How many bones does the human body have? – Ooc #3

“You’ve returned. Faring good news I hope.”

“Sir, my wish is not to disappoint you, but I must apologise. We failed the chase, and the troupe knows we’re on to them.” The man speaking lowered his head, not daring to see his boss turning angrily to him and approaching.

Without a word, the man found himself held by the neck, fighting for a breath of air. He was now standing on his tiptoes and his eyes went wide with shock, feeling like they were about to pop out of his head like those of a jelly-like toy. Only after a few moments of suffering, did his boss speak with a furious kind of grin. His teeth shone in the pale light, and his canines sharpened.

“Tell me, boy, how many bones does the human body have? Do you know?” No response, not that the boy could answer. “I’ll tell you, then. Slightly over two hundred. Now do you know with how many intact bones does a person remain after they have failed me?”

There was a long silence. The poor boy who was still held by the throat could not even grunt and was terrified to the core. He wished to plead for mercy, even if that meant lowering himself like a slave, but even that he was unable to do.

“I suppose I’ll tell you that too. None. I tear the skin off of the flesh, then I crush the bones one by one while the person still breathes, forced to watch. Only after I’ve had my fill do I feast on the blood and tear out the heart in mercy. Would you like this end to come to you?”

He put the boy down who fell to his knees immediately, holding his own throat in protection and gasping for air, then coughing when he got too big and too sudden a breath. All he could do was shake his head over and over again, his still-wide eyes staring blindly at the floor. He couldn’t get the picture of his tortured body out of his mind. His heart beat quicker than ever before.

“You are dismissed. But remember, if you fail me once more, that fate I just described will be yours. And I will bide my time.”

“Of course you wouldn’t. Nobody does, else there would be no more fun to it.” After these words, the man turned his back to the gasping boy, returning to an armchair that had always been in the room. Only after taking a seat did he speak again.

In a breath, the boy rushed out of the room, horrified by this experience that was so close to being his last.

Where are the other two? – OoC #2

“Move, move, move,” shouted in panic the first man in the line, crouching and encouraging his two siblings to do the same. He let them go first. The younger ones had priority of escaping, and he was responsible for their well-being.

Without a word, they moved in silence through the stone corridors, discovering a narrow cave, hidden behind a set of fancy curtains. The fortress has its secrets, it appeared.

“Quick, quick, and keep your head low,” instructed the older brother, making sure his little brother and sister were out of sight.

Footsteps could already he heard behind the corner, closer and closer. The necromancer who had captured them was searching, looking. It was too late.

“Go, now!”

And they left without turning back, knowing that every second mattered, and every delay was lethal. If they were to be rejoined again in that life, then they would consider it a blessing. For now, the older brother was to stay behind. They moved on, knowing it the only right thing to do.

“Where are the other two?” A hand gasped his neck in just a flash, stopping him from every movement he tried to make to conceal the tracks of his siblings. “Where are they? You hid them!”

The grasp loosened just enough so that he could utter a whispered and painful croak in response to the necromancer’s furious question: “I’ll never tell you.”

“You’ll never escape again, I promise you that!” The anger, if not obvious in the voice, could be seen in the necromancer’s eyes and materialised into a punch. When the captured man fell to the floor, his trapper summoned a ring of fire around him that burned just long enough to scorch the clothes off the man and redden his flesh to the point of screaming. When satisfied enough with the inflicted pain, the necromancer doused the flames and grabbed the man by one burning hot wrist, then dragged him down the corridors that grew darker with ever step.

He would never get out. He knew it. But at least his two siblings did, and they stood a chance of survival and might grow into people of importance and power. They would bring justice to the world. He had faith they would.

You, my dear, have an especially interesting background! – Out of Context #1

He had found her. Too bad she didn’t want to be found, and especially not by him. So much for hiding in the woods. Good place to hide, they said, lots and lots of land and hiding places, they said. But the villagers didn’t know the person she was hiding from was proficient in natural magic. Up until now, nor did she.

The girl woke up tied to a tree. She hadn’t been moved from the place she had been taking a nap, but nor could she move now if she wanted to. Standing in front of her was the man she ran away from, her to-be master, who reached to grab her by the chin and stare into her black eyes. With his grasp on her, she found it hard to speak, but tried nevertheless, her voice fragmented and hoarse from not drinking.

