Neil 2: A Conversation Over Coffee

Here is the next part to the Neil story. So David if you haven’t read the Neil story yet scroll down and do so now. I don’t know how I feel about this one yet but here it is for you to read. I really like some of Septembers’ parts in this; it really goes to show some of his personality I think.


“It’s ok the house is sealed off, no elf will be able to get in.” the man got up and started walking to the kitchen. “Come on let’s talk over coffee, it’ll help your head.”

Neil couldn’t think of a reason not to trust the man so he got up and followed him across the house. He entered a small kitchen and to his surprise the man was already pouring from a kettle from the stove. He handed Neil a cup of hot brown liquid, Neil smelt it, and it didn’t smell good.

“Go ahead and drink, it’s like tea only made from beans.” Neil waited for the man to give it a try before sipping at his own. It tasted burnt and muddy. “Sorry I don’t make a good coffee, just a strong one. Maybe this will help.” He reached in his coat and pulled out what Neil recognized as a flask. He held out his cup eagerly and the man poured a little of the unnamed liquor in. he retired his coffee, it was now palatable. “Good old Tennessee Whiskey, it even makes beans good.”

“Tennessee, where’s that, Wales? Are you from Wales?”

“No I’m not from Wales, I’m from New Mexico.” The man waited to see if that meant anything to Neil, when he saw that it didn’t he went on. “It’s in America.”

Neil found that he was surprised at how calm he was; he just sipped his coffee and thought it over. “Ok, America, you’re telling me that you are from across the ocean, and what, you’re the first man to break the seal into England in 200 years?”

“Yup.”

“And you made it all the way across England to the Scottish border without being caught by elves?”

“Yup.”

“ok.” They sat there in silence sipping coffee watching each other.

“You are surprisingly calm.” the man said.

“I would have to agree. Normally I would have stabbed you by now as you are obviously an elf spy. Did you put something in this uh…”

“Coffee.”

“Yes, Coffee?”

“No I don’t think so. I must tell you that I am feeling really calm myself.” They took another moment to sip at their coffees and think about their situations. “I think I know what’s going on. September would you come in here please.” The dark skin man from before entered the kitchen, he too seemed very calm; it was a contrast to his fierce concentration on the door that he had on in the other room. “September did you do something to make it calm?”

“Yes,” he answered, “I was afraid that the Scotsman would try and attack us so I calmed things down a bit.” Neil started to nod in silent agreement. “Is that a problem, I can take the effect away if you want?”

“No no, just lower it some would you. I feel like I’ve been put out to pasture.” September said that he would and then returned to the other room. “That was September, he’s and Indian.”

“He doesn’t look Indian, are you sure he’s not Pakistani?”

“Not that kind of Indian, he’s and American Indian, a Native American.” Neil nodded. “You have Indians and Pakistanis in Scotland?”

“Oh yes, there were many living here at the time the elves came. Each have either own clan now, good people. Is he using magic?”

“Yes and no, is that a problem?”

“Only elves use magic, so it makes you elf spies. I am going to have to kill you.”

“Wait a minute, wait one cotton picking minute, we saved you from the elves. You ain’t going to kill us.”

“Oh I’m not?” Neil could feel some of his calm melt away.

“No not because we use magic, god it’s not even real magic, well not like elf magic, it’s different. Elf magic is spells and enchantment right, it does stuff, stuff you notice. We’ll this magic is different, it’s passive, elf magic is narrow and our magic is broad, you get what I’m saying?” Neil did not. “You see it’s different, it’s different. God September get in here and help me out.”

September came back into the room and this time instead of calm and controlled he seemed a bit more loss as he leaned on the door frame. “This is American magic; in truth it’s not even called magic. It is power granted us by the land because we are one with the land and it is one with us. One with the trees, one with the grass, one with the birds and one with the animals.”

“Druids!”

“Yes like druids, but from America.” September seemed pleased that he was able to make Neil understand. That was until Neil drew one of his knives.

“Druids were fond of human sacrifices.”

September began to chuckle, “well who wasn’t back then, but be assured we don’t do that anymore.” September was glaring at Neil with an eerie smile on his face. It seemed to pull back the corners of his mouth too far and show too much of his teeth. Neil was caught up by it, it seem to pull him in. he didn’t even notice the other man come towards him until he spoke.

“Can we please put the knife away?” he was reaching for the knife and Neil panicked. He swung out with it, but the man was fast and was able to move away. Neil slashed at him twice more driving him back. But on his next attack the man was able to grab his arm and force it up. The knife stuck into the ceiling and Neil lost his grip on it. The man let Neil go and began to scold September instead of Neil. “I thought you were making it calm in here?”

“I am, he stopped didn’t he? He has several more knives on him and a gun he could use any of those.”

Then man looked back at Neil, “let’s try this again, my name is Allen.” He put out his hand. Neil could feel the urge to stab it well up inside of him but never reach the surface. He took the hand in his own instead.

