ficlets100 - number seven.

[rawri]

001.	Guilt	002.	New	003.	Solitude	004.	Content	005.	Tale
006.	Distort	007.	Luxury	008.	Listen	009.	Party	010.	Scent
011.	Storm	012.	Lessons	013.	Apology	014.	Relief	015.	Breeze
016.	Fading	017.	Passion	018.	Stay	019.	Rain	020.	Within
021.	Dread	022.	Revenge	023.	Time	024.	Perfect	025.	Eyes
026.	Bloom	027.	Beginning	028.	Bath	029.	Object	030.	Lost
031.	Pride	032.	Death	033.	Dance	034.	Remember	035.	Savage
036.	Late	037.	Crossroads	038.	Change	039.	Hope	040.	Dawn
041.	Hero	042.	Annoy	043.	Trouble	044.	Imagine	045.	Believe
046.	Words	047.	Home	048.	Understand	049.	Cage	050.	Animal
051.	Woods	052.	Fun	053.	Dare	054.	Spell	055.	Pray
056.	Warmth	057.	Mess	058.	Leap	059.	Attention	060.	Shopping
061.	Dessert	062.	Paper-cut	063.	Compromise	064.	Mouth	065.	Gone
066.	Intuition	067.	Fairies	068.	Gift	069.	Priceless	070.	Jewel
071.	Grin	072.	Quake	073.	Blush	074.	System	075.	Pressure
076.	Crash	077.	Closer	078.	Break	079.	Habit	080.	Safe
081.	Confusion	082.	Someday	083.	Instigate	084.	Goodnight	085.	Paint
086.	Always	087.	Guide	088.	Embrace	089.	Fall	090.	Help
091.	Different	092.	Anticipation	093.	Real	094.	Enough	095.	Again
096.	Glorify.	097.	Lack thereof.	098.	Fix.	099.	Smile.	100.	A little.

Comments

ffvii -> ⌈53.⌋ Dare.

[rawri.livejournal.com]

There’s a cat strung up by its hind legs, strung up on a string with is on a stick, and Cid’s carrying the stick because the rest of the kids are plain pansies. The cat’s yowling, and Cid tells it to shut the heck up (he’d been learning new words lately, words like heck and darn and goddangit), but it doesn’t, so he shakes the stick a bit, makes it go back and forth, back and forth, and he’s so distracted with this that he doesn’t notice Nibel rising around him.

It was a dare, a stupid dare, if you asked Cid- simply take the cat up to the base of the mountains and get back before the nasty wolves bit your butt (another word he’d learned). But all the other kids thought it was a grand plan—at least, it was a great plan until they had to pick the person to do it.

And then they’d kept on arguing and talking. Like they were adults or something.

Cid didn’t like being made to wait. So he’d grabbed the stick, made the obligatory you’re all a bunch’a darn pansies! and set off. Really, the worst part was how much the cat yowled.

Which it wasn’t doing any longer. Cid paused, taking once glance into the cave they’d stopped before, shook the stick and told it to yowl more – more because he didn’t like how the cave sucked away all the noise than because he was actually scared -- but it didn’t listen. It was beyond evening at that point, colors reflecting on the grey stone, with red and orange and yellow and bright neon blue—

He dropped the stick only to get the cat to yowl again. That was the only reason. There was a man at the entrance of the cave, arm outstretched toward Cid as if he was saying stop (stop what?), and just like the cat, Cid didn’t.

He did rise up on his toes, puff out his chest, and let out a resounding what the heck are you frikking doing, you old geezer? lost your frigging marbles? and then the cat was finally yowling and the man was gone.

Well, sort of. Cid (slack jawed and wide eyed, facts that would be left out when he told the story to the kids later) stared—because it wasn’t everyday you met an old man who could fly. Really fly, too, going straight up against the red and orange as a streak of blue, and Cid swore that he flew straight into space.

Cid vowed right then and there that he’d do the exact same thing. Dared himself (and not a stupid dare!). He’d do it before he got white hair, too, because he was Cid freaking Highwind, and no red-eyed weirdo was going to beat him.

-- Just like no wolf’s howl made him double-time it down the mountains.