Fic: Opening a Door: Gen
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holmes_minorTitle: Opening a door
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Characters: Holmes & Watson
Notes: Fantasy/Steampunk AU. Post-Reichenbach.
Summary: Holmes takes Watson on a journey to explain the missing three years.
For: Holmes Minor January prompt: opening a door
fffc regular challenge #18.24: slippery
picture prompt fun Challenge #48, picture #96
The journey north gave me ample time to reflect on what a day had wrought.
“Pack your sturdiest boots, Watson,” Holmes ordered. “And your flimsiest notions of the natural world.”
Compliance was not difficult.
A soldier, no matter how removed from battle, never economises on footwear, and discovering that one’s dearest friend is not, in fact, among the departed certainly causes a fellow to question his senses.
‘And he that was dead came forth.’
Like Lazarus, Holmes was alive. And now he, and I, were on a train to Scotland.
“Sit down, and tell me how you came alive out of that dreadful chasm.”
“I will tell you all, Watson. And because you will not believe me, I will show you, that you may know for yourself the place where I have been all this time, but first, we’ve a hard and dangerous night’s work in the front of us.”
It was, indeed, a hard and dangerous night’s work, but by morning, the murderer of Sir Ronald Adair was captured, and the last remaining node of the late Professor Moriarty’s web felled.
Neither the danger of the night nor the day’s journey ahead, however, did anything to diminish my curiosity.
Holmes and I spent the night in Edinburgh and resumed travel in the morning.
I posed no further questions, but Holmes often reached out and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.
Finally, we reached the Isle of Skye.
We passed the night at a country inn.
“Tomorrow we will hike to the Fairy Pools, Watson. They are a series of waterfalls, but do not be anxious. They are, in all aspects but one, the very opposite of the Reichenbach abyss. The waters are sapphire and emerald, and the falls themselves are low and welcoming. They attract lovers of nature and bold bathers alike. If the beauty does not ease your fears, then my hand is yours whenever you require it. And because you are the most faithful of companions, I shall give you a clue.”
He handed me an odd pair of spectacles attached to a leather cap. The lenses were tinted green, and there were straps at the back to adjust the fit.
“Holmes!”
“You will know when it is time to don it.”
My curiosity became almost too much to bear. How I slept I shall never know!
The Fairy Pools were as beautiful as described, and we were alone in our enjoyment of them.
Holmes led me along a slippery path to a curtain of turquoise-coloured water. Then he raised a hand and, as with a curtain, drew the water aside.
Agog, I followed as we passed into a dim cavern.
Holmes turned and drew the waterfall behind us.
In the meagre light, I saw the door, a russet brown affair with ironwork surrounded by ticking clocks and clockwork gears.
“Now, my dear Watson,” said Holmes, snapping on his own leather cap and setting the lenses in place. “it is a simple matter of opening a door.”
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Characters: Holmes & Watson
Notes: Fantasy/Steampunk AU. Post-Reichenbach.
Summary: Holmes takes Watson on a journey to explain the missing three years.
For: Holmes Minor January prompt: opening a door
fffc regular challenge #18.24: slippery
picture prompt fun Challenge #48, picture #96
The journey north gave me ample time to reflect on what a day had wrought.
“Pack your sturdiest boots, Watson,” Holmes ordered. “And your flimsiest notions of the natural world.”
Compliance was not difficult.
A soldier, no matter how removed from battle, never economises on footwear, and discovering that one’s dearest friend is not, in fact, among the departed certainly causes a fellow to question his senses.
‘And he that was dead came forth.’
Like Lazarus, Holmes was alive. And now he, and I, were on a train to Scotland.
“Sit down, and tell me how you came alive out of that dreadful chasm.”
“I will tell you all, Watson. And because you will not believe me, I will show you, that you may know for yourself the place where I have been all this time, but first, we’ve a hard and dangerous night’s work in the front of us.”
It was, indeed, a hard and dangerous night’s work, but by morning, the murderer of Sir Ronald Adair was captured, and the last remaining node of the late Professor Moriarty’s web felled.
Neither the danger of the night nor the day’s journey ahead, however, did anything to diminish my curiosity.
Holmes and I spent the night in Edinburgh and resumed travel in the morning.
I posed no further questions, but Holmes often reached out and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.
Finally, we reached the Isle of Skye.
We passed the night at a country inn.
“Tomorrow we will hike to the Fairy Pools, Watson. They are a series of waterfalls, but do not be anxious. They are, in all aspects but one, the very opposite of the Reichenbach abyss. The waters are sapphire and emerald, and the falls themselves are low and welcoming. They attract lovers of nature and bold bathers alike. If the beauty does not ease your fears, then my hand is yours whenever you require it. And because you are the most faithful of companions, I shall give you a clue.”
He handed me an odd pair of spectacles attached to a leather cap. The lenses were tinted green, and there were straps at the back to adjust the fit.
“Holmes!”
“You will know when it is time to don it.”
My curiosity became almost too much to bear. How I slept I shall never know!
The Fairy Pools were as beautiful as described, and we were alone in our enjoyment of them.
Holmes led me along a slippery path to a curtain of turquoise-coloured water. Then he raised a hand and, as with a curtain, drew the water aside.
Agog, I followed as we passed into a dim cavern.
Holmes turned and drew the waterfall behind us.
In the meagre light, I saw the door, a russet brown affair with ironwork surrounded by ticking clocks and clockwork gears.
“Now, my dear Watson,” said Holmes, snapping on his own leather cap and setting the lenses in place. “it is a simple matter of opening a door.”
no subject
Date: 2019-01-02 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-02 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-03 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-03 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-03 05:12 pm (UTC)And, yes you do:-)
Getting the hang of the site...slowly
no subject
Date: 2019-01-03 06:02 pm (UTC)And I love the description of the fairy pools and the curtain of water. The door itself is most intriguing - this is certainly a 'verse I would like to read more of ^__^
no subject
Date: 2019-01-03 08:16 pm (UTC)I googled 'waterfalls UK' and got a top 10 list and the Fairy Pools were among them. And I said, 'That's it. That's my doorway to another world.'
I think Steampunk!Holmes would be so much fun, too.