Name: shadowsong26
Story: Adjusting
'Verse: Feredar
Colors: Cinnabar #17. Hermeticism, Patriarch Purple #14. the old country, Rose #24. One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.
Supplies and Materials: pointillism, miniature collection, photography, novelty beads, yarn
Word Count: 226
Rating: PG
Characters: Riluke
Warnings: Don't think so
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always.


Riluke makes lists of all the things she misses about the deserts--the sights, the smells, the sounds, the tastes, the textures--and reads them over again before burning the paper and letting them go.


Riluke braids fire-red tropical flowers in her hair, along with fine gold chains in the Islander fashion, but the rest of her jewelry is all turquoise and glass beads, semi-precious jewelry she carefully carried from the desert.


Riluke hosts bonfire banquets in the open air on the beach by her house, full of laughter and light and music, and she dances with the Captains in swirls of fire and water, making friends and winning allies and applying just enough liquor to learn a few secrets.


Riluke, with time, gets used to wet heat instead of dry, to white sand instead of red, to cinnamon air instead of cardamom, to kiwi instead of dates, to sunsets that shade purple instead of gold.


Riluke builds a kingdom for herself, in a world that is just enough like her home to make the differences seem that much stranger; but here she has room to spread her wings and fly, and, with fire-red flowers and gold chains in her hair, with new scents, new sights, new sounds, new tastes, new textures replacing the ones she used to love, she finds that she has never, ever been happier.