karine's drabble request

[secret_history]

Yet another gaming drabble request. I seem to have been in a lot more games than I thought. Writing this made me seriously nostalgic for Safiya. I miss the utter chaos, the blithe abandon with which she hurled herself into all her undertakings. :)


"Calliope! Midnaaaaaaaaaa!"

There was no mistaking the voice, or the tone. Nothing about Safiya had ever been subtle, or quiet. It was part of her charm, but in the hours before dawn, saying that a shriek like that grated on the nerves was one hell of an understatement.

Calliope was the first to reach the front room of the small townhouse, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Midna's first reaction had been to reach for her weapons, and so she followed a few seconds behind.

"Safiya, what in the name of all the gods…" Calliope rubbed the sleep from her eyes, her flaming red hair mussed, the shift she'd hastily grabbed to put on hanging at an awkward angle on her dancer's body. It was unusual for her to appear in disarray, but then, she wasn't usually awake at this hour.

Midna scowled when she saw that Safiya was not, in fact, being pursued by bandits, in danger of being smitten by a vengeful god or other, or bleeding to death. She towered behind Calliope, standing a good head taller than the graceful dancer, looking as though she was sorely tempted to deal out death to Safiya herself, just for good measure.

"Couldn't this have waited until the morning?" she demanded.

Safiya bounced happily on her toes, blithely unaware of Midna's ire and Calliope's concern. "You won't believe what happened!" She pulled off the robe that she wore outside now, wandering around half-naked being acceptable for slaves but not freedwomen, although she still found the unfamiliar fabric constraining and uncomfortable. Inside, she could dress as she pleased.

Calliope sighed, resigned to getting no sleep for the rest of the night. "So tell us."

"Well, I was going out to see Gallus Minimus' wife, because she's been having bad pains all week, although Gavra thinks that she's not due for at least another five days, but I think maybe the babe will come a bit early because the pains have been very close together and she says that all babies in her family come early and she said her father used to joke about babies in their family being too curious to stay in the womb for too long, and…"

"Safiya," Midna sat down, putting aside her sword. "What happened when you went out?"

"Oh, right," Safiya grinned excitedly. "So I went out, but I took a wrong turn somewhere, and I got lost." Calliope and Midna groaned. They had lived for years in Rome, and Safiya still managed to get lost every time she ventured more than half a league from their house. "But I met this man, and he was very nice, and he said he would show me the way if I followed him, so I did."

"You followed a complete stranger?" Calliope sounded resigned rather than appalled. This was standard practice.

"Yes, but that's not the important part, because of the prophecy, but that came later. He said that I should come right away and tell you all about it because it's really important, because we might have to leave. Well, he said I have to leave but I told him I didn't really want to go without you because we always go on adventures together and besides you and Midna know a lot more about this sort of thing than I do and you're a lot more sensible about it and he said that it was all right and that I should come and talk to you about it and then come back and tell him what we decided and…"

"Wait, wait! Hold it!" Midna's mood was deteriorating by the second. "Prophecy? Leaving?"

"Uh-huh," Safiya nodded, her black curls bouncing about her head. "Something about the Mother of All Egypt and delivering the land from the Serpent. I didn't understand it all, but I wrote it down… hang on…" she began rummaging through the sack she'd taken to carrying with her when she was working.

Calliope and Midna exchanged a look, and Calliope heaved a melodramatic sigh.

"I suppose this means I'll have to cancel my luncheon appointment with the governor tomorrow."

Comments

[elanya.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. Your characterizations are all very good in these little drabbles, even where I lack context :)

Intriguing little tidbits they are!

[secret-history.livejournal.com]

Safiya was one of my favourite characters. Her specialty was being completely unable to tell a story straight from beginning to end. Her narratives were confused, garbled, paid no attention to chronology, and usually consisted of one giant run-on sentence. :)

[karine.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I miss them...

Thank you, Phnee :) That was awesome!