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cap_ironman2015-09-26 03:50 am
entropy-house.livejournal.com) wrote in cap_ironman2015-09-26 03:50 am
Entry tags:
FIC: InGeniOus
InGeniOus (2027 words) by AnonEhouse
Rating: Teen
Warnings:None
Universe: MCU/AU
Genre: AU, Fantasy
This is a fill for the Tiny Stony RB prompt Code Name: MARVEL
And this time I looked at the whole prompt image. :^)
Things had never been easy for Stiifan, but the days were especially difficult now that the Sultan's men had conscripted his friend Yachmur, so named because he could leap like the roebuck. Yachmur was now a palace guard, with plenty to eat and a comfortable, safe place to sleep, Stiffan hoped.
Stiifan had tried to enlist for palace duty so that he might see his only friend, but they had laughed at him and pushed him away, saying he was too dirty to work in the kitchens and too weak to work in the stables.
It was true that he wasn't very strong, but he did his best. He didn't beg, and he didn't steal. He swept up and ran errands and had earned a reputation for honesty so shopkeepers and stall owners often paid him to watch their belongings for a few minutes when they needed a break. Mostly they gave him a daniq and something to eat, but occasionally a dirham, and once a goldsmith gave him ten dinars because Stiifan had run for the midwife who helped his wife deliver a healthy boy.
Of course, he wasn't a very imposing guard if anyone wanted to make trouble, but he could yell, and he could take a beating like a man.
He was picking himself up from the dirt and preparing to have another go at the man who'd tried to steal from the bread cart he was guarding. The man was well-dressed and strong, not a starving street kid. He was just a bully who thought he could get away with it. Stiifan sniffed back the blood dripping from his nose and braced himself.
"For such a little fellow, you are very brave," one of the onlookers said.
Stiifan glanced at him. The man was dressed even better than the bread thief, and he was also a lot bigger, and stronger looking. He put his hand on the thief's neck. He tightened his grip and then flung the man away.
"Huh," Stiifan said. Reluctantly he added, "Thanks, but I had it handled."
"My name is Haddad," the man said. "I could use a brave apprentice."
Stiifan let his eyes rove over Haddad, from the toes of his curling gold-embroidered shoes to his scarlet silk turban, with a passing glance at the broad chest and thickly muscled forearms. "Are you a smith?" Some people were named for their professions, and he certainly looked like a smith. But what a smith would want with an apprentice like Stiifan he couldn't guess. He couldn't even work the bellows without losing breath, much less handle hammer and tongs. There were, of course, other uses for men like Stiifan, but he wasn't going to sell himself if that was what Haddad had in mind.
"Among other things." Haddad smiled at Stiifan. "I have lost something valuable, and it will take a man who is both big of heart and small of body to retrieve it. I will pay you well." He took a leather purse from his belt and tossed it to Stiifan. "The first half of your wages."
Stiifan barely caught it. His eyes went wide. He opened the purse and looked in at more gold than he'd ever thought to see. With that much he could buy Yachmur's freedom, and set both of them up in an honest trade. He didn't trust Haddad, but he couldn't pass up the chance. "I will leave the money with a friend." He paused, reluctantly giving in to the courtesy his mother had tried to teach him before the plague took her. "My name is Stiifan."
The goldsmith locked Stiifan's money away with his own and wished him good luck on his venture.
Haddad and Stiifan rode three days journey away from the city on swift racing camels. Stiifan had seldom ridden, and he was too sick most of the way to pay attention to the route. It didn't matter, he was a city boy and was lost the moment the city was out of sight. The desert and red rocks and sand and bits of brush and the occasional oasis-- it all blended into the unknown, but he kept his mouth shut and made no complaint.
On the fourth day they reached a mound of red rock that rose higher than any they'd passed. "We are here," Haddad announced, pulling his camel to a halt. Stiifan's mount stopped, too. He got down clumsily and followed Haddad to the rocks, climbing until Haddad pushed at a boulder, rolling it away to reveal a narrow slit in the rock. "It's down there."
Stiifan went to the slit and looked in. It sloped down, and for as far as he could see it looked large enough for his body. But he couldn't see very far. "What... what am I to find? And how? It's dark."
