Morning all. I hope everyone is having a good start to their week. Somehow I hit Monday morning ready to go and today, I feel quite draggy. I think that today is going to be a work day sponsored by caffeine. I know they are a standard presence in my mornings, but I think it has decided to just sponsor the whole day. So I suppose that means I need to do a plug for them, Let’s see…
Caffeine, for when the day is cold, wet, and dark and even though your alarm clock is doing it’s best, your body is telling you ‘Hey, isn’t this a good time to try hibernation?’. That’s when it is caffeine to the rescue.
We’ll call that my sponsorship plug. Now on with today’s writing prompt. Ready? then let’s go.
That actually turned out better than I expected. Not fabulous, but better than I expected. There might actually be the kernel of a story to work with sometime down the line.
Tuesday, January 12th: First, we must decide who is in charge.
“First, we must decide who is in charge,” Heath said.
His voice held the utter conviction of one who had always accepted the role of leader as his due. It was easy to see why. He had the classic hero look to him. Tall with broad shoulders, blond hair that fell just right no matter the circumstances, twinkling blue eyes. He even had what could be described as a chiseled chin.
Until today I had never seen anyone in real life who looked like that. I though such people only dwelt in the pages of fairytale books. They were the ones who went off to slay the dragon and rescue the princes. In the books she was similarly blond, blue eyed and well formed.
I always suspected the heroes of being rather dim witted. After all if sorcerer has captured a princess and put her in a tower there was probably a good reason. While I knew heros from story books, I spent a lifetime around sorcerers. Most of them had a hard enough time dealing with the people they were required to deal with. I couldn’t actually see a single one of them going out of their way to secure an additional person they’d have to deal with. Most of them seemed to spend a good deal of their time trying to make certain everyone stayed a safe distance away.
If a single one of them went off kidnapping a princess, or anyone else for that matter then chances are it was a last ditch effort to stop some horrific event from occurring. ‘And you’d have probably suffered through all the prior failures before the kidnapping so the kidnapping wouldn’t really be a surprise.’
As my thoughts wandered, I saw that indeed Heath struck a pose as though waiting for nominations. The two who arrived with him looked as though they were going to offer it. In fact one of them was opening his mouth, worshipful gaze on Heath.
“Actually I fail to see why a leader is needed at the moment,” Sebastian spoke up.
I somehow suspected he would. He had the look about him. If someone suggested an idea, he would be the one to poke holes in it. That way the idea would deflate, the person suggesting it would lose confidence and he could suggest his idea in its place as a better alternative. Sebastian, though tenting to black hair and green eyes had the same hero in waiting look as heath did. While I may not have dealt with hero types before, I recognized the set of his jaw and the look to his eyes. It meant that he would get his way or everyone would suffer.
As Heath turned an astonished gaze on Sebastian and his followers gasped in shock at the outrage of their leader being questioned, Sebastian’s people moved in close as well. I backed off slightly willing to stay out of the way as they argued over leadership.
At the moment, none of us really knew what was going on. All of us came from different lands. The knowledge we had of each other was slim and mostly gained in the ten minutes or so since we all woke up, finding ourselves here. Where here happened to be was still a mystery. I tuned out the arguing heroes and turned towards the nearby forest, wondering if there was a way to figure out where we were and more importantly why any of us were here. It was clear none of us intended to be here. I knew I certainly hadn’t. My plans for the day had been quite a different kettle of fish.
Ten til Midnight 