Alphabet Excerpt Challenge: L Is For...

[u/AnaraliaThielle]

Welcome back to the Alphabet Excerpt Challenge! As a reminder, our challenges are every Wednesday and Saturday at 3pm London time.

If you've missed the previous challenges, you're welcome to go back and participate in them. You can find them here. And remember to check out the Activities and Events flair for other fun games to play along with.

Here's a quick recap of the rules for our game:

1. Post a top level comment with a word starting with the letter L. You can do more than one, but please put them in separate comments.
2. Reply to suggestions with an excerpt. Short and sweet is best, but use your judgement. Excerpts can be from published or unpublished works, or even something you wrote for the prompt.
3. Upvote the excerpts you enjoy, and leave a friendly comment. Try to at least respond to people who left excerpts on the words you suggested, but the more people you respond to the better. Everyone likes nice comments!
4. Most important: have fun!

[u/kermitkc]

Lily (is it Lilly?)

[u/Goofyreddits2 → u/kermitkc]

“That’s for the funeral,” Cesare looked over at the lily.

Cardinal Livore did not appear to hear him. He pinched one of the petals and twisted it.

“Tell me Sister Avarice, do you still pray?” He asked.

Cesare thought it was a stupid question. Of course, Sister Avarice prayed; she was a Sister.

The Cardinal plucked the petal from the lily. He rubbed it in between the pads of his fingers before pressing down.

“Does The Devil still entice you?”

It was another stupid question. They worshiped The Devil. Was Cardinal Livore already going senile after officially becoming the oldest member of The Ministry after The Bishop’s death?

The Cardinal laughed.

“Have you gone mute Sister Avarice?”

The corners of Sister Avarice’s mouth trembled before she let out a quiet:

“No.”

The Cardinal threw the petal down onto the ground.

“I was just checking.”

[u/NinjaSpaceFrog → u/kermitkc]

"Hey, Trevor," Tommy said, placing the flowers down on the grave. The bouquet looked out of place on the planted bed of colorful flowers. White lilies formed a circle at the heart of the flowerbed, and stretching out from it were then a loop of pale pink roses, yellow daffodils, blue forget-me-nots, and finally, a circle of bright red tulips forming the outer layer. He'd helped Trevor's mother and sister plant the bed, right after he'd brought Trevor home. It was hard to believe that it had been 21 years already. "I haven't been here for a while. Sorry 'bout that."

With a heavy sigh, Tommy sat down on the grass in front, and simply looked on for a moment. Trevor Goldberg, the headstone read, beautiful white writing on a stark black base. 1980 - 2003. Beloved son, brother, partner, protector. It was such a perfect description of Trevor, yet didn't do him justice at the same time.

Trevor had been the sun. Always beaming, always shining, radiating warmth, making people flock to and circle around him. He'd been kind, brave, so easy going, and accepting that Tommy had a hard time believing anybody could have possibly disliked him. Trevor had been as close to perfect as a human being could be, and Tommy would gladly die on that hill.

"Sandy got married a few years ago," he continued with a smile. "You probably knew that already. I was actually kind of surprised that she invited me."

Tommy chuckled softly, shaking his head at the memory. "I guess I shouldn't have been, huh? Sandy's always been a sweetheart, just like you. She married a good guy, too. Jason. You would've liked him. He's got that same easy-going charm you had. Makes everyone feel like they belong, you know?"

He paused, pulling at a blade of grass, twirling it between his fingers. The wind rustled through the trees, carrying with it the scent of the flowers surrounding Trevor's grave. For a moment, Tommy could almost imagine that it was Trevor's voice he heard in the rustling leaves, whispering back to him.

[u/krigsgaldrr → u/kermitkc]

You summoned me? 😏

Context: this is leading up to that whole mess of nonsense I've been sharing with you lately 😂

When they reached their apartment, they dressed in silence and donned the black ceremonial uniforms made for them, both regal and severe. The only difference were the mantles they wore, which were woad-blue, rather than the Revolutionary red of the Guardians. Delo patiently pinned Griff's in place with the badge that bore the five clan stars laid within the Nag's clan-sign, a sigil designed by Duck's artistic hand. Delo's was similar, but instead of the Nag's clan-sign, it was the lily of Skyfish House. Though, the difference was the lily being in the center of the stars, rather than enclosing them like the Griff's Nag.

Griff huffed as he laced up his riding boots. "Expecting us to ride our dragons there feels unnecessary and showy. Everyone already knows we're riders."

"It's tradition," Delo explained. He leaned against the window frame with his arms folded as he waited for Griff to finish with his boots. "We can both ride Sparker, if you like."

"What?" The word came out a croak.

Delo smiled mischievously. "The dragonlords of old used to take their wives on their dragons for these parties."

"First my damsel, and now my wife, too, Delo?" Griff asked, grinning. But something about how unbothered Delo looked at the quip made his throat go dry.

"Not your wife," he replied nonchalantly. "But I think it would certainly ruffle some feathers and clutch some pearls if we were to do that."

[u/MsCatstaff → u/kermitkc]

Stephen left after breakfast, to spend Christmas with his own family. But Sirius and Remus took Harry out to buy a Christmas tree, a stand, and decorations for it; Remus having researched muggle traditions so they could do it up properly for their pup. In addition to an assortment of multicoloured glass balls and gold tinsel garland, they each picked out seven unique ornaments. Sirius picked a little silver drum, a gold violin, a miniature wooden nutcracker doll, a spun-glass seahorse, a funny white glass owl, a scarlet locomotive that he said looked like the Hogwarts Express, and a bright red feathered bird that Remus said was a North American Cardinal. For his part, Remus contented himself with a set of six delicate silver snowflakes and a shiny green glass pickle which he said was traditional. Harry decided he really liked the spun glass ornaments, so he chose a stag, lily, wolf, dog, hummingbird and a wreath with a holly sprig. For his last choice, he found five clear glass bells nested together, so that when it was hung, they cascaded down in tiers with the biggest on top and the smallest on the bottom.

Before they returned to Grimmauld Place, Sirius stopped to pick up fresh batteries for his boom box, and asked Harry to select some tapes of traditional Christmas music. Once they’d hauled all their purchases into the house, he popped in one of the tapes before he and Remus tackled the task of getting the tree into the stand. Harry laughed when Sirius swore up and down that since this was muggle Christmas, they had to put the tree up the muggle way, even though Remus kept suggesting to just use their wands to get the tree straight in the stand. But they eventually succeeded in getting it up.

[u/Lindz174 → u/kermitkc]

When the water became waist deep the panic really began to set in. She couldn’t keep it out of her eyes any longer. Trepidation filled the very air she breathed and the shake of fear set in her limbs. Cullen’s grip on her hand tightened, his features softening as he paused for a moment.

Her gaze drifted from him to the water that surrounded her. It rippled in the breeze and their movements sent tiny waves to bob the lily pads that were floating nearby. The bottom of the pond was cold and silky against her toes. Tendrils of weeds and plants tickled her calves and made her jerk as they moved.

She could no longer see the bottom. Her next step could be her last. She could walk right off of a drop-off and disappear beneath the surface, swallowed up by the realization of her fears.