Giving Chocolate

A few weeks back Emlyn Chand posted a new contest on her blog at The Ambitious Ambigue. This contest was to write a romance story between two kindergarten children in dialogue format.

Unfortunately I did not finish on time, and I did not follow all the rules. But I have now finished and I think that I like the feel of this tale. So, for your reading pleasure here is my take on a little romance. Enjoy.

~ Daniel

***

“Alright, Katy, now you just need to fill the pot with water and set it over the stove to heat slowly.

“That’s it and carefully set the bowl of chocolate over the pot.

“Good, good. Adjust the flames a little. We don’t want to burn the chocolate as we go.

“Very nice. Now just keep stirring it until its nice and smooth as I showed you earlier.

“Careful. Don’t get too close to the stove. We don’t want you to get burned as well.”

“Yes, Daddy”

“I know you know what you’re doing little one. But I worry about you getting hurt at times.”

“Ill be careful”

“Ok, just keep stirring and turn the cream to very low heat once the chocolate is about half melted. I’ll keep watching while I’m on the phone.”

“Ok”

“Hello.

“Oh, hey Tom. What’s up?

“Nothing much here either. Katy is making a cake and I’m supervising.

“What? Chris too? I probably shouldn’t be surprised. Our kids do tend to spend a lot of time together. Do you know who he is making it for?

“Really… That’s too bad. Katy’s is for him.

“No, she can’t hear me right now, but I can still see what she is doing. I’ve got her melting the chocolate now and I’ll have her add the cream soon.

“Well she knows Chris likes the cakes I make so she wanted to make a special one for him. I’m letting her do the decorations however she wants but the base will be exactly as I usually make it.

Is April making something too?

Wow, Katy’s favorite…wait, is she making them for Katy?

“I don’t know if I really like this. The kids are way too young to be thinking about love.

“I know. Their starting out much earlier than we did. I want to blame their teacher since Katy says she has made a big deal out of valentines day in the last few weeks. But I know it’s not her fault.

“True I don’t know how any of them will react to the one their giving something to giving something to their other friend.

“Their young enough that I don’t think it will be a problem. They should be able to handle it and Katy already said that she is coming over to the bakery to help out after school.

“Right, so we will be able to watch them all and see if they need us. We will just have to be there in case of heartbreak.
“Anyway. I need to get going Tom. I can smell that the chocolate is just about ready and I’m still going to help Katy as much as I can till she doesn’t need her daddy anymore.

“Ya, I’ll be at the store around 3 so we should have plenty of time to get the last of the pastries made for all the orders we have. Mary wont be there till 9 but she’ll be closing up the shop as well.
“Yup, good luck with Chris. Bye.

“How does the chocolate look, little one?”
“It just finished melting dad.”

“Good, then we just need to add the cream next. Did you warm it like I told you?”

“Yup”

“Well done. This should be a wonderful cake your making for him.”

:”I know. He’s going to love it”

“Yes, dear. I’m sure he will.”

Darkened Sands

Since I am bringing back this site, I thought I should bring back a sample of my writings.

Darkened Sands is a short piece I wrote a while ago but it has a feel for my style and is a piece of character history I wrote as I was planning out another series.

I hope you will enjoy this glimpse into Kistala’s world.

Darkened Sands

The sun god burned as he rode across the sky. His fiery steed strode with purpose as he always had, lighting the world below and keeping the ice at bay. The air shimmered with every step of his hooves, sending waves of light and heat through the sky which rippled with a thousand colors for the pleasure of the eye. But down below, under the sun god’s ever watchful glare a battle waged on and Kistala was too busy with her own troubles to enjoy the sight.

It had been a long day and she was sore all over. But still she had to press on; ignoring the numerous cuts she had endured at the hands of these invaders. They could not be allowed to take this beach.

She panted heavily, her steely eyes locked upon the rat before her. His own blades were held high and she could see the fear in him as he tried vainly to find a way to escape. They had come to her world to destroy them, and this one at least knew that it had been a mistake. She had vowed she would make them all regret that choice.

Shifting her weight, she dug her claws into the white sands below, barely noticing the dark stain from a nearby form. Her muscles bunched and she leaped forward with a deep growl. Her eyes flashed as she came down, her sword whistling through the damp air, but it found no resistance as the invader clumsily tried to block his fear making it nearly impossible.

She landed in the sands beside him quickly pulling the sword free of his body. It slumped to the ground adding its own stains to the sands as she stood up, letting her gaze wander over the beach.

