Double Drabble: Perchance to Dream

[honorat]

by Honorat
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Owned by the Mouse. I swear I am an almost innocent fanfic writer.
Pairing: Will/Elizabeth
Summary: I have finally managed to write a drabble again! Well, a double one. A little missing scene for the Black Pearl Sails "Lullaby" challenge. Angsty, if you can believe it.


Every night after his rescue he had fought sleep with a desperate fury, but eventually his exhausted young body would vanquish his battered spirit and drag him down into fiery nightmares. Then he would come violently awake, his throat a raw echo of screams, the thin sheet twisted damp, the acrid scent of his own fear stinging his nostrils, unable to flee from the images branded on the backs of his eyelids. He would not return to sleep.

This night, however, he found himself rocking in his mother’s arms again, hearing the soothing melody of the old lullaby she used to sing over him. The gentle notes held power over the terror, driving it from him, surrounding him with safety. A cool hand brushed the damp strands of hair from his forehead as his mother used to do, but it was not the familiar, work-worn palm.

He opened his eyes, startled, to see the face of the young girl with the freckles and ringlets and large, dark eyes. Again he heard her soft voice: “I’m watching over you, Will.” Her hand slipped into his.

That night Will Turner finally slept until dawn.

Comments

[aft-and-daft.livejournal.com]

*aaaaaaawwwwwwww* *sniffles a little bit* I love it. It's not really angsty, I mean, the first part is (excellent descriptions, by the way - as usual!), and it's sad that it's not his mother, but it's very sweet at the end. Okay, I guess it is angsty then, but it's still very sweet. *more aaawwws* :-) Beautifully done. :-)

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Sweet angst--get your oxymoronic paradox right here! I'm glad you liked the description. I wrote it, took one look at it, said what a heap of cliches and did my best to make things more vivid. I've been out of the drabble business for too long. Thank you for commenting.

[mellehz.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful! The way you describe everything...just wonderful ^^

[aft-and-daft.livejournal.com]

LOL! :-) Well, it was certainly vivid and not cliche. :-) I was just writing something the other day and quite annoyed at how cliche it was sounding...that happens...I still don't know if I managed to make it more original or not. :-P

Hey, at least you can write a drabble - I have yet to manage that. (I'm too darn long-winded I guess...) ;-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/elizabethswan_/]

You are a Goddess!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

he would come violently awake, his throat a raw echo of screams, the thin sheet twisted damp, the acrid scent of his own fear stinging his nostrils, unable to flee from the images branded on the backs of his eyelids

This is so real, we can just feel it with him. Truly great description.

A cool hand brushed the damp strands of hair from his forehead as his mother used to do, but it was not the familiar, work-worn palm.

This says so much about his mother, and about his relationship with her.

And then it's Elizabeth. It's really no wonder she's so dear to him, his one true friend, goddess-like, yet so very human.

Beautiful work.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Every once in awhile I manage to come near the drabble limit. But the last drabble I started, "Crossing," is already over 16,000 words posted and I have pages more of it unposted--I do know about long-winded!

If they're good words, more power to them, I say.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed the description.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

*blush* You're too kind. I'm glad you liked this little dash of your favourite couple.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

*Bounce* Such a detailed comment. Thank you so much. I'm so glad this description worked for people. As I told aft_and_daft, I redid it several times. Will had to have a good mother to turn out so well. I always like playing with that backstory. And Elizabeth was such an earnest little maternal creature with young Will, that I could just imagine her being like this.

[aft-and-daft.livejournal.com]

Oooh, goody, more "Crossing"!!! I was just catching up on that tonight, and I can't wait for the rest!! :-)

..not that there's anything wrong with being long-winded - as long as one is not boring in the process (which you aren't) :-)

too lazy to log

[(Anonymous)]

Not many people know this but I am almost as big a fan of angst as I am of Willabeth.

Which is why "Worthy of his Steel" effects me as it does.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a good thing you can put up with my long-windedness, because that story has run away so far God himself couldn't find it with a radio telescope. I have no idea where it's going, but it's going to take awhile getting there.

