Post by Dustin Delta on Jun 17, 2012 12:10:49 GMT -5
Hey, everybody. It's your friendly neighborhood Dustin here. I've been working on a book. I know, hefty work. But I have a really good idea (at least, I think I do) - but no money to make it into a game or movie, and not enough talent to make it into a comic book. So, I write! I was hoping I could drop the beginning (first 6 pages in Microsoft Word) here and get some thoughts and criticisms. Enjoy!
(NOTE: This is written from the point of view of Skylar Abaddon, female heroine. Yes, the name was stolen from that deathmatch in EVPW as a token of appreciation for the writing skill I gained via wrestling RPs. <3)
[/i][/center](NOTE: This is written from the point of view of Skylar Abaddon, female heroine. Yes, the name was stolen from that deathmatch in EVPW as a token of appreciation for the writing skill I gained via wrestling RPs. <3)
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Weeds in a holier garden.
At least, that’s what my father said we were, when he was still alive. It wasn’t that he disliked my brother or I. If you ask me, he loved us more than he loved himself. After Mom died, we were all he had in the world. We had lost our property months earlier. We had been living outside the city for a good while by the time Mom passed away. But after that, Dad entered a steep downward spiral. We hardly had anything, just surviving by the skin of our teeth. But even then, Dad poured all of his resources – no matter how scarce – into Caydence and I, the weeds.
He was right about that, we were weeds. Not just Caydence and I, but all the families who lived on the banks of the Winter. We were, simply put, an eyesore on the otherwise beautiful vista. Imagine it, for a moment: Alexandria, the capital city of The Foreign, sitting aside the Winter River, at the foot of the Borde Mountains, all sitting in the gorgeous region we called the Aite. All such breath-taking sights, comfortably seated side-by-side, but a marvel destroyed by the tattered tents outside of the city, a home for the impoverished and starving. We were weeds because we weren’t wanted there, not by our gardener at least. That would be Governess Killian. And she’s were I would draw the line on my father’s accuracy.
We may have been weeds, but Alexandria was no holy garden. It puzzles me that such a tragic basket case of a neighborhood could remain the capital of a continent for so long. It has to be, what, nearly two centuries now, since The Foreign was found? And it was only a few seasons after that Alexander Ferdinand founded a monument to his explorations through the new found land. In the big picture, that’s not a lot of time that it took what was once a prosperous city to bite the dust and place its teeth on the curb. And now, the foot on the back of its head was that of that unruly creature, Governess Killian.
And her coronation was this noon.
Black banners lined in dim gold hung in the colossal archway which led into the city, a symbol of the High Throne of The Foreign. These banners and similar flags would wave with the winds when the High King would travel from city to city, or when he held a great festival. It was a sign of royalty in Alexandria, but the familiar colors of the throne were ill-respected in the other provinces. Frankly, they made me sick to my stomach as well, and today, the city was draped in them.
Caydence, still a young boy, wrapped my right arm around his shoulder for security. I understood, he felt intimidated by the sea of dirty stares that we were treading in as we walked through the streets, towards the Square of the Four. Governess Killian had personally invited the weeds outside the city’s high walls to her coronation. It was bittersweet, really. Her entire platform in the Royal Election was to remove us from the province. While some gave us spiteful glares, many people shrugged us off and went on with their day. They could deal with our filthy mugs, after all, we’d be gone soon enough.
It felt as though me and Caydence were alone with all these strange aristocrats – aristocrats in the sense that they were able to make ends meet and afford living within the city. The rest of the families were sluggish to follow. Many of them hadn’t eaten in God knows how long and just didn’t have the energy to even walk. With this thought, I look down at Caydence, remembering the only ways I was able to make enough money to keep him fed throughout the past few months, without Mom and Dad. I was ashamed of myself, and I’m sure my parents would be, too. But for my brother’s sake, standards would need to be thrown out the window. I feel a tear start to form in the corner of my eye, but I wipe it away quickly. I couldn’t let Caydence see me being weak. He needed to be strong, and he’d only be able to do that if he had somebody strong protecting him. I dash my forearm over my face to wipe away the tears before they can roll down my check, and play it off as if I was hiding my eyes from the sun as I turned around to make sure the others were still following in tow. I watch as dozens of broken homes drudge through the cobblestone-paved roadways, their skins stained with earth and grass and their arms holding their empty stomach as if it’d provide comfort for their hunger. I hardly knew any of them, and it wrenched on my soul and played a sad song on my heart strings. Holding back more tears, I face front and my eyes meet Caydence’s. He looks up at me with a slight smile, not fully understand what’s going on, but optimistic through it.
