’m willing to do all that I can,’ the prince promised. ‘Honorable men may still achieve memorable deeds, Jab, even in these troubled times. We shall protect the Princess, and those who live on this island, at all costs.’
‘Are you sure these creatures are a danger to me?’ PrincessB asked, as she buttered a slice of toast. ‘They’re only ever here when you’re home, Pierce. I don’t think they mean me any harm at all, even if they are evil.’
For a moment the prince did not respond, ignoring her prattling voice, but then he realized what she’d said. Tearing his gaze from Jab’s, he turned to her. ‘What do you mean, they’re only here when I’m home?’ he demanded.
She shrugged. ‘Just that. When you were last here, the servants whispered that they saw the vampires at night. The whole time you were away, no one reported any sign of them.’
Jab looked concerned. ‘Perhaps, my prince,’ he said to Pierce, ‘it is not your young cousin who is in the gravest danger, after all.’