<div align="center">The pig and the fireplace</div>
"So, Chris, have you met everyone from camp already?" the older soldier, also known as Marn, asked me. His face was very different than earlier today now it was night time. With the only light that shined upon his face was from the small fireplace, he suddenly looked like a much rougher person. I never even noticed the scar on his left temple; but maybe that was logical, considering that some of his brown longer hairs would cover it.
"No," I said while shaking my head. "I have been occupied with Harting, Elane and lady Carmella all day long."
"That's understandable," a voice behind me answered. "Lady Carmella sure demands a lot. She needs to loosen up a bit."
I immediately looked behind me to see who spoke to us. Because the night made everything around us, which was not near the fireplace dark, it was hard to see who it was. I could only hear it was male voice. "Excuse me," I softly spoke, "who are you?"
"You must be Chris," the man said as he approached the fireplace, showing the man in the same kind of iron armor as Marn. "I'm Lyndo Armando."
"Lyndo?" I asked, a bit surprised about his first name. It was a rare name in this regions, and it was clear to hear by his accent that he wasn't from here... or anywhere close for that matter.
The man took another step forward, finally showing his bald face. The man was neatly shaved and was completely bald, not showing any sign of age either. There was no possible way I could guess how old the man was.
"Yes, Lyndo," he replied, giving me a friendly smile.
"Does everyone like to smile in this camp?" I asked, quickly tuning back to Marn.
"No, Naomi and Arthur usually look quite serious most of the time."
"I met Arthur before... but who-?"
"Oh yeah... you haven't met her yet."
"My suggestion is to keep it that way," Lyndo quickly added to it.
"Why's that?"
"Let me put it differently," the bald man quickly explained. "Excluding the two newcomers," the soldier spoke as he pointed towards a cabin not far from here where lady Carmella was staying, "we only have two other women in camp."
"Victoria and Naomi," Marn continued.
"Exactly," the bald man replied.
"So, what's with it? What's the point you're trying to make?"
"Well, if you want to hit on a girl out here. I suggest you try Elane now," the bald man said in a jokingly, but also semi-serious tone.
"Excuse me?" I quickly answered with quite a blank face.
With a little sound I could see and hear Marn laying down on the soft grass behind him. "Hit on them. You know, getting 'friendly' with them."
"I know," I softly muttered. "I know what you mean!" I finally shouted, blushing a little. "But why would I want to do that?"
"We all have our needs."
"I'm not like that!"
"You will, in a week or two."
"Yeah, you'll look at a pig in a very different way in a few weeks," Lyndo quickly mentioned. "I know I sure do."
"What do you mean?" I quickly asked, not completely sure if I got his point. Not really sure if I wanted to know the truth either.
"Well, a pig isn't just dinner for me anymore."
"Spare us the details, Lyndo," Marn finally blurted in, not really interested in hearing the full story.
"Fine," Lyndo mentioned. His sight slowly went back to me while creating a smile back on his face. "If you want to hear the whole story, Chris," the man spoke, "don't hesitate to step by whenever you want."
"Err," I immediately stuttered. "Thanks, I'll remember that."
With a loud smash I could hear Lyndo sitting down as well, nearly next to the hot fireplace. "Tell me, Chris," he spoke again. "Who have you met so far?"
"Hmm," I slowly hummed. "I've met the commander of the camp," I spoke, pointing to the spot we earlier stood. "Commander Harting. I also met Arthur Mc... uh... McThingy," I quickly covered. "He safed us from a wolf earlier today. Besides them, I also met the two women and Marn, here, of course."
"Harting, Arthur, lady Carmella, Elane and Marn, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, then you're nearly done, I guess."
"Nearly done?"
"Yeah, we don't have that many people out here."
"Really? How many?"
"Well, there's Harting, Arthur and Marn, whom you already met," the bald man spoke as he started to count by using his fingers. "Then there's Naomi and Victoria," he said while a smile instantly crossed his face. "Besides them, there's lady Carmella and Elane... and me, of course."
"So you were here with six people at the start?"
"Yeah. Gregory, Harris and Willis had a few-"
"Accidents," Marn finished the sentence of Lyndo.
With no control over it, I could feel my legs starting to shake a little. "Do you mean," I softly spoke, not sure anymore if I shoudl say it out loud. "Do you mean you helped..."
