Post by EMCAT on Jan 17, 2011 16:39:21 GMT -5
[atrb=background,http://i55.tinypic.com/6g8ykm.jpg][atrb=style,border: 4px dashed #FFFFFF][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width, 440,true][atrb=cellpadding,14px,true]  I COULD BE THE RABBIT it had been dark for ages. emcat yawned, small tongue curling up a little like a feles settling down for a nap in the afternoon sun. unfortunately, he did not have that luxury of sleeping just yet, nor did he feel the dappled warmth of the sunshine on his back. usually, he would be wrapped up warm in the furs of a cervus and snuggled up with his brothers at this point if he was back home. home. the mention of the word brought a pang to emcat's child-sized heart and his expression took on a saddened appearance. home seemed so far away - as far away as the light of the golden orb in the sky, as far away as freedom was. to be free like a bird - a hawk circling in the sky, plunging and wheeling, not trapped to the ground and shackled - metaphorically, of course - to a mistress like he was. to be like that. it must be lovely. he wondered how his brothers were as he refilled the lamps along the corridor with a pot of oil. where were they now - were they even still alive? he was sure brude was not. brude was the eldest, the strongest, the fastest on foot and the best with a bow and arrow. but not with horses. the animals had always been emcat's thing and he remembered the britannia pony in the forum the other day, shivering slightly as the temperature dropped. emcat had been a good horseman; he could scramble aboard one in the blink of an eye and if they were practically galloping past. something brude had always envied - which was why he left to join the clan's army, wasn't it? because emcat, the second youngest, the baby-faced child with a golden touch for equines, had outshone him in something and it was his job to outshine everyone. so it was all his fault, then. emcat sighed and his hands almost lost their grip on the oil pot. his eye widened considerably in fright and he just about caught it, arms scrabbling and flailing around the ceramic object. he had it! he couldn't afford to drop it, he knew. of course, it wasn't like he was going to lose pecunia - but emcat's hands had never touched the foreign currency of rome before. he was a servus, his place was the unpaid labour - free if it wasn't for the fact he had to be clothed and fed. he was lucky for that, at least. his mind wandered back home again as he moved to the next lamp and he thought of drustan, the youngest of them all. baby drustan, sweet as honey drustan. not many people knew that drustan was more drustan the demon. but emcat remembered his little face the night he had been taken into slavery - he had made his younger brother hide and he hadn't been among the captured. hopefully he was safe? such thoughts. he shouldn't be thinking about them now, he had no way of ever seeing them again. emcat shook his head and almost dropped the pot again, stumbling forward over a section of uneven ground. he skittered - then dropped it for real, drenching himself in oil as he did so and squeaking as the pot shattered into red-brown earthenware pieces on the floor in front of him. oh, he was for it now, for sure! TO YOUR MAGIC HAT tagged: iuliana 8) muse: ashes to ashes - david bowie notes: have a lickle emcat in your life ouo credits to min of on the edge |
