Cavalry Calhoone's Stories

Any Castle in a Storm

2008-01-29T08:20:04Z

If there had been time, Casey would have gone anywhere else…but when one is being chased by unknown creatures of dark origin which most likely include pointy teeth good at tearing flesh…one can’t be choosey. The Fitzwilliams had always been known as eccentrics at best. Most of the people of Lincoln were afraid of Babels Castle, with its shrubbery shaped liked tortured souls, architecture straight out of a Boris Karloff movie, and residents known for terrorizing the local children and appearing in public wearing black capes and carrying sharp weapons.

As she ran down the winding red brick path towards the front door, a dark patch in the sky seemed to coalesce above her. Ironically the looming castle seemed to be the only bright spot ahead…despite the fact that it looked as though it was beginning to fold in upon itself the nearer she came.

Casey never would have guessed what awaited her beyond the massive oak doors. She only hoped it was better that what was currently behind her.

Emancipation of Eowyn: Profile Picture Challenge

2008-01-12T07:14:29Z

“I am no man.” Eowyn, lone female action hero of LOTR . Instead of playing housekeeper and doing what she was told, Eowyn chose instead to help defend her people and her family from destruction. She followed her heart, picked up a sword, and found freedom from the cage of the “duties” of women. Damn good thing too. Who killed the creature no man could harm? That would be a WOMAN .

Tolkien created a character whose heart and soul would die if she denied them. And then, in his infinite Victorian masculine wisdom (insert sarcasm here), had her give it all up and declare it was no longer part of her (since it was unbecoming for women). Funny that, since fighting for those she loved was the core of her being. He got it WRONG . No one who fought so hard to find herself and give meaning to her life would give that up. It was an implausible ending and as far as I’m concerned it didn’t happen. No man, not even the author could make her do that. Eowyn is free by her own doing and that’s why she’s my icon.

Peace in a Garden

2008-01-11T06:09:28Z

When he first met Andraste, he little understood why someone who seemed so stern, unyielding, and brutal, who thrived on the insanity of battle-spent many of her nights sitting among the vines and flowers of the garden on the fifth floor. She was not a healer by nature, she knew little of the restorative powers of these species which had been hand picked from the forests of Pollat and Carpathie. But she sat among them nonetheless.

It was not until he understood the rest of her life that this place made sense. Life aboard the Ascendant often consisted of never ending labyrinths of desperate situations, suicidal rescues, and sacrifice. In the eye of the storm she stood with her crew, holding back the chaos and standing as their protector from the shadows haunting their footsteps. Peace for her was brief and hard to grasp. But the garden was another world-free from war and pain, where she could try and remember she was more than a soldier. That she was a human being, who found her freedom in a garden.

Five Things I Wish I Didn't Doubt

2008-01-10T07:52:02Z

1. That life Doesn’t end when we die does it? Because if it does, why fucking bother. Everyone and everything I’ll ever love will be gone forever. Everything I am and want to be and do won’t matter. Probably why I’ve never had the courage to believe in nothing…

2. That I’m not too obscure to find someone to love…hell even date. I’m cool with myself…I just don’t think many others will ever notice how kickass I really am.

3. That it’s never too late to become what know you can be. Even though you struggle to fit your childhood fantasies of your heroic adult self with reality.

4. That there is magic in the world. There is more to reality than meets the eye. We are more than meets the eye. Will I ever get to see it or will it simply be my imagination and not something i can ever touch.

5. That everything has a purpose. Even my friends losing their parents or having shitty parents, or dying slow, painful, undignified deaths that make people forget everything you were before.

Witching Hour

2007-10-15T04:08:01Z

A storm had started brewing in the early afternoon. As the evening darkness set in, the sound of thunder crept closer to the abandoned fortress. No one could remember its name, just that it had become a ruined castle not long after it was built. Perhaps it was punishment for the desecration of a sacred place.

Remnants of a stone circle are all that remain as evidence that something much older once existed here. The town called it haunted. More than one person had seen fires flickering on Solstice nights or heard wails that were not caused by the wind.

Today of all days people stayed away. It was the day the barriers that separated the mortal and spirit realms became blurry. From all the old places, the whisper of something not of this world could be heard.

I climbed the hill that night, in search of something I could not name. Those whispers had called to me, and I had to answer. As I reached the top lightning crackled through the sky, but then all went silent and dark. The witching hour had come.

Contained

2007-08-25T07:36:55Z

Andraste’s feet were nearly inaudible as they padded slowly down one of the long grey and blue metal corridors that wove their way through guts of the massive vessel. She wore only her sleepware, but her sword was still safely strapped in the sheath on her back, it’s presence calming her. She did not pause at the cafeteria, or stop to gaze out at the perpetual night that surrounded the ship as it slipped between the stars. Neither of those could offer her much comfort. The food felt as though it clung to her stomach like a heavy parasite. The stars, which some called heavenly, seemed more like another set of corridor lights which marked the boundaries of walls which kept her in. Kept her…contained.

She was not really claustrophobic, which was surprising, considering the size her cell had been in Dregory. But when the nightmares hounded her relentlessly and called to memory the suffocating shadows of that place, she went looking for the only place which made her feel free rather than bound.