"There will be a lantern at the bottom. You need only climb straight down to fetch it."
"A lantern?" Stiifan was dubious. "We came all this way for a lantern?"
"The lantern belonged to a band of bandits. It is the key to access their treasure stores."
Well, that made a sort of sense, but Stiifan wondered how Haddad had known it was there. "What if the bandits are down there?"
Haddad's eyes glittered in a way that made Stiifan uncomfortable. "They are all dead. Their chief betrayed them, but at the last moment, one of them hid the lantern where he could not go."
Stiifan swallowed hard. "I see." He looked down at the hole in the rock. "Right. I'll just go get it." He climbed into the hole. It was not easy, not easy at all. His heart was in his throat half the time, and his hands and knees were torn up by the rock. It smelled wet, and musty, and there were strange, soft noises, like the rocks themselves were breathing.
He ran out of holds. His foot reached and felt nothing. "I can't," he shouted, "I can't go any further. Can you throw me a rope?" Surely Haddad had bought rope, knowing Stiffan would be unable to climb out of the hole while carrying this lantern.
"Get the lantern first!"
Stiifan wanted to argue, but he was slipping. He yelped, and fell, but only fell a few feet, landing on a pile of small hard stones. He patted around and realized the stones were actually coins. He tapped a few together. They sounded like gold. "The treasure is here!"
"Get the lantern!"
Stiifan fumbled around, and was surprised when he did find something that felt very like a lantern. He wished he had a way to light it. "Give me flint and steel, that I may light it. I will find the way out of the treasure store and lead you to it."
He heard a rustle and soft thump behind him.
"Tie the lantern to the rope."
Stiifan found the rope. It was only a slender cord, too light to take his weight. "What about me?"
"GIVE ME THE LANTERN."
"NO! Give me a light!" Stiifan knew, he knew, Haddad never meant him to live to tell anyone about the treasure. Once he had the lantern and the map, or whatever it contained, Stiifan would be dead.
"GIVE ME THE LANTERN OR I'LL LEAVE YOU!"
"You won't get the lantern if I die!"
"THERE ARE OTHER FOOLISH BOYS!"
"NO!" Stiifan shouted.
There was a loud crunching noise. Haddad had rolled the boulder back over the hole. He sat down on a pile of useless wealth, clutching the equally useless lantern to his chest. He hugged the lantern tightly and bowed his head down while he tried to think. He might, maybe, somehow climb back up to the top of the hole, but he could never move the boulder. Even if he braced himself, he couldn't move it.
"I wish... I wish... I wish I was really strong," he said softly.
"DONE!" a man's voice, not Haddad's, this was lighter, and laughing as it sounded throughout the darkness.
"What?" Stiifan jumped to his feet. Strangely, he didn't hurt any more, and his breath came easily. The lantern began glowing with a strange blue light. The light swirled like water, like smoke, like gauzy folds of veil. He followed the light with his eyes, watching as it thickened and brightened. And then there was a man, flying, brightly lit and glowing so the whole cavern glowed, illuminating the mountains of gold, and gems, and other treasures stretching on further than he could see.
"That's one," the man said, patting Stiifan on the head. "But who's counting? I like you. You're cute. You were cute before I fixed you up, so I can't take full credit for it, but eh."
"Who... What are you?"
"Name's Antony. I'm a genii, of course." Antony turned right ways up and folded up his legs, floating on air. "The genii of that lamp, in particular."
Stiifan considered. "Suleiman bin Daoud, on whom be peace, sealed up the evil Jinn in vessels."
Antony sighed. "Eh." He waggled his hand from side to side. "Suleiman bin Daoud, on whom be peace, yes, right, he just... had no sense of humor. Great man, a saint, but really he had a stick up his..." Antony rolled his eyes. "Right, not going there. A thousand years dead, and I'm sure he can come back and smack me down for insolence again. This is our chance to get out of here before Haddad gets over being stupidly angry and figures out some way to make us both miserable. So, make a wish, already."
