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.”