Worker Grunt I (JC)

Subject: Worker Grunt I (JC) Fri Apr 09, 2010 5:30 pm

My body lies on its side on a padded cot within the village of Sai inside a simple room consisting of wooden walls, floor and ceiling and a single window. My eyes are closed and my body rises and falls slightly with the rhyme of my breath. Sleeping and unconscious, the covers are partially off of my body and my arms are wrapped about, clutching the sword of light as if it were a pillow or Natsuki. My body shifts slightly, my leg moving up the length of the sword slightly as I hold it to my chest. Light filters in diagonally from the window, adding luminescence to the small inn space. Slowly my eyes twitch and my face moves softly as consciousness starts to sieve into my mind. My head lifts up a bit and I notice a small amount of drool on the pillow to my side. The back of my fist reaches up, my arm curving around the center of the sheathed sword, as I wipe the side of my mouth before rubbing my face and looking around. Looking down at the sheathed sword, I greet it, “good morning.” Goronova wasn’t the easiest entity to get along with, so she might be grumpy about me speaking to her so early; I really didn’t know how those kinds of things worked, but I would ignore the usual chaotic or insulting response as I lean up in bed, moving the sword off of me and to my side. I rub my eyes and look around the room. I splurged a little bit and got an Inn since my sensei had me in the middle of the forest for training. Trees did not make a comfortable sleeping place and the ground wasn’t any better for someone like myself. I give a sigh and stand up, deciding to start my day.

After getting ready for the day, I find myself dressed in attire of the time, thanks to my friend and sparring partner, Rei. It was a simple oriental style outfit consisting of tan loose fitting pants with a sleeveless tan top piece with brown creasing. A white sash is tied about my waist with the sword of light stashed into it. I walk towards the exit of the Inn, moving through the front lobby where I am stopped by the Inn Keeper. “Hey kid,” the Inn Keeper’s deep voice speaks. I turn noticing a burly and balding male in slacks, a worker’s shirt and a service front-apron. His face doesn’t seem pleasant as he informs, “you need to pay on your bill today.” I straighten up, nervously as I scratch the back of my head and look to the side speaking, “oh, is that so.” I turn back towards the Inn Keeper and inform, “I’m not from around here you see…” I poke my two index fingers together in front of my chest, looking down to them. “So where’s a good place to find a job?” I ask. The Innkeeper does not seem pleased. He frowns, “you’ve been freeloading?” I shake my head and hold my hands up stating, “no, not really, I’m still adjusting is all.” The Innkeeper keeps his gaze on me, and then looks to my sword. He looks back at me then smiles. “Don’t worry,” he assures me, “I’ve got a job for you.”

I find myself in the entrance of the stairway leading down to the cellar of the Inn. Light filters into the darkness below from the doorway to our rear. The Inn Keeper stands behind me and looks down past me into the darkness with a grin on his face. He explains, “you’ll work for me until you find a real job. Your job is best control. You’re going to get rid of all the rats down here for me. I expect there to be lots of bodies.” I look down into the depths thinking that killing a few mice would be pretty simple. The Inn Keeper lights a torch on the wall, then hands me a hand torch and chuckles in a low tone to himself stepping backwards. He speaks, “the door will open when your shift is over.” I turn around questioning, “eh?” in time to see the door close behind me. “Wait, I’m being locked in!?” I ask as I hear the locking mechanism engage on the door, “no way!” I sigh and then look back to the front. The cellar, dimly lit by the torches, spans out into a pretty large space, a cleared out area about the same size of the Inn above it, if not slightly bigger. The basement was deep, so the ceiling would be at least two or three stories. I start walking down the stairs slowly, lighting two more torches before getting to the bottom. I hang my torch on the wall before looking around the basement. There were storage bins and sacks lining the walls of the cellar with wooden barrels, assumedly holding water and ale. I give a sigh as my head hangs to the side speaking, “it’s going to be very boring down here… what a way to waste a day, poking rats.” I look to my side, where Goronova was sheathed. I couldn’t use her for this, she would probably kick my ass. I shrug and figured to myself I’d have to simply either catch all the rats or just stomp on them. Looking around, I murmur, “so how do I lure out these little guys?” in my brooding, I hear a squeak behind me. A grin comes to my lips as I figure this would be a piece of cake. I turn around and look down, pointing and condemning, “now mouse, meet your…” I pause, noticing that I was looking at a hybrid of claws and pause. I look up straight and come face to face with whiskers, a pointy nose and bucked teeth. “Ah fuck…” I murmur lightly, seeing the mother of all rats, with several rats the size of Terriers littered behind it. The squeaking increases in volume and frequency as it echoes around the room. “What in the world is this?!” I exclaim in anguish, remembering that the animals of this land seemed to be on steroids. ‘Retard, hurry up and draw me before you die,’ Goronova commands. A swiping slash attack comes towards me, from which I hop back. As I do, the rat rushes me. I land a few feet to my rear and reach to my side, pulling Goronova swiftly from my waist. I lift the blade in time to intercept a slashing attack. I become locked up with the mother rat as the minions move around to my flanks. “Six on one isn’t good odds,” I complain. Goronova yells at me to stay focused and to quit my belly aching. My body shifts to the side as I lower the blade, deflecting the mother rat’s momentum to my right side as I twist, turning and sending my foot into the side of one of the smaller dog sized rats that jumped at me. Striking it out of the air, it slams into the adjacent wall and I continue my turn, swinging up the sword of light diagonally. It glows brilliantly lighting the dark cellar, casting shadows here and there as it cuts clean through one of the approaching smaller rats. After the maneuver I turn in time to face the large rat’s bounding charge towards me. Crouching first, I leap up, and over the momma rat, flipping once and coming to its rear. I turn as I pull the blade around me, slamming into one of the rats that were approaching from that side, while side stepping another that pounced my way and resetting my stance. Gritting my teeth, I build strength in my legs and suddenly vanish leaving a trail of cellar dust in a straight line to where I appear behind the mother rat. A line forms in the mother rat’s fur before it sprays out blood and falls on its side. To my dismay, it lumbers back up. I flick blood from the sword of light and then reset my stance. “You guys aren’t going to make this easy on me, are you?”

Time passes in the day and the doorway to the cellar finally opens. The Innkeeper looks in and calls, “boy, you still alive.” Looking up, I view him with a grin on my face. I was sitting on top of the large rat with the bodies of the smaller ones scattered about. I wipe my nose and brag, “here are the bodies you wanted.” The Innkeeper folds his arms and chuckles, “hmph, cocky brat. Now that you made a mess, clean it up.” With that, he turns and walks away leaving the door open. I sigh, “what! You’ve got to be kidding me.” I look around at the littered rats and frown, I was already tired from fighting them. I slide off of the rat’s back.

1500
+ 250 EXP
+ 5 JC (Worker)
+ 1500 Shinny (Future expenses don’t apply)

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