kassandra
small then, and smaller
my desire's to stay alive
T
he situation began to lay itself before her and Kassandra felt a renewed feeling of exhaustion seeping through her bones. The harshness of the world was a stark reality that, for a long time, she had been able to avoid. A bubbling sense of innocence had once brewed at her core, but it had soured; still, she tended to look at things through rosy-hued vision; but at times like this, something popped her (much smaller) bubble, and everything dark and tiring washed in at once. The belligerent man’s voice was rising in volume, and his actions, gesticulating between the lowly beggar and the intervening woman, became more jagged and sudden. Oculos’ body was taut as a bowstring beside her-- she could feel his agitation, and she pressed the side of her leg into him for comfort. The wrong word, the wrong move, could set everything off, lighting a fire that would be difficult to put out. And Kassandra was too tired for such deeds this night.
She was no diplomat, though she had been schooled in the airs and graces of nobility by a long string of stuffy tutors ordained to her by her uncle, the king, before he had gone mad and set his kingdom alight. Or, madder.
“So he has chosen not only to go out of his way and abuse a citizen for a station often beyond his control,” she inferred, ears bordering on pinned, “and then shift the abuse to you for your kindness and generosity? Is this the case?” She did not care to hear the aggressor’s side of the story, but in a way, hoped he would speak himself into enlightenment, for so rarely did people listen when others tried to explain. “Surely he has a right to think this, as foul and wrong as it is; but he does not get to accost others, no matter their standing or differences of opinion.” She stepped forward, impeding upon his space. “Perhaps he is threatened by your kindness? I can think of no other reason as to why you would be so outspoken against another’s simple gesture.” She fixed her eyes on the instigator, brows raised like an eager mother expectative of a naughty child’s explanation for their deeds.
