#yep the earth is about four times wider than the moon!

[https-furina]

did you know that australia is wider than the diameter of the moon :3

omg what no i did not that’s so !!!! COOL

[rainydaydream-gal18]

Imagine: Fili and Injuries (Sequel to Balin Giving You Love Advice)

          You made your way back to camp, one arm wrapped around a bundle of firewood you gathered while the other hand touched your braid.  A smile grew on your face as you recalled the bonding time with Balin.  He had become like a grandfather figure to you and just made it official by braiding your hair.  You were basically family now.  Not to mention the elderly dwarf had sealed the deal by imparting some love advice to you.  It was a sneaky plan, really.  He suggested that you fake an injury, a twist of the ankle maybe, in order to get your crush’s attention.  Of course, you didn’t take the advice.  The Company had plenty of things to deal with.  That last thing you wanted was to make anyone worry over a fake injury. Balin’s suggestion had been hilarious, nonetheless.  To think that he could be so mischievous…  It made you smile and even laugh aloud a few times on the way back with the firewood.  You almost hadn’t noticed one of your comrades approach you several minutes later.  

              “Hey, _______,” Kili greeted you with a big grin. “How is my favorite female Company member doing?”

              “I’m the only female Company member,” you reminded, eyeing him suspiciously.  That grin of his was just too big.  He was up to something.  But then again, the young dwarf prince was always up to something.

              “My point still stands,” he retorted.  The grin faltered, but morphed into more of a smirk.

              “What’s going on?” you asked, suspicion growing into concern.  His smirk vanished, and he looked a little more on the nervous side.

              “Oh, nothing.  Nothing at all.”  He rocked back on his heels for a moment, hands folded behind his back as he glanced around in an attempt at nonchalance.  “Beautiful night.”

              “Yeah, it is,” you glanced up at the night sky, which you could barely see through the canopy of trees in the forest.  Stars shone like distant diamonds through gaps in the branches.  The moon was very bright and cast rays of silver on the scene.  “The sky is so clear.”

              “Mhm.”  He nodded.

              “And the moon is really bright.  I haven’t seen a moon like that in a long time.”

              “Indeed.”

              “Yep.”   You tore your gaze away from the sky and let it rest on him for a moment.  The moon cast dark shadows on his face.  He seemed to be staring at something distractedly over your shoulder.  Before you could turn to look, he spoke up suddenly.

              “Um, what’s that over there?  Is that an owl?” he nearly shouted, pointing to your right.  An alarm went off somewhere in your mind, a warning of sorts.  But you ignored it in the heat of the moment as you turned to see what he was pointing at.  Of course nothing was there.  There were only trees looming before you.  No owl, or whatever.

              “Kili-”

              Your inquiry was cut off when a sudden shove from your left side caused you to stumble.  Arms flailed in a sad attempt to establish balance, but it was no use.  A tree root caught on your foot, and a sharp pain jabbed in your ankle as you fell to the forest floor.  

              “Ow!” you winced, sitting up slightly on your elbows. Your eyes flashed up to glare at the culprit.  “Why did you do that?”

              A smirk appeared on his face for barely a millisecond, but it vanished just as quickly.  You wondered if you imagined it.

              “________!  Are you alright?”  A familiar voice called from behind.  Footsteps hurried through the grass and fallen leaves until a certain dwarf prince stood in front of you, his concerned blue eyes gazing at you.

              “I’m fine, I just….fell,” you replied, cheeks flushing red from embarrassment.  Of course it had to be Fili to see you like this. The only dwarf in the Company that you would have preferred not to see you falling to the ground clumsily.  Your eyes flickered to Kili briefly in irritation.

Fili followed your gaze to his brother immediately, and put two and two together. “What did you do?”

              Kili threw his hands up, feigning innocence. “It was an accident!  I barely bumped into her, brother.  I didn’t realize she would fall so easily.”