"Oh no, don't take Marn wrong," Lyndo quickly apologized. "There was an accident at a cave nearby."
"You," I still shakingly started, "you were not responsible?"
"Oh no, we are always very friendly to our men," Lyndo laughed it off.
"Unless they are-"
"Hush, Marn."
"What?"
"No, never mind that Chris. It's nothing of importance."
"What is?"
"Earl is," Marn spoke.
"Who is Earl?"
A temporarily silence overfell us all when I asked it. Marn seemed to look a bit insecure, hesitating if it was right what he just said. Lyndo seemed even less comfortable.
"Who is Earl," I asked again, content on waiting for the answer.
"Earl is," Lyndo started, looking at the fire place. "The only," he continued, stopping every few seconds to think.
"Earl was a team member of us," Marn finally finished.
"Yes, so?"
"Earl Numger was the only soldier who fell in combat," Lyndo finally blurted out.
My face became a bit more serious, feeling sorry for the man named Earl. "I'm sorry," I finally said after another moment of silence. "I didn't know."
"It doesn't matter," a voice suddenly interrupted us again. This time, however, the voice was familiar to me and I could easily recognize it as it being from commander Harting.
"Commander," I happily reacted, in the hope that the subject could be dropped and a more pleasant one would be taken instead. Harting seemed to be the perfect guy for that.
"Earl was a fine man," he started, not as positive as I hoped for. "And a good friend. He was also the first one to roast troll," Harting smilingly told us.
"Troll?"
"Yes, those wild creatures. They taste pretty good after roasting them for a few hours," the blonde man kindly explained with still the smile crossing his face. "I'll ask Arthur to catch one some time soon, so you can try it."
"Try to eat a troll?" I asked, not really sure if I heard it right. Trolls were well known for being strong creatures, nearly untouchable by normal weapons. Eating them was the last thing I thought about.
Marn finally laughed again after being a bit less happy after hearing about Earl earlier. "Yeah, those were great times. Earl sure had some weird ideas," he laughingly shouted. "I wish someone else could come by some time to make such weirds suggestions."
"Perhaps we already found one," Lyndo quickly replied to it, while pointing to me.
"Oh no!" I immediately replied. "I usually stick to basic food, guys."
"Are you sure?" Harting asked. "Food supplies sometimes come by a bit late."
"Define 'a bit,' please?"
"About a month."
"Excuse me? A month?" I asked clearly with disbelief in my voice. "How many days do you have of emergency supplies."
"A week," Lyndo filled in. "Five days if we let Marn eat too."
"Hey!"
"What?" Lyndo asked, defending himself from the effortless hit of Marn. "Did you already forget what happened last time?"
"Bah!" Marn shouted, sitting down again. "No, I have not," he spoke, clearly annoyed.
"What happened," I asked, curious to hear the details.
The commander finally sat down as well. "Nothing much, Chris," he kindly explained. "It's just that... Marn eats a lot."
"Yeah, a full day-supply in a few hours," Lyndo added to it.
"A bit more, actually," Harting stated.
"Shut up!"
"Well, we're still alive, right?" Harting quickly blurted out. "Meaning that we didn't starve... yet."
"Yeah, I'm sure we could let someone eat with us too," Lyndo quickly pointed out.
"Finally," Marn muttered again, in his normal tone of voice. "Finally some common sense from the baldy."
"Baldy?"
"Yeah. Sometimes I thought that you were bald from the inside too."
"Oh, shut up."
It was obvious that Harting was enjoying himself while listening to the bickering of his two men. It was clear to me that something like this happened more often and that it was in vain to even try to stop it." "Commander," I finally asked. He slowly turned back to me, lifting his head a bit, gesturing to ask what I want.
"Marn and Lyndo told me a bit about Naomi and Victoria. I haven't met them yet. Could you give me some information about them?"
"Sure," the man quickly answered. "On two conditions however."
"Which are?"
"To start off, stay away from Victoria for the next two days."
"Um," I slowly started. "Why?"
"She's a little," Harting started, thinking a bit of what he was going to say. He pushed his finger to his chin as he looked at the dark sky while thinking. "Occupied, I guess."
"Oh, alright," I quickly replied, not asking further. "What is the other condition?"
