A Bummer for Bill
Hello folks.
After a long and unnanounced vacation I have some more content for the blog.
As you may or may not know steamforged organized a writing challange on their forums (It has already ended and I did not put in my final version of the story - as I left on vacation and had other life threatening issues that I had to tackle [/jk I'm fine]) Still I thought this story would be a nice piece to put up on my blog...
So here is some fluff in less than 100 words about 'a rookie', I hope you enjoy it.
It was still early morning, Bill lay awake bathing in a pool of his own chilling sweat; Listening to the screeching call of the rooster, commanding the sun to come up and pushing away the darkness. But there was no pushing away the darkness in Bills head. The war had cost him everything, his parents, his sister, his home.
The nightmare that woke him up was still lingering in his head, tasting like sour vomit in the back of his mouth. It was the same nightmare that kept coming back. His mother and little sister screaming whilst dragged out of the house by the hair, kicking about and clinging at the hands that held their scalp tightly clenched in a fist. Bill sat as a silent witness into the cupboard his mother had thrown him in. He watched the whole thing through a crack in the wood, the letter bringing bad news from the front – the death of his father - crumpled in his hands, still wet with tears. The low rumbling laughter and grinning sounds the men made, saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths. The stench of alcohol on their breath filling the small room. It all came back to him in his dreams as if it happened only yesterday, waking him up at the exact same moment, again and again. The moment the cupboard was opened and light blinded him.
He swore to never again sit idly by when witnessing a wrongdoing no matter how small.
A loud bang disturbed his musings and the sleep of his fellow rookies, he sprang out of bed as if launched by a catapult and grabbed his gear before the voice bellowed:
“Rise and shine lads! It’s a new day and you have much to learn still! Out in the yard in 2 minutes for the morning drill!” The owner of the voice never showed his face. Marbeille next to him had clearly been awake too since she was getting dressed, slowing Bill down for a moment as he admired her curves only to hasten his actions as the blood shot to his face in embarrassment. What was he thinking, the lovely Marbeille was out of his league, as the daughter of a reknown beekeeper. Still when their eyes met…
The dorm started living, as an ants-nest that was disturbed. Soon he was in the yard doing push-ups and sprinting back and forth amongst his peers. Some of them there hoping to escape the life bestowed on them by birth, looking to do something else than what was expected, others because their parents wanted a superstar Guild Ball player in the family. And yet others, like him, not sure how they got there but with nothing else to do. All were equal amongst the rookies, until you showed skill that is. Skilled rookies were soon to be scouted by guilds on the lookout for players. Every week during the practice game the scouts would come to the training grounds and keep an eye out for rookies that showed talent in the game. This time was no different; Bill noticed from the corner of his eyes that Mallet was there, talking to some others and he did his utmost best to shine in the football game. He got teamed up to play against Marbeille but made sure to avoid having to go near her, lest he should have to tackle, or hurt her.
At best Bill was an average football player, a decent distance to his kick, but no real accuracy was to be found. His fighting skills were lacklustre at best. He was strong, but had a good heart and held back so not to harm his peers.
Out of nowhere he received a pass and sprinted forward controlling the ball as best he could. Hoping to impress the scouts, and Mallet in particular, he trundled towards the goal but ran headfirst into the defence and got a blow to the head making him sway on his feet. The defending midfielder tackled the ball with ease and passed it to Marbeille, who skilfully received the pass and dodged forwards to make a counter attempt. Bill never knew what happened and when he shook his head he could notice a female sprinting past him, but it was all a blur still. Two men from his team moved in to stop Marbeille and they squashed her inbetween them knocking her down. One of them stumbled on top of her, the other laughed in an evil way bringing Bill back to his nightmare. No spoke a little voice in his head: No! Not this time!! I shall not sit here and watch this again! Bill shook off the haze, and sprinted towards the duo, still kicking and punshing Marbeille, showing no interest in the ball. Both men went down, each under an arm of Bills. His fists hammering down on their heads as if he was beating a drum with the rhythm of his heart. Both of them were pinned to the ground by a knee in the stomach, all air sucked out of the loungs.
Shouts fell upon deaf ears as orders to stop were lost on Bill.
It was Mallet who plucked him of the two boys and brought him back to the pitch with a slap to the face.
“What have I done?” Mumbled Bill looking at his two teammates.
“You beat up two of your own team, rookie.” Answered Mallet, and he continued: “And you made it into the Masons guild training programme. I believe Hammer will be fond of you.”
“I’m an apprentice to the masons after beating up my own team?”
“Well, best not to do that again, …” a grin lurked around Mallets mouth as he pushed the boy in front of him towards the administrations office to get the paperwork out of the way. Mallet wasn’t going to let this beast get stolen from under his nose…
That's it folks!
Bob Out!
