Fiction Story

Zachary Freedman

Scotland Story (Fiction)

The strong fog subsided as a creek came into view, you see a young man, probably 20 or 21 years of age, dressed in large leather armor cascading over his body. Fashioned to his left waist line is a sheathed bronze long sword, the tip only inches from the ground. On his back lay a large leather shield with the engraving “Elam” spread across the middle. The boy seems well built, maybe 6 feet with boots, he has red hair, and a beard, he also has a very pungent smell, its smells of sweat, and meat. As the man kneels down to scoop up some water to drink there is a loud booming noise followed by a voice in the distance, “Keith! Keith!” Instantly Keith’s mannerisms change, and he averts his attention to the voice “Christopher? Christopher is that you?” Christopher appears out of the bushes to the north, his eyes are bloodshot with stress, and his face filled with uncertainty, his body stricken with panic distraught he responds “Keith where have you been? There has been a terrible accident at the port, your mother, she, well she….”  Christopher pauses, seemingly to change the way in which he is going to say the next sentence to Keith. “Keith I’m very sorry, your mother, she, she didn’t make it.” Before Keith has time to shed a tear their is a barrage of voices from beyond the forest yelling “Death to the southerners, death to the southerners” as Christopher hears this he quickly gathers himself, and grabs Keith’s hand “Come quick.” They arrive in the small port town of Terenstoff, wear they approach a group of men that are harassing a young man, “He’s from the south, burn him- I say take him to the port throw him off, No off with his head that is fitting” Keith is appalled, and immediately jumps to the mans defense, “Stop yelling at this man at once” says Keith. “Who are you to defend a southerner?” one of the men exclaims. Before the man can react Keith already has his long sword thrust upon the man’s neck, “Who am I to defend another human being with the same thoughts and opportunities as all of us?” The man stood back startled, “But he’s from the south” a women yelled from behind the group of men. Keith’s eyes turned dark with anger “What gives us the right to hurt a man from another place, what did he do to deserve our cruelty!” The group was dumb-founded; they’ve never heard such and accusations, or a defenses statement against a southerner. “You peoples blood runs cold with corruption, you can’t see the beauty in others only yourselves.” This brought forward no applause from the crowd, but they backed off partly because of the sword, but also because of the words Keith spoke, they almost seemed to flow together in a way that gave purpose to them, gave a reason for others to hear them, gave these northerners a reason to be kind. Keith lowered his weapon, “You people build prisons, for men from the south, when your children don’t even have a proper schools to attend, were is the logic in that?” with his eyes heavy, and his mind drifting to thought of his mother he says “I ask who put these laws that say the north is superior, when the southerners have just as much heart, and soul as us, I say that in this life, it’s hard for all of us, why make it harder on others?” At this moment a man dressed in all black, and a hood walks out from the crowd, he looks at Keith and mumbles a few words, then pulls out a knife, and he stabs Keith in the heart, Keith juts forward, and his tears falls from his face to the ground. The crowd is stunned, Christopher yells “Nooooooooo!” as he unsheathes his sword, running at the man he starts to swing, as he does this he is hit in the arm with an arrow. Christopher is thrust back dropping his sword on the ground, He yells “Keith!!!” as he is staring at Keith’s motionless body sprawled out upon the ground he notices on the end of the arrow there is a small golden letter “N”. With tears rolling down his cheek he says to the man “Why, why him? What type of devil are you?” The man turns to Christopher, “I am no devil, but a saint to the north.” He proceeds to pull out a small steel sword, and walks leisurely over to Christopher. He bends down in front of Chris’s crippled body, and almost to light for Chris to hear, the man says “We rule, and you shall fall.” The man then stands up and walks away through the crowd as he leaves Chris notices the same letter “N” on the strange mans shirt, but then suddenly Christopher is overcome with grief,  before he can even weep out his brother’s name, another arrow from no recognizable direction comes out and hits Christopher in the heart. As the road lay quiet no man, women or child speaks, no breaths taken, no thoughts thought, and all as quick as this started, everyone dispersed in every directions possible, and in a matter of moments the road lay empty, no women, no children, just one man stand there, the man Keith defended, he lay knelt on the ground, his eyes dark with hate, his palms moist with sweat, he stands up. He looks to the sky as it begins to rain. “WHY! WHY this day of all days you punish me, punish us, what gives the right of one man to kill another, what gives the right of one man to rule another, who respects the corruptions of our world enough to allow it to prosper, who, who WHO!!!” The man sitting in the mud, with no clothing more then his pants, no happiness more then death, no will to move on. But yet the man stands up, and begins to run, run as fast as any man could run, and he keeps running. He comes up barley a mile from Terenstoff to a remote shack made of stone. He approaches the door, and knocks, 1……2…….3 times, and the door suddenly bursts open. He walks into a room with a table, the table is Nordic with a gold trim, imprinted in the center of the table is a large letter “S” in silver writing, the man sits. On the other side of the room there is a door, it opens and out comes a large man maybe 6 feet 8 inches, he speaks “David, is that you? Impossible, you can’t be, you couldn’t have? How, how did you survive?” David wipes away a tear, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of parchment, he places it on the table. “Is that?” the larger man says “Is that the parchment of ethos?” “Yes” said the younger man “Yes it is.” The large man suddenly runs over and gives David a giant hug, propelling him off the ground. “I can’t believe my eyes it is! This is it what we need to defeat the North, but how? How did you get this? Only Ethos himself carries it.” Theirs a long pause as the small man thinks, “He was there, there in Terenstoff, I was caught in a crowd of northerners who were relentless in their pursuit to have me killed, if it wasn’t for this man named Keith I would never had made it. He stood up for me, regardless if he was from the North, he said that life is hard, and that it’s hard to make it, he also said something that really got to me, he said to his people that their blood runs cold with corruption, and that they can’t see the beauty in others only themselves, he showed me that either side your on regardless we are all brothers, and that no one man should lead another.” The large man stood puzzled “So you say we should all live in peace, but then why does the north kill their own, kill people who do not believe what they do.” David stood “This is because they are corrupt and a corrupt mind is hard to mend, we as southerners aren’t always cordial, we are bitter to the north, what I took from this man Keith is that it doesn’t matter where you were born or what you believe, the only thing that matters is that the world should be united in peace, and that war is just a mechanism to block out our ability to love each other in peace and harmony.” ”Now I stand here with this parchment of ethos and see his credibility see that his writing is true, and what he says are what we need, the place of the northern shrine, but what do you expect of us? To go to this shrine kill all of the people their, and ride away in happiness, because I refuse, those people aren’t terrible people they just have been brought up in a corrupt world, and I myself believe that a corrupt mind, cant be changed by another, but only by within, this is why I stand here proposing upon you that we burn this parchment, and we live out our lives far from all of this turmoil, exile ourselves from the south and give these northerners their own free will to allow people like Keith to rise up upon the north and lead them to a world of peace, and a word of love, do you agree with my proposition?” The large mans eyes suddenly stop moving at a hundred miles and hour, and look right at David, “I agree this day will be known as a day of recognizing, today is that day, the day us southerners move to a new land and break our bond with the north allow them to find their own way to peace just as we have, FOR THE SOUTH!” as the large man alerts the elders of the tavern, and the leaders of the south that there is a call upon the lands to move, those messages spread across the lands of the south and bring forever, a migration of good, for the benefits of peace!