"I have to think about this. I don't want to waste them." Stiifan didn't regret his first wish at all. He could see his muscles by the light of the lantern, and he was really glad to be strong.
"What waste?" Antony rolled onto his back and floated around Stiifan. "Wither thou goest, there go I. You can ask me for anything." He fluttered his eyelashes at Stiifan. "No limit. None of this three wishes and you're done. I feel really good about you. I want to be at your side."
"Genii are tricky and untrustworthy and hate serving men."
Antony rolled his eyes. "Well, you know, basically, doesn't everyone? Haddad made me his slave. Had me making weapons for him." Antony scowled. "Really great weapons, because he lied and told me he was protecting his people. When I found out he was using them against innocents I told him I wouldn't do that any more. Only, you know. Lantern. Slave. I didn't have a choice. So I tried to negotiate with one of his men, riches, women, fame anything he wanted so long as it wasn't hurting people in return for taking me away from Haddad. But, you know, he was an idiot, and we got caught. All I was able to do was seal up the main entrance to the cave." He made his eyes very big and innocent. "So, can you please make a wish?"
"I wish all this money went back to its true owners."
The treasure disappeared. "That's not what I meant," Antony said.
"I'll earn my own living," Stiifan replied. He looked down at himself. "I could be a palace guard," he said.
"What? WHY? I could make you a sultan!" Antony flung up his hands.
"My best friend Yachmur is a palace guard."
Antony's eyes narrowed. "Friend?"
"We grew up together. He's the brother I never had."
"Oh, brotherly friend. That's fine." Antony floated closer to Stiifan. "Come on, I'll make all your wishes come true." He smiled and reached out to stroke Stiifan's hair again. "Even the wishes you haven't wished out loud."
Stiifan looked, really looked at Antony. Antony of the bright eyes and brighter smile. Antony confused him. "Huh," he said thoughtfully. "I wish I knew what you meant."
"Done!" Antony said, with a grin.
Stiifan's eyes went very wide, and he felt his cheeks warm. He was going to have to be very, very careful with his wishes, he could see that now.
But it might be a lot of fun.
Note:
Haddad means 'Smith' so that's Schmidt, and Yachmur means 'Roebuck' so that's Bucky. Stiifan is Stephen.
Rating: Teen
Warnings:None
Universe: MCU/AU
Genre: AU, Fantasy
This is a fill for the Tiny Stony RB prompt Code Name: MARVEL
And this time I looked at the whole prompt image. :^)
Things had never been easy for Stiifan, but the days were especially difficult now that the Sultan's men had conscripted his friend Yachmur, so named because he could leap like the roebuck. Yachmur was now a palace guard, with plenty to eat and a comfortable, safe place to sleep, Stiffan hoped.
Stiifan had tried to enlist for palace duty so that he might see his only friend, but they had laughed at him and pushed him away, saying he was too dirty to work in the kitchens and too weak to work in the stables.
It was true that he wasn't very strong, but he did his best. He didn't beg, and he didn't steal. He swept up and ran errands and had earned a reputation for honesty so shopkeepers and stall owners often paid him to watch their belongings for a few minutes when they needed a break. Mostly they gave him a daniq and something to eat, but occasionally a dirham, and once a goldsmith gave him ten dinars because Stiifan had run for the midwife who helped his wife deliver a healthy boy.
Of course, he wasn't a very imposing guard if anyone wanted to make trouble, but he could yell, and he could take a beating like a man.
He was picking himself up from the dirt and preparing to have another go at the man who'd tried to steal from the bread cart he was guarding. The man was well-dressed and strong, not a starving street kid. He was just a bully who thought he could get away with it. Stiifan sniffed back the blood dripping from his nose and braced himself.
"For such a little fellow, you are very brave," one of the onlookers said.
Stiifan glanced at him. The man was dressed even better than the bread thief, and he was also a lot bigger, and stronger looking. He put his hand on the thief's neck. He tightened his grip and then flung the man away.
"Huh," Stiifan said. Reluctantly he added, "Thanks, but I had it handled."
"My name is Haddad," the man said. "I could use a brave apprentice."
