prismatica | text | un: konoha

i is grateful for understanding.

[... it's always Men. Konoha knows more than most jinba that there are good ones, too, but!]

is late afternoon alright? i send husband to drink with friend.

I will arrive as the sun sets.

{With a gift! He has a delicate palate - being an Elf - and so he puts together a basket for her of fruits and wine. His robe is less ornate - made for travel - and the circlet on his brow is silver. When he arrives on her land, he slows his steps, breathing in the scent of the growing things. Cities lack such things.

The promise he made her earlier has been fulfilled - as the sun sets below the horizon, the last rays causing the beautiful colors of twilight.}

[Life on the Tsurugi Farmstead is quite a bit different from the more metal city, even than the neighboring Prismal-run farms. There's no robots, no automated machinery, no fancy greenhouses... just fields carefully tended within the boundaries of a small stream and trees, a thatched roof storehouse, and a wooden home.

There's also a bay jinba mare laying on the veranda that faces the path leading to the farmhouse from the main road through the Greatmoon Groves' agricultural sector. Expecting a king, she'd taken care to wear one of her nicer kimono (though to her, nicer is still pretty plain), redo her hair after work, and even put a little oil on her hooves, but she's a woman of simple means and needs.

Who spots a figure that is surely her guest, seamlessly moving as one creature despite how some viewed her as half human and half horse to stand properly, raising a hand to wave.

Over here!]

{He prefers farms to be like this - pure and untainted by things that are unnatural. The Elves keep plots much like these and tend to them by hand. Thranduil would not eat food processed by a machine - nor would his comrades. They would be able to taste the metal and it would remind them of war.

She is just as refreshing as her farm. He smiles at the sight of her, approaching her with long strides. Each step is careful - he is conscious of all living things and, if she were to look, there would not be a single insect crushed under his feet.}

Lady Konoha. {Thranduil bows to her and holds out the basket in offering.} I did not know what you might like. There are two bottles of wine - one sweet and one with a more sour note to it. Both are pleasant on the tongue.

[Growing up amongst humans rather than her own kind, the child of war borne from an armless broodmare that had not been able to survive long past a bid for freedom, Konoha thought she had seen all sorts of people...

Maybe it's because he's an elf, or maybe it's because he's a king, she's not sure, but. There's something light and mysterious about him that leaves her just staring for a half moment before her manners return to her and she dips into a low bow, holding it for a few beats before she raises her head.]

King Thranduil... ? I'm sorry, I don't know how much to bow for a king...

[Human emperors and lords, she could guess, but... Helplessly, she reaches out to take the basket, bowing low once more over it.]

And you even brought something- You didn't have to, really, you're the one who came out all this way...

[How gracious? It's not been long enough from her crushing disappointment, from her post on the network, that she can smile as brightly as she's used to... But she manages one, even if its slightly weakened by grief, by a bit of red in eyes that have spent days weeping.]

Thank you.

You needn't bow to me. {He is a proud Elf, easily ruffled when he is excluded or belittled. Yet she has done neither - nor will she, he trusts. Besides he doesn't want titles to stand between them. She has suffered, has she not? And he wishes to be friendly.}

I wished to give you some happiness. {Those red-rimmed eyes do not miss his notice. How often had he allowed himself tears in the privacy of his rooms over his father, his wife...his son? Their son. Gandalf had reminded him of that connection and he tries to cling to it now. Legolas's mother must be the one to watch over him for the time being.}

No, it is I who thank you for releasing me, temporarily, from the city. I do not care for it. The walls close in on me and they are so unlike the Greenwood trees.

Edited 2020-07-29 11:49 (UTC)

[He says she needn't, and so she rises, even though she still can't help standing just a bit sway-backed, unconsciously trying not to be taller. When your "waist" began where a horse's shoulders did, you tend to be taller than most people.]

Thank you...

[She has to say it again, when he says the reason, has to clutch the basket a bit tighter to her chest.

There's a new plant by the side of the house, that had somehow come from her body. That she'd hoped beyond hope would be the child she wished to give her husband, and instead... was a chroma flower.]

You found everything alright? I know the city is overwhelming for us, I'm sure it is for others, too...

{Thranduil is six foot five - a respectable height for a Man, though a bit short for an Elf. He cocks his head, golden strands of hair caught on the wind like threads of silk. Concern is bright in his eyes; he understands her pain.}

One day... {He murmurs, resting a hand gently on her arm.} Either from your body or from somewhere else. There are many children who need a mother.

{Her need is so strong that it will guide her and the blessings of an Elven-King are no small encouragement.}

There is another who is like me. He and I have worked together to...adapt.

