Saiyuki Gaiden ficlets

[flemmings]

Story I wrote for nekonexus' Christmas stocking:

Here is no water but only rock

--Goujun, Tenpou and the squad

And a Goujun drabble:

'Somehow I don't feel alive unless there's ground under my feet..."

There's no ground under Goujun's feet, not any more. His loyal men betrayed him; his loyal men didn't betray *him*. That disgrace of a general fought to kill him; that general just saved his life. He'd have killed the general; now he's yelling at him to live. It won't happen. He hears it not happening. The army's disgrace dies with a valour he shouldn't have possessed.

When the ground disappears from under you, you stand on emptiness. Goujun lets go of everything, hoping the final crash doesn't annihilate him.

Comments

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

ohhh ... BOTH so much to love! *sigh* I have missed his highness.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Thanks very. ^_^

The drabble requires you to know that near story's end General Kenren and Goujun are carrying out the duel they've both wanted for soooo long, except Kenren is weak and wounded and there's a HUUUGE bearlike creature that loooms up to attack them both, taking out Goujun's eye as it does so. At which Kenren shoves Goujun backwards into a convenient air shaft, where Goujun dangles by one hand (the other is holding his sword) and yells to Kenren that he has to come too. Kenren, bleeding, with the weight of the beast on top of him, says 'Nahh. Gotta have ground under my feet or I don't feel like I'm alive.' He then apostrophizes bear-thing (and Goujun too by implication), saying Hey ya wanna live, then live; you're hungry, then eat!' Bear-thing kills Kenren. Goujun, one-handed in his shaft, lets go of his sword so he can salute Kenren's passing, as per icon. Then lets go and drops into the shaft, and is nearly killed and certainly paralysed as a result.

[incandescens]

Those are both gorgeous. The sea piece in particular is beautiful.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[purpleicicles.livejournal.com]

Adoring the sea piece - Gojun in his own element at last!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Thanks. 'Dragon king of the western ocean' is what everyone automatically calls him in the Gaiden, and one tends to forget exactly what that /means/.

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

The drabble is sharply poignant - it seems there would indeed be so many contradictory things running through Goujun's mind in those moments.

The other piece is just...stunningly beautiful. Goujun in his element and Tenpou grasping the revelation of what 'in his element' really means - it's a very heady realization, insightful and artfully wordsmithed, and it leaves me the same warm feeling of reverent awe that the ocean in general usually does. Reading this leaves me yearning to be on some isolated rocky beach feeling the wind and the spray, watching the waves crash into the shore and bearing witness to all that unbridled primal power. Touches a deep chord of resonance in me - so glad you wrote this one. It's beautiful.

The image of a stripped-down dragon king cavorting in the surf is also something to be deeply appreciated, on an entirely different level altogether. ^_^

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm glad it worked for you, because I feel rather as Tenpou does about the sea. There's just too *much* of it for comfort.

(I did wonder if I should have Tenpou carefully note the details of the stripped-down dragon king, but decided to keep the fic perfectly gen.)