Disclaimer: You know the drill: not mine, don't sue, because no money was made from this. No copyright infringement is intended and any similarity to any story not my own is coincidence.
Title: And Who Avenges the Flowers?
Genre: Firefly drabble; River-centric
Timeline: Sometime after TBDM
Rating: R; for violence, language, and sexual assault mentioned
Warning: See above... this is probably as close to dark as I've ever written
Note: No, no I don't know where this came from as a matter of fact. So not like my typical pieces.
And Who Avenges the Flowers?
The man danced on the floor before her; a strange twitching dance of dark poses and darker colors as blood started to trickle from his nose.
“Gaa…”
It was simple thing really; a slight tweak here, a small twist there.
He didn’t even scream as more blood dripped from his ears and into a pattern on the deck floor, foretelling his future. Then he was still. River turned her attention to the next man. She stared into his blue eyes until they started to turn black, filling with red blood, rich from its source.
“You tried to take the flowers. No one is allowed to take the flowers,” the teenager said in a black tone like a dirge.
She reached further into the man’s mind; twisted just so.
“They were not yours to pluck,” she said slowly, in a voice full of the quiet promise of death. “The flowers give themselves away to who they want. They didn’t give themselves to you.”
The young girl knelt next to the man writhing in the cargo bay floor, careful to avoid the dark blood now dripping from his nose and ears.
“They don’t love you, and flowers are for lovers.”
He died with a wet rattle. River turned her attention to the last man; stepped over to him with a dancer’s grace.
“You little bitch,” the brute growled. “I’ll give you what for… I’ll give you a right proper fuck just like I did those two.” He waved is hand in the direction of the two unconscious and bruised women lying a short distance away.
“A right proper fuck,” River echoed, matching his inflections perfectly.
Then suddenly she was a blur and the man was on the floor with his fellows. She stepped back, the slim blade cleaned and back in her boot faster than anyone could really see. She watched him clutch his bleeding throat.
Suddenly there was sound and movement and a blur of angry voices bouncing from the walls.
“Bao bei…” River’s brother cried in alarm as he knelt by Kaylee.
Malcolm was next to Inara, murder in his own eyes.
Jayne scanned the cargo bay, his gun held ready.
“River…” Zoe said gently from behind her, coming as close as she dared.
The teenager turned to the beautiful solider.
“They tried to take the flowers,” she explained. “They tried to take the flowers and run away past the river.”
The teenager looked down to the three dead men on the floor. “But they forgot how to swim and the River caught them…” She looked back up to Zoe. “No one plucks the flowers… they only give themselves to lovers… Someone had to avenge the flowers...”
Book of Light and Shadows - Post a comment
More Scribblings of a Hopeful Romantic
- It's all because I have a puckish side that will not be denied...

this Marriage
-by John Ciardi
Most like an arch - an entrance which upholds
And shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.
Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.
Most like an arch - two weaknesses that lean
Into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyances become a term
Naming the fact that teaches fact to mean.
Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
What's strong and separate falters. All I do
At piling stone on stone apart from you
Is roofless around nothing. Till we kiss
I am no more than upright and unset.
It is by falling in and in we make
The all-bearing point, for one another's sake,
In faultless failing, raised by our own weight.


Looking for Your Face
-by Rumi
From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it.
Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for.
Today I have found you
and those that laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did.
I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.
My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold.
I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine.
Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow.
My soul is screaming in ecstasy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you
Your effulgence
has lit a fire in my heart
and you have made radiant
for me
the earth and sky.
My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer.

and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts
mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

-by Eastmountainsouth
As the music at the banquet
As the wine before the meal
As the firelight in the night
So are you to me
As the ruby in the setting
As the fruit upon the tree
As the wind blows over the plains
So are you to me
As the wind blows over the plains
So are you to me
So are you to me

- Gathering the Petals
- celebrity: claudia black
- celebrity: david boreanaz
- celebrity: emilie autumn
- celebrity: emily deschanel
- character: aeryn sun
- character: bones misc
- character: cara mason
- character: chiana
- character: chiba mamoru
- character: chibi-usa
- character: darken rahl
- character: earth 2 kids
- character: elizabeth weir
- character: john crichton
- character: kahlan amnell
- character: kate beckett
- character: kaylee frye
- character: lots misc
- character: malcolm reynolds
- character: myka bering
- character: olivia dunham
- character: peter bishop
- character: peter lattimer
- character: richard castle
- character: richard cypher
- character: river tam
- character: rory gilmore
- character: rose tyler
- character: seeley booth
- character: temperance b
- character: the doctor
- character: tsukino usagi
- character: zedd
- character: zhann
- fanart: fanfiction
- fanart: graphics
- fanart: icons
- fanart: picspams
- fanart: vids
- fanart: wallpapers
- fandom: alice in wonderland
- fandom: angel
- fandom: anime
- fandom: babylon 5
- fandom: bones
- fandom: bsg
- fandom: castle
- fandom: christy
- fandom: chuck
- fandom: doctor who
- fandom: earth 2
- fandom: enchanted
- fandom: farscape
- fandom: final fantasy
- fandom: firefly
- fandom: fringe
- fandom: gilmore girls
- fandom: grey's anatomy
- fandom: inuyasha
- fandom: jag
- fandom: legend of the seeker
- fandom: lord of the rings
- fandom: manga
- fandom: oz
- fandom: remington steele
- fandom: robin hood
- fandom: roswell
- fandom: sailor moon
- fandom: sg-1
- fandom: sga
- fandom: star trek enterprise
- fandom: the dresden files
- fandom: the hallows
- fandom: the pretender
- fandom: the x-files
- fandom: tin man
- fandom: warehouse 13
- genre: 5 things
- genre: au
- genre: drabble
- genre: fanfiction short story
- genre: ficlit
- genre: meme
- genre: my fiction
- genre: poems
- misc: challenges
- misc: collaboration
- misc: faeries
- misc: fandom inspired
- misc: flist
- misc: just talking
- misc: legendland big-bang
- misc: link post
- misc: scifi challenge
- misc: scifiland big-bang
- misc: seeking eden
- misc: song inspired
- misc: vampires
- misc: wip
- original: fiction
- original: poetry
- pairing: aeryn & john
- pairing: alice & mad hatter
- pairing: brennan & booth
- pairing: chiana & d'argo
- pairing: cordelia & angel
- pairing: delenn & john
- pairing: devon & danziger
- pairing: dorothy & wyatt
- pairing: elizabeth & cameron
- pairing: giselle & robert
- pairing: inara & malcolm
- pairing: ivy & rachel
- pairing: javajunkie
- pairing: kagome & inuyasha
- pairing: kahlan & richard
- pairing: kara & lee
- pairing: kate & richard castle
- pairing: kaylee & simon
- pairing: laura & remington
- pairing: marian & robin
- pairing: meredith & derek
- pairing: miss parker & jarod
- pairing: murphy & dresden
- pairing: olivia & peter
- pairing: rose & the doctor
- pairing: roslin & adama
- pairing: sarah & harmon
- pairing: sarah walker & chuck
- pairing: scully & mulder
- pairing: serenity & endymion
- pairing: sparky
- pairing: t'pol & trip
- pairing: teyla & john
- pairing: teyla & rodney
- pairing: usagi & mamoru
- pairing: yuna & tidus
- rating: g
- rating: multiple
- rating: nc-17
- rating: pg
- rating: pg-13
- rating: pg-15
- rating: r
- Other Places to Be
- May 2025
1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
hopeful_romantic (
hopeful_romantic) wrote on November 26th, 2011 at 12:28 am
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"And Who Avenges the Flowers?" Firefly Drabble