Post by Guardsman Patrick on Oct 12, 2006 23:23:15 GMT -5
Chapter 4: Darkness Falls
Alex awoke in the middle of the night, startled by the dream that was haunting him, and a dream he wouldn’t soon rid himself of. He sat up in his sleeping bag; wiping his eyes before replacing his silver glasses on his nose, making the faded red blur of the dying fire come into clear focus. Putting his jacket on to keep the cold out, he stood and walked over to the stack of small pieces of wood and gathered a few dry pieces to revive the embers back into a modest campfire that would serve as the only source of light to keep the hungry scavengers of the woods away. Yeah, there was Pairon to keep them away, but it was better to be on the safe side in case of an attack that was well planned.
He turned around to see Patrick sitting on a cube of brown bricks, staring not at him, but at the moon above the clearing. His shadow stretched in the white, radiant rays of the sleeping moon, seeming to hush out the sounds of the busy nocturnal beasts as they scrounged for a meal.
“Couldn’t sleep, huh?” Alex asked as he approached the quiet form sitting atop the bricks. He couldn’t help wondering what Patrick was doing up so late at night.
“Oh, you’re awake?” Patrick said, turning toward Alex, finally stopping his staring contest with the moon.
“Yeah, this one dream I’ve been having lately woke me up, and once I wake up, I can’t catch anymore sleep until about thirty minutes pass,” Alex explained. He sat on top of the bricks beside Patrick, looking up into the sky as Patrick had earlier, trying to see what it was that he saw.
“I know how you feel. I can’t sleep a wink when I am thinking to hard. Usually the best thing to do is to concentrate my attention on something else until I finally just forget about it, and then I can think in the morning when I’ve had some rest. It might work for you,” Patrick told, giving Alex some of the first information about himself that Alex had heard him say.
“So, what exactly is it that you are planning to do after this?” Alex asked, not knowing what kind of response he would get. For all he knew, Patrick could explode and storm off, never to be seen again… but that was a long shot.
Patrick sighed, “I’m not really sure. I guess I will help with the tower. Then I will go and find a job, maybe get a small apartment… not really sure what I would do for a job. I would probably head over to Dragonia and search for a job there, seeing as how there are no real jobs in Andorg unless you want to be a body guard, a hitman, or a drug dealer. I can’t say that any of those jobs appeal to me. I guess I will have to go over to a different town just to make a living. Funny how you grow up, watching all the people around you slowly get worse and worse until finally it is so bad that people want to move just so they won’t be forced to stick around these people anymore. Some just accept crime as a way of life. It is sad to see a family who has nothing being forced to turn to evil just to get by. That’s why I am awake now; I can’t sleep because of all the things that I know are wrong, yet I can’t do a thing to stop it. I have to watch as another family dies because they chose to stick to their values and not give up on their beliefs. This makes them an inconvenience to the rest around them.” He clinched his right fist inside his left hand, trying to hang onto his thoughts without totally losing his composure. He then let out a long, deep breath and turned toward Alex, “What about you?”
“Well, once the tower’s done, I guess I will continue with T3GM until I either die or lose my support from the council because my corporation isn’t doing what it promised it would do.”
“It’s good to be sure of what you will do with yourself in the future,” Patrick sighed. “All I can do is guess at this point.”
“Well,” Alex said, looking over at the tiny pink flags that marked the measurements for the tower’s base, “You could become a Gym master and help me keep Andorg under control.” Alex didn’t know any other time that would be as good as this one to ask this question, so he just spat it out.
“You can’t be serious,” Patrick said flatly, crushing Alex’s small hope.
“Why not, you obviously care about the people of the city. You’re the best swordsman I’ve ever come across. You have the brains for it and you need a job anyway, so why not?” This was all Alex had to go on. If Patrick shot down all four of these, he would be at a loss. “Besides, it will make my job ten times easier if I already have one of the two people I need to find.”
“You’re sure?” Patrick questioned, making sure Alex wasn’t just pulling some trick on him to get his hopes up. Alex nodded and Patrick nodded in return. The deal was made.
“Positive,” Alex responded, “Now all that leaves me is one more spot and I’m sure I will be able to fill that one up pretty easy.”
“Where do you plan on looking?” Patrick asked.
