Poem: "The Three Hands of Fate"

This is the second freebie of today's session courtesy of new prompters Martha Rochat, Ross Edwin Rochat, and Andrea Rochat.  It was inspired by prompts from janetmiles, ng_moonmoth, ellenmillion, rix_scaedu, the_vulture, and DW user Librarygeek.  It also fills the "action / adventure" square in my 7-30-14 card for the Genprompt Bingo fest.  This poem borrows the World Tree setting by bard_bloom.

It is said that Fate has three enchanted hands:
the kind hand, the cruel hand, and the uncaring hand.

Wildwing had been touched by the fair hand:
she was handsome and strong, just as
Herethroy females were meant to be,
her chitin a deep green touched with blue.

When she reached the age of adulthood,
she traded her labor for a three-handed sword
and lessons from a retired knight,
then left her humble village and set off
for the edge of the branch
to seek for fame and fortune.

With her enormous sword, she slew
many monsters -- much to the displeasure
of Accanax, God of Destruction, and so Wildwing
never had much luck with Destroc magic.

Word reached her that the city of Tornpetal
was suffering from the attacks of a nendrai --
just about an even match for an entire city of Primes --
and calling for all available heroes to help,
with prizes ranging from knighthood and fine estates
on up to the hand of the prince in marriage
for those managing to land blows on the assailant.

Excited by the opportunity to reap such rewards
and perhaps win a place in the court of a big city,
Wildwing headed for Tornpetal at top speed.

It was raining molten lead when she got there,
and the peasants were scouring the countryside
for all the free metal falling from the sky.
Quite a lot of them had already been
killed by the deadly treasure.
The tactic was devastatingly effective.

The nendrai itself was busy
tearing the roof off the palace
and turning the shingles into gingerbread.

Several dozen knights swarmed around the enemy,
with the huge ursine Gormoror and a felinoid Sleeth
in the front line, followed by chitinous Herethroy
and a very formidable phalanx of wolfish Cani.

Behind them, a Zi Ri wizard hung back
and screamed healing spells.

Wildwing joined the fray with great enthusiasm,
and was grateful for the little dragon's help
because in the space of ten minutes she was
stabbed thrice with various weapons,
drowned twice with a memory of rainsong,
then cut in half and resurrected once.

Just as she was staggering to her feet,
someone blasted the nendrai through a building
to land beside Wildwing, whereupon
she swung her three-handed sword
into the monster's ribcage.

The nendrai turned her fine weapon
into three notes of music,
then fell over dead.

It took a week of recuperation
and a lot more benevolent spells
before Wildwing was ready
to collect her winnings.

At first Wildwing thought that Aubergine
had also been touched by the kind hand of fate,
for he was delicate and beautiful the way
Herethroy males were meant to be,
his chitin a green so pale it was almost pearl
and his digits slim enough for the finest embroidery.

They danced in the Herethroy wing of the palace
and made pleasant smalltalk while Aubergine's parents
began negotiations to find them a co-lover.

Wildwing could not help noticing, however,
that Aubergine looked miserable,
so perhaps he can been touched
by the uncaring hand of fate after all.

She was further disgruntled to discover
that his parents expected her to retire
and become a diplomat instead of
the position of guardian-knight she sought,
not to be let out of the palace
until the succession had been secured.

It was enough to make her long for
the freedom and danger of the Verticals.

Aubergine moped and slunk around the palace
until Wildwing finally cornered him
and asked what the trouble was.
She felt pretty sure that he already
had a co-lover in mind, and perhaps
something could be worked out between them.

mumblemumble

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that,"
Wildwing said.

"Zbthfml," Aubergine said, barely louder.

"Would you please speak up?"
Wildwing asked again.

"Zie is a both-female!" Aubergine yelled.
"The co-lover I'm involved with is really
a both-female who favors that role.
Are you rotting-well satisfied now?!"

"Oh, thank the seven and twelve gods
that's all it is," Wildwing said. "I thought
you were going to confess to being traff
or a shifter hybrid or -- or even a mind-mage."

Aubergine gave a sharp buzz of disapproval,
wings scraping his leg combs.  "That's disgusting."

"Well, some people think both-females
are disgusting," Wildwing pointed out.

"Some people are stupid," Aubergine said.

"Since you've been having an affair,
I'm going to guess you know of
a secret way out of the palace,"
Wildwing said, flirting her antennae.

"I might possibly have spent
a great deal of time studying
Kennoc magic," Aubergine said.
"Nobody will know what we're doing."

"Cast away," Wildwing invited
with a wave of her right hands.

"I'm three cley short of what I'd need,"
Aubergine said.  "We'll have to wait
until after dawn tomorrow."

"Nonsense," Wildwing said,
and transferred the necessary energy
with a thorough kiss.  It was a lewd thing
to be doing, but they were after all engaged.

So Aubergine cast the spell and then
led the way through the city
to the elevated dock where the skyships
came to anchor themselves.

Aubergine's sweetheart Hardship
turned out to be a shipwright working on
a particularly exquisite cloudclipper.

