Hollowdell

Hollowdell

 

I caught my first glimpse of Martyn between two rocks. He was sitting beside the wreckage of the caravan trying to mend something, and from the looks of things he was not having much luck.

Sam and his father too were working on the caravan. They were crouched down on the opposite side to Martyn fitting a wheel to one of the less damaged sections.

Meanwhile Lucy and her mother were feeding bits of food to the Manhunter’s horse. The little girl giggled whenever the brown horse took the food from her hand and started to noisily bite into whatever it was.

I slipped through to Pandora unnoticed by anyone, glad that each of them was preoccupied with something. The horse shifted uneasily.

“Easy girl, it’s just me” I whispered soothingly. “Just Danny”

Retrieving the metal chunk from underneath my shirt I carefully placed it into one of Pandora’s saddlebags, wrapping a good amount of loose cloth around it in case the thing decided to glow once more.

“Danny!” Martyn boomed.

I swivelled and took a step towards the Manhunter, forcing a smile despite my current predicament. Smiling usually helped things didn’t it?

“Manhunter!” I yelled back. “Glad to see you didn’t get yourself killed while I was gone”

“Oh I’m sure you are” he replied with a laugh. “What took you so long anyway?”

“I just did a bit of exploring I guess, nothing special”

“Well in any case we sure could use a hand with this caravan, come over here and give me a hand” he motioned for me to follow with a swing of his head.

“Well of course you would need help with the carvan” I replied mockingly.

Instead of replying, Martyn thrust a small metallic contraption into my hand. I had no idea what he expected me to do with it, I did not know what it did nor what it was called either.

“What the hell is this thing?” I asked, raising my brow at the man.

“I don’t actually know…” he replied quietly. “Marcus says it has something to do with the steering… or maybe it was the wheels turning? Or maybe it was both?”

I sighed and wiped my face slowly. “Why don’t you just ask him what to do with it if he actually knows what it does Manhunter?” I asked slowly.

Martyn stood for a short moment before finally deciding to take my advice and yell out to the man.

“Marcus!”

The man held up his hand with one finger raised, indicating that he needed just ‘one more minute.

He then proceeded to, with the help of his son, reattach the large wooden wheel to its spoke. Taking a quick look at his handiwork the man then spun the wheel before turning to face us.

“What is it Martyn?”

“We think it would be best if you went about putting this… thing” Martyn said raising the device over his head. Back onto your caravan, Danny and I don’t even know what it does”

“Of course” Marcus replied.

As he approached the man wore a heartfelt smile, his son on the other hand wore an opposite expression. Sam shot me a look of pure disdain while his father spoke to Martyn, he looked about ready to murder me.

Maybe he was still angry about what happened in the mine? I couldn’t really blame him, even though he was being stupid I knew that in his position I would have been the exact same.

“Would you two be able to work on putting back together the body of my caravan than?” Marcus asked.

“Sounds like a good plan to me” Martyn replied. “Danny?”

I slowly dragged my gaze and my attention away from Samuel who continued to stare at me and looked at Martyn.

“Danny?” Martyn repeated.

“What?” I said, more than a little puzzled. “Yes sure, sounds good” I added, correcting myself.

“Let’s get to it than” Martyn said, giving to me a small piece of wood from off the ground.

“What’s this for?” I asked. “It’s a bit small to start building with isn’t it?”

“That’s going to be your hammer since we don’t actually have one” Martyn said with a mischievous spark in his eyes.

“Great”

 

 

We finished long after the sun had set, and by the end of it all every muscle in my body was aching. We lit a fire from the broken pieces of the caravan that were beyond repair, apparently the entire thing had been a few inches longer originally. Honestly though I thought we had done a pretty damn good job at fixing the thing.

Samuel had continued to give me dirty looks the entire time. Whenever he got the chance I had either seen or felt his eyes upon my back. I swore he had even on one occasion been about to attack me with a large ‘splinter’ of wood.

Well it was a stake really, maybe he thought I was a vampire.

