Topic: Devoid

Lucky Duck

Date: 2011-11-15 00:06 EST
They knew something had happened.

For a week, he had been laughing and smiling and looking as if a great burden had been lifted off his shoulders...the cloud that clung to him had dissipated.

But when they arrived at the shipyard the next morning to the sounds of wood being worked and found the canoe still wrapped and set up on wooden horses, they knew something happened.

Lucky's smile was again...gone.


This thread is related to The Space Inbetween

Lucky Duck

Date: 2011-12-02 03:54 EST
"Now we can go. Sadly I think the fairy tale ends tonight. So thank you Bear."
"I thought fairy tales ended with 'happily ever after'?"
"Not in real life..."

And that was that. What had started with a kiss, ended with a kiss. And the fairy tale was now over.

Gwyr turned the team onto the road that headed north and out of the town and Lucien sat slumped against the seat, pulling his tie off. They had driven Kate home in the carriage after the Masquerade and were heading home themselves. Lucky didn't say much to Kate as Gwyr drove them to her castle. He sat beside her and watched her against the moonlit landscape that they rode past.

When the carriage pulled up to the pink castle, there was a twinge that tugged at the barrister and it made him pause. Disappointment...that was what tugged at him. Disappointment that they had reached their destination too soon...and the stark realization that the evening was coming too quickly to its end.

It pulled at him again as he watched the doors of the castle close as Kate disappeared through them.

The fairy tale was over.

Lucky Duck

Date: 2011-12-04 23:19 EST
He had buried himself in his work, as had been wont at times such at these. The energy to sort through the muddy thoughts and unsettled emotions was poured into his work. As messy as most of the legal matters that came across his desk, especially in the legal quagmire and farce that was the Rhydin legal minefield, it was by far an easier thing to navigate than his own feelings.

Gwyr knew Lucky?s retreat was different than the evening they had dropped Kate off and retreated to the Outpost. He didn?t need the shipyard foreman to confide his concerns and observations. The barrister?s faithful and astute manservant saw what others might not have noticed for the stark contrast that it was.

There had been a restlessness that continued to tug at the man. And the harder Lucky had tried to quiet it, the harder it rattled against him. So it had come as no surprise to Gwyr when Lucien returned to Rhydin after only couple days. Nevertheless, even during his time at the Outpost, even after they had agreed the fairy tale was over, even with the relentless tugging, Lucien had not lost the lightness in his expression nor the easy set of his shoulders.

No, this time, it was different. This time, when Lucien returned from the castle with the canoe and retreated into his office to bury himself in his work, he moved with a heavy and sober air.

Lucky Duck

Date: 2011-12-09 00:16 EST
No one wanted to enter the barrister?s office at the shipyard. When he had come in that morning, it seemed as if he brought the angry thunderstorm that battered the dock and pier into the shipyard with him. He was as brooding as the dark weather that lashed the city and coast, and everyone was more than happy to give the steersman and barrister as wide a berth as possible. They silently hoped that the weather would hold up and draw him out of his office and the shipyard, and the man would set off to challenge the roiling seas that beckoned to him and called to his temper.

So when the page arrived with a letter from Kate, the news was greeted with a mix of relief and dread. The shipyard stilled as the young man disappeared behind through the office door as if the structure itself seemed to hold its breath. The crews watched through the office windows that opened out to the shipyard floor. They saw the expression on Lucky?s face change...from staid stoicism to puzzled reticence to restrained alarm in a matter of seconds.

A few moments later, the barrister left the shipyard in a flurry of activity with a litany of directions to the foreman.

Outside the storm had passed over the shipyard. Inside, a quiet unease remained.


the thread continues here: The Space Inbetween