              “You should be more careful,” Fili huffed to the dark-haired prince before turning to hold out a hand towards you with a charming smile.  “Here.”

              You offered a small grateful smile as you took his hand.  But when the strong dwarf lifted you to your feet effortlessly, the sharp pain returned to your ankle, making you crumble to your knees again.  “Ouch!”

              “What?  What’s wrong?”  Fili questioned, kneeling in front of you.  His eyes searched your face anxiously.   You didn’t mean for him to be upset, but it was kind of sweet for him to be fussing so much.        

“It’s okay,” you assured him.  “I think I may have twisted my ankle in the fall.”

His expression turned from anxious to serious, his eyebrows furrowing.  “Kili, go tell Oin.  Now.”

              It was strange to see Kili leaving with a smug look on his face.  What on earth was he smirking about, anyway?  There was absolutely nothing funny about the situation!  Your thoughts were interrupted by Fili sliding an arm behind your back.  

              “Can you wrap your arms around my neck?” he asked.

              You blinked.  “What?”

              “It will take Oin forever to finally understand what Kili is trying to tell him.  We might as well get you to a more comfortable spot back at camp,” he explained. You barely understood what he was saying because the close proximity with someone you fancied was throwing you off a bit.

              “You don’t have to do that,” you protested.

              “I’m not going to let you limp back to camp.”  He flashed a charming grin beneath his braided moustache.  “So you might as well allow me the pleasure of helping you.”

              It only took a few seconds of his blue eyes, glinting with amusement, staring into yours for you to give in.  “Okay,” you agreed, giving a small nod.  His grin grew wider as you tentatively wrapped your arms around his neck.  With one arm still around your back, he carefully slid his other arm under your legs and lifted you up with ease.  It was quiet all of a sudden, and the only sounds you could hear were his footsteps in the forest and your own heart beating wildly.  It was unbearable.

              “Thorin’s going to mad,” you muttered.  “I didn’t get the firewood…”

              “Nevermind him,” Fili chuckled softly.  He looked down at you, and the light-hearted sound faltered as he did a double-take.  “Your hair,” he said, his voice cracking slightly.  “It’s…braided.”    

              “Yeah, I know.  It was really getting on my nerves.  I’m really glad that he braided it for me.  I was having trouble finding a clip to keep it together.”

              “He?”  Now there was no mistaking the downcast expression.

              “Yes,” you nodded.  “Balin.”

              “Balin?” his brows rose incredulously for a moment. Then, he full-on laughed.  “As a gesture of grandfatherly love, I presume.”

              “Well, of course,” you laughed.  “Because I don’t have any family members on this journey to do it for me.”

              “Of course,” he repeated.   The silence in the conversation returned for a minute as Fili stepped over a particularly large fallen tree.  “I must admit, I was disappointed for a moment.”

              “What do you mean?”

              “When I thought someone else had braided your hair.” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “That someone was courting you.”

              “Oh,” you blushed at the unexpected confession. “I would have been disappointed too, if it were anyone other than you.”  Your eyes widened at the realization you said that aloud.  Oh no…You probably crossed a line at that one... But to your relief, Fili was grinning.

              He opened his mouth, probably to retort with some witty flirt, but was interrupted when two members of the Company came crashing into the clearing.

              “Here’s Oin,” Kili announced.  He paused when he saw Fili carrying you and you with your arms around his neck.  He smiled slyly.  “It looks like you took things into your own hands, Fee.”

              “Well, it took you long enough to find Oin,” he retorted.

              “You might as well bring her right to camp,” Oin told him.  “I’ll have a look at her ankle then.”  The four of you continued only a few yards before emerging into the clearing where camp was.  You wanted to hide your face from Balin’s knowing look as he watched Fili carefully set you down on a bedroll.  Oin knelt to take a look at your ankle.  “It’s not broken,” he announced.  “Just a sprain.  But you might want to stay off it for the rest of the night.  I’ll let Thorin know.”

              “Thank you, Oin.”

