Briar Hayes ♡ Rose Red (badsister) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2011-07-22 00:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | briar hayes |
Who. Briar Hayes
What. Anticipations and preparations
Where. The Farm, outside of Fabletown in Albany, NY
When. Dawn, Friday morning, July 22 2011
Warnings. None
It was her absolute favorite time of day. Briar Hayes had been alive for one hundred and fifty-one years, and apart from her appearance not much else had stayed the same since her early twenties save for one thing. This.
Not many people knew this about her, but it was a rare day that she wasn't actually up to see the sunrise, assuming she hadn't partied too hard the night before of course. Some bad habits died hard, and some didn't die at all. At least not for a few centuries. Rose Red had outgrown her original party girl phase long before she'd taken up the responsibility of managing the Farm, Briar had just learned how to successfully juggle the two. She still had awhile to go.
Still, Briar had come a long way. One hundred years ago? The last thing she would have been doing was willingly tying herself to the Farm when she wasn't nursing, no longer content to only lead a life filled with debauchery and deceit. Now she crave something more meaningful. A hundred years ago she wouldn't have been completely devoted to Boy Blue and she certainly wouldn't be working with her bare hands every day for an honest to god good cause with no strings attached. No longer was she the spoiled, selfish, petulant little sister of Prince Charming's (first) wife. Briar was still young for an Ageless, and not completely innocent to selfish acts, but like Rose she wasn't looking for the next best thing anymore. She already had it.
"Morning, Brock," Briar yawned in the badger's direction as she finally descended the stairs at 5:30 AM in her night gown and opened the front door of the main office to let some fresh air in. That had become just as routine as everything else about Briar's duties on the Farm but it was a routine she didn't mind. She loved it actually. It felt more meaningful, gave her more fulfillment than any other amount of time she'd spent anywhere else in her one hundred and fifty plus years of living. Since coming to the Farm and picking up where Rose had left off, Briar really understood why this place meant so much to the Fables. And how much it must have killed Rose to have to leave it behind.
Briar's brow furrowed considerably at the thought, stooping down to sit on the same steps Rose and Blue had sat on so many times as she pulled her knees to her chin and looked out into the gradually coloring sky. There were noises and clangs of moving things around inside that Briar hardly noticed, since just like everything else she'd grown used to that too. Brock Blueheart, formerly known as Stinky the badger, was setting up the living room for another Farm-wide meeting but it'd be awhile yet before she had to get dressed. So she sat on the steps and got lost in her thoughts for awhile, nursing a glass of ice water close to her chest.
Things weren't getting better, but they had yet to get worse. Charlotte had lost Tristan, but they'd finally gotten rid of Kane. Was it always about the price you had to pay? Boy Blue was alive and well in this life, and Briar felt constantly guilty for still taking relief in that considering what Rose's sister had just lost. Her sister. She and Charlotte weren't connected by blood, but they might as well be because that didn't matter to Briar. Rose and Snow made them sisters, and she'd do anything to keep that. Anything. So that gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach every time she felt like she was being watched, every time she had that sickening thought that he wasn't finished with her yet, she pushed it aside. Even if she felt like she would never fully escape his shadow, Kane was gone for good, and things were getting better. They just had to be. Didn't they?
"Ms. Red, would you like me to start the coffee?" Briar was instantly jolted out of her thoughts, looking up at Brock in momentary confusion before she relaxed and glanced back into the open ground that made up the center of the Farm. Soon this place would be filled with soldiers in training again, preparing for a war they'd already fought once before in another life time and won. Would they win this time? Kane was gone but the Homelands were still being held by an Adversary, one they knew close to nothing about. It was already different this time, and Briar wasn't sure that was a good thing. Was taking back the land that only used to be theirs really worth everything they had already lost once before?
She gulped down the rest of her water, shivering a little in her nightgown as the back of her throat grew numb and she pursed her lips together against the cold. She could stay here forever watching the sunrise with her chin in her lap, looking little more than a child waiting for the war to come to her but not anymore. Not anymore, she declared to herself as she finally pulled herself to her feet and turned back into the office. "That's okay, Stink- ... Brock. You've done a good job setting those chairs up. I'll make the coffee and then come help you get the rest of the room ready." Of course it was worth it. Nothing was worth anything if you weren't willing to fight for it.