Sunshine: Eos and Minotaur; a Tiny Old Story Set on Crete

[paulamcg]

The second Sunshine Challenge prompt is here.

Since I've seen others, too, do self-recs, I can't resist posting an old 100-word drabble. This part of my series titled Sketches for a Portrait was written in 2006 and posted on AO3 here among those "self-portraits" of my Remus (who tries to be an artist besides a werewolf) that show him in his drifting years in the 1980s.



Her wrinkled hand lifts a cup full of warm milk to his lips. Now the hands are joined beside her cheek, and the sharp gaze of her beady eyes leaves him for a moment: she closes her lids to make sure he can understand the sign.

While her potions start nourishing his new skin, in his dream he is able…

I am able to hold a paint brush again. I don’t need parchment, paper or canvas. The figures are leaping across the walls. Dolphins. The Prince of Lilies. The monster turns a human face to me and builds the palace.

Comments

[bemused_writer]

Ohh, this has a great vibe to it. That last line really gets me; that's a powerful end!

[paulamcg]

Oh, thank you for reading, and for posting such a lovely comment! I'm glad this challenge gave me a chance to share this drabble – perhaps my favourite among these “portrait sketches”. I've felt that there's a significant turning point for my Remus's view of himself in the middle of this little piece, and that's the reason I shift from third to first person.

[tellshannon815]

You did a great job with this one!

[paulamcg]

Thank you - for the wonderfully fitting icon, too! That was back when I'd just discovered some possibilities in the challenge of telling (or preferably showing) a story in 100 words.

[enemytosleep]

The POV switch really adds to this piece as he internalizes and makes peace with where he's at.

[paulamcg]

Thank you for this beautiful wording of what this piece can mean and how the way I've written works for you! This is one of the Remus moments I love that are very far from the HP canon. :)

[abyss_valkyrie]

OOHH!This is such an interesting way to write how Remus wishes to be able to make a life for himself that he wants and dreams of but reality keeps hitting him hard.
The potion healing him after a full moon...the person who helps him,it's all very mysterious.Nicely done!

[paulamcg]

Oh, I'm so glad you've come to read this piece and also written to me about how it works for you! Thank you so much for your lovely comment. I'm thrilled you find it interesting how we see some of Remus's reality, wishes and dreams here – and don't seem to mind that the person who helps him remains mysterious. (My Remus thinks about her in a fic set a few years later, when he returns to Crete for a while, but I've never shown this situation in a longer scene.)