(Prompt using Schutt, Matt (2009). “The Story Engine.” NorLightsPress. Kindle Edition. 266 – Printing out documents./364 – Wants to psychoanalyze her./123 – Hit with nausea.)
Lavanya sighed, looking out the window at the storm. These sudden squalls and storms were common for the last two weeks for some reason. One moment the day was beautifully clear, and the next the storm ran wild. Sometimes they lasted for the day, and other times, for a few minutes.
Today looked like it was going to be the former. The printer then froze with a scrunch of paper somewhere in its depths. Lavanya sighed again, this time in frustration, as she started to take the machine apart, moving the carriages and the sorter, upending the top of the printer. Then she heard the door chime, meaning someone was coming into the office.
Abandoning the machine, Lavanya let its top slam back down and headed over to the front office. A man in fatigues stood in the doorway. Strangely enough, a small blackbird sat on his shoulder. He looked up, and suddenly blinked. He stared at her, unabashedly, and walked toward her, saying words she didn’t understand. She started to back up. She glanced around her, knowing Thane and David had their doors closed as they were with clients. She could burst in if this man kept coming at her.
The man stopped, his hand outstretched, and looking for all the world like a wounded animal. He took his hand back, and said in a deep, booming voice, “What is your name.”
She stammered. “La…Lavanya.”
“Do you know Soniac.”
She shook her head. She had her hand on Thane’s doorknob. Thane was an ex-Marine and would be able to take this guy out easily.
“What is this place.”
“An…office?” The doorknob turned under her hand and she let it go.
Thane opened the door a crack, and looked down at Lavanya. “Is everything all right?” he asked.
Lavanya nodded her head at the man. Thane muttered something to his client and then opened the door fully. He stepped out to stand next to Lavanya, and regarded this man.
“Who are you and what do you want?”
The man in fatigues was smaller than Thane, but that didn’t stop him from saying, “This Lavanya is beautiful.”
Lavanya’s face turned red, and Thane stepped forward. “Think you’d better go now.”
“She looks like my consort.”
“She’s not for sale or rent, buddy.” Thane walked closer. “I really do think—“
Something grabbed Thane and just swept him out of the way, into the wall, and kept him there. Lavanya screamed. David’s door flew open. It slammed shut as soon as he opened it, and he impotently rattled it trying to get it open again.
“Are you certain you are not my consort.” The man, now with no one in the way, approached Lavanya, now backed against the filing cabinets. He reached out and touched her jaw, lightly with his fingertips, and his thumb caressed her cheek.
“Don’t hurt me, please…”
“Do not be frightened, rabbit,” the man said gently. He studied her, tilting his head this way and that, and also moving her head around. He let her go, his fingers trailing from her chin. “You are not my consort. You look very much like her.”
“Lavanya! Are you all right?” David was yelling from the other side of the door.
Lavanya looked at the man, who began to shimmer. He suddenly fell away, and in his place was a tall, blue-skinned man in a loincloth hung off a thin belt at his waist. He had huge white wings, and carried a pouch off his belt. “I am Hino, the god of thunder.”
She didn’t know what to do, so she just said, “Hi.” She looked down, then snapped her head right back up after seeing what was below that belt.
“I will not hurt you.”
Thane’s door opened and slammed shut again. David had stopped trying to get the door open. Hino again stepped in closer. “You are most beautiful,” he said. He smelled like rain on grass, finally, he kissed her, and it was the best kiss she had in her life. Ever.
When David finally got the door open, he found her sitting down on the floor, her skirt up past her hips and her underwear at her knees, and a stunned look on her face. David shut the door so the client wouldn’t see. Thane had been let loose from the wall and ran over to help her. “I’ll take her to the hospital,” he said.
She turned her head slowly to look at the men, again, confused. The two men helped her stand up, and got her underwear back on. She let them, still confused. Thane saw a spot of blood on the floor and moaned disgustedly. “Oh, man…”
Then Lavanya threw up.
Words: 809
Comment: This is how Hino is toward people, I guess. Would Hino cheat on his consort? I don’t think so. Iroquois were “serial monogamous” as opposed to polyamorous.
Definitely not canon.