[classics-lover.livejournal.com]

This is a beautiful, wonderfully evocative piece of writing.

Will's nightmares are wonderful - genuinely believable expressions of the horror he had to face.
And Elizabeth is just so sweet and maternal and loving.
Lovely!

[hereswith.livejournal.com]

Very effective description of his night terrors here, poor Will, it might have been an ordeal. It makes sense that Elizabeth can help him sleep, as entangled as their lives are and will become, and that image of safety and peace works well as a contrast to the angst :-) Great use of the theme!

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your comments. As the only survivor of such a carnage, Will had to have a certain amount of post-traumatic shock. This was also the picture I got of Elizabeth in that first scene--taking very seriously her role as protector of her charge. I'm so glad you liked them.

[aft-and-daft.livejournal.com]

LOL!! :-) Writing is an adventure, isn't it? I never realized until I started writing myself...it's addicting, too... :-) Well, I'm certianly looking forward to more of "Crossing" :-) (though I do hope to see a little more Norrington and Gilette in there, but only because I'm an obsessed!fangirl.) ;-)

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Oh, never fear. The Navy gets several episodes almost to themselves.

[aft-and-daft.livejournal.com]

Wooooooohoooooooo!!!!!! :-D

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for commenting. I imagine that being the only survivor of an attack by the men so evil hell itself spat them back out was a traumatic experience. I had trouble just getting rear-ended in my car and spent a couple of months freaking out every time I saw a grill in my rearview. So I felt Will was due some trouble sleeping. Elizabeth was a little protective mother hen at the beginning of the movie--so cute. I'm glad you liked it.

[torn-eledhwen.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. I love the description especially.

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. I'm glad you liked my choice of description.

[hendercats.livejournal.com]

Awwww. Yes, she took the charge seriously. Am sure she spent a good deal of the remainder of the voyage quite literally watching him. She is indeed his rescuer, in every way other than literally pulling him off the wreckage.

Every night after his rescue he had fought sleep with a desperate fury, but eventually his exhausted young body...
Great physical nightmare description! Apologies, but got mentally sidetracked - didn't read your very clear pairing declaration - and was ready to believe you were visiting Virgo's Salvage universe (what kind of twisted lullabies would her mermaid sing? *shivers*).

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Yes, Elizabeth was still rescuing Will even in the movie. They look out for each other.

I had to go back and reread my drabble with that reinterpretation. Up until the end it does work. Very interesting. It's fun to see how different readers interpret.

Twisted mermaid lullubies--if we gang up on her do you think she'd write them? Ha!

Thanks so much for the comments.

[hendercats.livejournal.com]

For some (stupid) reason, I never considered him having nightmares about the attack, but rather its having caused a lot of the fierce determination that fills him.

Think my favorite bit in this is
Her hand slipped into his.
Perhaps because of reading this so close to having read Chapter 3.6.b of Worthy and seeing a similar sweetness in the hand-holding in both places.

Twisted mermaid lullubies--if we gang up on her do you think she'd write them?
Ooh, good idea!

[honorat.livejournal.com]

Nightmares--yes, when I considered what it would have been like to witness the level of violence and destruction Barbossa's crew was capable of commiting, I figured Will had to have come out of that with some version of post-traumatic shock. He was just a child when it happened, and a person can end up with a nightmare after a scary movie, let alone that kind of experience! I think fear is a big motivator in that determination and that sword-practice. How much of a person's adult decisions are based on a need to combat some childhood problem? I've seen it too many times. It's wierdly self-destructive. Will may not consciously think it, but he is preparing himself never to be that helpless or vulnerable again. And he has to have survivor's guilt.

And yes, Mini-Will and Mini-Elizabeth are so very sweet together. If her father had wanted to get her away from him, he should have let them play together every day of their lives. Then they would have considered each other brother and sister. But no! He had to provide those lovely long separations so that they would always meet again and find each other a wonder. Poor Governor. He hadn't a chance.

Thank you for the feedback--twice!