sylph_fics (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sylph_fics) wrote2008-07-10 06:24 pm
sylph_fics) wrote2008-07-10 06:24 pm
Dune ficlet
I don't know who might be interested, but I write Ghanima Atreides over on Theatrical_muse. And I really liked this week's prompt, so I'm going to cross-post it here.
Title: Unexpected Requests
Fandom: Dune
Word Count: 292
Characters: Ghanima, Farad'n
"Show me Arrakis?" Farad'n asked her, late one evening as the last of the ruddy light slipped away outside the thick panes of glass. Before she could reply, he shook his head, lips tightening just slightly, "No... that's not what I meant. Show me Dune, Ghani?"
She had intended to tell him that he had seen Arrakis, but when he changed the word, she understood what he was truly asking, and she allowed her eyes to widen just a fraction as she considered his words. She reached back into her Other Memory, questioning her mother, and received the answer she'd expected. Even Irulan, who loved her father so much, had never asked that... not of any of them.
"Do you know what you ask?" she tipped her head to the side slightly as she studied him, and the Fremen in her said 'no' firmly. Farad'n was too water-fat still, too off-world plump and soft to survive even a few days in the desert, despite that he would wear a stillsuit, despite everything her grandmother had done to turn him into someone strong and skilled enough to be her husband, when they had thought Leto dead. Her consort, now. "The desert would kill you if I took you out there now."
"Then teach me, Ghani. Show me what I need to do."
He meant it. She could read it in every line of his body, every bit of his expression... he wanted to learn, but what she didn't understand was why. She must have hesitated too long, because his expression started to fall, then his shoulders set.
"I can't know you until I know Dune, Ghani. It took me a while to realize it, but there's so much of you I don't understand... So please, show me."
"...all right."
Title: Unexpected Requests
Fandom: Dune
Word Count: 292
Characters: Ghanima, Farad'n
"Show me Arrakis?" Farad'n asked her, late one evening as the last of the ruddy light slipped away outside the thick panes of glass. Before she could reply, he shook his head, lips tightening just slightly, "No... that's not what I meant. Show me Dune, Ghani?"
She had intended to tell him that he had seen Arrakis, but when he changed the word, she understood what he was truly asking, and she allowed her eyes to widen just a fraction as she considered his words. She reached back into her Other Memory, questioning her mother, and received the answer she'd expected. Even Irulan, who loved her father so much, had never asked that... not of any of them.
"Do you know what you ask?" she tipped her head to the side slightly as she studied him, and the Fremen in her said 'no' firmly. Farad'n was too water-fat still, too off-world plump and soft to survive even a few days in the desert, despite that he would wear a stillsuit, despite everything her grandmother had done to turn him into someone strong and skilled enough to be her husband, when they had thought Leto dead. Her consort, now. "The desert would kill you if I took you out there now."
"Then teach me, Ghani. Show me what I need to do."
He meant it. She could read it in every line of his body, every bit of his expression... he wanted to learn, but what she didn't understand was why. She must have hesitated too long, because his expression started to fall, then his shoulders set.
"I can't know you until I know Dune, Ghani. It took me a while to realize it, but there's so much of you I don't understand... So please, show me."
"...all right."