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fandomweekly2024-05-10 07:00 pm
ladygriddlebone) wrote in fandomweekly2024-05-10 07:00 pm
Entry tags:
[#220] Desert Heat (Sword-Dancer Saga)
Theme Prompt: #220 - Overheated
Title: Desert Heat
Fandom: Sword-Dancer Saga
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: No
Word Count: 275
Summary: Del dreams of the Punja.
The heat comes back to Del in dreams sometimes. That first, near-disastrous trek across the Punja is far behind her now, but still the heat lingers.
She remembers that heat, unlike any she had ever known before, the sheer power of it leeching every bit of moisture from her body. She remembers the thirst that could not be slaked. The pain of her skin burning as the blazing sun punished her all over again. And again, and again, and again, as she stumbled her way across a crystal desert, to the very edge of sanity—
She remembers, too, being pulled back from that brink so that she might continue her quest. Tiger. Her guide, her protector, and, later, so much more. As she rouses from her dream, she begins to remember all that has followed that journey, all the time that has passed to bring her to the place where she is now. Home and safe, in the house she shares with the family she has made. Their own little corner of the South. A respite from a world filled to the brim with cruelty.
The night is cool and peaceful around her, yet the memory of that deadly heat remains. She could have died. Should have died. Would have died, but for sheer determination and a great deal of luck. It had been a close thing. Very close.
One last time, the memory shudders through her like a shiver, but not from cold. Never from cold.
Even now, far distant both in miles and in years, the Punja’s heat is a part of her. And she knows she will never truly feel cold again.
Title: Desert Heat
Fandom: Sword-Dancer Saga
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: No
Word Count: 275
Summary: Del dreams of the Punja.
The heat comes back to Del in dreams sometimes. That first, near-disastrous trek across the Punja is far behind her now, but still the heat lingers.
She remembers that heat, unlike any she had ever known before, the sheer power of it leeching every bit of moisture from her body. She remembers the thirst that could not be slaked. The pain of her skin burning as the blazing sun punished her all over again. And again, and again, and again, as she stumbled her way across a crystal desert, to the very edge of sanity—
She remembers, too, being pulled back from that brink so that she might continue her quest. Tiger. Her guide, her protector, and, later, so much more. As she rouses from her dream, she begins to remember all that has followed that journey, all the time that has passed to bring her to the place where she is now. Home and safe, in the house she shares with the family she has made. Their own little corner of the South. A respite from a world filled to the brim with cruelty.
The night is cool and peaceful around her, yet the memory of that deadly heat remains. She could have died. Should have died. Would have died, but for sheer determination and a great deal of luck. It had been a close thing. Very close.
One last time, the memory shudders through her like a shiver, but not from cold. Never from cold.
Even now, far distant both in miles and in years, the Punja’s heat is a part of her. And she knows she will never truly feel cold again.