Deciever, Story But Not Related to TES Options

[Tulustan]

Last few weeks I have had ideas for stories rolling around in my brain muscle, so here is me trying to share one of them. Critiques are welcome!

Chapter 1

It had been roughly five years since I had gone north to the port city of Tanon in search of wealth. I had heard many things about the city, especially how easy it was to find a job on the wharf, which being of the prespant class left me very few choices in work. Slowly I had worked my way up the labor ladder on the wharfs and had become the manager of wharf four. It was still hard work especially getting the newer members to unload cargo quick enough and safe enough as to not hurt themselves or the cargo.

This year however I had begun to take a liking to one of the new dockhands. His name was Marcus and he had been working on the wharfs for only a few months. However, he had the brains to listen to my advice and not get himself seriously hurt or killed yet, and also no complaints had been filed against him (all extremely rare for new dockhands).

All in all life was going pretty good. I looked at the machine in the corner that told me what hour of the day it was… very nice almost time to go home. I decided to go down and arrange some festivities for the night.

As I walked onto the wharf the familiar feel of the treated wood groaned under my feet as the ocean tried to lazily dislodge it from the earth that it had been built into. Not much had changed about wharf four in the five years I had worked on it. A few broken planks here and there and that one time the crane had broken and almost clove the wharf in half, but it was still the same thing with a few scars and the blood of the men who worked it.

As I reached about halfway across the wharf I spied Marcus unloading a medium sized grey crate by himself. “Hey there!” I yelled to him.

“Whoa, if it isn’t the grand ol boss here to the rescue.” He yelled back. “Gonna actually contribute to this little shindig for once instead of sittin on your boat all day watchin us do all the work?”

“Hey! It takes a lot of strength writing those reports for all the crates you’ve dropped!” I replied not having to yell with the distance closed to within a few feet.

“Ah dang, you know I don’t drop any crates. But please feel free to keep sitting there while I do real work!”

I let out a little chuckle at that and began to help him lift a couple of the heavier crates off of the ship. I mean hell it’s a great way to keep in shape and I owed him after the drunken stupor I managed to drink myself into the night before.

Even though I had not totally recovered from that previous night I asked him “After were done off loading this ship wanna go to the Musty Sailor and grab some of the new import from Mumbril. I hear they added some extra zing to their new batch of ale!”

“Are you joking with me? After last night you wanna go drinking again? I mean cmon you just about killed yourself in that pile of puke you conjoured up! But yeah I guess, hopefully this time you’ll be walking me home though… Yeah I just realized the likelihood of that statement, ya drunky.”

“Hardy har har, see ya there. I gotta go take care of a few administrational things first.” under my breath, but loud enough to hear me I muttered “like getting you fired”.

“oh, you bag of dicks” he responded then said “later, don’t get too drunk before I get there to drag your boat home” he finished.

At that I walked back to my office at the end of the wharf and began to get all the reports ready to hand in the next day to the “dock master”. By the time I had finished my paperwork it was dark out and the candle lit room cast shadows of all the odd bobbles I had collected over the time I had lived in Tanon.

As I left my office the familiar smell of saltwater assailed my nostrils. Usually I just ignored it automatically but for some reason it was intensely strong. I kept walking back to my house. The whole way there the pungent aroma of the saltwater assaulted my senses.

I approached the shortcut to my house. It went behind the butchers shop and a few tall apartment buildings. Most of the city was built out of solid stone, one of the few in the kingdom. It was a key hub for commerce and with an abundance of quarries and a limited supply of farmland the city had built vertically.

As I reached my house, an apartment complex grafted onto the side of the southern wall, I noticed that most of the blankets over the windows of each apartment were down. I found this to be very odd because it was still early in the night and still fairly warm outside.

I got into my room and began changing into clothes I did not care overly much about (didn’t want to have to worry about puking on myself and buying a new shirt). I took care to put my dagger back on however, never know when you can use one in a enclosed area full of men whose heads may be a teeny bit infected with alcohol.

I left my house on the same route I had come in and when I got to the back ally I thought that I noticed someone following me. I ignored it, this being one of the safer cities in the kingdom thanks to all of the wealth it had acquired.

About halfway through the ally I heard someone full out sprinting in behind me. Quickly I turned around and began to pull my dagger. However, as the blade almost cleared the phantom behind me tackled me to the ground. He reached for something in his lavender robe, quickly I thrust my leg upward and into his growing getting enough force to somersault him over me.

