Drabble a Day - Snowflake

Snowflakes. From a distance and in a large clump, they look completely and utterly ordinary; beautiful, but ordinary. They were undistinguishable from the other flakes about them. Rhiannon idly wondered if Anann saw her firstborn with Rhiannon within that context; just children with the occasional hiccup of difference.

The Morrigan wasn't a cruel mother, but neither was she doting. It fell onto the aspects of Rhiannon to ensure that the girls and their young brother grew up knowing a mother's affection. She had sworn to herself over their cradles that they wouldn't have to turn up like her and Becky, with more than lingering issues concerning their mothers.

As the girls grew, Rhiannon coaxed interests, soothed fears, handled tempers, and guided knowledge. She was grateful for the abilities to be in four places at once, not to mention have nine seperate trains of thoughts because being Anann's wife and the mother to her children was exhausting. Not to mention the fights when Anann announced her need for loyal soldiers, and eyed Rhiannon expectantly, drained the new goddess. The secondborn generation and later didn't fare so well as the first.

Still. Time passed and the girls emerged from the swirl of snow to become their own unqiue wonder. Kennedy and Calleigh were two dark mirrors of the other, stalking through the forests of Rhiannon's personal lands as if they were practicing for later hunts in life. Siofra was the belle of the ball, a charmer of the highest order that broke hearts without stopping to look back at the damage she caused. She weaved fairy lights and sang sweetly to trick the unwary into her grasp. Ciara was a throwback to Lugh's keen mind and Rhiannon's grace; she was a master of everything put before her, always hungry to discover more (Rhiannon believed the girl had inheirted her wanderlust).

Fiona was the calm in the storm of her siblings. The guardiand and protector, she was nothing like the wild passions of her mothers and perhaps because of that... she was their favorite as well.

Drabble a Day - Restless

Rhiannon fidgeted. She always fidgeted. Even when she was a girl and supposed to stay still during the lengthy court proceedings she would constantly twist about to take in who was there, what they were doing, and where they came from. There was many a time when the Morrigan, guised as a simple weaver, would rap on the girl’s knuckles to get her to sit still and behave.

She still did it now, though it was a little more serious. A scar at Rhiannon’s wrist is a permanent reminder to ‘sit still and behave’ though she’ll never listen. Already her mind’s on another adventure, another journey that she may or may not invite the Morrigan on. 

She may had been honed into a social weapon that Anann kept not-so-secret, but her heart was always on the next horizon. Whenever she went with the Morrigan to a negotiation, or a benefit that was more sizing up the opposition rather than a get-together, she'd linger at the goddess' side for the bare minimum to be respectful and then she was gone, doing her own exploring. Anann would find her curled in a dusty library chatting up the attendant who'd always then give a little more information that his employer wished. Or maybe she'd find Rhiannon meandering through gardens and mazes of corridors, always searching for a secret she hadn't yet uncovered. Sometimes it was endearing, other times it caused fights.

Rhiannon would leave all the time. Sometimes after a fight, other times because her capricious manner triggered a wanderlust she never ignored. She's sailed the world's oceans twenty times now, and still goes out to find the next adventure. Before the Elysian Fields, the Morrigan wouldn’t know if this time, this time she’d come home; but now with everything so similar and yet so very, very different - Rhiannon always returned, breathless with the trip, and would tell the Morrigan everything, even if it resulted in another scar. Another sacrifice.

 She’d behave for a little bit, just enough that the Morrigan’s guard would lower and by the time Anann noticed her missing, she was back with even more stories and breathless laughter on her lips as she was scolded.

Drabble A Day: Accusation

“Here. Hold Mealla. If he comes round this way and accuses me of anything, I didn’t do it and you never saw me. ” Anann barely has time to register what’s going on when the youngest member of their growing family is deposited into her lap. She stares down at wide-eyed expressiveness and a tuft of dark hair and snaps out a hand to snatch Rhiann before the young goddess can sneak away. It’s too late and she seizes only air. She glances away from the coo’ing babe to see the flash of coppery hair duck out the study’s windows. Any touch of question through the ring is met with a strange rhyming chant repeated over and over again.

A beep from the screen before her brings her back to the auctions she was following before Rhiann had whirled into the study and besides the surprisingly behaved toddler in her arms, things settled down quick enough. Until there’s another tempest of Irish temper stalking through her doorway. It’s rare that Manannan consents to approaching her but this time he looks far more interested in other things beyond reminding her that he disapproves of her relationship with his headstrong daughter. “Where did she go?”

Anann’s response is a raised brow, and a dismissive gesture out towards the lake that glistens merrily underneath the noonday sun. The toddler in her lap happily greets her grandfather with a gurgling laugh but that doesn’t dissuade Manannan from his goal. He turns upon a heel. Minutes pass. The auctions she wanted have fallen into her trap and she’s pleased with her accomplishments. Contentment turns to curiosity and she stands, child tucked to her hip, and moves out to the window to find that there’s a rather heated battle of water gods on her lawn. The lake has been turned into a warzone of ice, steam, and mini-tidal waves. Manannan’s age and skill is matched by his daughter’s lunar pull on the water and natural grace with the element. They’re shouting to the other, but from where Anann is she can’t make it out. With a cluck of her tongue, she steps out onto the back veranda and encounters the twins. Calleigh and Kennedy are twined about the railings and if she’s heard right; taking bets on who would win the duel.

“Do either of you know what’s going on? Exactly why is your Grandfather trying to kill your Mother?”

Calleigh’s the one that answers; she’s the talkative one of the pair. “Momma pulled a trick on Grandda.”

“What sort of trick?” Anann enquires but she’s answered by a shout from Manannan as an ice dragon conjured up by Rhiann falls just short of biting him.

“A Single’s Cruise!?”