You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? she begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.” ((How do you respond?))
~~~~~~
The lanky boy gave a reciprocal studying look, mired with humored confusion and momentary cautiousness.
“Really, now...? Me?” He dragged with a lifting of head. “Well...”
He plopped his body onto the cushion, setting down a bundle and a lute, with a relaxing sigh of undone tension. “Not everyday someone expects somethin’ of me. So...I think you’ve done and got me wrapped up and around your little finger, huh?” he says, snapping his own with a playful punctuation. His smile was silly, but cunning and endearing. “Well done. Well done.”
“Well, now,” He ran his dirt-stained hands through his curly hair and took a preparatory breath. “Where do all of our stories begin? With our parents, right.” he nodded and gestured to the old bat as if approving of an answer he hadn’t given time to receive.
“Born and raised in the Kingdom, my father sold horses for men who needed getting around it,” he raised his finger and chest in esteem. “And, in the end, the horses sold to him. Yes. The whole farm, they did.” He said with a wagging of his finger as he leaned back. “And, he bought it.”
“Said goodbye to ol’ Pop as they let his body down into the dirt, lookin’ just as I remembered him. Stern look. Ready for anything. And, that imprint of a horseshoe, right in his skull.”
He paused as if to leave room for laughter.
There was nary a cough.
“Erhm. Anyway...” he continued on. “Most of me blood passed on funny like that. Brother was in a duel over a lady, years ago, for example. Rival suitor missed by a mile, sure. But, that’s ‘cause big bro’ was laid flat, bleedin’ on the floor. Tripped over a stone, split his skull on another,” the boy tapped his head.
“Think they’re goin’ on...two...three years now?” he says as he rubbed his chin in thought. “Match made in heaven, I hear.”
“So, brother just passed, I was gettin’ into all kinds of trouble in town...Mum was like ‘that’s it, you need a male role model in your life, set you straight.’ So she sent me to the farm. Not...not the one dad went to. Her brother’s farm, my uncle.”
“I was tasked with workin’ the farm with him, auntie, and the cousins. And, he was a real hard ass. But, I was a real ass. Messin’ out in the fields, goofin’ off with new fellows, skippin’ work and junk? That was somethin’...” He said as he settled into a smile, his eyes reminiscing on good times.
“Anyways...” he breathed out as he pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. “Mum died of dysentery. Diarrhea, yeah. And, she was a real clean freak for the poor clods we were.”
The tall boy leaned forward, hands folded on his knees as he bounced his leg anxiously. “Luck of our blood,” he rolled his head with a boyish smirk and click of his tongue.
“Ol’ unc gave me an ultimatum when news of Ma’ passing came along. Smarten up, and get serious,” he nodded with a stern gaze. “Or, ‘get on with it.’ His words.”
He looked at the ground for a good few moments, enraptured in contemplation for the first time since he started speaking.
The boy looked up with a bittersweet, yet sardonic grin. “I’m getting on with it,” He stated.
He picked up a lute he had set down beside himself earlier. He strummed it, and it made a discordant, green sound.
“Been messin’ around with music. Playing tunes as I’ve been on my way. I’m no good,” he smirks as if to say ‘obviously.’ “But, I like it. The lyrics make people laugh, throw a coin or two my way once or twice.”
“Maybe I’ll go finds a bard’s college to join,” he said with the jagged backing of more periodic, slow strums. “Or, become a knight. Or die shittin’ and bleedin’ in the streets.”
“Continue the family legacy, n’ all that,” he said with a hollow smirk.
