Bard's Hall Contest Entry (Mar/Apr 2012)

Bard's Hall Contest Entry (Mar/Apr 2012)
By: Nicholas Admiral


Three bulky men stood at the stone doors that guarded the entrance to the city. The city was home to the exiled and evil. Robbers, bandits, murderers, and all sorts of criminals would take refuge inside. The city was known not to take visitors lightly either.

Michael needed inside. There was a man inside the city that had answers, in which Michael wanted, answers that would save his friends life. The man inside knew the location of another man, a man who could cure the sickness that controlled Michael’s friend.

David – Michael’s friend – knew he could get the help he needed, but didn’t know if they should trust the man behind the walls of the city. But he would have to; the other choices they had made had definitely not worked out, ending even in the death of those who had been found.

Michael picked up a rock from the ground. He was kneeling behind a boulder with David. The boulder wasn’t far from the city, and gave them excellent cover. Michael threw the rock which ricochet off of the stone doors.

The men guarding the entrance all looked around, but couldn’t find the source of the thrown stone.
“David,” whispered Michael as he was looking up, “Go”

David looked into the starry night sky, and followed Michael’s gaze to the moon. David smiled and walked out to the men.

“You! You throwin’ rocks at us?” asked an angry man.
“So what if I was?”
“You gunna pay fo’ that kid”
“… Intimidating,” said David sarcastically.
“Making fun of me?” yelled the man.
The two other men walked up to David, “He asked you a question boy”
“I know”
“You gunna answer?”
“You gunna speak properly?”
“That’s it”

The biggest man swung at David with his right fist. David ducked in a heartbeat, and when the two other men went to grab him, he reacted like a whip and tripped them into each other. The men seemed to get angrier each time they missed, and even angrier that David didn’t punch back, he just would trip them.

Michael snuck by all four of them and snuck into the city, soon hearing the screams from the three men, and the sound of tearing. He was used to this sound, since he had heard it for the last few months.

Inside the city, Michael made it to the man he was looking for. He was at a local pub, which was themed after the shamrock, having a huge glowing one above the front entrance. Inside, the man was drinking at the bar alone, and made it easier for Michael to confront him.

The man told Michael where to find this other man that David needed. The other man – the man who could cure David – was located in another stone city, in a way. He resided in an underground cave below the city, and lived with a few criminals.

Michael thanked and paid the man, then left the pub, having the green light from the shamrock guide him through the darkness. Outside the city walls, David stood alone. The bodies of the men were gone, but their blood stained the grass.

David nodded to Michael, who just nodded back. The two friends walked on the path, heading southeast to the cave where the man they were looking for resided. David looked down at Michael, but he couldn’t ask him where they were going, or if he thought the information was false. David would just have to trust him.

After a days travel by foot, they arrived at the city. This one was smaller than the last, and David just guessed the man was in the center. Michael hadn’t mentioned the underground part yet, even during the day, he knew David wasn’t fond of the underground.

It seemed that the entrance to the underground portion of the city was at the bottom of the West exterior wall. David noticed it was underground and shot Michael a look.
“You’ll be fine”
“What if there’s ore and miners?”
“I doubt it is that kind of mine, it’s almost dark anyways”
“You never know… about the mine”

Michael just walked into the murky cave and he seemed to disappear in the darkness. David sighed and walked after his friend. Tonight was the best night for this plan to work, so they couldn’t mess it up. David’s fear would have to be pushed to the back of his mind for now.


Inside the cave, a few tables and chairs a form of a dining room. Wooden plates and clay cups littered the room, and torch sconces lined up on the rocky walls. No signs of miners, but it seemed to hold some sort of people. Hopefully the man they were looking for was somewhere in the cave.

Down the passageways of the cave were shovels, wooden carts filled with rocks, and even a skeleton or two. Michael knew they were in the right place after the sounds of voices echoed from the darkness. Two men were walking towards Michael and David, and when they saw them, Michael and David knew they’d have to hide.

One of the men held a torch, which illuminated the halls and would give Michael and David away; they had to react fast. Michael grabbed a nearby shovel and started quietly digging. David couldn’t ask what he was doing because he had a deep voice and it would give them away, so he just grabbed an empty wooden cart and flipped it overtop of him.

Michael had dug a small trench and lied down inside, wiping dirt over his body and putting the blade of the shovel over his face. The two other men walked by and stopped.
“You do this?” one asked the other.
“No, I don’t touch the carts”
“Shovels?”
“Nope”
“Hmm, maybe it was the boss”

The two men seemed to shrug and walk away, one dropping something. David jumped as the item bounced and hit his arm, burning it. The whole cart shook from his reaction and caught the two men’s attention. Michael jumped out of his hole and swung the shovel at the closest man’s face. David picked up the cart and hit the second.
“Why’d you give us away?” hissed Michael.
David looked at the item on the floor.
Michael picked up the item, “It’s a spoon…”
Michael examined it, “A silver spoon…”
“Yea”

Michael tossed the silver spoon and they continued down the cave. They couldn’t hear anyone else, so they didn’t sneak the whole way. Michael decided to carry torch, which he had picked off one of the sconces on the cave walls.

It wasn’t long before the two adventurers made it to the back of the cave. A single man sat with his back to the wall, right underneath a dangling light blub.
“Is that you?” asked the man.
David took a step forward, “It’s been a while”
The man smiled, “Have you embraced it yet?”
“I WANT THE CURE!” barked David.
“Not with that attitude”
David paused… “Please?”
“It’s a little harder than you think”
“Explain”
“You need another. He or she must act like a lamb to be sacrificed”
“Well how about you?”
The man stopped.
“Hah,” said Michael.

Michael backed off into the shadows and watched David. David kneeled to the ground and looked at the ceiling. He yelled as his legs and arms extended, and started rapidly growing hair. Fur.

David howled, as his transformation into a werewolf was complete. He ran to the sitting man and lifted him into the air. They just stared at each other until David dropped him. Michael approached the two with a thick book in his hands.

“Shouldn’t leave you’re journal lying around,” he said with a smirk.
“Ok David, this is what you do”

- - -


David collapsed onto the floor, naked save his underwear. He spit up blood as he coughed. The man who had been sitting in the chair was lying dead on the floor in his werewolf form. Michael approached David with the book still in his hands.

“How did you find that page so fast? It – it’s a big journal,” asked David, panting.
“It was oddly enough bookmarked, he must have been looking for the cure too”
“Bookmarked?”
“Yes, with a gold coin. Had a mysterious marking on it too”
“Too bad we used it with the cure”
“Yea, it looked quite valuable”

Michael helped David up and the two of them left the cave, passing an undiscovered secret door. Behind the door was a room full of the coins of gold, just like the man’s bookmark, but David and Michael never found the room. They were just happy David was cured.