shatterverse | (no subject)

Entry tags:

hibym a jona,
iroh

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They scrub her up, dress her all nice in dirty grey, tie her hands behind her back and lead her blind out of her cell with the black hood knotted closed at the front. She can't breathe in the smoky street air, can't hear over the press of boos and cheers and chatter that erupts on her ears.

This is it. She's going to die.

The hangman's hands are surprisingly gentle -- but then they have to be, don't they? The crowd needs to be told who's the hero and the villain of the scene -- it's just like a play, she realises, just the endlessly-retold fable of the Bad Little Thief who was Brought To Justice. She's blithely accepted it hundreds of times as part of the gleeful crowd.

This is it. This is it. She's going to die, and they're going to mince her body so she can't come back, and--

--there's a split second's nothing as the hangman pulls the trapdoor lever, clunk, and--

--SHE SCREAMS as the wood beneath her feet vanishes, crack, and--

--hits grass, crumples, struggles, falls, screams again, is she dead?, screams again.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hard to argue with, really.

She trots after him, giving in to the urge of all teenage girls, human or not, to go "ooh!" at big fluffy things.

Well, they are rather cute. Iroh himself is grinning. Of course when he reaches the herd he sort of stops. He has no idea what to do now that he's within arm's reach of a Flying Bison.

Jona does! You reach out towards one at the edge of the group (nervously at first, and then with increasing glee) and go pat pat pat!

It smells quite bad, but it's adorable.

Iroh's smile widens as he watches her. It's nice to see that some people are still innocent despite the world he lives in.

For now he's content to sit back and smile as Jona gets to know the somewhat bemused-looking Flying Bison.

It goes grrrrnh? at her. She'll take that to mean hello.

Hee, it's like trying to hug a big furry hill!

"Why do they have so many legs?" she calls to Iroh, beaming.

The wide smile is interrupted by a briefly confused look. "What do you mean?" Six legs isn't "so many"! That's how many legs they're supposed to have.

Jona holds up six fingers for his benefit.

"Only bugs have more than four, I think."

Iroh simply lifts an eyebrow and chuckles. "Perhaps where you are from."

...oh, yeah.

For lack of a convenient wall, Jona's just going to bury her face in the Bison's pelt for a moment.

The Bison must find this interesting, judging by the rumbling sound it makes. Iroh grins again. "Well, it seems that we might not have to walk after all."

If he can figure out how to ride a Flying Bison and not die.

There's a trick to it, to be sure!

Jona blinks at him. Then at the bison. Then at him. Then at the bison.

"...ride these things? ...How would we even get on?"

"That's the question, isn't it." Iroh strokes his beard in thought, "I don't imagine you'd have any problems getting up there, if the bison doesn't mind anyway." Not after her little display earlier.

"I'm not so sure about myself."

"Could give you a leg-up," she offers.

...What? She can try!

"Of course," he grins as he steps forward and laces his fingers together to form a step. "But remember than I'm an old man, so don't be too hard on me."

Jona laughs.

"I meant the other way round!" She mimics his motions, offering him her own hand-step ~~and hoping that he isn't very heavy~~. "Not much point you lifting me up if you can't climb up after, is there?"

Iroh considers her for a moment. "I don't want to break you," he says hesitantly, looking down at his rather evident paunch.

...

Point.

"You sure you'll be good to get up, though?"

"We'll figure something out, I'm sure. We should probably figure out if the Bison minds first, though."

Good idea. And Jona doesn't mind being the guinea-pig.

She tugs off her thin shoes, sticks the laces in her mouth to carry them, and swings up as gently as possible onto the bison's flank. It says grrrrrnh again, and shakes its head at her. But it means it amiably, she swears: it's not like she weighs that much to cause it trouble.

(She tries to ignore the fact that her arms and legs are shaking, and she's out of breath, by the time she reaches its back. She could go on like this forever. Right.)

"He seems fine with it," she calls down, sticking her head out the better to see Iroh. The height doesn't bother her at all.

Iroh's grin widens. "Now we just need to figure out how an old man like myself is supposed to get up there." He looks around, trying to find some inspiration.

"Got any rope?"

They could... tie it to the horns, or... something. Hang on, let her think this through a bit better.

Looking down at his tattered robes the only thing that even looks remotely like a rope is the dirty sash tying his robe shut. "Sadly they didn't give me any." Not part of the standard prison unifrom, apparently.

"Who didn't?"

See how easy it is to distract Jona from the task at hand?

"The guards." At the prison. Iroh's voice is distracted as he continues to look around hoping that something will strike him as a brilliant solution to the current delimna.

Um.

"What guards?"

And poof, her voice is quick and wary. Jona sort of fails at hiding her emotions, really.