"Make sure they aren't going to dominate you."
"Dominate me?"
"Yeah, well," Harting started to laugh out loud. He placed his hand behind his head as he started to laugh even louder. "She sure got me dominated."
I blinked a few times with my eyes, not sure what he meant. "What do you mean?"
"You don't know what I mean?" Harting surprisingly reacted.
"Darn," he quickly spoke in a serious tone. "It was meant as a joke," were the final words of the blonde commander.
Again I blinked. I guess you can't win 'em all.
<div align="center">---</div>
Don't think too much of it; it is a story I wrote in a single day because I felt like writing. It is obvious that this is not my style of writing, and I tried to focus on a few other stuff than usual. I guess I could say it is quite decent, but not even close to being good. I just wanted a break from writing 'Whatever walks here... walks alone.'
There are numerous mistakes in the story and there is no real need to point them out. I normally check for mistakes after I finish a story, but I pretty much 'forget about it,' this time. Just like 'Rick wake up' some time ago, this story has been written purely based on feeling.
All the names are fictional and just picked out of the name generator, with an exception for the 'big names' such as (If and only if characters) 'Lord Glodich,' 'Grand Lord Cruz Black,' and someone else too, who I 'forgot' to introduce in If, and only if.
Is this story related to If and only if? No, it's not. It's a side story of no importance, and I'm not sure if I'll continue it. I had fun writing it, so the chances that I will are still there.
This story is not written on request, like I have been doing lately. Recently I have been writing a lot because I was getting people to 'request' something. Despite that I like doing that too, it feels more like something 'forced' than doing it out of the blue, like this one or Rick wake up (1) earlier; part 2 was forced.
I am currently working on three other stories.
1. Whatever walks here... walks alone.
A drama about three students who recently lost their best friend and now have to make one of the hardest decisions in their life.
2. The sympathy of the demon.
An action story which is just about finished, but lacks a conclusion, therefore not posted yet.
3. A day in the life of <name>.
A very normal explanation about the life of someone. It's a story I have been working on for quite a long time, but never really bothered to finish because it isn't really quality-work.
EDIT: Part II has been posted, 'The pig and the fireplace.'
"So, Chris, have you met everyone from camp already?" the older soldier, also known as Marn, asked me. His face was very different than earlier today now it was night time. With the only light that shined upon his face was from the small fireplace, he suddenly looked like a much rougher person. I never even noticed the scar on his left temple; but maybe that was logical, considering that some of his brown longer hairs would cover it.
"No," I said while shaking my head. "I have been occupied with Harting, Elane and lady Carmella all day long."
"That's understandable," a voice behind me answered. "Lady Carmella sure demands a lot. She needs to loosen up a bit."
I immediately looked behind me to see who spoke to us. Because the night made everything around us, which was not near the fireplace dark, it was hard to see who it was. I could only hear it was male voice. "Excuse me," I softly spoke, "who are you?"
"You must be Chris," the man said as he approached the fireplace, showing the man in the same kind of iron armor as Marn. "I'm Lyndo Armando."
"Lyndo?" I asked, a bit surprised about his first name. It was a rare name in this regions, and it was clear to hear by his accent that he wasn't from here... or anywhere close for that matter.
The man took another step forward, finally showing his bald face. The man was neatly shaved and was completely bald, not showing any sign of age either. There was no possible way I could guess how old the man was.
"Yes, Lyndo," he replied, giving me a friendly smile.
"Does everyone like to smile in this camp?" I asked, quickly tuning back to Marn.
"No, Naomi and Arthur usually look quite serious most of the time."
"I met Arthur before... but who-?"
"Oh yeah... you haven't met her yet."
"My suggestion is to keep it that way," Lyndo quickly added to it.
"Why's that?"
"Let me put it differently," the bald man quickly explained. "Excluding the two newcomers," the soldier spoke as he pointed towards a cabin not far from here where lady Carmella was staying, "we only have two other women in camp."
"Victoria and Naomi," Marn continued.
"Exactly," the bald man replied.
"So, what's with it? What's the point you're trying to make?"
"Well, if you want to hit on a girl out here. I suggest you try Elane now," the bald man said in a jokingly, but also semi-serious tone.
"Excuse me?" I quickly answered with quite a blank face.