“Well, there are a couple of places that I could look. Andorg is a varied city when it comes to finding what it is that you want, but I think the main places will be some of the underground clubs.” He said this with a curious look on his face, as if he knew these places all too well. “Yeah, most of the people there are bad, but hey, there are a couple of good ones in there, and they aren’t people who are going to be defenseless in bad situations.”
Patrick thought on this for a minute then turned back to Alex. “I can see your point, but how will you be able to tell if they really have good intentions or are simply faking it?”
“The same way I can tell with you, but I don’t really want to go into that,” Alex hopped off the bricks and walked over to the shore of the sea. Patrick followed behind, reflecting on their previous conversations to see if there was some kind of clue as to what Alex meant by his comment. After thinking and coming to nothing, he simply shrugged it off and continued following behind. Alex was careful not to step on the tiny markers as he walked through the section of land where the tower would soon stand and continued on until he was at the edge of the water.
“This place really is beautiful,” Patrick commented, trying to restart the conversation.
“Yeah, it is. I chose this spot mainly for the view, but I also chose it so we would be near enough to Andorg, so we can react quickly to calls, but far enough away to spend time here without the risk of being overrun by the city and by the crimes,” Alex answered, looking around to see the city off to the east, just across a large span of water, flickering its ceaseless, undying lights. At nearly two in the morning, Andorg was still alive with parties and nightlife activities, and the crimes along with them.
“It is the perfect spot if you put it that way, and you also have the beach and mountains real close, giving you a double scenery view,” Patrick said. This was also true, what with the Darnog Mountains to the north and the Nogard Sea to the south. You almost couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place than the Island of Andorg, and yet all that beauty was seldom seen because nobody came anymore because of the crime.
The two conversers fell silent after that remark, both going off into their own little worlds, thinking about whatever happened to pop into their heads. It was almost ten minutes before Alex finally couldn’t stand it anymore and had to ask.
“Pat, I don’t want to intrude or anything, but I just can’t help asking, what was it that happened before I found you in the woods?” Alex regretted asking the question when Patrick remained quiet, wondering if he was mad at him for being curious.
“Yeah, I don’t recall telling you, and it does seem kind of strange, so, I guess since you have given me all this, I guess I do owe you an explanation.” He finally said, lying down on the grass at the edge of the sand that made up the small, almost invisible beach. “Now, where will I begin…?”
Alex awoke in the middle of the night, startled by the dream that was haunting him, and a dream he wouldn’t soon rid himself of. He sat up in his sleeping bag; wiping his eyes before replacing his silver glasses on his nose, making the faded red blur of the dying fire come into clear focus. Putting his jacket on to keep the cold out, he stood and walked over to the stack of small pieces of wood and gathered a few dry pieces to revive the embers back into a modest campfire that would serve as the only source of light to keep the hungry scavengers of the woods away. Yeah, there was Pairon to keep them away, but it was better to be on the safe side in case of an attack that was well planned.
He turned around to see Patrick sitting on a cube of brown bricks, staring not at him, but at the moon above the clearing. His shadow stretched in the white, radiant rays of the sleeping moon, seeming to hush out the sounds of the busy nocturnal beasts as they scrounged for a meal.
“Couldn’t sleep, huh?” Alex asked as he approached the quiet form sitting atop the bricks. He couldn’t help wondering what Patrick was doing up so late at night.
“Oh, you’re awake?” Patrick said, turning toward Alex, finally stopping his staring contest with the moon.
“Yeah, this one dream I’ve been having lately woke me up, and once I wake up, I can’t catch anymore sleep until about thirty minutes pass,” Alex explained. He sat on top of the bricks beside Patrick, looking up into the sky as Patrick had earlier, trying to see what it was that he saw.
“I know how you feel. I can’t sleep a wink when I am thinking to hard. Usually the best thing to do is to concentrate my attention on something else until I finally just forget about it, and then I can think in the morning when I’ve had some rest. It might work for you,” Patrick told, giving Alex some of the first information about himself that Alex had heard him say.
“So, what exactly is it that you are planning to do after this?” Alex asked, not knowing what kind of response he would get. For all he knew, Patrick could explode and storm off, never to be seen again… but that was a long shot.
