[ An arm's wound is not its amputation. He is grateful for this, the petty leeway that his injury yet allows him, the grace to grit his teeth and bear through strain. Rope is a flimsy accessory, easily uncovered. And luck favours them still, that the ends and binds of it are damp, but not rotted, and that forest birds have gnawed at it enough to fray it, but not cut through it in parts.
Lan Wangji brings back a long stretch of rope, serviceable, and makes no mention of the clunky thuds of hard wood behind him — parts of the tree house, unravelled and prey to gravity, blessing the wolves with a fusillade of unexpected domestic projectiles. Trinkets of metal, glistened below like diamond dust in their fall. Splingers. For all Lan Wangji had planned no diversion, he does not begrudge the one at hand.
He returns to Xie Yun, no better than a beggar of meagre offerings. No matter — when the spear's end is crafted, they may yet bind the rope around the tip, and then walk the line, or swing themselves on it — as madmen might, or children, or hapless travellers pursued by wolves. ]
Claim the throw. Your grip is more certain. [ Absent Lan Wangji's injury, Xie Yun's aim is the better bet now. ]
no subject
Lan Wangji brings back a long stretch of rope, serviceable, and makes no mention of the clunky thuds of hard wood behind him — parts of the tree house, unravelled and prey to gravity, blessing the wolves with a fusillade of unexpected domestic projectiles. Trinkets of metal, glistened below like diamond dust in their fall. Splingers. For all Lan Wangji had planned no diversion, he does not begrudge the one at hand.
He returns to Xie Yun, no better than a beggar of meagre offerings. No matter — when the spear's end is crafted, they may yet bind the rope around the tip, and then walk the line, or swing themselves on it — as madmen might, or children, or hapless travellers pursued by wolves. ]
Claim the throw. Your grip is more certain. [ Absent Lan Wangji's injury, Xie Yun's aim is the better bet now. ]