Hope to see you soon! But no promisses on my end :-)
After a long and unnanounced vacation I have some more content for the blog.
As you may or may not know steamforged organized a writing challange on their forums (It has already ended and I did not put in my final version of the story - as I left on vacation and had other life threatening issues that I had to tackle [/jk I'm fine]) Still I thought this story would be a nice piece to put up on my blog...
So here is some fluff in less than 100 words about 'a rookie', I hope you enjoy it.
A Bummer for Bill:
It was still early morning, Bill lay awake bathing in a pool of his own chilling sweat; Listening to the screeching call of the rooster, commanding the sun to come up and pushing away the darkness. But there was no pushing away the darkness in Bills head. The war had cost him everything, his parents, his sister, his home.
The nightmare that woke him up was still lingering in his head, tasting like sour vomit in the back of his mouth. It was the same nightmare that kept coming back. His mother and little sister screaming whilst dragged out of the house by the hair, kicking about and clinging at the hands that held their scalp tightly clenched in a fist. Bill sat as a silent witness into the cupboard his mother had thrown him in. He watched the whole thing through a crack in the wood, the letter bringing bad news from the front – the death of his father - crumpled in his hands, still wet with tears. The low rumbling laughter and grinning sounds the men made, saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths. The stench of alcohol on their breath filling the small room. It all came back to him in his dreams as if it happened only yesterday, waking him up at the exact same moment, again and again. The moment the cupboard was opened and light blinded him.
He swore to never again sit idly by when witnessing a wrongdoing no matter how small.
A loud bang disturbed his musings and the sleep of his fellow rookies, he sprang out of bed as if launched by a catapult and grabbed his gear before the voice bellowed:
“Rise and shine lads! It’s a new day and you have much to learn still! Out in the yard in 2 minutes for the morning drill!” The owner of the voice never showed his face. Marbeille next to him had clearly been awake too since she was getting dressed, slowing Bill down for a moment as he admired her curves only to hasten his actions as the blood shot to his face in embarrassment. What was he thinking, the lovely Marbeille was out of his league, as the daughter of a reknown beekeeper. Still when their eyes met…
The dorm started living, as an ants-nest that was disturbed. Soon he was in the yard doing push-ups and sprinting back and forth amongst his peers. Some of them there hoping to escape the life bestowed on them by birth, looking to do something else than what was expected, others because their parents wanted a superstar Guild Ball player in the family. And yet others, like him, not sure how they got there but with nothing else to do. All were equal amongst the rookies, until you showed skill that is. Skilled rookies were soon to be scouted by guilds on the lookout for players. Every week during the practice game the scouts would come to the training grounds and keep an eye out for rookies that showed talent in the game. This time was no different; Bill noticed from the corner of his eyes that Mallet was there, talking to some others and he did his utmost best to shine in the football game. He got teamed up to play against Marbeille but made sure to avoid having to go near her, lest he should have to tackle, or hurt her.
At best Bill was an average football player, a decent distance to his kick, but no real accuracy was to be found. His fighting skills were lacklustre at best. He was strong, but had a good heart and held back so not to harm his peers.
Out of nowhere he received a pass and sprinted forward controlling the ball as best he could. Hoping to impress the scouts, and Mallet in particular, he trundled towards the goal but ran headfirst into the defence and got a blow to the head making him sway on his feet. The defending midfielder tackled the ball with ease and passed it to Marbeille, who skilfully received the pass and dodged forwards to make a counter attempt. Bill never knew what happened and when he shook his head he could notice a female sprinting past him, but it was all a blur still. Two men from his team moved in to stop Marbeille and they squashed her inbetween them knocking her down. One of them stumbled on top of her, the other laughed in an evil way bringing Bill back to his nightmare. No spoke a little voice in his head: No! Not this time!! I shall not sit here and watch this again! Bill shook off the haze, and sprinted towards the duo, still kicking and punshing Marbeille, showing no interest in the ball. Both men went down, each under an arm of Bills. His fists hammering down on their heads as if he was beating a drum with the rhythm of his heart. Both of them were pinned to the ground by a knee in the stomach, all air sucked out of the loungs.
Shouts fell upon deaf ears as orders to stop were lost on Bill.
It was Mallet who plucked him of the two boys and brought him back to the pitch with a slap to the face.
“What have I done?” Mumbled Bill looking at his two teammates.
“You beat up two of your own team, rookie.” Answered Mallet, and he continued: “And you made it into the Masons guild training programme. I believe Hammer will be fond of you.”
“I’m an apprentice to the masons after beating up my own team?”
“Well, best not to do that again, …” a grin lurked around Mallets mouth as he pushed the boy in front of him towards the administrations office to get the paperwork out of the way. Mallet wasn’t going to let this beast get stolen from under his nose…
That's it folks!
Bob Out!
Hope to see you soon! But no promisses on my end :-)
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