              Across the way, Balin was watching the watching the scene with arms folded.  Kili went over to join him, and they shook hands.  Then it clicked.  Balin’s advice.  Kili randomly pushing you over “on accident” so you just happened to sprain your ankle….  

            You glanced at Fili, who watched as Oin wrapped up your injured ankle, and then you stared at Balin and Kili in absolute disbelief.   They waved back with pleasant smiles on their faces.  It looks like you took Balin’s advice, whether you wanted to or not.

[stephwriteswords]

FIND THE WORDS

I was tagged by the lovely Laurel ( @sleepy-night-child​ ) with the words:

refuse,

afraid,

close,

and problem.

I don’t really know anyone in the writeblr community yet, and I certainly can’t keep track of who may have already done this, so if you’re seeing this, take this as an invitation. I know it’s hard when nobody like, invited you, but you can definitely tag me in your post(s) and say I tagged you...because I am tagging you! Sort of!

If you do decide to take this from me, take these words with you:

ugly,

together,

tumble,

and laughter.

Onto the game! Excerpts beneath the cut for length because why be shortwinded when you can be longwinded, amirite <3 Read on for cuts from The Four Corners and The Adventures of Princess Marigold!! Please let me know if you’d like to be included in taglist(s)!

REFUSE: THE FOUR CORNERS

“I know what you mean,” Fiona said, because she did. “I mean, I’ve been a were-- I’ve been in my, um, club, since birth, but…” Fiona sighed. “There’s so much I don’t know. So much I didn’t even know I didn’t know until I got here.”

“Like what?”

“Like-- like you, and your independent study, like…” Fiona sighed helplessly. “If I’d known how much I was missing, I would’ve left Missouri a long time ago.”

“Go back a minute,” Jo said, leaning forward on one hand. “Did you say you’ve been, um, how you are, since… since birth?”

Fiona nodded. “I wasn’t-- um, inducted. My parents were, so me and my brother both are.”

Jo’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t know that was possible.” She pulled a tablet from her backpack, murmuring a few words as she pressed her fingers against the screen. There was a faint purple glow and it unlocked for her - and then she was hastily writing something, using a purple stylus that had appeared from apparently nowhere. “...since birth… parents…”

“Um,” Fiona said. “That’s not - I mean, that’s not how it always works,” Fiona said; Jo paused to look up at her. “My parents got lucky with me and Flynn.”

“Lucky how?”

“Well… pregnancy is hard on a body in general, without - without going through what we go through.” Fiona said, her voice even as she continued. “So it’s hard for females - for women who are, um, in my club to get pregnant and stay that way.”

Jo’s eyes went somehow even wider, and Fiona blushed under the pressure. “And even if they do, it’s not, like, a guarantee that the pu-- that the kids would be, um, in the club.” “It’s not?”

Fiona shook her head. “Like I said, they got lucky with us. And not just ‘cause we’re the coolest kids ever.”

Jo laughed and wrote more down with her purple stylus, then looked back at her. “My family doesn’t know about me,” Jo admitted, in a quiet sort of half-whisper, sounding resigned and disappointed all at once. “Sometimes I think it’d be so much easier, but… I mean, they wouldn’t believe me anyway, and if they did, they’d probably just… I don’t know, send me to Bible Camp again or something.”

“Bible Camp? Again?” Fiona stared. She’d never even heard of Bible Camp, and from Jo’s tone of voice, she didn’t really want to.

Jo waved a hand dismissively. “Never mind,” she said, returning a smile to her face. “I have my coven, and that’s more than enough for me.” Jo’s smile widened. “They’ve been so great to me. Has your p-- I mean, your club, have they been nice to you? Winnie said you weren’t the only new one, right?”

Fiona nodded, though she hesitated. “I’m - I’m not the only new one, no, but, um… I’m not sure if I’m supposed to tell you or not.” Fiona sighed quietly. “I’m not sure how, you know, secretive it really all has to be…”

Jo pursed her lips slightly. “Okay, let me ask you a different way. Is her name Kate?”

