Poem: "Chasing Leaves, Catching Feathers"
Jan. 31st, 2021 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the October 6, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from zeeth_kyrah. It also fills the "Dragons" prompt in my 10-1-20 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by nsfwords. It belongs to A Conflagration of Dragons series.
Warning: This poem contains the aftermath of city destruction and refugee situations.
"Chasing Leaves, Catching Feathers"
When the dragon Janardana
destroyed the city of Shaunaka,
then Shalya fled west into the woods,
driven away from the coast in the chaos.
The journey was nerve-wracking,
the refugees tattered and hungry, but
Shalya felt grateful for the company.
Her creamy blonde wings and
her pale streaked hair soon got
covered in dirt and tangled in leaves.
Whenever more dragons flew by
overhead, Shalya cringed and
hid herself in the underbrush.
The Shu were not pleased when
their little band of refugees arrived.
Shalya hung around the hunting camp,
watching for ways to make herself
useful. She was versatile; she
could adapt to new situations.
Besides, she'd survived a dragon.
What were the Shu next to that?
They were only unfriends.
Shalya wound up working
for a gruff fellow called Herunub,
who raised strange animals unlike
anything she had seen before.
He didn't really want Shalya
around his charges, but she
managed to persuade him
to give her a chance anyway.
He called them leafcats.
They had jagged leafy spots
of brown on a golden background,
with stiff stand-up manes and
long tails with a tufted end.
The leafcats did not like
Shalya when they first met her.
The adults growled or hissed
when she approached, and
the kittens pounced on her.
She watched them chasing leaves
and concluded that they were
trying to catch her feathers.
So Shalya learned to keep
her wings well tucked around
the leafkittens, and they quit
pouncing on her so much.
Even the adults began
to get used to her in time.
Herunub was not so tolerant.
He was thoughtful and diligent
with the leafcats, but he seemed
to reserve all his patience and
affection for his charges -- with
other people, he was uncaring,
even gruff most of the time.
It didn't matter, since Shalya
had nowhere else to go.
She cleaned up after the cats --
who were tidy with their bodies
but very messy eaters -- and
after Herunub as well.
When he trained them
to hunt, she did her best
to stay out of the way.
It wasn't a bad life,
at least on days when
no dragons flew overhead.
Shalya lived in constant fear
that one of them would land
and burn everything down again.
But then, so did everyone else.
Then Herunub noticed that
her lovely skin, which was
sea-green dappled with
darker green, allowed her
to disappear in the forest.
This pleased him, because
the leafcats hunted in prides.
Some of them would lie in wait
while others flushed game
in their general direction.
When it got close enough,
the hidden ones would
leap out and kill it.
So Herunub began
teaching Shalya more
about the leafcats and
how they worked.
It became her job
to hide in the brush
with half-grown kittens,
keeping them calm until
it was time to pounce.
Sometimes they still
gnawed on her wingtips,
but Shalya stopped caring
so much about that.
After all, she couldn't
really fly in a forest;
there wasn't room
to spread her wings.
The most she could do
was jump from a tree like
the Shu did, then glide
and try not to hit anything.
Sometimes, Shalya missed
the white cliffs of Shaunaka and
the open sky over the ocean.
Then one of the leafkittens
would bring her a dead bird
to pluck and put in the pot,
and the others would chase
the loose feathers so that she
laughed until she couldn't breathe.
No, it wasn't a bad life at all.
zeeth_kyrah. It also fills the "Dragons" prompt in my 10-1-20 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by nsfwords. It belongs to A Conflagration of Dragons series.Warning: This poem contains the aftermath of city destruction and refugee situations.
"Chasing Leaves, Catching Feathers"
When the dragon Janardana
destroyed the city of Shaunaka,
then Shalya fled west into the woods,
driven away from the coast in the chaos.
The journey was nerve-wracking,
the refugees tattered and hungry, but
Shalya felt grateful for the company.
Her creamy blonde wings and
her pale streaked hair soon got
covered in dirt and tangled in leaves.
Whenever more dragons flew by
overhead, Shalya cringed and
hid herself in the underbrush.
The Shu were not pleased when
their little band of refugees arrived.
Shalya hung around the hunting camp,
watching for ways to make herself
useful. She was versatile; she
could adapt to new situations.
Besides, she'd survived a dragon.
What were the Shu next to that?
They were only unfriends.
Shalya wound up working
for a gruff fellow called Herunub,
who raised strange animals unlike
anything she had seen before.
He didn't really want Shalya
around his charges, but she
managed to persuade him
to give her a chance anyway.
He called them leafcats.
They had jagged leafy spots
of brown on a golden background,
with stiff stand-up manes and
long tails with a tufted end.
The leafcats did not like
Shalya when they first met her.
The adults growled or hissed
when she approached, and
the kittens pounced on her.
She watched them chasing leaves
and concluded that they were
trying to catch her feathers.
So Shalya learned to keep
her wings well tucked around
the leafkittens, and they quit
pouncing on her so much.
Even the adults began
to get used to her in time.
Herunub was not so tolerant.
He was thoughtful and diligent
with the leafcats, but he seemed
to reserve all his patience and
affection for his charges -- with
other people, he was uncaring,
even gruff most of the time.
It didn't matter, since Shalya
had nowhere else to go.
She cleaned up after the cats --
who were tidy with their bodies
but very messy eaters -- and
after Herunub as well.
When he trained them
to hunt, she did her best
to stay out of the way.
It wasn't a bad life,
at least on days when
no dragons flew overhead.
Shalya lived in constant fear
that one of them would land
and burn everything down again.
But then, so did everyone else.
Then Herunub noticed that
her lovely skin, which was
sea-green dappled with
darker green, allowed her
to disappear in the forest.
This pleased him, because
the leafcats hunted in prides.
Some of them would lie in wait
while others flushed game
in their general direction.
When it got close enough,
the hidden ones would
leap out and kill it.
So Herunub began
teaching Shalya more
about the leafcats and
how they worked.
It became her job
to hide in the brush
with half-grown kittens,
keeping them calm until
it was time to pounce.
Sometimes they still
gnawed on her wingtips,
but Shalya stopped caring
so much about that.
After all, she couldn't
really fly in a forest;
there wasn't room
to spread her wings.
The most she could do
was jump from a tree like
the Shu did, then glide
and try not to hit anything.
Sometimes, Shalya missed
the white cliffs of Shaunaka and
the open sky over the ocean.
Then one of the leafkittens
would bring her a dead bird
to pluck and put in the pot,
and the others would chase
the loose feathers so that she
laughed until she couldn't breathe.
No, it wasn't a bad life at all.
Bonus Cat Win!
Date: 2021-01-31 07:54 pm (UTC)Re: Bonus Cat Win!
Date: 2021-01-31 08:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-02 07:47 am (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2021-02-02 08:34 am (UTC)I have noted a few other species in much less detail:
The Shu have domesticated greatdeer for draft and riding purposes.
They also have burden squirrels, which are sort of domesticated but not really trainable -- they'll carry a pack but can't be steered, so it's pretty random.
In the desert of the Imran, thornbees live in groups of a few dozen beneath large thornbrakes; when dug out of the ground, their nests yield small wax cups of honey and pollen in jug-sized clusters.
There are also lists of which familiar animal species each of the Six Races tends to raise or hunt, like dogs and elk.
Tuesday is the fishbowl with a theme of "Cultural Differences," so that's a perfect match for this series, if you'd like to read more about its animals.