Patrick sighed, “I’m not really sure. I guess I will help with the tower. Then I will go and find a job, maybe get a small apartment… not really sure what I would do for a job. I would probably head over to Dragonia and search for a job there, seeing as how there are no real jobs in Andorg unless you want to be a body guard, a hitman, or a drug dealer. I can’t say that any of those jobs appeal to me. I guess I will have to go over to a different town just to make a living. Funny how you grow up, watching all the people around you slowly get worse and worse until finally it is so bad that people want to move just so they won’t be forced to stick around these people anymore. Some just accept crime as a way of life. It is sad to see a family who has nothing being forced to turn to evil just to get by. That’s why I am awake now; I can’t sleep because of all the things that I know are wrong, yet I can’t do a thing to stop it. I have to watch as another family dies because they chose to stick to their values and not give up on their beliefs. This makes them an inconvenience to the rest around them.” He clinched his right fist inside his left hand, trying to hang onto his thoughts without totally losing his composure. He then let out a long, deep breath and turned toward Alex, “What about you?”
“Well, once the tower’s done, I guess I will continue with T3GM until I either die or lose my support from the council because my corporation isn’t doing what it promised it would do.”
“It’s good to be sure of what you will do with yourself in the future,” Patrick sighed. “All I can do is guess at this point.”
“Well,” Alex said, looking over at the tiny pink flags that marked the measurements for the tower’s base, “You could become a Gym master and help me keep Andorg under control.” Alex didn’t know any other time that would be as good as this one to ask this question, so he just spat it out.
“You can’t be serious,” Patrick said flatly, crushing Alex’s small hope.
“Why not, you obviously care about the people of the city. You’re the best swordsman I’ve ever come across. You have the brains for it and you need a job anyway, so why not?” This was all Alex had to go on. If Patrick shot down all four of these, he would be at a loss. “Besides, it will make my job ten times easier if I already have one of the two people I need to find.”
“You’re sure?” Patrick questioned, making sure Alex wasn’t just pulling some trick on him to get his hopes up. Alex nodded and Patrick nodded in return. The deal was made.
“Positive,” Alex responded, “Now all that leaves me is one more spot and I’m sure I will be able to fill that one up pretty easy.”
“Where do you plan on looking?” Patrick asked.
“Well, there are a couple of places that I could look. Andorg is a varied city when it comes to finding what it is that you want, but I think the main places will be some of the underground clubs.” He said this with a curious look on his face, as if he knew these places all too well. “Yeah, most of the people there are bad, but hey, there are a couple of good ones in there, and they aren’t people who are going to be defenseless in bad situations.”
Patrick thought on this for a minute then turned back to Alex. “I can see your point, but how will you be able to tell if they really have good intentions or are simply faking it?”
“The same way I can tell with you, but I don’t really want to go into that,” Alex hopped off the bricks and walked over to the shore of the sea. Patrick followed behind, reflecting on their previous conversations to see if there was some kind of clue as to what Alex meant by his comment. After thinking and coming to nothing, he simply shrugged it off and continued following behind. Alex was careful not to step on the tiny markers as he walked through the section of land where the tower would soon stand and continued on until he was at the edge of the water.
“This place really is beautiful,” Patrick commented, trying to restart the conversation.
“Yeah, it is. I chose this spot mainly for the view, but I also chose it so we would be near enough to Andorg, so we can react quickly to calls, but far enough away to spend time here without the risk of being overrun by the city and by the crimes,” Alex answered, looking around to see the city off to the east, just across a large span of water, flickering its ceaseless, undying lights. At nearly two in the morning, Andorg was still alive with parties and nightlife activities, and the crimes along with them.
“It is the perfect spot if you put it that way, and you also have the beach and mountains real close, giving you a double scenery view,” Patrick said. This was also true, what with the Darnog Mountains to the north and the Nogard Sea to the south. You almost couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place than the Island of Andorg, and yet all that beauty was seldom seen because nobody came anymore because of the crime.
The two conversers fell silent after that remark, both going off into their own little worlds, thinking about whatever happened to pop into their heads. It was almost ten minutes before Alex finally couldn’t stand it anymore and had to ask.
“Pat, I don’t want to intrude or anything, but I just can’t help asking, what was it that happened before I found you in the woods?” Alex regretted asking the question when Patrick remained quiet, wondering if he was mad at him for being curious.
“Yeah, I don’t recall telling you, and it does seem kind of strange, so, I guess since you have given me all this, I guess I do owe you an explanation.” He finally said, lying down on the grass at the edge of the sand that made up the small, almost invisible beach. “Now, where will I begin…?”