Margaux

Tomorrow Margaux would join L’Empereur’s honour guard. Years of training had brought her to this point. A dedication greater than that of any monk. A life devoted to the defence of a nation and the family at its heart.
Everything she had sacrificed was all for this. So why now for the first time in her life was she unsure?

Deep down she knew but instead focused on how she got here. How she snuck her way into a recruitment camp two years before she was allowed. How she taunted the sergeant into training a poor girl from Echine despite having no-one to recommend her.
How the boys overlooked the small girl and how they were humiliated in every sparring session.

That was before she was ever given the tabard of a musketeer. The simple days when swordplay was but a game.
After the tabard the game became real. No matter the danger that threatened her home she would always be the first to leap at it no matter the cost. With passion she fought for Montaigne and with pride she bled for the crown.

The Officers stopped seeing the little brawler from slums who they had trained to hold a sword. They began to see a confident defender of the throne. Reckless but devoted, brash but graceful, uncultured yet charming. They trained her to be a true champion of L’Empereur and his people.

She seduced spies, making them betray their own cause. She caused inquisitors to doubt their conviction long enough to quell their flames. She boarded pirates forcing them to abandon ship. She charged towards cannon fire to inspire a final defence that prevented invasion.
She fought with a grace and elegance that inspired courage among those on her side. She fought with a determination and fury that caused enemies to run.

She did all that was asked of her and more. To defend her homeland and its people were her passion. To know the royal family was safe gave her peace.

So utterly committed to her people and those that governed them that she was blind to what would happen.
To defend some noble whose name she had never even heard before Margaux was forced to fight her fellow countrymen. Not criminals, not murderers or terrorists. Normal people whose only crime was that they were vocal about the fact they were starving.

A simple protest that should have been resolved with kindness was instead met with malice from the young and brash count. The fool Threw an apple core at one of the poor children and openly laughed at them when they started to eat it.
Margaux wanted to kill him herself but instead saved his bloated arse from the mob.

She fought them. She killed them.

She killed Montaigne’s who had refused to be humiliated and starved.

Now she was being rewarded for it. Given everything she had ever wanted.

Could she bear the weight on her soul in the name on L’Empereur?

Cave

Facing east the entrance to the cave is easily missed. The white stone of the coast reflects the sun almost blinding anyone who would dare stare at it. The slippery and sharp stone of the coast is far too dangerous to approach at night.
Only at midday can the cave be safely found though it should only entered by those willing to spend the night. As part of tradition, the locals bring their dead here allowing them to rest with their ancestors. The living must spend the night in the cave to remember those they are helping pass into the next life.

Once past the narrow entrance of the cave we found a large circular room hand carved by locals. Covered in small paintings showing the faces of those who have come to rest here. None of the paintings show sadness, rather they are a symbol of the joy of a life well lived.

From the entry room there is a small passageway that leads further into the cave. The white stone brightly mirroring the light of our torches. Some newer paintings can be seen in this passage to our surprise we saw two that looked like Théan faces.

The passage led on for little more than fifty yards before slowly opening up to a natural chamber the stone of the passageway marbling into the bright blue of the chamber is a truly wondrous site well worth the trip itself.

We journeyed through the blue chamber long past any sign of the marbling, our torches usefulness diminished as the blue walls grew darker.
The temperature slowly increased the deeper we went. As night was falling and the rest of the island cooled we slowly began to cook beneath it. Spurred on with awe in our eyes we longed to see more of this glorious place.

With the heat also came a smell at first unsettling growing to an unbearable stench akin to rotten eggs. Through sheer single-mindedness we ventured onward till our noses grew accustomed to it.

For our stubborn persistence we were rewarded by the flames on our torches fading to almost nothing then just as we were about to turn around the fire turned blue and bright. Leading us further into the cave though the heat unbearable the walls began to lighten up once more. Almost as if they began to glow naturally the ground no longer felt stable and if pressed upon hard the imprint of our boots could clearly be seen. We began to see small rivers of molten blue rock that almost became white it was that bright with a light blue gas emerging from the rivers.

All of us were having trouble breathing at this point and were forced to turn back. The irritation in our throats and eyes we put down to smell. We had convinced ourselves we were fine.
That folly led to the deaths of three of our party. Inhaling the gas killed them and blinded our shield man. After 6 months I have recovered but I ask members of the society to avoid exploring this cave beyond the marbled chamber as the locals strongly advised us to do.
Though you will all no doubt be as stubborn as we were.

Back in the habit.

Due to getting married I took a break from writing as I really didn’t have time. I wrote one quick story on father’s day while drunk but other than that mostly quiet on my end.

So I’m starting my challenge up once again as I have missed it and the target isn’t that difficult.

One hundred words every day. I already know I’ll take a break again when I go on my honeymoon but I’d rather not wait till then to start again. So this is my commitment to begin again, to continue writing silly background stories for games that may never be played, concepts for longer form stories that may never be written and personal stories that in hindsight I’ll regret putting online.

First Skip – Oops

I have accidently skipped a day.

My first mess up on the writing challenge other than the terrible writing, occasionally getting too personal and the attempt at poetry of course.

This was completely unintentional as I was simply distracted with work, weddings and my lovely future wife.

So as a solution I’m going to update at least twice today and as a cop out I’m going to make this apology last around one hundred words as a way to be one of those two updates.

I think this will be my solution going forward as well there will be times I won’t be able to update in the near future due to my wedding and honeymoon so I’ll just double up on updates till I cover any gaps.

I didn’t slip

I went to go to bed, I had almost forgotten about this.
I made a promise to myself to do it every day. only a little bit but every day.

Even when I went away for the weekend I still managed it.
Now that I’m back home it almost slipped me by.

What would the harm be? Just one day missed.
I know how my mind works, if I miss one I’ll miss another.
Then it never gets done again.

I want to form a habit. I want to do it every day.

It’s just a hundred words. Hell it barely even has to make sense.