Despite having been struck by the cruel hand of fate,
Hardship was as elegant and attractive
as a normal co-lover, if a bit burlier than average.
Zir chitin glimmered blue-violet in the sun,
touched with rose along the ridges, and
Wildwing thought she could grow fond of that.

The skyship, oh, now that was a thing of beauty.
One wanted competence in one's mates,
and Hardship clearly had that.

"It's a pity that the nendrai destroyed my sword,"
Wildwing said sadly.  "Otherwise we could just elope."

"I'm sorry to hear about your sword,
but you're quite the dashing hero," Hardship said
with a coy flutter of zir pink-tipped antennae.
"I myself am a dashing coward.  I waited
until the crazy rain stopped before picking up
whatever I could -- there's lead and glass
and even a piece of world-amber."

"We could trade for a sword," said Aubergine.
"I'm quite good at negotiations."

"We have no way out of the city," Hardship said,
pointing to the cloudclipper.  "The masts are up,
but I haven't finished the sails or the rigging."

"You know," Wildwing said slowly, "the next branch
directly below this one is weeks away.  We could
buy some provisions, then just shove off
and finish the sails on the way down."

"We could, if we weren't more than five miles
away from the Verticals," said Hardship.
"We'd need the sails to steer there."

Aubergine sighed.  "By the time the sails are done,
my parents will have married us off to someone else."

"I'm adept at Locador myself," Wildwing said.
"With enough cley, I think I could get us to the edge
of the branch, or at least a lot closer to it."

"That's a bit vulgar," said Hardship.
"I may be a both-female but I have standards."

"We've already done it," Aubergine whispered.
"Actually it feels very nice.  You should think about it."

"I realize that we barely know each other,
but would you like to elope with us, get married,
and travel the world as an adventuring party?"
Wildwing offered.  "You could be the captain
of your own skyship instead of just making them."

"I would like that very much," Hardship said.

So Wildwing and Aubergine hurried
to buy provisions for the journey
while Hardship made the cloudclipper
as ready as it was going to get.

Somewhat reluctantly, Hardship
screwed up zir courage to kiss Wildwing
and transfer the cley needed for the spell.

With a whoosh and a whump
they were on their way, the city
no more than a dot behind them as
they hurtled over the edge of the world.

"I'm a bit amazed that you're willing to marry
someone with luck as bad as mine," Hardship said.

"We're all adventurers now," Wildwing said.
"We make our own luck."

* * *

Notes:

In World Tree, people live on the branches of a vast tree.  They're around 25-50 miles wide, hundreds of miles long, and the edges or Verticals are full of monsters.  They need a lot of heroes; most villages have one, or more if they can afford it, to deal with wandering monsters.  Traveling heroes can easily make a fortune, or get themselves killed.  World-amber is a precious part of the World Tree itself.

It's a very high-magic setting, everyone does magic as a matter of course, but advanced magic requires more practice and knowledge.  There are seven Verb Gods and twelve Noun Gods.  Destroc (destruction) and Kennoc (knowledge) are Verbs.  Durudor (metal, glass) and Tempador are Nouns.  Aubergine probably used something like Destroc Kennoc Tempador (destroy knowing of time) to hide their escape for a while.

The Herethroy are insectoid people with six limbs, and their knights often use a three-handed sword.  They have three standard sexes: female, male, and co-lover.  A normal Herethroy marriage consists of one each.  The extra "both-female" can function as either female or co-lover, and is generally looked down upon.

A nendrai is an extremely dangerous dragonish monster with an unlimited ability to transform anything into anything else with a flick of its long, whippy tail.  Yes, it really takes about a city's worth of people in a very high-magic setting to kill one, because they can transform location to flee.

The eight Prime races include Herethroy, Cani, Gormoror, Sleeth, and Zi Ri.  In this setting, "monster" doesn't mean "a dangerous beast."  It means "not a Prime," biologically and spiritually.  If you thought our race issues are bad, consider that the gods did this stuff on purpose.  Zie/zir are pronouns that do not specify gender, used routinely by the hermaphroditic Zi Ri and occasionally by others; some Herethroy both-females may use zie/zir like Hardship while others may prefer she/her/hers.

Any kind of metal is very scarce on World Tree, and must be created from scratch with the difficult magic of Durudor, hence quite valuable.

Traff is short for "transaffectionate," referring to love outside one's own race but with another Prime.  It occupies much the same position as homosexuality here, ranging from a libertine whim to frowned upon to punishable by death.  Nobody cares what sex a same-species partner is, except that Herethroy have a prejudice against both-females.

A shifter hybrid is a magic-bred child of two different Prime races, switching back and forth on the hour, a miserable life doomed to early death from magical complications.

Mind-magic is unpopular in most parts of World Tree because it can do devastating things to people (and some good things).  Again, it ranges from being vulgar to a capital crime.

Cley are units of magical power used to cast spells.  They can be passed from one person to another with a kiss, but people almost never do it because in most parts of World Tree it's considered indecent.  Our heroes are somewhat open-minded, and really want to get the hell out of town.

Skyships resemble sailing ships but travel through the air between branches, which are quite far apart.  It's exciting but dangerous; there are of course airborne monsters too.

If you like Herethroy romance, by the way, I highly recommend the novel A Marriage of Insects.