“Thankyou, again” Marcus said to Martyn for the third time. “If you hadn’t been here to save us and then to help repair our caravan who knows what could have happened, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to repay my debt to you”

“It’s Danny here you really owe” Martyn replied, clapping me on the back. “If he hadn’t come in when he did, chances were we would have died down in that hole”

Marcus looked almost surprised as he twisted his head to face me, people really never did know anything.

“Well than I’m not sure that we’ll ever be able to repay you, Danny”

“Don’t even mention it” I replied angrily.

The tone of my voice however, much to my displeasure, was lost over the crackle of the fire. I wasn’t saving them anyway, I was saving myself, and I was saving Piers.

I could see Samuel out of the corner of my eye, still staring at me with what looked like murderous intent. I was either going to have to deal with the kid, or I was going to have to deal with the kid.

His stares were not only annoying but also unnerving. It would also be extremely hard for me to sleep well the night before arriving in Hollowdell if I thought one of my companions was going to kill me in my sleep.

“What exactly would two fellows such as yourselves be doing in these parts anyhow?” Marcus asked.

I stayed silent and returned Samuel’s stare of death, waiting for Martyn to answer the question. He was good like that, having him around meant that I rarely had to speak unless I wanted to.

 “We… well Danny at least, is looking to join the civil war in Hollowdell and I’m well, I’m just tagging along I guess” Martyn mumbled.

“I suspected as much” Marcus replied.

Breaking my staring competition with Samuel I mirrored the boys look of murder upon his father. Why the f**k would he suspect that of all things? Maybe he was one of Symonds men. Maybe their caravan had been taking supplies from Hollowdell to wherever the son of a b***h was.

My hand slowly slipped down to grip the hilt of Piers blade.

“After seeing the way you two fought those men down there I thought you might be the kind of men who would seek war, especially you Danny” he said pointing at me. “It’s just something in the way you move, it just looked to me as if the battlefield was where you belonged”

I let my hand slide away from my sword and onto the floor but still continued to eye the man carefully. He sounded like he was telling the truth, it would still be smart to stay vigilant in any case though.

“That was actually one of the first things I noticed about you Danny” Martyn said from somewhere beside me. “In our very first battle against that group of smugglers you owned the battlefield even without a weapon, you’re like a masterfully forged weapon yourself”

I smiled quietly.

“That’s another thing” Martyn added. “The only times you ever truly smile are in a fight and when talking about one”

My smile faded slowly and I glanced over at Martyn who nodded at me with eyes wide open and eyebrows raised.

“You almost remind me of the duke’s boy… Symonds I think it is” Marcus said, drawing all of my attention.

I felt a slight tinge of shame and anger creep into my chest, I did not want to remind anyone of Symonds in any way. The mere mention of his name set my entire being on edge.

“He too has a way with war, I’ve never personally seen him in a fight but most people say that it’s almost an art, the way he controls entire battles that is” Marcus nodded. “Like a puppeteer pulling the strings” he added, pulling the imaginary strings that dangled from his fingertips.

I was going to have to face him soon. As impossible as it sounded Symonds couldn’t be more than a few days away from me. Everything was starting to move so quickly now that I could barely keep up, and.

If, as they all said, Symonds truly was a god on the battlefield than this was going to be difficult. After all I had already lost to him once, however unfair the battle may have been. This fight would not be fair either though, and hopefully I would be able to use that fact to my advantage.

“Danny?” I heard Marcus call.

“I’m sorry what?” I replied. I wasn’t though.

“Don’t mind him” Martyn chuckled while playing with his pipe. “He has a habit of zoning out sometimes, at first I used to think it was because I bored him but now I realise he’s just like that”

I sighed. “Yes well, sorry for that” I said rubbing my eyes, I was starting to get tired.

“I just wanted to know” Marcus said, or more likely repeated. “Who do you intend to support, or fight for, in this war?”

The question seemed completely stupid to me at first. There was no choice or real thought about it, I obviously intended to oppose the man who had murdered a part of me and support the true duke. But then I realised, he didn’t know any of that, none of them did.