With a little sound I could see and hear Marn laying down on the soft grass behind him. "Hit on them. You know, getting 'friendly' with them."
"I know," I softly muttered. "I know what you mean!" I finally shouted, blushing a little. "But why would I want to do that?"
"We all have our needs."
"I'm not like that!"
"You will, in a week or two."
"Yeah, you'll look at a pig in a very different way in a few weeks," Lyndo quickly mentioned. "I know I sure do."
"What do you mean?" I quickly asked, not completely sure if I got his point. Not really sure if I wanted to know the truth either.
"Well, a pig isn't just dinner for me anymore."
"Spare us the details, Lyndo," Marn finally blurted in, not really interested in hearing the full story.
"Fine," Lyndo mentioned. His sight slowly went back to me while creating a smile back on his face. "If you want to hear the whole story, Chris," the man spoke, "don't hesitate to step by whenever you want."
"Err," I immediately stuttered. "Thanks, I'll remember that."
With a loud smash I could hear Lyndo sitting down as well, nearly next to the hot fireplace. "Tell me, Chris," he spoke again. "Who have you met so far?"
"Hmm," I slowly hummed. "I've met the commander of the camp," I spoke, pointing to the spot we earlier stood. "Commander Harting. I also met Arthur Mc... uh... McThingy," I quickly covered. "He safed us from a wolf earlier today. Besides them, I also met the two women and Marn, here, of course."
"Harting, Arthur, lady Carmella, Elane and Marn, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, then you're nearly done, I guess."
"Nearly done?"
"Yeah, we don't have that many people out here."
"Really? How many?"
"Well, there's Harting, Arthur and Marn, whom you already met," the bald man spoke as he started to count by using his fingers. "Then there's Naomi and Victoria," he said while a smile instantly crossed his face. "Besides them, there's lady Carmella and Elane... and me, of course."
"So you were here with six people at the start?"
"Yeah. Gregory, Harris and Willis had a few-"
"Accidents," Marn finished the sentence of Lyndo.
With no control over it, I could feel my legs starting to shake a little. "Do you mean," I softly spoke, not sure anymore if I shoudl say it out loud. "Do you mean you helped..."
"Oh no, don't take Marn wrong," Lyndo quickly apologized. "There was an accident at a cave nearby."
"You," I still shakingly started, "you were not responsible?"
"Oh no, we are always very friendly to our men," Lyndo laughed it off.
"Unless they are-"
"Hush, Marn."
"What?"
"No, never mind that Chris. It's nothing of importance."
"What is?"
"Earl is," Marn spoke.
"Who is Earl?"
A temporarily silence overfell us all when I asked it. Marn seemed to look a bit insecure, hesitating if it was right what he just said. Lyndo seemed even less comfortable.
"Who is Earl," I asked again, content on waiting for the answer.
"Earl is," Lyndo started, looking at the fire place. "The only," he continued, stopping every few seconds to think.
"Earl was a team member of us," Marn finally finished.
"Yes, so?"
"Earl Numger was the only soldier who fell in combat," Lyndo finally blurted out.
My face became a bit more serious, feeling sorry for the man named Earl. "I'm sorry," I finally said after another moment of silence. "I didn't know."
"It doesn't matter," a voice suddenly interrupted us again. This time, however, the voice was familiar to me and I could easily recognize it as it being from commander Harting.
"Commander," I happily reacted, in the hope that the subject could be dropped and a more pleasant one would be taken instead. Harting seemed to be the perfect guy for that.
"Earl was a fine man," he started, not as positive as I hoped for. "And a good friend. He was also the first one to roast troll," Harting smilingly told us.
"Troll?"
"Yes, those wild creatures. They taste pretty good after roasting them for a few hours," the blonde man kindly explained with still the smile crossing his face. "I'll ask Arthur to catch one some time soon, so you can try it."
"Try to eat a troll?" I asked, not really sure if I heard it right. Trolls were well known for being strong creatures, nearly untouchable by normal weapons. Eating them was the last thing I thought about.
Marn finally laughed again after being a bit less happy after hearing about Earl earlier. "Yeah, those were great times. Earl sure had some weird ideas," he laughingly shouted. "I wish someone else could come by some time to make such weirds suggestions."
