[Contest] A Valentine's role playing Story!

[captainsue]

Here goes
THE UNLIKELY VALENTINE
By Captain Sue

I sank onto the richly upholstered couch, barely noticing how the trimmings were torn and shredded, the letter clutched tightly in my hand. The words swam before my eyes as memories surfaced of those hopeless days when love had consumed me utterly. How long ago they seemed now, yet beyond the words his face still etched itself in my mind. I must finally act on my feelings, but how could I win his love? I, who was scorned and hated among the settlers.

Slowly a plan began to form. I would go into the town and seek him out, declare my love and throw myself on his mercy. Surely he would not deny me when he saw the devotion that I could no longer hide from him? It would be Valentine’s Day soon, a day for lovers, and a day when love conquered all. But wait, if I ventured in among the settlers they would surely turn their armies on me and kill me for the misery I had inflicted on them over the years. How could I persuade them that I, Wild Mary, had changed and wanted only to settle down with my beloved forester?

My captain knocked on the door and I bade him enter.
‘The settlers are planning a feast for Valentine’s Day,’ he told me. ‘We should raid the villages while supplies are high.’
‘Leave them be,’ I screamed at him. ‘There will be no raiding this February.’
His face was a picture of astonishment and he would have protested had not the look in my battle-hardened eyes not warned him off. He bowed low and left the room, but I knew that my words would be all round the camp soon. My men would believe that I had lost it, but they would never dare defy me.

I went back to my musing and began hatching my plot. I knew I could not just stroll into the village and declare undying love for one of the settlers. I would disguise myself and approach him through devious means. Only when I had won his love would I reveal my true identity and by then he would be unable to resist my charms, and more importantly, the potion that I would serve him. My resolve established I set about devising my disguise.

Early the next morning I slipped across the border into the land of the settlers. No one would recognise Wild Mary should they see me as I made my way into the forest, my blonde curls hidden beneath a close fitting red hood, the cloak of which billowed around me as I walked. Reaching the forester’s hut I slipped inside, knowing that the object of my desire would be hard at work on the land. I helped myself to the bowl of porridge that he had left to cool on the kitchen table and stealthily headed back to my own land. It amused me to play out the role of an innocent fairy tale maid. The first step of my plan had been carried out without mishap and I set about gathering the ingredients for the potion that I would deliver the next morning.

Early the following day I retraced my steps carrying, once more wearing my disguise and carrying a basket laden with fruits. I met the handsome forester just as he was about to leave to start his day’s work. Unused to meeting anyone so early in the day he stepped back and glanced at me in shock.
‘Forgive me kind sir,’ I whispered. ‘My name is Mary and I have a confession to make to you. Indeed I have not slept for the haunting of my conscience and had to come quickly to make my peace with you.’
As I spoke I allowed a tear to fall down my newly whitened cheeks.
Hastily he drew a handkerchief from his apron and handed it to me.
‘Please Miss, don’t distress yourself. What can you possibly have done to cause you such sorrow?’
‘Yesterday I came upon your cottage as I wandered lost in the forest. Seeking a place to rest I took it upon myself to enter, and I am ashamed to say, hunger overtook me and I helped myself to your breakfast. How can you ever forgive me?’
At this he let out a howl of laughter.
‘Is that all?’ he asked, with a wide grin. ‘There is nothing to forgive, although I must confess I was greatly puzzled.’
I allowed myself a smile then.
‘Please let me make it up to you anyway,’ I simpered, marvelling at my acting skills.
‘I have brought a basket of fresh fruit for you. It is made up by my aunt Irma who knows the fruits of the forest better than any.’ I said, handing it to him.
‘There is no need, I assure you,’
‘But you must, or I shall never forgive myself,’ I insisted.
‘Very well, but only if you join me,’ he countered, so we entered his lowly cottage and he brought us fresh brew and placed the basket between us. I carefully selected an undoctored piece of fruit and we shared a pleasant half hour together before I took my leave of him.
Phase two of my plan was now firmly in place and I returned to my land very pleased with myself.
Over the next couple of days I made sure to run into him on several more occasions and I soon saw that my potions were working and he was becoming besotted with me. By Valentine’s Day I knew he would be mine.