“Y-- wait, what? No, it’s not,” Fiona said, her frown deepening. “Who’s Kate?”

“Nobody!” Jo said, too quickly to be anything like convincing. “Never mind. I was just guessing a random name, trying to up my psychic game, forget I said anything.”

“Jo--”

“Seriously,” Jo said. “Forget I said anything. Please?”

Fiona blinked. “...Are you gonna cast a spell on me if I refuse?”

Jo blinked in return, then started laughing. She wiggled her fingers playfully at Fiona. “And you wouldn’t even know if I did!”

AFRAID: THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCESS MARIGOLD

Marigold nodded, glad that even though Patrick couldn’t remember how old he was, he still celebrated that he was still alive. “Who do you invite to your parties?” Marigold asked, her mind already filling in with images of fairies, pixies, little fox friends and all sorts of fantasy creatures, gathered together around a table, with a Unicorn-shaped cake right in the middle.

She knew, objectively, that there probably wasn’t cake. Or a table. In spite of the fact that Patrick could speak to her - and that she could understand him, no less! - he was still a Unicorn, which was still a type of animal. He didn’t have the thumbs required to open stoves or cut slices of cake.

He probably didn’t even have a stove. Or a kitchen. Or a house.

That made Marigold sad.

“Patrick,” she said, “where do you live?”

“You are full of questions,” Patrick said, and Marigold just grinned and gave an enthusiastic nod of her head.

“Yep!” she said, proud of this fact - people had been telling her since she could remember that she talked too much, asked ‘why’ too much, read too much and had too many thoughts in her head, but both of her parents had assured her that there was no such thing as ‘too much’ curiosity, and while there was a time and a place for certain questions, it was almost always a good thing to ask them. The people who said she talked too much were just afraid of doing the same, so they were trying to make her afraid, too.

But Marigold had never been afraid of that. She couldn’t have been even if she tried - her opinions, thoughts, questions and sometimes even answers to those same questions all came tumbling out of her mouth whether she liked it or not. So Marigold had decided to like it. Why shouldn’t she? Her parents said that the secret to eternal life was to always be learning, and Marigold loved learning.

CLOSE: THE FOUR CORNERS

The Alpha paused. For a moment, she wondered if he might force her, if he might tug her into the stream of pack that she could feel all around her.

But he didn’t. He gave a slight nod and half turned and gave a little woof - the two behind her trotted obediently to him and kept on trotting. He looked at the little white female and nosed her gently, and she started walking into the woods, though considerably slower than the other two.

And then it was just the two of them.

He looked back at her and sat down. Fiona tilted her head.

His name was Dominic.

She remembered that - the body of his fur was deep brown, with lighter splashes across his chest and face; he was bigger than she was, but still built light. The male that had passed her and gone into the woods was easily the biggest of any of them.

His name was Dominic.

He let out a low whine and took a few hopping steps toward the woods, pausing again to look back at her.

He wanted her to go with them.

He still wasn’t forcing her. He still wasn’t inducting her into his pack by force - he wasn’t dragging her.

But he still wanted to run with her.

Fiona grinned, as best she could, and then she took off at a run, zipping past him quick as anything, and she heard his surprised chuff as he kicked up after her. She was smaller than he was and that helped her, but his legs were long and he was sure in these woods, more sure than she was; he caught up quickly and that was fine, because she found that she wanted to follow him. The other three - and they were a three now - were waiting for them, with the little white wolf play-tackling the male.

The male was almost all black, except for a spot of white over his right eye. Tanner, his name was. He was being - remarkably patient with the little white wolf as she played with him, nipping at his ear and chasing his tail when he wiggled away from her. And the other female, L...L...Lucy - she was grey as morning mist, except for her ears, that looked like they’d been bleached in the sun. She sat to the side, her big fluffy tail wrapped around her legs as she watched them.