“It had been beautiful here once..,” she thought. Her mind traveled back over the years and she remembered a time when she had visited this very beach with her family. She remembered swimming in those waves, wading out as far as she dared before the bottom of the cove gave way to the sea. Of battling the current as it tried to drag her out and the waves that tried to send her tumbling back in to the snow white sands.

The trees back then had all been lush and green, their leaves spreading out wide and shading most of the beach from the sun god’s ride. Even the rocks had been beautiful, tall in their majesty as they arced out over the cove, their faces a motley of grays, browns and reds. She fondly remembered climbing these same cliffs in search of bird eggs for her mother, and of diving contests with her cousins to see who was the strongest in the pride.

But those days were long gone and now the cliffs still sparkled, but they were covered in a network of ropes and timber as the rats were using it to bring supplies up to the staging area they had tried to build. The trees were mostly gone, and even the sands were no longer pristine. Instead everything seemed to have become ugly to her eyes. And these filthy creatures had been the ones who had dared bring such ugliness to her once beautiful world. She hated them for that and had vowed that she would see them removed from this place so its beauty would be restored.

She shook her sword clear of the last drops frowning as she lifted it to note how poorly it looked after this days battle, but she was not yet done in her struggles if she wanted to cleanse this place. Turning right she saw two of her comrades continuing their fight and she made a move to join them. Gasping in shock she looked down at her own body and there, out of her left side a spear head flashed in the sun.

With a cry of rage at her own stupidity she turned to regard the rats behind her, pulling the spear out of their combined grasp. She quickly hacked into the first of them, his body soon falling to join the one from before. But the others had quickly backed off, pulling their own weapons free as she killed the first one.

Taking a step back she eyed her opponents gauging the three of them and how well she might be able to fight them. She was still weak from the days fighting and this new wound would slow her terribly. It may even spell her demise. But even death would not stop her from removing their blight. She reached back, and to their horrified eyes she easily snapped the spear off near where it penetrated her leather.

“Come little rodents, this kitty still wants to play,” she laughed at them tauntingly.

One of them stepped back at her words, his blade falling slightly as some measure of fear triggered within him. It was all the opening she needed and with a roar she charged them, her sword striking quickly out at each of the ones that had not moved before she shifted focus on the weak one. He was relatively easy to dispatch and in a few moments her blade again glistened darkly.

But she could not let up as the others were apparently more seasoned and were quick to attack her while she was turned. She barely moved in time to block their blows, trying to snap back with her own thrusts. Around the fallen bodies they moved, their feet and claws shuffling through the sands.

Blades clashed against each other, throwing off sparks of light. She kick and managed to get one of them off balance enough that her next attack nearly took half the tail of the other, but though they were not as good as her brothers had been, she was far too gone to be able to withstand them.

Time passed swiftly upon that battlefield as the three of them danced with few opportunities made that would allow her to be rid of them. Her breathing had become laggard and she knew that she could not last much longer. Her opponents were almost as spent as she was, but she knew that if something did not change soon she would not survive this conflict.

As if the gods had heard her thoughts, one of the two lost his balance as his foot fell against the body of the one she had slain earlier in the day. She quickly took advantage of his situation, pouncing forward and slamming her blade into his chest. She only had a moment but before she could turn away the other one was upon her, his own blade cutting into her arm. She cried out, her hand falling away from the sword as she crashed to her knees. Her blood loss and exhaustion finally overcoming the little reserves that she had had left.

She looked up at the rat as he towered over her his own sword rising up to strike the final blow, but he merely looked over her head, a quizzical expression appearing on his face. She barely took notice of it as her body slowly fell to the side, the bloodied sands cushioning her fall.

Her eyes turned towards the sea and she could hear the gentle swells of the waves as they came in to crash upon the shore. She had not heard it before, and she smiled for it was a beautiful sound.

“It’s just as I remembered,” she thought happily, her eyes drifting closed completely unaware of the rat falling down beside her.

***

Her eyes shot open as she awoke with a start. Feeling dizzy she gazed around, momentarily confused as it seemed she still in the dream, but this was not the same place it had been back then.
She started to relax, turning her head to look down the beach, where she could hear laughter, but her movements were too fast. She gasped, her hand immediately rising to her side caressing the old wound.
“It still just as painful,” she thought as her eyes finally found the two boys playing down by the water.
“But they were worth it all.”

