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Writer
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 32
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Nimble
This isn't the greatest thing I've ever written...but I'd like to have some people comment on it to see if it's any good or if I should work on it. The title is: Nimble (as the subject implies).
In the land of Cacei there lived a man that went by the name Nimble. He was a funny sort of fellow who kept to himself and never bothered with others. Nimble had a large scruffy beard and wore a tight shirt where his belly stuck out, a tan on that part of his stomach but nowhere else. He lived outside the town of Dockori, and he made sure he never made a fuss about small things that others found annoying, since his entire life was an annoyance. His wife always helped him through the day though, making him smile when he needed cheering up.
One day he was planting things in his garden when suddenly a crow landed on his scarecrow due west of him. “Hello, noble creature!” he called to the crow, but it only flew away, leaving him with his mouth wide open in shock. “How dreadfully rude! I try and speak to him and he leaves like he does not know me!” Nimble grumpily stormed into his home and left what he was doing behind.
The day came when he had to go to Dockori for supplies, food and some seeds for his garden, and this day he felt like nothing could dampen his spirits. But the only problem was that he could not get into the city, and the gate was closed. “Hello?” he called. “Can I get in please?”
Half a moment passed by before a soldier peeked down from the top of the gate. “Hello down there! State your business!” the soldier yelled, Nimble sighing. He scratched the back of his head. “Well, I’m waiting. I do not just stand around and wait for people to come along to open up. This job is more than just that!”
“I care not of your job nor your life,” Nimble said hastily. “All I care of is to get some seeds and to help myself to whatever I can. So if you can be so kind…” But still, the soldier wished to preach.
“Don’t care for my job and I, eh?” the soldier growled, spitting down at Nimble, who stepped back as it landed where he had been standing. “Well, excuse me! I do not care for you or your precious seeds either then, mister!”
Nimble began to leave, but the soldier called out to him. “No, don’t leave!” the soldier called out, opening up the gate. “Sorry, it’s been a busy day of opening the gate, so I can’t get much talk in lately.”
The man shook his head and entered the city, saying under his breath, “There’s the next King…” The city was busy like usual, all sorts of races going about their business as Nimble walked among them towards the marketplace. People kept bumping into him and making him feel not wanted, his eyes falling to the ground as he walked eventually.
Nimble finally came into the marketplace, going to the gardening portion and walking up to the market, where many packets with labels lay, awaiting to be bought and used. There were various sorts of seeds, Nimble slightly overwhelmed at the selection, but soon enough he picked three kinds of seeds and went to the dwarf who worked there.
The dwarf checked the labels for prices and then gave Nimble a dirty look, shaking his head afterwards. “I can’t believe he’s buying these,” the dwarf whispered under his breath. Nimble frowned and bent in closer to hear what the dwarf was mumbling, which seemed to agitate the dwarf. “Excuse me, please stay over the counter. I do not want to smell whatever it is you smell of, and that goes for everyone. I mean, it’s not like personal space exists or anything!”
“I…I’m sorry,” Nimble stammered, shocked by the response. “Please, forgive me.” He sounded like he was frightened, which made the dwarf smile, but that smile faded rather quickly as he showed the label of one of the seeds.
“It’s ripped,” the dwarf growled, extending it rather closely to show Nimble. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to individually label these? I spend a good fifteen minutes on labelling, and some good-for-nothing rips it and makes it worthless. What is the sense of it all? Honestly?”
Nimble widened his eyes at the drama the dwarf showed, and slowly handed out his gold to pay for the seeds. The dwarf quickly snatched it away and stabbed him with the seeds, placing the gold in a pouch on his side. A smile came to the dwarf then. “Don’t forget to come back to Daleol’s Seeds of Magnificence!”
With that, Nimble headed straight for the exit of Dockori, feeling his welcome had run out even more than previously. After yet another argument with the soldier, he finally exited the city and breathed a sigh of relief. He headed home and placed the seeds on his table, collapsing in a chair and wiping the sweat from his brow.
“Another end to another day,” he said as he looked to his wife with a smile. She sat next to him and placed his hands in hers, kissing them and then returned his smile. “And to think, it’ll all be started over again in the morning.”
His wife nodded and sighed. “It is a shame we are forced to live the same day over and over again,” she whispered. “Did that dwarf act weird today?”
“He acted angry this time,” Nimble replied, shaking his head. “An odd one, he is…and then there’s a new guard and he wasn’t the greatest thing in the world. He spit at me!”
The wife of Nimble patted him on the head as she got up and headed to get some food. “Remember, you get agitated and make them the same,” she reminded him. “They see it as a new day when we know it is not.”
Nimble nodded. “I know.”
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