[Look, that is a very respectable height! Considering Konoha is about seven feet, and she comes from medieval Japan when the average height of most men wasn't much over five feet.

Though she's always been the type to be free with her affections and physical comforts, the sudden touch from someone who was supposedly so above her in rank is a bit unexpected, and her gaze drops to his hand-]

It's good that you aren't the only one from your world. Lunatia is so large and noisy, it really helps to...

[But her words trail off and her eyes well with tears almost immediately, her heart eternally on her sleeve and the disappointment too fresh to feel shame for expressing emotion as his encouragement sinks in. She has heard from another who came from her world that claimed to be from her future that the last he had seen her she'd had a young daughter, an infant son in arms, and a new child already on the way, but still-]

Oh, I'm sorry. I know I will, I do-

[But to feel her body change, to know in some deep and instinctive part of her that a life was growing within only to birth the cruel irony of a different form of life-

She quickly reaches up to use her sleeve to wipe the threat of tears away, smiling instead.]

Would you like to come inside? Or- Do you prefer outside?

{The earliest Elves towered over just about everyone, which was perhaps their right as the first creation (after the Valar and Maiar). Thranduil comes from a line that is...smaller...though, let it be said, no less glorious! His hand is adorned with rings, the gold and silver molded into twined branches, and there is one white stone that, when illuminated, reveals a rainbow of hues. But his touch is as light as a feather - merely meant to steady.}

It does help. He and I should be foes, but circumstances being what they are, we have set aside our differences for now.

{What sort of noble would he be if he didn't produce a handkerchief to dry her eyes? The fabric is ridiculously soft and he tucks it into her hand, giving her a small, curious smile.}

Have you had a vision of what is to be?

{He longed for a child after Legolas and to see the plant too had been both a relief (considering the "mother" who bore it) and a disappointment.}

I will gladly go where you are most comfortable.

[She's glad to hear of peace between people who might otherwise be at arms. Her war had seen far too much civil war for her to delight in any sort of enmity, and while Lunatia being the case meant the misfortune of being in Lunatia... At least it meant a truce.

He's too kind, she murmurs something to that effect as she accepts the handkerchief, marveling a moment at how soft the cloth felt, how rich his adornments. - Well, she ought to have expected splendor from a king.]

No, I'm not a seer or anything...

[Tears wiped carefully, she gently folds the handkerchief back into a half-respectable shape, trying to think only of the positives.]

But my husband's friend... He says that he comes from our future. That last he saw us, we'd given him the good news of our third... And I don't understand how time works here, there's too many theories from too many people about how... I don't know, there being different versions of our worlds or how we'll return or remember, but-

[She had to have faith in that, or it would be too sad. Mikuni wouldn't lie to her, and if he'd seen it... It had to be her future. It had to.]

You said your people are from the woods, so- here, come inside, I'll open the doors so we can see out.

[She tries to push past her egg grief, gesturing towards the home behind her.]

Visions can be had by all sorts. {He wants to reassure her that her glimpse of the future likely isn't false. The hope will do her good after the loss of the child she had imagined growing within the egg.}

I believe what he says is true. You will be blessed with children, my lady. Three is a fine number.

{Three babies to hold and love. Three babies that she can watch grow. Thranduil can't help smiling softly. There is some goodness in her world - despite the wars.}

Thank you. {He follows her inside, curious as to what sort of house will suit a centaur.} Did he tell you your children's names?

["Three is a fine number", he says, and despite her sadness Konoha can't help but smile a bit ruefully, reaching up to scratch behind her ear as she lets him into her home, a simple, open wooden structure with halls and rooms wide and tall enough for jinba, personal items, drawers, sewing basket, and other features largely kept to the edges of the rooms in tidy fashion.]

I was actually hoping for four or five... But three is a nice start...

[A lot of people she'd met in Lunatia had expressed surprise at that number, but- Maybe he'd understand? Pausing to use a hoof pick by the door, she brushes the bottom of her hooves before entering, leading him towards the sunken hearth in the center room and laying out a cushion for him to sit while she fetches glasses for the wine he'd brought, setting them down and moving next to open the sliding doors that make up the wall of the room, letting in the fresh air, natural sunlight, and calming sight of the farmstead spread out before them.]

Mmm. I couldn't help asking, in the end... He said our daughter's name was Komatsu, and our son was Mochiyuki. I promised my husband we'd name our first after his father, so I guess we went with "Little Pine" from "Wind in the Pines". ... Do elf names have meanings? I think people in my world think a lot about that sort of thing.

text | un: konoha

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