Fill for Challenge 14: "...which moves the Sun..."

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Lucy, as winter ends.
"For, lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, flowers appear on the earth... Arise, my love, my fair one..."

A fill for the breakfast challenge
(but no food! and hence maybe not very filling  :) )



...which moves the Sun...


"Ahhhhhh-hhh-hhh!"

It was a ragged cry, a cry that sounded almost of pain - Lucy, who had a moment before been looking with breathless wonder at the sudden bursting forth of a cloud of delicate white blossom on a thin, thorny shrub, was briefly shocked into fear again.

Or was it not anguish, but... in front of her Lucy saw now, pulling out away from the thorn-tree a woman-shape, her face an unreadable mask, with unseeing eyes stretched to their fullest extent, hands raised to either side of her face, crying out, though now it seemed not in pain, but in a shock of awareness too sudden to be borne.

"Ahhhhh... sisters, wake!"  A cry, it seemed, of waking, of being torn from her sleep by something too sharp to be called pleasure.  But yet, it was pleasure, Lucy saw now;  the woman-shape - pale-skinned, black-haired - was crying out in a pleasure stronger than Lucy had ever seen.

"Oh! the sun, the sun, the sun, the sun!"

The dryad shuddered all over with the intensity of her joy, her eyes closed ecstatically, her thin, sharp face upturned to the blue, blue sky, letting the heat beat down upon her, twisting to let it touch and warm every long finger, every knot and node and thorny break in the smooth skin, in one instant wrapping her limbs in fiercely, tightly, close to her body, and in the next as quickly spreading them out wide again, lifting them to the sky, opening herself to the flooding warmth, the glorious, pulsating, life-giving warmth of the sun.

And then her eyes were suddenly, mesmerisingly, open again, seeing - huge, dark silver-purple eyes, gazing at Lucy as if at something long yearned for, and overwhelming in its reality. She spoke in a rapid, vehement torrent of words.

"Oh, the sun, the sun! We have fasted long, through that terrible time, but now...oh, Human-child and Queen!  Oh! Aslan warm you, always," she shuddered again, "with his love, for this deliverance you have brought about for us, for how you have broken for us our fast, and given us to feast again on.... ohhhhh...." her face tipped back again, her eyes closed once more, and Lucy was forgotten as she bathed in, drank in, feasted rapturously on the rays of the sun.

"Lu?  Lu, we can't dawdle."

It was Susan, and behind her, Peter.  Lucy looked at them wordlessly, and gestured to the dryad, and for a little space they paused, and looked with her, curiously, wondering, half-smiling for a few short seconds in puzzled delight at the vision of the dryad's ecstasy.

And then they all remembered that they had somewhere to go, an enemy to escape, their brother to rescue, and the unknown Aslan to meet, and they broke their fascination, and went on their way.
 

Comments

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

This is a wonderful take on "breakfast"-- a Dryad waking up to feast upon the sun. I adore the expression "Aslan warm you, always." That is a perfect prayer, invocation, greeting, and exultation for a Dryad. It's beautiful

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it, and the "Aslan warm you, always". And thank you for the wonderful word "exultation"; I wish I'd thought of it! :D

[autumnia]

So different what I would expect to see for "breakfast" but it's beautiful. I suppose for a dryad, drinking in the Sun and the warmth would indeed be a feast! :-)

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

:D The idea came from when I was enjoying some actual food, and thinking how great it is that we get our nourishment in such an enjoyable way,and how dull it would be if we simply photosynthesised -- and then I thought, 'but maybe, if one were a conscious photosynthesising being, it would feel really good'... and hence: breakfast! :D

[cofax7]

Indeed! There's a character on Farscape who is a plant, and she feels far more than just 'good' when in the sunlight... *grins*

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

:D Well, I did say "a pleasure stronger than Lucy had ever seen".

[lady_songsmith]

Ooh! What an awesome take on the topic!! The explosive vitality of the dryad is just amazing, and I agree with rth -- "Aslan warm you" is perfect for a dryad!

Edited because my r key sticks since I got the computer back. *pokes it*

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

"explosive vitality" - what a great way of putting it! I'm glad you liked it -- and thank you for the challenge! :)

(Sympathies, re: the R. My space bar sticks! It makes writing so SLOW. :( )

[starbrowsings.livejournal.com]

HELIO! Just visited the site after a busy week and found this delightful treat waiting for me...oh my goodness this is so lovely and lovingly worded and lavish and so wonderfully creative. Your evocation of the dryads' delight is visceral, so sharp I can almost taste it. Love love love. So beautiful, and of course Lucy would be the one to make the connection with this intimate moment with the trees.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! :) I'm glad you enjoyed it. And yes, re: Lucy and Trees; this might be the first moment she makes that connection with them.

Editing to add: she was a Blackthorn.

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

I somehow missed this! It's absolutely gorgeous, and has entrenched itself in my head as canon, especially the revelation that all this was on the walk to Aslan's camp. Wow.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) Blackthorns are pretty much the first of the blossom-trees, and so I was thinking this was the very first blossom to burst out with the breaking of the Winter. And they are thin and thorny and the ancestor of all plum trees. :)