clare_dragonfly | Entries tagged with world: ursulan

Title: Queen of the Hill
World: Ursulan
Word count: 440
Rating: G
Prompt: Thimbleful Thursday: king of the hill
Notes: Here's a fun little story about Gwanwyn (Gawain), Grainne (Gaheris), and Agravain as kids. I'm thinking Gwanwyn is about eleven here.

Gwanwyn was the oldest, the biggest, and the strongest, but Agravain still tried to be the winner of all their games. This was unfortunate, because it meant she had to keep beating him, and he hated to be beaten.

But how could he win? He was three years younger than she was, still two inches shorter though he’d started to grow faster in the last year, and his arm was probably half as wide around as hers was, despite the fact that he just kept trying to wrestle her.( Read more... )

A knight rode into the path in front of Gwanwyn. She grinned and pulled her horse to a halt.

The knight was fully armored, presenting only a blank-faced helm. The horse was likewise unremarkable. A shield hung at the knight’s side, but it bore no device.

“Lillian,” Gwanwyn called, half-teasing, half-taunting, “is that you?”

The knight made no reply. Gwanwyn was certain that if Lillian had recognized her voice, she would have either spoken or gotten out of the way. Mostly certain.

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This story was written to

aldersprig's prompt, "Making yourself a memory."

Title: Fists and Faces
World: Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 1,166
Rating: PG for mild violence
Prompt:

crowdfunding Creative Jam, "It is difficult to be the first of your kind."
Notes: This prompt immediately brought to mind the first female knights in Uthyr's court. This story immediately follows Recruitment Day.

The other hirelings edged away when they saw Electra and Brandigen walking into the hall.

Electra had seen those looks before. Half of them were just trying to be polite, because there were ladies entering the room—even if those men were baffled by the militaristic clothing the ladies wore. The other half knew Electra and Brandigen for what they were, women knights, and did not want to touch them for fear their disobedience to the laws of the sexes should rub off and make them weak.( Read more... )

Title: Held in the Palm
World: Ursulan
Word count: 813
Rating: PG-13 for implied sex and nastiness
Prompt:

rainbowfic Sulphur 1, snake;

stayintheroom, "Your ends don't even justify your ends.";

dailyprompt, things that are painful to remember
Notes: This story follows one I have written but not posted, in which Morwenna has taken over Camelot while Ursula is away fighting the saxons and seduced Gwynn. At the end of that story, Ursula and the knights return; Ursula and Morwenna are both pregnant. This begins a few months later.

"Don't do this, Morwenna," Gwynn hissed, grabbing her arm. She snatched her arm away from him, almost overbalancing, gravid with their child.

"Why shouldn't I?" she growled back. "And how dare you try to stop me."( Read more... )

Title: Fealty
World: Ursulan
Word count: 3,458
Rating: G
Notes: I knew I wanted to write this, but I didn't know whose perspective it should be in. So I wrote it in four perspectives.

The court never failed to fill by suppertime. Of course, that had been by design, in part; Ursula wanted many people to see her as the queen, to know that they could come to her for anything. She would need that trust when she called on them to fight—and that would be sooner than later. She needed each and every one of the people crowding into her hall right now.

That didn’t make it any easier to face. Especially today. Less than a full day after discovering the news about her daughter—about her own past. The day she had to hasten her life along, make things happen that she was not ready for, all for political reasons.
( Read more... )

Title: Lettered
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 1,262
Rating: G
Prompt: Crowdfunding creative jam: "The community of scholars/physicians, while Morgan is in school."
Notes: This is a rather quiet little story. It surprised me; I thought there was going to be a lot more dialogue. But I guess monks don't talk much.

Morgan did not want to go away to school. He hated the idea of being away from his daughter for that long—bad enough he was going to be away from everything else he’d ever known. But his mother insisted he learn to read and write Latin, and his master insisted, and eventually even Lot insisted, and he gave in.

His mother insisted on bringing him to the monastery in her finest carriage. He would have preferred to go alone, or with a servant or two, on ordinary horses, but she would have none of it. So he wasn’t surprised when the other boys, those few who were also studying at the monastery, gave him nasty or appraising looks.( Read more... )

Title: The New Queen
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 245 (total: 2,935)
Rating: PG-13 for mentions of incest
Notes: I've named Gwanwyn's sisters Grainne (Gaheris) and Melva (Gareth); I decided to keep Agravain as male. (I considered naming them all the other Welsh names for the seasons, but those don't really sound like names as much as Gwanwyn does.) This story deviates slightly from

ysabetwordsmith's timeline.

