Vigilance (UNFINISHED)

A Story by Baiklzr

It's a very...interesting piece I've been working on for a week or so. It's based off of an original Dungeons and Dragons quest. Go ahead, call me a nerd.

Midge was sitting on the steps of the local blacksmith’s forge, waiting for nothing in particular. It was a mild, summer day, where she decided to breath in the fresh air. She didn’t own this shop and forge. She didn’t even work there. But it brought back fond memories of the days that she lived with her friends and family in her hometown. But this was new. She hadn’t been here before. But she was beginning to like it here. It was always quiet and peaceful. She hadn’t seen any suspicious activities in this new town. As a traveler, she was used to not being used to things. She had only lived in her hometown of Destinia until she was 19, and as a halfling, that was not very long. She was always one for adventure, which is what brought her to this town. There was nothing in particular that was interesting about this town. It was an average sized town with an average amount of people. But there was something about this town. Something that felt...adventurous about it, but she couldn’t put her hand on what.

She decided that she had had enough fresh air, so she went to the local tavern. When she arrived, she noticed that everyone was looking at her funny, almost mockingly. She looked around, confused. But then she realized why. They were all humans, and she was a halfling. Of all the races, halflings are indeed the most like the human, with one exception. They’re 3 feet tall. As a halfling, Midge constantly got picked on by humans. She was being stared at by everyone in there. She pulled out her knife and made an intimidating gesture. They all went back to doing what they were doing. She went up to the bar counter and struggled her way onto a stool.

“Mug of dark mead.” She said, in a monotone voice.

“Well, little lady,” Said the bartender, laughing at his unclever joke, “as much as I’d love to serve you, I’m afraid that it would be a waste of mead.”

“How so?”

“You see, I’m not sure that you would be able to reach it.” The bartender busted out laughing, and a few people sitting at the bar chuckled at the once more unclever joke.

“Oooh, I get it.” Midge had had enough. She had always lived in a place where everyone was a halfling. Her parents always warned her that this would happen if she followed her dreams of being an adventurer. Instead of busting out like she normally would, she was able to control herself.

“That’s pretty funny, because I’m short and all. I’m just gonna go.” And with that, she was out of sight. But not gone. No. She was far from gone.
One of Midge’s favorite things to do to people who made fun of how short she was, was getting back at them with her shortness. She was small enough to sneak around the bar, unseen, and get on the bartenders side. She snuck up to the barrel of mead that was behind the rude bartender. She stealthily grabbed a mug and opened the spout. She waited until her mug was full, then snuck away, yet again. She didn’t bother flipping the spout off.It was a waste of mead. If she wouldn’t have mead wasted on her, she would have it wasted on him. His shoes, to be more exact. She left the bar, feeling proud as she heard the faint, “Who left the...” from the bartender. Yet another satisfied customer.

The mead wasn’t as good as the trouble she had spent on it, but it was the thought that counted. It was closing in on midnight now. She had nowhere to stay. The local hotel WOULD have been an option, but she had been kicked out of it for reasons that best not be known to anyone but her and the workers of the hotel. Bottom line is, she can’t stay there. As she scoped out the area, looking for a good place to stay, she saw nothing better than a barn. Barns are nice, she thought. People in stories stay there all the time. But the more and more she thought about having to deal with that stench for a whole night, she decided to look for something else. Then she saw it. It may not be the most desirable place to sleep, but it would supply efficient shelter and good heat. She went over the the home of some random people, and ducked down. She began crawling, until she had gotten under the porch. Perfect. It was comfortable, warm, and she wouldn’t get wet if it rained. The clouds in the sky did indeed look quite nasty. But this was it. Her home for the night.

She was woken up when she heard footsteps above her. It was about time to go. She poked her head out to make sure nobody was watching. Then she pulled herself out from under the porch. Luckily, it hadn’t rained. In fact, the sky had cleared up completely. Maybe this was a sign that her times were about to clear up. She pondered this thought for a few minutes, until a person from the house had sprouted from the doorway.