“Why won’t you… just let me… go?”

“Because then, you would be a waste to this world. When you looked into the mirror, you saw how magic was swirling in your eyes. Instead of embracing it, learning to control it, you ran away.”

The girl shook her head abruptly and broke free from the grasp on her chin. She swallowed her saliva, then spoke on a tone she hoped would appear confident. She certainly didn’t feel confident.

“I don’t want magic! I want a simple, normal life.”

“Want all you may, but it won’t change the fact that you, my dear, have an especially interesting background. Both your parents were masters of the Academy of Magic, which is a rare thing to have. You have magic in your blood, and there’s no denying it.”

“Magic got my both my parents killed!” Tears fought their way down the girl’s cheek who hurt with the memories.

“You don’t understand. You must learn to use magic. Since you can’t run away from it as you cannot run away from yourself, your only option is to learn to control it.”

“Or else?”

“Or else it will kill you.”

The girl went pale, but the man before her looked dead serious. He had never betrayed her in all her childhood, always stood beside her when times were rough, and never forced anything upon her. Until now that she was finally of age to be taught. She knew he was right, he never lied. He would go to great lengths to teach her the magic to protect herself.

“I will cut down the rope now. Whether you come back to the Academy or run off is up to you, but if you do leave, know that there will be no one out there to protect you from outside harm, and especially not from yourself.”

There was a long silence between them as the man untied the ropes carefully and helped the girl up. They stood face to face for a long minute, waiting for a reaction from the other person. The man looked with pity deep into the girl’s black eyes, full of smoky patterns that marked her as a potentially powerful magic user. The girl, even as she stood up, had to lean her head backwards to look up at the man who was to be more than her tutor and finally spoke:

“Let’s go back, Master. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, but next time you want to leave the Academy, at least tell me. You are by no means forced to reside there, even if you’re only ten. It’s up to you to decide what you want to do. I am here just to guide you.”

“Yes, Master.”

Out of Context: new weekly writing prompt

As you know from my previous posts, the weekly Weekend morning writing activity came to an end upon reaching the 50th week, but that doesn’t mean I will stop from posting at least once a week. What I will do, is just change the rules with a new series that I hope you’ll find interesting.

So here are the rules:

• the genre must be fiction, preferably fantasy
• the content will be based on one random sentence I heard during the week (in a conversation I wasn’t part of)
• the post must be weekly, during the weekend, but there is no longer the restriction of posting only in the morning
• the length is flexible (it can be as short as a haiku or as long as a short story)

That’s it in a nutshell. If you have any suggestions on how I can make this writing activity even better, I am eager to hear each and every one of your ideas!

Weekend morning writing activity #50

For the last (but not least) writing activity of this kind, I’ll choose the following song: Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. Starting next week I’ll be trying something new that I am yet to discover the rules for, but I’ll give you a little spoiler: it implies plenty of dialogue. Unless I change my mind in the meanwhile, that is!

But now, let’s enjoy the moment and make the best of this last post with music lyrics as source of inspiration.

Enjoy!

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Screams went out in the distance, vibrating through the air into the children’s ears. The twin sisters were facing the sea with confused looks.

“I always thought that mermaids sing nicer than that,” said one of them.

“Me too. Oh, wait, look!” The second one raised her hand to point to the vicious waves that came a long way to crash into the stones they were standing on. “I see something. But I’m not sure it’s the mermaid papa told us about.”

“Maybe it’s the one we saw sleeping on the beach last week. Do you think it’s her?”

“No, it’s not a mermaid. Look, it’s getting closer, whatever it is.”

The girls waited and looked, their eyes squeezed in hopes they might see more clearly. The screams they heard earlier now seemed more like singing, still, a weird kind of singing.

“It’s a boat!” shouted the second girl full of excitement.

“A boat! What’s it doing here?”

“I don’t know, but it’s heading for the beach. Let’s go and see!”

As gracious as cats, the two girls climbed down the rocky area they were sitting on to watch the waves. In only a matter of seconds, and with seemingly no energy lost, they began running for the sandy beach not far from where they were. The sand was cold, so despite all their want to sink into the soft floor of nature, they kept their boots on. There were, after all, plenty of fractals of ice mixed in.

