Well, as far as I can tell you're doing well to be able to drive home at the moment, rather than swimming, or just standing on the (new) end of the road and waving at the family on the other side of the gorge. But I do sympathise with early morning sunlight in your eyes when you're trying to manage roads!
Blinded by the light The sun rose over the bony, bloody shores of Mostlybony and casually blinded the whelkers who were clambering around the mounds of bones and digging in the greyish sand hunting for their prey. Sunlight flickered over white bones that had been long since cleaned of flesh by the seabirds and bleached to an eye-aching whiteness, and over newer, yellower bones that still had tatters of gristle attached. Some were gigantic; bones of leviathans that had crashed ashore during the seasonal storms and been impaled on the bones already there, pinned and suspended for the birds, rats and sea-mammals to eat alive. Some were smaller; the small creatures that preyed on the stranded leviathans preyed on one another as well. And many, far too many, were man-sized, from the wars that were fought here.
Kevin, prince-elect of Mostlybony and eldest son of the morbid, depressive ruler Melric (who continued to mope about the palace when not hunting down his siblings and murdering them to ensure his control of the kingdom), stood on the shore and was also blinded by the light. He shaded his eyes with his hands, trying not to sigh as that made him feel far too much like his father, and glared around him. Mostlybony's economy was healthy, but largely because they hired the kingdom out as a battlefield for any two (or more) warring parties that wanted somewhere to fight. He wondered why people kept hiring it, given that there were bones everywhere, and even if he'd wanted to have them buried he'd have had to pay some other country to bury them for him. Soil in Mostlybony was generally found by excavating bones first.
"Calcium supplements," he said, turning his back to the light. "That's what we should export." "What now?" Fengris, Kevin's economic adviser and supply-chain chieftain was a grizzled old man who was more used to Melric announcing another trip to murder some unsuspecting half-sister. "We have vast reserves of calcium here," said Kevin, waving a hand expansively. "We should be making use of them, and tidying the place up at the same time. Dad's gone off on a murder-hunt again, hasn't he?" Fengris rubbed his stubbly grey-black beard with an unwashed finger and recoiled slightly when the smell of it reached his nose. Realising that Kevin was still staring at him, he hedged, but gave up quickly as he knew he'd left it too late. "...yes," he said. "I did tell him even his mother couldn't have had had that many children but he insisted that she, and I quote, 'put it about more than a bonobo at an orgy'. Some unfortunate woman called Theresa will be decapitated sometime this week, I expect." "He took Thunderclap with him?" Thunderclap was Melric's legendary sword, made of black metal dug out of a meteorite and forged in blood that ran off the battlefields of Mostlybony. "Oh yes. He says he's more satisfying to hear the thunder roar. He says it's like the skies are judging the usurper and finding them guilty." Fengris's mouth twisted in distaste, but whether it was because of Melric's views of the smell of his finger, Kevin couldn't tell. "Good. Then let's get this started. I want a bone-processing plant set up, whatever paperwork I have to sign to make this legal, and calcium exports started in three months. Plus, send me the little dwarf guy in. I think it's time I forged my own sword." "He's not a dwarf," said Fengris, but Kevin was walking off, struggling to keep balance on the piles of shattered bones. "He's got a hormone defect."
Greg - hah, true. Fortunate to not be dealing with a washed out highway between here and work.
So far.
Mostlybony! It's been much too long. Quite enjoyed this, and I reckon Kevin will make for a better ruler than his father. If he's not achieved that already.
2 comments:
Well, as far as I can tell you're doing well to be able to drive home at the moment, rather than swimming, or just standing on the (new) end of the road and waving at the family on the other side of the gorge. But I do sympathise with early morning sunlight in your eyes when you're trying to manage roads!
Blinded by the light
The sun rose over the bony, bloody shores of Mostlybony and casually blinded the whelkers who were clambering around the mounds of bones and digging in the greyish sand hunting for their prey. Sunlight flickered over white bones that had been long since cleaned of flesh by the seabirds and bleached to an eye-aching whiteness, and over newer, yellower bones that still had tatters of gristle attached. Some were gigantic; bones of leviathans that had crashed ashore during the seasonal storms and been impaled on the bones already there, pinned and suspended for the birds, rats and sea-mammals to eat alive. Some were smaller; the small creatures that preyed on the stranded leviathans preyed on one another as well. And many, far too many, were man-sized, from the wars that were fought here.
Kevin, prince-elect of Mostlybony and eldest son of the morbid, depressive ruler Melric (who continued to mope about the palace when not hunting down his siblings and murdering them to ensure his control of the kingdom), stood on the shore and was also blinded by the light. He shaded his eyes with his hands, trying not to sigh as that made him feel far too much like his father, and glared around him. Mostlybony's economy was healthy, but largely because they hired the kingdom out as a battlefield for any two (or more) warring parties that wanted somewhere to fight. He wondered why people kept hiring it, given that there were bones everywhere, and even if he'd wanted to have them buried he'd have had to pay some other country to bury them for him. Soil in Mostlybony was generally found by excavating bones first.
"Calcium supplements," he said, turning his back to the light. "That's what we should export."
"What now?" Fengris, Kevin's economic adviser and supply-chain chieftain was a grizzled old man who was more used to Melric announcing another trip to murder some unsuspecting half-sister.
"We have vast reserves of calcium here," said Kevin, waving a hand expansively. "We should be making use of them, and tidying the place up at the same time. Dad's gone off on a murder-hunt again, hasn't he?"
Fengris rubbed his stubbly grey-black beard with an unwashed finger and recoiled slightly when the smell of it reached his nose. Realising that Kevin was still staring at him, he hedged, but gave up quickly as he knew he'd left it too late.
"...yes," he said. "I did tell him even his mother couldn't have had had that many children but he insisted that she, and I quote, 'put it about more than a bonobo at an orgy'. Some unfortunate woman called Theresa will be decapitated sometime this week, I expect."
"He took Thunderclap with him?" Thunderclap was Melric's legendary sword, made of black metal dug out of a meteorite and forged in blood that ran off the battlefields of Mostlybony.
"Oh yes. He says he's more satisfying to hear the thunder roar. He says it's like the skies are judging the usurper and finding them guilty." Fengris's mouth twisted in distaste, but whether it was because of Melric's views of the smell of his finger, Kevin couldn't tell.
"Good. Then let's get this started. I want a bone-processing plant set up, whatever paperwork I have to sign to make this legal, and calcium exports started in three months. Plus, send me the little dwarf guy in. I think it's time I forged my own sword."
"He's not a dwarf," said Fengris, but Kevin was walking off, struggling to keep balance on the piles of shattered bones. "He's got a hormone defect."
Greg - hah, true. Fortunate to not be dealing with a washed out highway between here and work.
So far.
Mostlybony! It's been much too long. Quite enjoyed this, and I reckon Kevin will make for a better ruler than his father. If he's not achieved that already.
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