© Dae Dracos/Kieran/Kierloth aka Daniel.G. – 2009

A Virtual Nap

I am posting here a little story I just finished for a contest. You can read it below and of course here to read the other entries in the contest. I hope you all enjoy what you read.

A Virtual Nap
©2011 D.G. (AKA Dae/Kierloth/Kieran/Daniel)

With a terrible cry the greater green wyvern crumpled to the ground, its wings flapping feebly for a few moments. It tried to raise it’s head, struggling weakly against fate but time had already wound down.

A chime sounded, the beast lay still and above its body appeared a golden message granting 1,500 experience points to the young warrior standing nearby.

He reached down to the body of the wyvern and collected its scales and some random loot that he hoped he wouldn’t need to use if he was lucky.

“Menu, Log-out.”

Silence greeted his command as he gazed across the mountains surrounding him. This part of the world was very quiet. It seemed that nothing moved, but he knew that if he traveled in any direction creatures would start to appear.

“Menu, Log-out,” he called again, but only the wind howled in response.

“Come on work you piece of crap game. Log out already.

“Call, GM.”

“Call, GM”

“Call, GM”

…

He didn’t really think that anyone would respond, but he had to keep trying. Eventually they would fix whatever was wrong and he would be able to quit playing. Then he would rush home.

Home. For some reason he found it hard to remember, which was strange since he only started playing a few hours ago. But he knew Katie would be there.

She would be very angry with him. Of that he was certain. She never liked it when he played for hours at home and even if this was work she would probably spend 30 minutes yelling at him and saying how these games were a waste of his life.

He certainly didn’t think the games were a waste of his time. There were a lot worse hobbies he could have and he still made sure to make time for her and the children. But why did it seem like he couldn’t really remember what they looked like?

Ridiculous. Of course he knew what his family looked like and he would see them soon enough once they fixed the game. Until then he would just have to continue playing and seeing what else was wrong for his report.

Until then he would need to continue to play and return the wyvern’s scales to the village. Perhaps even get a mug of ale to help pass the time.

After what seemed to be several hours of travel, although he was sure it was only a few minutes in the real world he finally arrived back in the village and settled down in the tavern. The place never seemed to change and likely the developers still had some adjustments to make here but for now it was his home and would remain so until they fixed the bugs.

John, the name he had given to the bartender NPC, came over and placed an ale on the counter a smile playing on his lips.
“Well lad? Did you do it? Is the beastie dead?”

“Yes, John. It’s dead and here are the scales to prove it as you requested.”

“Good lad. It’s just what we will be needing. That old wizard said we could protect the village for another hundred years with these.”

“Sure, John, whatever you say.” he took a long pull on the ale before him no longer really caring if he played the game in character or not.” What’s next on the quest list that you needed John?”
Staring down into the ale it took a few moments before he realized that John hadn’t responded. Taking another drink he glanced up and growled around his ale. John had frozen in place, his mouth hanging open as he was about to deliver the next segment of the quest.

“Great, another bug. Well what do I do now?”

“I think calling it a day and going home might be best, Mr. Baker. Don’t you?”

“Go home? That isn’t possible, the developers still haven’t fixed the system and I can’t log out….”

Turning quickly he looked towards the back of the room to a young man dressed in simple clerics robes.

“Did you just say…”

“Yes, Mr. Baker, I did. Its time to go home. We have finally determined the best way to bring you out and are prepared to begin the process.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Get me out of here already.”

“As you wish. Please close your eyes as that should help to reduce the sense of discontinuity as we remove you from the game.”

Baker did as instructed and waited eager to finally be able to return home and see Katie and the kids again.

“Alright, Mr. Baker you can open your eyes. Your back in your own body, though you may feel a bit weak. You have been in that chair for quite some time after all.”

“Weak? I haven’t been here very long so I’m not weak. I Just want to get home,” he mumbled wondering why he did sound so tired.

“Not very long? Mr. Baker I don’t think you realize the current situation. When you entered the game to test it an error occurred that prevented us from reaching you or you to log out. It has taken us nearly 20 years to find a way to bring you out of the system without severely damaging your brain. I’m afraid that this world is not the one you left behind. You were declared legally dead quite some time ago I’m afraid and your life is essentially gone. Your wife has remarried, and your son died recently in the war. But you have nothing to worry about ICS will take care of you. We have an extensive benefits package that will see you living comfortably for the remainder of your days.

“Mr. Baker?…Oh dear. Molly, could you please come in here. Your father has passed out and I am not sure how much he heard. He will likely need your support when he awakens.