It wasn’t a long wait once they reached the dunes that the boat grew nearer, until it fully stopped not far from them. They could see the shape clearly now. A massive and unusually narrow wooden ship, decorated with what looked like shields.

“Do they look like pirates to you?” asked the first girl in a whisper. They both stood still as they watched the men and women climb down, splashing through the water until they reached the shore. Each and every one of them was dressed for battle, but their weapons were not in sight. The twins held still even as the strangers walked past them, as if they weren’t even there.

“I don’t think they’re pirates,” responded the other in as much of a whisper.

“What, then?”

“I don’t know.”

They continued to watch, and although they were surrounded, fear hadn’t overcome them. Those people, although looking menacing, seemed peaceful, even kind. In the distance they noticed two of them laughing after another had said a joke. Plenty were finding their way to an empty space so they could sit down and relax. Only one of them, a man dressed evermore warrior-like, seemed to acknowledge their presence and even approached them. Although his weapon was not in sight, he was holding a shield.

The girls looked up to the man, who was massive in comparison, but held still. Now, however, the girls were squeezing on each other’s hands and gulped, unsure what to expect. They only grew less tense after a moment of panic, when the man made a sudden move. Less than a step away from them, he trusted his shield into the sand, until it fixed into a vertical position. The girls smiled when the man fell to one knee to be on eye level with them. His hands were casually held one atop another over the shield and his head fell on them, making the menacing-looking man look a little more innocent.

“Are you two girls lost?” His voice was kind. Clearly used to speaking to children. Was he a father, then? They wondered.

“No. We came for a walk. Who are you?”

“My name would mean nothing to you, but what I can tell you is that my people and I come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.”

“If you want to find something warmer, you found the wrong place. Look, it’s late summer and the sand is still full of ice. We never even managed to go swimming because of the cold.”

“Poor you. But what if I told you the land we come from is even colder than this? It looks like a winter wonderland, but in all its beauty, it is also malicious. Even so, the weather was no reason for us to come here. We are used to it all.”

“Why then? Are you looking for someone?”

“How dear you are. No. The one I lost is not to be found here. We came in search of new lands. We came to fight, to sing and cry.”

“Fight!” gulped one of the girls in surprise and sudden fear.

“So you came here to harm us.”

“No, no. I wouldn’t harm you lovely girls. Nor would my people. But one day, there might be other people who would. Tell me, do you know how to protect yourselves?”

The scared girl remained frozen, while the other, more courageous, shook her head in honesty.

“Would you like to learn, then?” He now focused his eyes on the more responsive girl, almost ignoring the other one who would never even flinch now. As answer, he received a nod, which caused the other girl’s eyes to go wide with shock. She remained silent yet. “I can teach you if you like.”

“You would do that?”

“Yes, but not here, on lands foreign to me. I can only teach you in the lands of my people. I don’t know if your family would agree that you leave, however.”

“We have no family left.”

“Oh, poor you sweet things. I know how it feels, I’ve lost my family too, but I was older than you two are. At least you have each other to look out for.”

“I don’t want to go,” murmured the other girl, startled when the man’s look fell on her again. Her sister watched her in surprise as well.

“Why not? I want to go!”

“I like it here, I know the places and the people. Sis, please don’t leave me.”

“I really want to go. You know I always wanted to learn to fight. I want you to come with me.”

Noticing the tension between the two sisters, the man prepared to walk away. Before he did, he told them one thing: “If you decide to come, we are leaving at nightfall. Think about it.”

The girls argued for the better part of the day, remaining on the beach while the group of menacing strangers left for the green fields. They were heaving for their village, but neither of them stopped to wonder why. They had barely noticed they were gone until they were already returning, a good part of them full of blood. The girls didn’t know it wasn’t the warriors’ blood that had been spilled all over and thought they were injured. By that moment, they had reached a decision.

The braver girl decided to join those people and begin a new life, one that she had chosen for herself, while the other one would remain in her home land that had nothing more to offer her. The fear of the unknown left her without anything, even when all she had left was her sister. Now she was gone too.

“You made the right choice,” said the man who had talked to them earlier. They were already on the ship, sailing north into the night.

“I hope she’ll be well.”

“There’s nothing I can do for her. But you, you are now under my protection. I will adopt you as my daughter, and should anyone harm you, they shall answer to me.”

She hugged him. He hugged her back. For the first time in her life, she felt safe.