“Symonds betrayed his father and his country by rebelling” I answered simply. “I intend to fight for his father, the true duke of Hollowdell”

I almost laughed at how righteous and proper thinking I sounded. That had been good reason that I had used as a lie, or something very close to one.

“I’m glad to see that there are some people with sense still left in the world Danny, I really am” Marcus replied quietly.

Maybe Marcus wasn’t so bad after all, than again I only thought that because the man agreed with me, I myself was rather stupid sometimes. At least that ruled out my earlier theory about the caravan taking supplies to Symonds men.

After that point Marcus and the Manhunter proceeded to talk about, well meaningless crap is what I want to call it, but to them it was probably something more.

I had watched long a go as Lucy and her mother had climbed into the caravan seeking shelter from the cool night breeze. They were probably asleep by now I decided. Meanwhile Samuel continued to stare it me.

“Do we have a problem, kid?” I said roughly, taking a seat in front of him.

I picked the perfect distance from the kid, if he attempted to attack me by the time I drew and swung my sword he would be just entering my reach.

 Instead of replying to my question the kid deepened his deadly stare and corrected his posture.

“Not the talking type I see, kid” I said slowly, keeping both eyes fixed upon him. “You only have to answer the one question kid”

“Do we have a problem, kid?” I repeated, with a little more venom this time.

“For starters don’t f*****g call me kid” he snapped back. “I mean s**t, I’m only a few years younger than you”

It was true. He was only a little bit shorter and thinner than me, there would only have been a few years difference between us. Samuel was no kid, the dark haired and blue-eyed individual was indeed a young man.

“Sorry, ki…” I stopped before saying the word and received an extra glare from the man before he looked away. “Sorry Sam”

“Do we have a problem though?” I asked once more, this time a little more gently.

Samuel brushed a lock of dark hair away from his blue eyes before looking into my face. For the first time he didn’t look like he wanted to kill me.

“I guess not, Danny” he said, still sounding a little angry.

Than why would he constantly stare at me like a wolf who is chasing down its dinner?

“Care to explain why you look like you want to murder me than?” I asked. “Or does your face always look like that?” I jested, hoping a joke would resolve the tension.

He let out a little laugh before coughing to cover it up and once again resuming his angry expression. The kid, I mean young man, was a mystery to me. I guess talking to him was similar to most people’s experiences of talking to me.

“I don’t know, I’m just like that I guess” he replied finally. “Or maybe I just don’t like you for no good reason” he mumbled under his breath.

“People don’t always need a reason, sometimes things are just like that” Samuel wore a surprised look as I spoke; he obviously hadn’t intended to be heard. “It’s quite alright if you don’t like me so long as you promise that you won’t stab me in my sleep”

He laughed again, properly this time though, and unlike last time he didn’t cut his laughter short. “Sorry Danny, I’m not sure that’s a promise I’ll be able to keep, kid” he replied with a wink.

I laughed and moved over to sit next to the young man. It was a nice feeling when you discovered that someone was not going to murder you in your sleep.

“What’s Hollowdell like anyway?” I asked.

“Nothing special apart from the big castle and stuff really” he replied with a shrug.

Depressingly enough, having a conversation with Sam for me was far harder than having a conversation with a horse or even a dead person.

“Well what do you do for fun than?”

“Girls mostly I guess” Samuel replied with a huge grin.

I knew that grin all to well; it wasn’t the grin of a young man thinking about girls, it was the grin of a young man thinking about a girl. It was the look I used to wear whenever I saw or thought about Katherine.

“I’m guessing there’s someone special but I won’t pry any further,” I said, as the pain of Katherine’s death crept back into my mind.

“Just make sure you never lose her, you’ll never forgive yourself if you do…” I mumbled.

I looked into Samuel’s eyes once more and felt a sort of connection this time, an understanding of sorts. Whether he had felt the same thing I had no idea, but to me it felt as if in that one look I had told him my whole story and he had understood it. All of it.

