Beware the Ides!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Happy Ides of March! This is the day I remember that I like Raffles :)

I watched an Irish film Ondine last night so have a ficlet (really a plot bunny) about Raffles finding something on the beach.

Title: Undine
Fandom: Raffles - EW Hornung
Rating: Gen
Length: 400
Summary: Raffles finds something on the beach. Ominous ending. Possible plot bunny.


Raffles was a restless spirit. Despite the warmth, the comfort, the certainty of the seaside cottage and the seaside cottage bed, he could endure no more than a few moments’ idleness after waking up beside sleeping Bunny.

So, he stole silently, on cat-like tread, from the bed, checking twice to make certain that his partner slumbered on, peacefully. Then Raffles dressed and went out.

Day was breaking and it was glorious. Raffles immediately threw off his shoes and socks, wondering why he’d even bothered with them, and scurried like a shore creature toward the tide.

In the sea and its constant rolling and pitching, Raffles found something as restless as himself.

He strolled down the deserted shore and savoured the scents and the tide and the gaining light and the solitude. Even now, there were probably stalwart sea-bathers on their way for a dip.
And who could blame them on a morning like this, when all seemed right with the world?

Birds were doing their little dance with the incoming and outgoing surf.

Raffles breathed a deep breath of briny air and smiled at everything.

And then, just like that, he spotted something left behind by a receding wave.

Bunny had a penchant for unusual shells and that’s what Raffles thought it was, but as he drew closer, he realized it wasn’t a shell at all.

He picked it up and examined it.

It was a carved figure.

Ivory, perhaps?

It was small, fit in the palm of Raffles’ hand entirely, but of exquisite craftmanship. It was a girl, a maiden. There was something about her beauty that suggested she wasn’t entirely of this world, however. A goddess, perhaps. There were some letters or symbols scratched on it, but Raffles didn’t readily understand them.

It was pretty, very pretty.

A gift for a waiting sweetheart?

Well, it would make the perfect gift for Raffles’ sweetheart who was waiting for him back at the cottage. Bunny would love it. Maybe it was made of shell and not ivory, there was s delicateness to it.
Could it have been a sailor’s good luck charm? Stolen by accident or storm or thrown overboard in a fit of pique.

Well, whatever it had been, it was Raffles’ now. He’d plucked it from the ocean. It would be his good luck charm from now on.

But that is where Raffles was very, very, very wrong.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I'd be very interesting to see where this one went, if you chose to run after it!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I didn't care for the film but I looked up undine/ondine as a water nymph and thought as a concept it was interesting. A new take on the mermaid for me. And there's a book that will fill my fairy tale square on the bingo...

[regshoe]

Ooh... I don't know Ondine to get what this is hinting at, but it's a lovely ominous image. And I like the idea of Raffles and Bunny taking a peaceful seaside holiday together, aww—though of course Raffles in his restlessness would leave their warm bed in preference for the restless sea. Also the description of the waders 'doing their little dance with the incoming and outgoing surf' is lovely. :D

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! I am planning to read the one of the original fairy tales to get a better idea, but I understand it's kind of Little Mermaid thing where they marry a human to gain a soul. But I think there's a possibility of a plot here with Raffles (at least my version) being a bit morally ambiguous. Maybe a heist on a boat gone wrong or something like that.

[regshoe]

Morally ambiguous Raffles sounds good :D I would like to read more of this if you do end up doing something with it!