“Neil”

“Well howdy Neil, glad to meet ya. I’m going to take out some papers I want you to look at and then you can tell me what you are going to do next. How’s that sound?” Neil nodded and took the papers when Allen produced them. They were wrapped in oilskin and printed on thick paper. Each one had a gold seal on the top of it stating it was from the desk of the President of the United States of America. They seemed very official and stated that Allen was a dully appointed representative from America to whomever he found living on the isle of Brittan and Ireland. They said that he comes in peace and that he is to offer help to any legitimate ruling body he finds.

“Are these for real?”

“Real as you and I. what do you think, enough to get me into Scotland?” Allen seem to look genuine.

“Those will probably get you arrested and detained at any of the gates leading into Scotland. But if anyone with rank thinks these are real you will be sent to the capital.”

“Well that sounds like a plan.” Neil’s mood was picking up.

“it sounds like something, I don’t know if it’s a plan.” Chimed in September.

“No it’ll be great. We show up at one of these gates with Neil here to introduce us, we can cut through all that red tape.”

“Now wait on second, I am not taking you to a gate. I’m a Pict, I don’t use gates, I go through the wall. I show up at a gate and I can kiss my job away.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We do nothing. I go back through the wall, and I’ll take those papers with me. You will show up in two days at the gate I tell you to. That’s the only way you’re getting into Scotland, I’ll make sure of that.”

“Neil it almost sounds like you don’t want to help us.”Allen said almost mockingly.

“You know good and well that I don’t, but its part of my orders to have you come to a gate, and any other human wanting into Scotland. So just remember I’m doing it for my country not for you. Now listen up there is a gate nearly 32 miles to the west of here be there at sundown in 2 days.” Neil looked at his watch, time was running out. “Now lads I have to be heading back to my wall. I’ll see you in 2 days.” He took the papers and put them in his backpack, then pulled his knife from the ceiling.

“Can’t you stay a little longer Neil? We were just getting to be friends.” This time it was Neil’s turn to glare. Allen just smiled and shrugged. With the calm wearing off and Neil could see that Allen had a strange personality. “We can get you to the wall whenever you want.”

“I use my legs not your dirty magic. 2 days, sundown.” And Neil left.

Allen and September sat quietly for awhile before Allen finally spoke. “God I hate waiting. That’s all we ever did in France.”

“Then you will hate Scotland, Sounds like we will be playing a lot of the militaries favorite game.” Allen gave him a quizative look. “The Hurry Up and Wait game. I guess I’m supposed to follow him and make sure he gets back ok?”

“I’d appreciate it. It wouldn’t bode well if our papers were found by the elves. And when you get back can you do something about this knife hole in the ceiling. Don’t want anyone to know we were here.”

If you want to know how Sptember made it so calm I know how in detail, it just never seemed to work it's way into the story.

Neil

This is another longish story, over a thousand words. It is also part of the story I came up with when David first asked me to write a video game. Once again it ends abruptly, something I have begun to enjoy. I like how it makes the reader mad, I don’t know if pissing off your readers is an accepted writing practice, but I really don’t care. This story introduces the stories true hero, Neil. He is an interesting fellow with many faults he will have to overcome before he is ready to meet his destiny, this story introduces a few of them. Is he proud or is it his prejudices? Does he have good sense but bad sensibility? Let’s find out.

Neil laid flat across the back seat of a BMW. He couldn’t tell you what BMW stood for, all he knew is that it was one of many automobiles that made up New Hadrian’s Wall, and that he could crawl through this one. He looked at his watch, two minutes to go. Neil was a soldier in the Army of New Scotland, and a member of the Picts. The Picts are a special group of soldiers whose sole job was to go over the wall and raid the Old Kingdom. He had been with the Picts for a year and this would be his eighth time over the wall. Neil’s two minutes were up; it was time for him to go.

Neil opened the car door and peered out into the night. This section of the wall had no lights so Neil could see the stars. Neil could hear others coming out of their cars on other parts of the wall as he pulled himself out. He crouched next to the wall until all the unseen movement had stopped. He took a moment to pull on the straps of his pack making sure that they were snug. Then came the vibration alarm on his watch, just a silent shaking on his wrist was all the Picts needed. At the same moment 12 men darted out from the wall and ran across the field before them. They had ten minutes now to make it the one mile to the original wall which marked the boundary of the Old Kingdom. The area they were running across now was a no man’s land, to dangerous for the Scotts to live in and too hard for the elves to cross.

Neil was happy because everything was going according to plan, which is good for a Pict because their plans only go up to reaching the original wall. They never knew what they would find when they got there, it could be a patrol waiting for them or a just an abandoned stretch of Wall road. Wall road is the path that runs the length of the original wall. It’s less like a road and more like a horse path because the elves rarely us vehicles of any kind. They found the road and the wall empty.

