aldersprig: (DragonBaby)
[personal profile] aldersprig
For [personal profile] meeks's prompt.

This is in the Dragons Next Door setting, which has a landing page here (and on LJ).

It is part of the series that includes:
Over the Wall (LJ Link),
The Black Tower (LJ Link,
The Pumpkin (LJ Link,
Skeletons (LJ)
and
Rule Three (DW)


“A lovely story.” Zizny watched me with one broad eye. “And your Sage seems like a very reasonable man, even when he was still a juvenile.”

“Very reasonable,” I agreed. “He’s a good man, my Sage.”

“But you have been avoiding telling me of your family woes. Perhaps a bargain?”

“A bargain?” I repeated dumbly. “What sort?” I’d been hoping to keep it entertained long enough to distract from the whole family issue at all.

“You clearly do not wish to discuss this, but I confess I am very curious. If you will tell me what it is that so bothers you about your family, I will tell you something, in return, that bothers me.” It paused. “About my kin-group as well, no less.”

That was, on the surface, fair. I nodded slowly. “I can do that.” Please don’t roast me. Zizny was my friend, my neighbor. It wouldn’t hold my ancestors against me, would it?

I took the longest, deepest breath I could, stalling, working up the nerve. “My father’s family are, for the most part, just poor, dirt-poor. Sometimes thieves, sometimes tricksters. There’s a thought there’s some elkin blood way back, and it would explain things, at least some things.”

“Mm. So it sounds as if they are not the ones who bother you?”

“Not really, no. As silly as that sounds.”

“It doesn’t sound silly at all. So your mother’s family? The grandmother who paid for your time at the Pumpkin?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “My mother’s family are what you’d call, or, at least, what people I know might call self-hating dwimors.” I watched Zizny’s expression, wondering if the term would be familiar… yes. Yes, that blink and all those very sharp teeth suggested that it had encountered the term before.

“Monster hunters, I believe they call themselves?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “Yes, yes they do.”


Date: 2011-11-16 07:07 pm (UTC)
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
From: [personal profile] meeks
"Monster"...as in, non-humans? That doesn't sound good. How did Audrey turn out to be so reasonable?

Date: 2011-11-18 10:44 pm (UTC)
meridian_rose: pen on letter background  with text  saying 'writer' (Default)
From: [personal profile] meridian_rose
Quite a skeleton in the family closet to reveal to a dragon. Zizny seems to be taking it quite calmly though :D

Date: 2011-11-20 02:37 am (UTC)
clare_dragonfly: woman with green feathery wings, text: stories last longer: but only by becoming only stories (Curse Workers: the easiest lies)
From: [personal profile] clare_dragonfly
Ooh, oh my. That is a good reason to not like them.

Where'd you get the word "dwimor"? I am mostly just curious, but also it kind of sounds like a lisped "dreamer."

"“he’s a good man" should be capitalized

Date: 2011-11-20 07:56 pm (UTC)
clare_dragonfly: woman with green feathery wings, text: stories last longer: but only by becoming only stories (Default)
From: [personal profile] clare_dragonfly
Aha. Yay for etymology!

Hurray for etymology!

Date: 2013-04-27 03:04 am (UTC)
thnidu: Tom Baker's Dr. Who, as an anthropomorphic hamster, in front of the Tardis. ©C.T.D'Alessio http://tinyurl.com/9q2gkko (Dr. Whomster)
From: [personal profile] thnidu
I was a bit surprised to see how you use it, but obviously it's taken a bit of a turn, as language is always doing.

• Tolkien, not surprisingly, was probably the one who brought this Old English word back, heh, to life. "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik!" (Éowyn to the Nazgûl Witch-King on the Field of Pelennor): probably either "sorcerer" or "creature of necromancy".

• In AD&D a "dweomer" is, iirc, either any kind of spell or some particular kind.

• All I could find in the OED in a couple of moments was "dweomercraeft: (Obs.) jugglery, magic art. Etym.: < Old English *dwimer, *dweomer, in gedwimer, gedwomer "illusion, sorcery, necromancy" (OED)

Edited Date: 2013-04-27 03:04 am (UTC)

Re: Hurray for etymology!

Date: 2013-04-29 02:44 pm (UTC)
thnidu: my familiar. "Beanie Baby" -type dragon, red with white wings (Default)
From: [personal profile] thnidu

I hope it didn't seem as if I were criticizing the change. "Dr. Whom" often personifies my prescriptivist leanings, and I have to lean on him to control them when I'm not trying to edit that way.

Re: Hurray for etymology!

Date: 2013-04-29 08:58 pm (UTC)
thnidu: my familiar. "Beanie Baby" -type dragon, red with white wings (Default)
From: [personal profile] thnidu

"No harm, no foul."

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