Chatterbox: Inkwell

Ok here goes nothing, I'm bad at making threads. So I'm writing a story on NaNo, it's a work in progress. I'll post more if I get to it. Also btw "George" in this story (named by Silas) is supposed to look kinda like Hunter from the owl house. Idk I was just thinking about him when making "George" so yeah here ya go 

“Soldiers! Attack!”

I rushed forward with my shield held in front of me. I tried to hold my sword up so I would be able to attack easily, but it was too heavy. Despite my orders not to do so, I dropped my sword and instead pulled out my dagger. I saw the general staring at me with a look of outrage on his face. I gritted my teeth. I would deal with him later.

I focused on the opponent in front of me. His armor looked bulky, and his helmet looked like it restricted his vision. If I could just get to the side and attack from there…

He attacked before I could. He had a long spear and jabbed at me with it, clearly aiming for a gap in my armor but missing. The spear’s tip bounced off the metal and set him off balance.

I saw my chance. I ran forward and rammed his helmet with my elbow, which hurt, but it surprised him and knocked off his helmet. I was shocked to see what was under it.

He looked to be a boy, about 16 years old. He seemed terrified and clearly didn’t have much training- no experienced warrior would have allowed himself to be caught off-balanced. 

“Please,” he said. “Don’t hurt me.”

I glanced over at the general. He was staring at me again. Suddenly rage coursed through me. How could anyone do this? How could anyone send an untrained, terrified teenager into battle? And how could anyone send soldiers into battle to kill them? I offered a hand to the boy and helped him up. “Run,” I told him. “Get out of here, away from the war.”

“Th-thank you,” he said, surprised I hadn’t killed him.

“What are you waiting for?” I asked him, anxiously glancing back at the general. 

“S-sorry,” the boy said, running off.

I watched him run. His fellow soldiers were caught up in the battle, and it seemed like nobody noticed him. I was about to continue fighting when I heard the general’s voice in my ear. 

“What were you thinking?” he growled.

“He was just a boy!” I exclaimed. “Did you expect me to kill him?”

“Yes!” the general shouted. “Of course I did! This is war! Now go back to the tent, before you lose the entire battle for us. I’ll have a little chat with you once the fight is over.”

I gulped. I doubted the general’s idea of a “little chat” was what it sounded like. 

*             *              *

When I got back to our tent, I contemplated my actions. I had saved an innocent kid, but I was most likely going to die once the general got back. If I was lucky, it wouldn’t hurt much. I didn’t think I would have very good luck. I pulled out a book I had found during a previous battle. I loved looking at the pictures in it, even though I didn’t understand any of them. They people in the photographs seemed so happy. I assumed they were taken before the war. I was flipping through the photos, hoping I could enjoy a bit of happiness before the general got back, when something startled me. I blinked several times to make sure I wasn’t just imagining it. It was him- the boy I had been fighting. He was in the picture, laughing with a girl who looked about his age. She looked almost exactly like him. I wondered if they were twins.

I sighed. I had a sibling too, but he had died last year in a battle. Footsteps jolted me out of my thoughts. I quickly hid the book and laid down on my cot, contemplating the meaning of life one last time. Well, Earth, I thought. Nice knowing you. I stood up as the general stormed in to the tent and threw his helmet on the ground. I didn’t think he could be any scarier than the time he caught me and the other soldiers in our regiment having a food fight, but I had been mistaken. 

“You lost us that battle!” he yelled at me. “We were so close! How could you have fallen for a trick like that?”

“Trick?” I said, confused.

“That ‘boy’ got reinforcements! And it was YOU who let him go!” 

I backed away from him. “You call this a ‘little chat’?” I muttered.

“WHAT did you say?” the general roared, rage burning in his eyes.

Well, there goes my only chance to live, I thought. I guess I’ll have some fun. “Did anyone ever tell you your mustache was dumb?” I said. The look on his face was hilarious. Normally I would have been terrified, but I had no fear now. I realize fear was pointless, because it was exactly what the general wanted. I laughed out loud. What was the meaning of life? Why did humans exist? I didn’t know, and nobody would ever know, so we might as well have fun while we have the time.

I saw my best friend, Silas, peeking his head into the tent. He was staring at me in disbelief. He signed with his hands in a secret code we made up a while ago, “What are you thinking? The general’s going to kill you!” Well, it actually translated more directly to “What think? General kill!”. It wasn’t a very detailed code, but I had figured out how to decipher it. I stared at the general. Why was I doing this? I had a choice now- a miserable life, but with friends, or a painful death. I looked at the tent flap. I could run for it. I could escape this stupid war, live a real life. I had to try. 

“There’s something on your shirt,” I told the general before bolting. It was intended as a distraction but hadn’t worked very well, as the general was wearing armor over his shirt. However, the general was still surprised, and I was faster than he was. I burst out of the tent and ran. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know where I was going or how I would survive without and food or water, but anything would be better than the war. I paused and looked behind me to see if the general was following. He wasn’t- but not because he didn’t care. He was fighting with Silas, who had tried to stop him from pursuing me. “Silas!” I called. Silas was a good fighter, but the general was better, especially when he was raging. Silas would die if he kept fighting. 

Silas looked at me, seeming to be thinking while fighting, not knowing whether he should run or not.

Shoot, I thought. Silas was painfully indecisive. “RUN!” I yelled.

Silas seemed to have heard me, but misinterpreted what I had said- he ran into the tent. I facepalmed. That was the worst thing he could possibly do right now. I ran back to the tent and slashed a hole in the back of it with my dagger. Silas was frantically gathering supplies. It was a good idea, but the general was in the tent’s doorway, slowly getting closer. 