It took twenty minutes from the time they left the new wall before Neil found Charlie hiding in a stand of trees. Charlie was Neil’s partner on this mission, they had the next six hours to go as far into the Old Kingdom as they dared, mapping it and causing trouble. From the moment they found each other and began their excursion they were to consider themselves weapons free. Neil removed the safety strap on his holster, even though firing guns at elves wasn’t a killing move but it helped slow them down. If he did have to kill one it would be with one of the six knives he had on his person. After the first two hours they had easily covered five miles. They had been working their way through a plowed field when it suddenly ended showing them a sight neither had ever expected to see. It was a village, but not an elfin one, the homes were built out of wood not shaped out of trees, also there was a cart track, not usually found in elfin villages. This was a human village.

Neil had heard that the elves didn’t kill all the humans in England when they invaded. There were also rumors that they were allowed to work in elfin households as servants, but never had they heard of a human settlement in England. Charlie nudged Neil back into the field where they could talk in cover.

“This is weird,” Said Charlie. “This isn’t right. Those are houses built by men down there.”

“I know,” Neil replied, “someone’s got to go down there and check it out.” Neil was getting excited because he knew Charlie didn’t like doing this sort of thing.

“No one’s going anywhere, it’s too dangerous.”

“Dangerous, those are our people down there, we could save them, bring them back to Scotland with us.”

“Don’t be crazy, those people know nothing of Scotland, they live here, with elves. Think Neil, it’s been almost 200 years, they seem to be doing fine, nice homes, these are good crops, they are probably happy and there is no reason to cause these people alarm by letting them know were here. They would probably just hand us over to the elves anyways.”

“But to live under elves…”

“Is something you know nothing about? Can’t you just be happy for these people? We thought that all humans left in England were servants, those don’t look like servants houses. What’s the worst those people could be, living on some rich elf’s land and working his fields? How is that different then doing the same thing for a Laird in Scotland?”

“Because then they would be working for a human and not a bloody elf.” Charlie looked at Neil disapprovingly. He was older and mellower then Neil, and many of their conversations went the same direction, the one they were headed to now.

“Those prejudices are unfounded Neil, I’ve told you before. You hate elves, and how many times have you seen one, 5, 6? And have you ever talked to one? No. But you won’t be satisfied until you know those people aren’t horribly repressed by evil elves and need saving. This is what were going to do, we’re both going down there, spend no longer than half an hour, map the place and see what info you can gather of their lives. Don’t go in any houses and Don’t talk to anyone. If it turns out that these people need saving it won’t be by us, it will be another mission on another day. Got that?” Charlie was skipping to the end of their argument; he didn’t seem to want to waste time on this today. Neil nodded his head and Charlie began to explain the routs they would take through the village. “Neil when we get done, comes right back here, if I’m late don’t come looking for me, just head back. Don’t stop until you’re over the wall. Anyway you look at it, this information needs to get back.”

Neil agreed and they began to make their way to the village. They split up and each went a different way around the outside. The plan was to go around the village and come up the middle, that way they were already heading the right direction. Neil found nothing remarkable on his journey around the outside of the village, mostly just the normal back of house stuff, gardens, goats and laundry. He had his map book out and was trying his best to sketch while not disturbing any goats. When he got to the end of town he stopped to make corrections to his map in a patch of light that came through window of a nearby home.

There were few lights on in the village; Neil estimated it was around 2AM, too late for Farmers, just right for Drunks. Neil didn’t think that this village had a Pub that would stay open that late so the only thing he needed to worry about was elf patrols. He looked down a street and started to plan his rout when a crashing sound came from the back of one of the houses he had just been behind. Neil leapt under a tree and crouched close to its trunk holding his breath and hoping he was hard to see in the shadows. He heard a door being opened and then the unmistakable sound of a startled cat being tossed from a house. He had heard that sound a lot growing up and it relived him to know that some things are the same where ever you are. He tried to imagine one of these townsmen sneaking to the kitchen to get a snake while his wife was asleep. He could see the look on his face as he stepped on the cat’s tail, or found it on the counter instead of the last slice of pie. He almost laughed out loud, but his training kept it from coming out.

Neil stayed beneath his tree for a few more minutes making sure the cats adventures were done for tonight. When he felt that the village had become still again he began to creep out towards the street again. He approached the end of a hedge and peeked out, then pain.

Neil woke up quickly and with a massive pain in his head. Other then the pain, the only other things he was aware of was the hand over his mouth and that he was now inside of one of the houses. He followed the hand to find it belonged to a dark skinned man with long black hair. The man was very still and was looking very intently at the door on the other side of the room. What Neil found strange was that he did not feel threatened by this man, in fact he felt safer in side with him then he had outside with Charlie. Suddenly the door opened and revealed a man, the dark skin man did not seem to react to him, in fact he didn’t move at all until the door was closed and the second man joined them at the back of the room.

The second man sat in a chair and began to speak to the dark skinned man. Neil was surprised to hear them speak English, although it was with a strange accent. “The other one made it out of town; I think he spotted the patrol coming. Looks like our friend here wasn’t that lucky.” He looked at Neil for the first time and his easy going expression he had worn since he arrived changed to surprise. “he looks horrible, what did you do to him?” the Dark skinned man held up his other hand and for the first time Neil could see it held a cast Iron Frying pan. “Damn it September, would you stop doing that.”

“It’s quicker.”