"Perhaps we already found one," Lyndo quickly replied to it, while pointing to me.
"Oh no!" I immediately replied. "I usually stick to basic food, guys."
"Are you sure?" Harting asked. "Food supplies sometimes come by a bit late."
"Define 'a bit,' please?"
"About a month."
"Excuse me? A month?" I asked clearly with disbelief in my voice. "How many days do you have of emergency supplies."
"A week," Lyndo filled in. "Five days if we let Marn eat too."
"Hey!"
"What?" Lyndo asked, defending himself from the effortless hit of Marn. "Did you already forget what happened last time?"
"Bah!" Marn shouted, sitting down again. "No, I have not," he spoke, clearly annoyed.
"What happened," I asked, curious to hear the details.
The commander finally sat down as well. "Nothing much, Chris," he kindly explained. "It's just that... Marn eats a lot."
"Yeah, a full day-supply in a few hours," Lyndo added to it.
"A bit more, actually," Harting stated.
"Shut up!"
"Well, we're still alive, right?" Harting quickly blurted out. "Meaning that we didn't starve... yet."
"Yeah, I'm sure we could let someone eat with us too," Lyndo quickly pointed out.
"Finally," Marn muttered again, in his normal tone of voice. "Finally some common sense from the baldy."
"Baldy?"
"Yeah. Sometimes I thought that you were bald from the inside too."
"Oh, shut up."
It was obvious that Harting was enjoying himself while listening to the bickering of his two men. It was clear to me that something like this happened more often and that it was in vain to even try to stop it." "Commander," I finally asked. He slowly turned back to me, lifting his head a bit, gesturing to ask what I want.
"Marn and Lyndo told me a bit about Naomi and Victoria. I haven't met them yet. Could you give me some information about them?"
"Sure," the man quickly answered. "On two conditions however."
"Which are?"
"To start off, stay away from Victoria for the next two days."
"Um," I slowly started. "Why?"
"She's a little," Harting started, thinking a bit of what he was going to say. He pushed his finger to his chin as he looked at the dark sky while thinking. "Occupied, I guess."
"Oh, alright," I quickly replied, not asking further. "What is the other condition?"
"Make sure they aren't going to dominate you."
"Dominate me?"
"Yeah, well," Harting started to laugh out loud. He placed his hand behind his head as he started to laugh even louder. "She sure got me dominated."
I blinked a few times with my eyes, not sure what he meant. "What do you mean?"
"You don't know what I mean?" Harting surprisingly reacted.
"Darn," he quickly spoke in a serious tone. "It was meant as a joke," were the final words of the blonde commander.
Again I blinked. I guess you can't win 'em all.
<div align="center">---</div>
Don't think too much of it; it is a story I wrote in a single day because I felt like writing. It is obvious that this is not my style of writing, and I tried to focus on a few other stuff than usual. I guess I could say it is quite decent, but not even close to being good. I just wanted a break from writing 'Whatever walks here... walks alone.'
There are numerous mistakes in the story and there is no real need to point them out. I normally check for mistakes after I finish a story, but I pretty much 'forget about it,' this time. Just like 'Rick wake up' some time ago, this story has been written purely based on feeling.
All the names are fictional and just picked out of the name generator, with an exception for the 'big names' such as (If and only if characters) 'Lord Glodich,' 'Grand Lord Cruz Black,' and someone else too, who I 'forgot' to introduce in If, and only if.
Is this story related to If and only if? No, it's not. It's a side story of no importance, and I'm not sure if I'll continue it. I had fun writing it, so the chances that I will are still there.
This story is not written on request, like I have been doing lately. Recently I have been writing a lot because I was getting people to 'request' something. Despite that I like doing that too, it feels more like something 'forced' than doing it out of the blue, like this one or Rick wake up (1) earlier; part 2 was forced.
I am currently working on three other stories.
1. Whatever walks here... walks alone.
A drama about three students who recently lost their best friend and now have to make one of the hardest decisions in their life.
2. The sympathy of the demon.
An action story which is just about finished, but lacks a conclusion, therefore not posted yet.
3. A day in the life of <name>.
A very normal explanation about the life of someone. It's a story I have been working on for quite a long time, but never really bothered to finish because it isn't really quality-work.
EDIT: Part II has been posted, 'The pig and the fireplace.'
