It's been a while

[wayfaringwordhack]

...since I've done a meme.

Even though I could have sworn I've done this one before, I can't find it under my meme tag, so at asakiyume's "request" I'm doing it again.

In the comments, tell me about a story I haven’t written, and I’ll give you one sentence from that story.  Then do the meme on your own LJ, if you are so inclined, so I can "remember" a story of yours, too

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yay! So glad you're playing!

I want you to tell me the one about the minstrel who promised the fairies his first song but then reneged on the deal.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Closing his eyes on the crowded tavern, Bartholomew strummed the last chord. A perfect, final note filled an awed silence.

Bartholomew slumped over his harp, waiting to be revived by thunderous applause. The note faded, only his labored breath breaking the quiet. The applause did not come.

Straightening, Bartholomew glared at the crowd. How dare they not give him his due--

Steady light from hearth and lamps played over a strange tableau. Tankards paused midway to thirsty mouths; raised hands never met in a clap; rictus smiles distorted immovable faces. The door stood ajar, letting in chill night air, but the opener was caught mid-stride at the threshold. Nothing and no one moved.

No one except a slight figure, seated at the first table. Pale hands lifted an ample hood, and a firefly glow lit a fairy's slender face.

Bartholomew's mouth went dry. He bolted up from the stool. The fairy lifted a holly branch, and his hands stuck to the harp's neck, his soles softened and melded with the stage.

Standing, the fairy sighed heavily. She stepped onto the stage, and black bloomed from her pupils, swallowing the irises and whites of her eyes. Her hair floated like milkweed fluff around her sharp-boned head.

"Bartholomew Krupert, did you truly believe we wouldn't know?"

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Aaaaahhh! That terrified and delighted me!! Seriously, I got a tingle of real fear.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Hooray. I guess I can say my job here is done. :P

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I don't think you ever finished the story about the girl who fell in love with the boy in the moon.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Hannah leaped off the parapet into the gondola. Wicker crackled under her soft boot soles; her weight made the basket dip and sway. The flame keeping the envelope aloft hissed and flickered, and she waited for it to steady before untethering the mongolfier balloon.

Her mother stepped out of the shadows and grabbed her wrist.

"Please, Hannah." Tears swimming in her mother's eyes reflected the stars' glow. "Don't go. This is foolishness."

Hannah looked at the moon, the bellying swell of silk obscuring all but a sliver. She couldn't see him, but he was up there, waiting.

Gently, she worked the knot out of the tether and twisted free of her mother's grasp. "You're the one who always told me to follow my heart, Momma. And, well, my heart's up there."