Stiifan let his eyes rove over Haddad, from the toes of his curling gold-embroidered shoes to his scarlet silk turban, with a passing glance at the broad chest and thickly muscled forearms. "Are you a smith?" Some people were named for their professions, and he certainly looked like a smith. But what a smith would want with an apprentice like Stiifan he couldn't guess. He couldn't even work the bellows without losing breath, much less handle hammer and tongs. There were, of course, other uses for men like Stiifan, but he wasn't going to sell himself if that was what Haddad had in mind.
"Among other things." Haddad smiled at Stiifan. "I have lost something valuable, and it will take a man who is both big of heart and small of body to retrieve it. I will pay you well." He took a leather purse from his belt and tossed it to Stiifan. "The first half of your wages."
Stiifan barely caught it. His eyes went wide. He opened the purse and looked in at more gold than he'd ever thought to see. With that much he could buy Yachmur's freedom, and set both of them up in an honest trade. He didn't trust Haddad, but he couldn't pass up the chance. "I will leave the money with a friend." He paused, reluctantly giving in to the courtesy his mother had tried to teach him before the plague took her. "My name is Stiifan."
The goldsmith locked Stiifan's money away with his own and wished him good luck on his venture.
Haddad and Stiifan rode three days journey away from the city on swift racing camels. Stiifan had seldom ridden, and he was too sick most of the way to pay attention to the route. It didn't matter, he was a city boy and was lost the moment the city was out of sight. The desert and red rocks and sand and bits of brush and the occasional oasis-- it all blended into the unknown, but he kept his mouth shut and made no complaint.
On the fourth day they reached a mound of red rock that rose higher than any they'd passed. "We are here," Haddad announced, pulling his camel to a halt. Stiifan's mount stopped, too. He got down clumsily and followed Haddad to the rocks, climbing until Haddad pushed at a boulder, rolling it away to reveal a narrow slit in the rock. "It's down there."
Stiifan went to the slit and looked in. It sloped down, and for as far as he could see it looked large enough for his body. But he couldn't see very far. "What... what am I to find? And how? It's dark."
"There will be a lantern at the bottom. You need only climb straight down to fetch it."
"A lantern?" Stiifan was dubious. "We came all this way for a lantern?"
"The lantern belonged to a band of bandits. It is the key to access their treasure stores."
Well, that made a sort of sense, but Stiifan wondered how Haddad had known it was there. "What if the bandits are down there?"
Haddad's eyes glittered in a way that made Stiifan uncomfortable. "They are all dead. Their chief betrayed them, but at the last moment, one of them hid the lantern where he could not go."
Stiifan swallowed hard. "I see." He looked down at the hole in the rock. "Right. I'll just go get it." He climbed into the hole. It was not easy, not easy at all. His heart was in his throat half the time, and his hands and knees were torn up by the rock. It smelled wet, and musty, and there were strange, soft noises, like the rocks themselves were breathing.
He ran out of holds. His foot reached and felt nothing. "I can't," he shouted, "I can't go any further. Can you throw me a rope?" Surely Haddad had bought rope, knowing Stiffan would be unable to climb out of the hole while carrying this lantern.
"Get the lantern first!"
Stiifan wanted to argue, but he was slipping. He yelped, and fell, but only fell a few feet, landing on a pile of small hard stones. He patted around and realized the stones were actually coins. He tapped a few together. They sounded like gold. "The treasure is here!"
"Get the lantern!"
Stiifan fumbled around, and was surprised when he did find something that felt very like a lantern. He wished he had a way to light it. "Give me flint and steel, that I may light it. I will find the way out of the treasure store and lead you to it."
He heard a rustle and soft thump behind him.
"Tie the lantern to the rope."
Stiifan found the rope. It was only a slender cord, too light to take his weight. "What about me?"
"GIVE ME THE LANTERN."
"NO! Give me a light!" Stiifan knew, he knew, Haddad never meant him to live to tell anyone about the treasure. Once he had the lantern and the map, or whatever it contained, Stiifan would be dead.
"GIVE ME THE LANTERN OR I'LL LEAVE YOU!"
"You won't get the lantern if I die!"
"THERE ARE OTHER FOOLISH BOYS!"