“Can I, help you?” The man said, in a rather confused voice. He was tall and wide, with a dark green tint to his skin. An orc. Midge knew an orc when she saw one. They were the main reason she had to leave. Her town was under control of an Orcish kingdom that had sprouted out of nowhere. She looked at them for a few seconds. They looked friendly enough. More so than the people in the bar. She was hesitant, but then she replied, “I was just admiring your house.”

He looked confused. She hadn’t realized it until now, but his house was actually in quite bad condition. “Thanks…” questioned the man. “So, are you just going to...like...stay there?”

“No, no. Of course not. That would be weird…” She said this as if things weren’t already weird enough. She proceeded to walk away from the house. But at that moment, she heard a crack from the sky. One that sounded of thunder, but more intense than any storm she had ever heard. She looked up as many people screamed. The sky was a large array of different colors, with a mystical feel to it. There was colorful lightning sprouting from the storm all over. She quickly retreated to the underneath of the house while she was still alive. She had never seen anything like this before. This couldn’t be natural. But who would do such a thing?

That question would have to wait. Right now, the only thought on her mind was living through this nightmare. She heard the wind pick up, and things began to be thrown around. She was scared, to say the least, but what really did it for her was when she quickly scoped out the scene. Everything was destroyed. Only a few buildings were left intact, and the ones that were were on the brink of destruction. What would this mean? Would she just continue being an adventurer and go on with her life, forgetting about this town? Or would she try to find out what happened? How could such a storm have blown over so quickly, but leave so little behind? There were many questions she was asking herself, but one thing was for sure. She just had to find out what happened. This was the kind of thing that made her want to be an adventurer. Now was her chance to do what she had always wanted to do. The question is, where does she start?

She began searching the town for survivors. That was all she could think of. She started by searching the house that she was under. It was one of the few houses that was still together. She yelled out, trying to find the man that was in there. No reply. She yelled again. No reply. She began searching for a bunker of some sort, but she couldn’t find anything. She made it to the final door of the house, in the very back. She opened it slowly. As she peeked through the slowly enlarging hole, she saw that the house wasn’t completely intact. The whole back half of it was destroyed. And there, underneath a flipped, splintered table, was the man, unconscious.

She pulled the shattered table off of him, piece by piece. She checked for his pulse. Nothing. She looked at his body with a slight sadness. She had only just met the man. She didn’t know anything about him. If anything, she should be happy that an Orc has died, but that wasn’t the case. She fled the scene before her emotions would get out of hand.

She kept searching. She scoped out the area, looking for any buildings that were still together, but her view from here wasn’t too great. She went to the town square. It was actually more of a town circle, now that she thought about it. She arrived at her destination at the center of town. She could see through almost all of the town from here. She began looking, yet again. She thought she saw something in the distance. It looked like the guard barracks…

“Hello?” Spoke a man from a few meters away. She was relieved to find that someone was alive. He was a short man, almost as short as her. He was of Gnome descent, bearing a large weapon for his size.

“Hello.” She simply replied. She waited for him to say something. They stood there awkwardly for many seconds.

“How did you survive?” He questioned.

“Hid under a house. You?”

“I was in a basement.” His story seemed logical enough for her to trust him. But as suddenly as he had appeared, another man walked up to them.

“Aw man, why did the only survivors have to be short scum?” The man snarked. He clearly disliked the two people on account of their race. This was going to be rough, and she could feel it already.

“So how did you survive?” Asked Midge, reluctant to find the answer.

“Well, I definitely didn’t hide under a house.” He had clearly been listening to their previous conversation. Or had he? Maybe he had just assumed that they were short enough to fit under houses, and he was saying it jokingly. “I don’t know how I managed to survive.”

“Well, frankly, I don’t care.” Said the man next to Midge.

“Ah, the short ones always have a temper. That’s one of the reasons I hate them.” Why was this man so racist? That’s a question she couldn’t really find the answer to at the time, though, so she continued the conversation.

“Not ALL of us have a bad temper, you know.” Stated Midge.