“Silas,” I whisper-shouted. “Hurry up!”

“I’m not deaf, you know,” the general said. He raised his sword. Silas stared up at it in terror, but didn’t move. I grabbed his arm and yanked him out of the tent at the last second. We both started running as fast as we could, the general right behind us. 

“This way!” I shouted to Silas. I started running the way I had seen the boy had run in the battle. I had to believe that he was there. I hoped the general was wrong about him calling reinforcements. 

Although the general had much more experience than us, we were faster than he was and he eventually gave up. I didn’t doubt he would come searching for us later, but he would most likely return to camp first. I sat down under a tree that looked like it had seen better days. Silas sat down too. He took the backpack he had grabbed off and pulled a slightly bruised apple out. He frowned at it, but then took a bite anyway. He immediately spit it out into the grass. 

“Why are these even in camp?” he said. “This apple tastes like it rotted three years ago!”

“Hey, it’s not as bad as that time William tried to make cookies,” I said. Silas laughed.

“Yeah, those were more like salty rocks,” he said. “So, what exactly gave you the idea to insult the general’s mustache and run? Of course, I’m not criticizing. His mustache is ugly.”

“Well, in the battle today, the person I was fighting was only a kid. He looked about sixteen, maybe even fifteen. I couldn’t kill him. Then I realized how incredibly pointless the war was, so I ran.”

Silas nodded. “And how do you know which way to go?”

“I saw the kid run this way. I figured there’s a village or something nearby. Also, I see his footprints. He shouldn’t be hard to follow,” I explained.

Silas nodded again and then started rummaging through the backpack for better food. I thought I saw something familiar in the backpack. When Silas had found a cracker, I took the backpack and looked inside. Sure enough, there was the book of photos. I grabbed it.

“How did you find this? And how did you know to take it?” I asked Silas.

“I see you looking at it all the time. It wasn’t hard to find. You do realize you can’t expect a cook like myself-“

I burst out laughing. The only food Silas could make was scrambled eggs, and they were barely edible.

Silas looked offended. He cleared his throat. “As I was saying, you can’t expect a cook like myself not to find something hidden under a frying pan.”

I sighed. “I guess so,” I said. 

“So, what’s so special about it?” Silas asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. But it might be helpful now. If we do find the boy-“

“I’m going to call him George,” Silas declared.

“Okay, sure. I’m not even going to ask. If we find George, we might be able to show him this to make him trust us.”

“And how exactly will that work?” 

I flipped the small book open to the page with the boy on it and showed it to Silas. “I think that’s him. Maybe it belonged to a family member or something.”

“Cool. Now, let’s get going. The general might come after us soon, and we need to find a place to set up camp before it gets dark,” Silas said.

We walked for some time and entered a forest. After a while, we found a clearing. We decided to set up camp there for the night. “Do you think it’s safe to make a fire?” I asked Silas. He shook his head.

“We’re not far enough away yet. The general could see the smoke,” he said.

“Okay. I’ll take first watch,” I said. I started looking for a stick to whack somebody with if anyone tried to attack us. 

“Who are you?” I heard a unfamiliar voice say. I spun around and saw a tall figure standing on the other side of the clearing. He had messy, light brown hair that looked like he had cut himself. He had a long scar down the side of his face and was wearing a gray cloak and brown boots.

I tried to hide my fear and said as calmly as possible, “Why do you care?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just like to know who the intruders in my forest are so I can know whether or not to attack them.”

I raised one eyebrow, something I had taught myself to do after hour of staring in the mirror. “Your forest, huh?”

“I might not own it, but I’m the only one left who cares about it, so I might as well. Now, for the interrogation. What’s your name? And by the way, you don’t want to fight me,” he added.

“My name is Scout Rivenstone,” I said suspiciously.

“Why are you here?” 

“We want to set up camp in this clearing for the night and continue our journey in the morning.” I told him.

“What is this ‘journey’ you speak of?” he asked, sounding interested.

“We’re trying to find a village. We’re escaping the war,” I said.

“Well, Scout Rivenstone, you’re in luck. For I know exactly where the nearest village is and will guide you there for the small price of a stick,” he said.

“Hold on. How am I supposed to trust you? You haven’t even told us your name,” I reminded him.

“My apologies. I forgot. My name is Doren Fidelius, friend of the forest and the leader of the JfTS,” Doren said, bowing.

“The what?” Silas asked. Doren looked down at him. He seemed to have forgotten he was there. 

“The JfTS: the Justice for Tieflings Squad,” Doren explained. “You guys do know what a tiefling is, right? Purple people with horns and tails?”

“Of course I know what a tiefling is,” I lied. “Remind me why they need justice?”

“Well, if you really know what they are you would know that they’re judged by the fact that they’re descended from demons and whenever they walk by people will whisper behind their backs and act like they’re monsters. The JfTS explains to people that tieflings aren’t much different from us,” Doren said.

“Interesting,” Silas said, yawning. “Now, can I go to sleep?”

“Sure,” Doren said. “I’ll come by tomorrow morning at sunrise to take you two to the village.”

“Didn’t you say we needed to give you a stick?” I asked as Doren was about to leave.

     Doren laughed. “No, you seem nice enough. Also, I already have one.” 

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This is a weird spot to leave off but it's as far as I got. I hope the font isn't weird, I copied and pasted. I'm open to constructive criticism! Sorry this was long, admins.