When the Alpha appeared, they stopped playing and got to their feet, and Dominic skidded to a stop too, slightly breathless from their run, and there was a moment of silence where they all just - looked at each other.

And there was the magic again. They were magical. This was perfect.

The thrum of their pack edged closer to Fiona’s heart.

Dominic let out a low, long howl. Fiona’s ears pricked forward as the other male joined in, offering a low sort of harmony, and then the females, first the grey one and then the little white one, high and uncertain.

She didn’t have to join in.

And for a minute she didn’t - she just listened to their song. It was beautiful, listening to them like this; they were all so young, and they were all so - not quite scared, but they knew this wasn’t easy, what they were doing. This pack wasn’t twenty-five wolves strong. This pack was a fragile sort of thing, still, and she could hear it in their song.

But it was still beautiful.

When she joined in, her howl fit in perfectly, like she knew the score. They sang to the moon and to the sky and to the thousands of stars. They sang and sang and sang, and when they were done, they ran again.

Somewhere, sometime, they stopped running for fun. They stopped running to feel the wind and the earth and to see everything they possibly could. They stopped playing chase and tag and fight, they stopped messing around.

They remembered what they were.

PROBLEM: THE FOUR CORNERS

She rubbed at the stamp again. “Who are you?”

“Jake,” he answered, giving a little unceremonious shrug. “Jake Hernandez. What’s your name?”

“Fiona,” she said, awkwardness creeping up on her - but she pushed it aside and tried to focus on the many, many unanswered questions she had before her. “How do you work here?”

“Are you asking for a job?”

Fiona gave him a look. “I mean, how do you work here? I thought-- I didn’t think any humans knew about us.”

Jake smiled. “Most of them don’t,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “Most of them aren’t the owner’s son, though.”

Fiona raised her eyebrows. “A human owns this place?” That was more surprising than having a human work there - she couldn’t quite believe so many supernatural beings were gathered in this place owned by someone who shouldn’t even know they existed.

“It was one of the terms,” Jake explained. At her confused expression, he continued, “the terms of this place existing. Everybody’s welcome here, long as they don’t cause problems, and my family - really, humans at large - are neutral. Nobody’s out to hurt them. Hurt us.” Jake paused. “Or at least nobody here is. So humans run this place, and everybody who’s not human has a place to eat, drink, fuck and be merry.”

Fiona nearly choked on her water, which made Jake laugh loudly and a lot. She glowered at him.

“But-- I mean, how--”

Jake nodded to her hand, and she looked back at it. “Everybody gets dampened on entry. A zero tolerance violence policy, especially across species lines - that’s why I interrupted you back there. Looked like you were gonna go for her jugular.” He eyed her curiously. “Why was that?”

Fiona shook her head. “I don’t think I should talk about it.” Fiona pursed her lips - she didn’t want to talk about it partially because it wasn’t this human’s business, and also because she didn’t trust herself to hold onto her tenuously calm temper if she got thinking about it too intensely. “How long does this last?” Fiona asked instead, scratching at the mark on her hand with her nail - it wasn’t glowing anymore, which meant she could barely see it against her skin. If she hadn’t gotten worked up, she wouldn’t have even hardly noticed it.

“Only as long as you’re on the property,” Jake assured her. “You let the door guy know if you’re leaving and coming back that same day, he fixes it to reactivate once you cross our property lines. Otherwise, it leaves you when you leave us.”

Fiona nodded, then let out a long, slow breath. “...Were the vampires… was that blood that they were drinking?”

Jake grinned. “Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?” Fiona stared at him. “No? Okay, fair enough, I guess. We’re just - it took us forever to figure out how to get volunteer, uncompelled, safe blood donations, or at least how to get enough to feed an entire city’s vampiric population. Did you know we’re the only bar safe for all types of creatures in the city? And we’re one of only four neutral spaces in city limits,” he added, clearly proud of himself.

taglist: @croctears