“You’re not so bad I guess, Danny,” he said, uncharacteristically smiling.

“You too, Sam” I replied. “You too”

 

 

My sleep that night was once again plagued by the same nightmare of Katherine, if not a worse variation of it. This time it had been more vivid and I had seen more, it had been far more real. It seemed as if the closer I got to Hollowdell in real life the closer I got to fully seeing into the next room in my dream.

Samuel was the only one of my companions who was awake, and he was staring at me again. But this time, he didn’t look a bit angry.

“You’re up rather early” he said in an undertone.

“Same goes for you, Sam” I replied. “Personally I just hate sleeping, it lets my mind wonder too much, what about you?”

“Well I’m…”

He paused.

“I’m much the same I guess” he said with a shrug.

I suspected there was more to it that he wasn’t telling me but didn’t bother to ask. I did not want to pry I hated people who pried.

I was just about to move away before Samuel stopped me in my tracks.

“Where are you going?” he asked simply.

“To watch the sunrise”

“Do you mind if I tag along?” he said tentatively.

“Not at all” I replied before walking towards a nearby rock.

We sat on top of the large rock together and waited in silence for the sun to rise. After my nightmares I was always scared, and it was nice to have someone there especially when I knew they weren’t going to annoy me.

The sun was a little brighter than it had been the day before when I had watched it rise alone. The terrain around me was a little bit lighter and I could see a little but further ahead.

“Time to go guys” called Martyn from somewhere behind us.

“I guess it is” Samuel replied, leaving the rock to go be with his family.

“I’ll be just a minute” I answered the Manhunter, waving him away.

The past few months of my life had all been leading up to this point, even more than that really. The moment I had stepped out of my first home with the intent of running away I had set myself on a path that would ultimately lead me here. To Hollowdell.

And even after everything, I wasn’t ready yet.

Reviews

[Alleyway Rover]

I like this whole caravan section for a couple of reasons. It forces Danny into a moral choice he really doesn’t want to make and it puts him at odds with his character (sorta… I’ve mentioned this before, but this is one of those moments I would really like a clearer image of Danny so I can feel his struggle better.)

While I do like that, I’m once again forced to conclude that, as it is written right here, you could cut this whole section and not really lose much. With the exception of the mysterious stone Danny ends up with, nothing really changes from the moment Danny gets the vision to the moment they ride off into the sunrise. And the stone isn’t given to him as a direct result of his actions… he just kinda wanders off and finds it. That could have happened any time and anywhere.

(Note: If this metal chunk is important to the story later, consider changing it so he receives it as a result of his actions. Maybe he, saves someone who gives it to him as a reward, maybe he hears legends and digs through the forests until he finds it… there are a hundred ways to go about it, but make it a direct result of his effort. Him just stumbling upon it is not as satisfying for the reader. It feels contrived and it removes that feeling of progression.)

I like the struggle. The struggle is cool. But it has to result in something. Maybe Danny wins, maybe Danny loses, maybe he wins a little but loses more…. etc. But there has to be a struggle and that struggle has to effect the story.

Additional Notes:

“Marcus looked almost surprised as he twisted his head to face me, people really never did know anything.”

Why would he look surprised? He was there when all hell went down, I think he would know that Danny was, at least, partially responsible for their salvation.

‘“Care to explain why you look like you want to murder me than?” I asked. “Or does your face always look like that?” I jested, hoping a joke would resolve the tension’

I think resolving the tension is the last thing you want to do at this point. I have no idea why this Sam guy is flashing Danny the big eyes, especially when he saved the caravan. Let the scene play out. Let the tension build until something snaps.

“I laughed and moved over to sit next to the young man. It was a nice feeling when you discovered that someone was not going to murder you in your sleep.”

If this is really nothing, why bring it up in the first place? I think the two guys sizing each other up after the battle is fun because I can’t think of any earthly reason for it. It adds mystery and tension. If you remove that mystery and tension with a wave of the hand and a dismissive, ‘never mind, it was nothing’ you risk losing your reader’s interest.