I faked a smile back at the most innocent of souls. But the world inside me shattered, as my younger brother was blissfully ignorant while I knew this existence all too well for well-being.
But what else was I to do? Look the only loved one I have left in the eyes and tell him that the reality which was so difficult to adjust to was about to be broken in unfixable shambles? That the home we had to make by the sweat of our brow was about to be stolen from us? That life as we know it was going to be forever altered simply because some smug bastards got sick of the dirt stains on our skin? I could never break it to him like that. Because I know that if I break it to him, he’d break down. At least, if he thought I was happy, he could be happy for a small while longer. While thoughts about our fate ran riots in my head, my anxiety grew. Fear-inducing questions seemed to whisper themselves into me. How would I feed Caydence and I? How would we live? Where would we go? Never before, not even when Mom and Dad died, had I felt so worried for what would become of me. Life was never such a valued concept to me, I suppose, until I had gone to desperate measures already to keep it.
I snap out of the land of my mind, and realize that the Square of the Four is only a few blocks away as the pillars and idols are now peeking high over many of the other buildings in the city. Sick of this agonizing willful walk to death’s door, I wrap my hand around Caydence’s wrist and we take a stroll through some of the side streets. Considering Caydence didn’t come to the city very often, I felt that he should see some of its beauties before that cold bitch, who was mere steps away from the throne, showed him how horrid it was under the surface. If it would be so that this was our final day in Alexandria, I’d make sure Caydence got some enjoyment from it.
“Down at the other end of this alleyway,” I whispered to him, “there’s a big ship port that leads into the Winter River. It’s a beautiful sight.” His face brightened with excitement, Caydence dashes forward, a few paces ahead of me. When he was younger, Dad would bring him to the River every day and they’d go swimming together. Caydence likes to cling to memories of Dad, and the rapids of the Winter River run with the remnants of a better time. I cracked a smile at his enthusiasm – this time, with a bit of legitimacy behind it.
The alley broke out into sprawling roads of stone, all enclosing a bay of crystalline water, as clear and pure as glass. The wooden piers stood high above the waters, to accommodate the colossal height of the trading boats. Massive ships carrying all different types of cargo, some newly discovered, some old necessities, rocked from side-to-side as subtlety as their anchors would allow them to. It was almost like they were dancing under the blue skies, nothing above them but the heavens and the clouds that held them up. They were limitless skies holding an endless existence, forever running with their spouse of the waters, the seas that seemed to reach forever. I gazed out into the distance, pondering what aesthetic wonders could lie just beyond the horizon of the Aite’s rolling hills and mountains. All the things they read to us about in old story books. Sleeper’s Crypt, the Golden Falls, Bohemia, and the landmarks which all felt like imaginative paintings on a dream’s narrative canvas, that we only wished could exist. But I suppose with us being banned from Alexandria, I’d have the opportunity to see them soon enough. I’d be with Caydence, too. That’s all life really needed, I suppose – A happy environment and good family. I turned to face my younger brother, and noticed that he had run off just out of sight. I jog in his direction and peek around a pillar to see Caydence walking down an unoccupied dock, only a few feet away from the plummet down into the bay of the Winter River. My heart races and I make a frantic dash to the other end of the pier, racing to Caydence with all of my speed. I can see his eyes peering down at his reflection, and he’s ready to leap down to meet it. Just as his feet leave the wooden boards, I wrap my fingers tightly around the collar of his shirt, pulling him back into my body and clutching my arm around him protectively. I stagger back, but keep my balance so that we don’t topple over either side. My chest is heaving and it feels like all I could do was cling to Caydence. I was just thankful he was still with me; there was too much relief to feel any sort of anger. I placed him down in front of me and looked directly into the black of his eyes as I spoke.
“Caydence. You have to be more careful. You…You could’ve died.” I said, my voice wavering, tears forming in my eyes. “You’re all I have left, Cay, I don’t want to lose you.” I hold back from crying and he hugs me, whispering into my ear. “I’m sorry, Skylar…”
I nod and smile to him as our embrace comes to an end, and I wrap my hand around his wrist and we walk off the dock, back towards the harbor’s walkways. While we made our way back in tender silence, I noticed a blackbird, resting on a busted lamp post. But just as quickly as it caught my attention, the bird’s head perked up and it’s wing spread out, departing towards the distant horizon, where the sun and seas finally met. My eyes followed the fluttering blackbird until it disappeared and it’s small frame became a blur that mixed in with the faraway sky, hills, and waters.
Oh, how I envied that blackbird.