I looked back to notice that he had somewhat recovered and had drawn a sword. Quickly I rolled to my feet and pulled my dagger. He came swift and fast with a lunge for my chest. I barely got the parry in time to stop the blade from gutting me. Again he tried to inflict damage on my innards using the same thrust. However this time I was more prepared and managed to parry the thrust easily. I noticed that he either must not have been expecting such a strong parry or was very inexperienced at using a sword because the parry had left his middle right open.

I took the advantage. I jumped on him with all of my might and knocked him to the ground. Right when we hit the ground I pummeled him once in the face with the butt of my dagger and kicked his sword away.

“Why are you attacking me!” I yelled into his face. The sound I got back was that of a mad animal trying all it could to break free. The thing was it wasn’t me he was trying to break free of. It was like something inside the man wanted out, or control of the body. I repeated my inquiry.

His face turned savagely red but it looked like something was winning over and he managed to mutter through gritted teeth “Heh help me”.

I had no idea how to help this man or even if he needed helping maybe this was just a ploy to break free from my hold. I began to ask in what way I could assist him when all of a sudden I heard a zinging sort of noise from my left ear, there was a wet smacking sound. The attacker had stopped moving altogether underneath me and a warm fluid had begun to puddle near my left knee where I was holding his arm down. That is when I noticed a small dagger handle jutting out of the side of my attackers’ neck.

This post has been edited by Tulustan: Dec 7 2010, 05:11 AM

[Tulustan]

Marcus made his way into the building. Upon entrance a now familiar smell assaulted his nose, it was that of many men crammed into a small area, and with the tantalizing smell of food it drove his nostrils crazy. He made his way towards the knot of men waiting for food. Per usual the line moved agonizingly slowly. Every step forward towards the food was almost torturous, however finally Marcus had his food in hand and went to go sit down. The closest empty space was next to a large burly bear of a man who seemed as if he alone was emitting most of the noxious scent. He had a massive under bite and the few strands of hair on his head were just a vague reminder of what had once been.

“Hey there fellaw, names Rataghuw. Yours?” The man said in a lively voice as he put his mug onto the table.

“I’m sorry what did you just say your name was Rat Jaw?” Marcus replied shocked.

“Oh no no no, RATA GWAW. Gwaw not jaw! Never eard that one before though!” he replied in an upbeat manner.

“Yeah, Im just gonna call ya Rat, ok? “

“Yeah that’s fine by me boy. So you from here?”

“Now try and keep the excitement down to a minimum but… yes I am in fact from this wonderful place.” Marcus said in a snarky tone.

“Well ya don have to be so cheery there boy. Just trying to make some friends in this ere army.” Quiet ensued between the two for a few seconds, both eying each other and sizing one another up. Suddenly Rataghuw face broke the stalemate between the two with a big grin. “Ya know, I jus realized I don even know your name? How impolite of me. Would ya be so kind as to enlighten me?”

“Marcus.”

“Well hello there Marcus, glad teh meet your acquaintance. Something seems teh be botherin ya, now either you’re a big ol stick in the mud or there is a big ol stick in you’re a—“

“Oh hah hah, yeah so what if somethings bothering me. Somethin is always bothering some one some where some how. So just lemme eat my meal in peace will ya?”

“Allright, if ya insist. Jus saying ya sat next to me there boyo.”

With that Marcus got up and left the table and quickly finished the last of his meal. He made his way back to his assigned room. Six other men were stationed in that room which made no sense to him because not only was the room cramped as all hell but his house was literally three blocks away.

Marcus grabbed a coat from under his cot and left the building. He walked around the city and noted all of the recent changes. A lot of the alleys had been gated up and main streets had been blocked off. The reasoning behind this was to keep the aggressor funneled at the defenders in tight kill zones easily defendable if the wall was breached.

Many upper story buildings had large pots now mounted in the windows. These would be filled with hot oil and dumped onto the invaders. With all of these defenses however the city was still severely lacking in archers which could easily be the defining element.

As Marcus thought about all of the ‘improvements’ to the city and what he had been taught by the military, the realization sank even deeper that he would most likely have to take a man’s life before the year was out. The concept was very foreign and had soured his mood. The more he thought about it the more he resented what was happening, what had happened, and what might happen. He thought of Fellessen and how this entire situation had begun.

It dawned on Marcus that the idea of the walk clearing his mind was really doing the opposite. He had to focus from here on about fighting, otherwise he would never have need to think again. With this he went back to the fortress of a barracks that now claimed him as resident.