“Wait, are you saying I DO have a bad temper?” Said the man next to her.

“Well, no I was just…” She didn’t really know what to say from there, so she just left it at that. There was yet another awkward silence, this one lasting about twice as long as the other one. The silence was broken whenever the racist man’s dog ran up to him. Midge immediately reached for a knife in her boot. She was deathly afraid of dogs. Squirrels were the only animal that she really loved. She began reaching slowly so that it wouldn’t appear that she was doing anything suspicious, but apparently, the racist man noticed.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Nothing. My leg just itches.”

“Well, why are you reaching so slowly?”

“I didn’t want to be here awkwardly scratching my leg.”

“Well that could be better than sitting here awkwardly doing nothing, right?” The man was making a point, and she didn’t like that. At that point, she pulled a knife out of her boot immediately, and got ready to throw it. But the man was expecting it. He drew his bow and shot an arrow at the exact same time that she threw the knife. Suddenly, the arrow had been stopped and she had thrown her knife in the complete wrong direction. There standing, was the man who had had nothing to do with the conversation, that had just kicked the knife out of her hand and caught the arrow out of the air. Both Midge and the racist man stood in awe of what the gnome had just done. He threw the arrow down and backed up.

“You two better learn to get along, or else…” The man then turned around, hiding something, but they couldn’t see what it was. The two quickly dismissed the fact, and Midge sighed.

“I’m sorry. But if I’m going to get along with him, his dog has got to go.” She was going to stress this fact as often as she could.

“No.” Said the racist man. That was it. Nothing else. Just, no.

“Well, then, I guess I will just bring my army of squirrels around with me.” This was clearly untrue. Now, she did indeed have many squirrel pets back at her original home, she could not bring them everywhere with her, but she could use a magic spell she had learned to bring a given number of squirrels to fight at her side, or just be a friend. Whatever she needs, they’re there for her.

“Well, I don’t really mind. What’s a midget with a few squirrels going to do the me?” He was clearly underestimating the power of her squirrels. But she wasn’t going to show them to him until the time was right. The other man had turned around now, no longer hiding anything.

“So what are your names?” Asked the Gnome.

“Well, I’m Midge Treyson.” The racist man began laughing harder than anyone she had ever seen. He just kept laughing, and laughing, and laughing. And laughing. He just couldn’t stop.

“Well, while that’s happening, what’s your name?” Asked Midge.

“Well, I go by a lot of different names, but you can call me Ciag.” It was a rather interesting name. Ciag. She could remember that. The other man’s laugh started to die down, and he looked at Midge.

“So you’re telling me. That your first name and initial,” His laugh started to grow again. “Spells Midget?!?” He died laughing again.

“Of course not.” Wait a minute. He was right! No wonder everyone laughed whenever her parents introduced her to people. She took a moment to look into the sky and hate her parents. She just stood there staring at the sky for a good 2 minutes, while the guy next to her was laughing. And laughing. And laughing.

“Stop right there!” There was a large group of people, all in matching uniforms, standing in front of the three people. Approximately 15 of them. They were the city guard.

© 2016 Baiklzr

Author's Note

Remember, this is not done, and it's a working progress, and I am open to suggestions on how to make some things better, or grammatical errors.

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Featured Review

D Connolly

Hello! I love stories with halflings and dwarves! I will say that I think the verbiage used is a little repetitive. For example, in the first paragraph, the word "town" was used a lot in just a few sentences. I noticed the same thing in some other areas as well. It's a good opportunity to pull out the old thesaurus if you're anything like me! Also, when you mentioned that she couldn't stay at the hotel for reasons that you wouldn't tell me, I WANTED TO KNOW. Don't tease me and make me wonder!! I thought the conversations seemed a little forced and not very realistic. It kind of made me think of a video game, where the characters are just standing there, waiting for me to push a button. Maybe make them DO something while they're talking to each other. That would help keep the action going and keep your readers engaged. I do think it's a good idea and I LOVE ADVENTURE STORIES!! Keep writing! I want to finish the story