"NO!" Stiifan shouted.
There was a loud crunching noise. Haddad had rolled the boulder back over the hole. He sat down on a pile of useless wealth, clutching the equally useless lantern to his chest. He hugged the lantern tightly and bowed his head down while he tried to think. He might, maybe, somehow climb back up to the top of the hole, but he could never move the boulder. Even if he braced himself, he couldn't move it.
"I wish... I wish... I wish I was really strong," he said softly.
"DONE!" a man's voice, not Haddad's, this was lighter, and laughing as it sounded throughout the darkness.
"What?" Stiifan jumped to his feet. Strangely, he didn't hurt any more, and his breath came easily. The lantern began glowing with a strange blue light. The light swirled like water, like smoke, like gauzy folds of veil. He followed the light with his eyes, watching as it thickened and brightened. And then there was a man, flying, brightly lit and glowing so the whole cavern glowed, illuminating the mountains of gold, and gems, and other treasures stretching on further than he could see.
"That's one," the man said, patting Stiifan on the head. "But who's counting? I like you. You're cute. You were cute before I fixed you up, so I can't take full credit for it, but eh."
"Who... What are you?"
"Name's Antony. I'm a genii, of course." Antony turned right ways up and folded up his legs, floating on air. "The genii of that lamp, in particular."
Stiifan considered. "Suleiman bin Daoud, on whom be peace, sealed up the evil Jinn in vessels."
Antony sighed. "Eh." He waggled his hand from side to side. "Suleiman bin Daoud, on whom be peace, yes, right, he just... had no sense of humor. Great man, a saint, but really he had a stick up his..." Antony rolled his eyes. "Right, not going there. A thousand years dead, and I'm sure he can come back and smack me down for insolence again. This is our chance to get out of here before Haddad gets over being stupidly angry and figures out some way to make us both miserable. So, make a wish, already."
"I have to think about this. I don't want to waste them." Stiifan didn't regret his first wish at all. He could see his muscles by the light of the lantern, and he was really glad to be strong.
"What waste?" Antony rolled onto his back and floated around Stiifan. "Wither thou goest, there go I. You can ask me for anything." He fluttered his eyelashes at Stiifan. "No limit. None of this three wishes and you're done. I feel really good about you. I want to be at your side."
"Genii are tricky and untrustworthy and hate serving men."
Antony rolled his eyes. "Well, you know, basically, doesn't everyone? Haddad made me his slave. Had me making weapons for him." Antony scowled. "Really great weapons, because he lied and told me he was protecting his people. When I found out he was using them against innocents I told him I wouldn't do that any more. Only, you know. Lantern. Slave. I didn't have a choice. So I tried to negotiate with one of his men, riches, women, fame anything he wanted so long as it wasn't hurting people in return for taking me away from Haddad. But, you know, he was an idiot, and we got caught. All I was able to do was seal up the main entrance to the cave." He made his eyes very big and innocent. "So, can you please make a wish?"
"I wish all this money went back to its true owners."
The treasure disappeared. "That's not what I meant," Antony said.
"I'll earn my own living," Stiifan replied. He looked down at himself. "I could be a palace guard," he said.
"What? WHY? I could make you a sultan!" Antony flung up his hands.
"My best friend Yachmur is a palace guard."
Antony's eyes narrowed. "Friend?"
"We grew up together. He's the brother I never had."
"Oh, brotherly friend. That's fine." Antony floated closer to Stiifan. "Come on, I'll make all your wishes come true." He smiled and reached out to stroke Stiifan's hair again. "Even the wishes you haven't wished out loud."
Stiifan looked, really looked at Antony. Antony of the bright eyes and brighter smile. Antony confused him. "Huh," he said thoughtfully. "I wish I knew what you meant."
"Done!" Antony said, with a grin.
Stiifan's eyes went very wide, and he felt his cheeks warm. He was going to have to be very, very careful with his wishes, he could see that now.
But it might be a lot of fun.
Note:
Haddad means 'Smith' so that's Schmidt, and Yachmur means 'Roebuck' so that's Bucky. Stiifan is Stephen.
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