Also, I have a visual! I searched "lady knight" on DeviantArt and came up with many excellent pieces, some of which I may be using as visuals for other Ursulan Cycle characters, but in particular this painting struck me as fitting exactly the image of Gwanwyn I had.

Gwanwyn sat down beside Morgan at the table and smacked him so hard on the shoulder that he moved forward in his seat two inches. “So, little brother! How would you like to come to the new queen’s court with us?”( Read more... )

Title: Recruitment Day
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 577
Rating: PG
Prompt: 3WW: eradicate, mercenary, squeamish
Notes: I have now had my highest wordcount writing day that I've ever had outside of NaNo. It's probably in the top 10 ever. I swear, I was going to save this one for later... but no, it had to be written today...

“But you’re a woman,” the king said, staring at Electra in undisguised disbelief and contempt.

Electra didn’t let it bother her. She never had—and she’d had a lot of practice not letting it bother her. She straightened her shoulders (not that they needed straightening) and grinned at him. Confidence won a lot more battles than she’d expected when she was younger. “Yes, your highness, and I can wield a blade and ride a horse as well or better than any of these men, I’d wager.”

He was still skeptical. “A woman mercenary.”( Read more... )

Title: Fatherhood
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 1,227 (total: 2,357)
Rating: PG
Notes: To

ysabetwordsmith's commission for more Ursulan stories. I love Morgan so much, I just keep writing about him. (Which is weird, because normally I prefer to write about female characters!)

Morgan wanted to carry the baby home in his own arms, but his mother insisted that the wet-nurse take her, even though she would be walking and they were riding and the road was all mud from storms. That should, perhaps, have been his first sign. But he was so focused on little Morwenna, her tiny pink toes, her silky dark hair, that he couldn’t think of anything else.

He rode beside her all the way home, making the wet-nurse walk by his stirrup. “Isn’t she sweet? Look at her, sleeping so peacefully. Is she the sweetest baby you’ve ever met, Eleanor?”

The wet-nurse shook her head, smiling. “I wouldn’t know, master. I’m my mother’s youngest and I never had a baby of my own. But she does seem awfully sweet. What does her name mean?”

Morgan frowned. “I’m not sure. But it’s lovely, isn’t it? Mother, what does Morwenna mean?”( Read more... )

ysabetwordsmith has now posted Of the Line of Danu, a poem in the Ursulan Cycle. This one is about Morgause, her son Morgan, and his daughter with Ursula, Morwenna.

Title: Morwenna
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 2,477
Rating: PG-13 for underage (by modern standards) sexuality and childbirth
Notes: Another story about Ursula! One of the things I'm asking myself about this series is, "what makes this different from just slapping different names and pronouns on Arthurian stories?" The first answer that came to mind was "pregnancy and childbirth."

Ursula did not want to get out of bed. This was not unusual, but what was strange was the reason she didn’t want to get out of bed. She felt as though the room was going to start swaying if she did. And she hadn’t had anything to drink last night. Not at all.

“Come on, Ursula, wake up,” her sister Kate urged her.

Ursula shook her head into the bedclothing. “Don’t want to.”

“Are you sick?”

“Yeah. Feel like the room’s spinning. Like I’m going to throw up all over the place if I move.”( Read more... )

Title: The Shield in the Flame
World: The Ursulan Cycle
Word count: 3,985
Rating: G
Notes: My first contribution to the Ursulan Cycle! This is a genderbent version of the Arthurian Cycle, dreamed up primarily by

ysabetwordsmith and

dialecticdreamer. It's an open source fandom, so anyone can participate and add stuff--or ask for stuff! I have another story in the works, but if there are any requests for Ursulan stories, I would love to fill them.

“Wake up, Little Bear!”

Something large and heavy hit Ursula on the side. She didn’t even have to wake up all the way to know what it was: her older sister, Kate, who was up earlier than she was as usual, jumping on her in the bed. She grumbled and tried to draw the featherbed up over her face to shut out the light and, hopefully, Kate’s voice.( Read more... )

Hi and welcome to my Dreamwidth journal! The main thing I post here is original fiction.

My work is posted with varying degrees of privacy. If nothing is listed after the summary, it is a public piece. If it says "locked," then you must be on my access list to read it (usually this is because I want to keep rights of first publication intact). If it says "sponsor this," then the beginning of the story is public, with the rest of it waiting to be unlocked for a donation!

( The Many Worlds of Clare K. R. Miller )