Smitten with love he indeed sought me out where I lingered in the forest on the very morning of the saint’s feast and begged me to honour him by becoming his wife. My joy knew no bounds and I accepted him there and then. Leaving a kiss on his lips I returned to my land and ordered my men to leave. They fought my commands, but were no match for me and soon had packed and left for a distant island. Now I would return to my forester and reveal my true identity to him, secure in the knowledge that he could and would not turn away from me. We were married that very day and as a wedding gift I gave over my lands to him to build a mighty forest that we might live long and in blissful harmony.

All was well in our land and could have ended happily ever after like all fairy tales, but my true nature would needs surface one day, and that day came when word came to me of one of my former generals. He had studied the dark arts when I cast him from my land and now as the Dark Priest led a band of his own. I felt my old life drawing me back and infuriated by his success I vowed to set out on a great adventure to destroy him and secretly built my armies until I had the strength to take him on. On the day of my abandonment the spell that I had laid on my forester lost its potency, and little did I know that when I returned victorious from my travels my beloved would have taken another to wife and I would be forced to take up my former ways and wage war on him and all his fellow settlers once more.

[Nanidia]

As lonely people often do you have developed the habit of talking to yourself, not that you would admit it, rather say that you discuss things with your cat, though he is out of you good grace at the moment, or your settlers. They are always pleased to listen to you while they do their daily chores. This time you watch them as they happily busy walk to and fro – and none of them seem lonely at all. I got to do something about this situation you inform them, setting up yet another gold mine, and wondering if the gold smelter would make a ring for you at some point. An explorer announces his agreement to your decision as he very pleased with himself arrives with a new adventure for you. But though you get to go to the swamp you are pretty sure that there will be no enchanted prince waiting for you disguised as a frog. The lonely old witch will be there of cause. Sir Shrek won’t, but he’s not really your type anyway.
While you wait for the fishermen to bring in today’s 100 fish you absentmindedly open the old love letter, and nearly choke on the tea. What a very silly letter you had written, you blush to think what he would have thought had he actually received that. Good thing it stayed home – really! You forcefully inform no one in particular, but one of the geologists still pronounces his disappointment that you never had the letter delivered. I’ll simply rewrite it, a statement that causes two other geologists to cheer. Ok, no more marble queries to find, and the two exhausted cobber mines had been taken care of too, time to search for iron – and to google the guy. This task you can’t entrust to any of the explorers, who knows what they may come up with, this you better to yourself.
It’s not the first time you perform this particular google, and you are almost sure what to find. But this time there is a new address, he has actually moved back to his hometown, the same town you never left. Now you would be practically neighbors. Well, if not neighbors then at least somewhat closer than when he was still in New York.
Ok, then there is a chance to bump into him, no need to do much else, you then inform the group in front of you, but the disappointed grumble from an explorer who returned only with map fragments, made you think better of it and conclude aloud that you would then rewrite the love letter, a choir of cheer greeted this statement as your geologists revealed the position of a couple of new iron deposits. The final goal for this evening was to send the geologist to find coal. The letter would have to wait the night.
The morning had brought the cat back.
Though you haven’t decided whether or not to you are still mad at him you still feed him and ask him where is been and if he had a good night, as he is eating he doesn’t answer. It’s not okay to talk while you got food in your mouth. You leave him to finish up by himself and you start up the computer.
The settlers are already awake and busy. Actually you suspect them of not sleeping at all, but you cannot prove it as you yourself need to sleep. But starting to clean up the mess they’ve made during the night you peruse the old love letter once again. And while your settlers reconstruct wells, and fields, and mines, you open an editor to rewrite the letter. It seems that their tasks are much easier than the one you’ve given yourself. Constantly you check if they need anything, set up new buildings, and check if there are fields which are almost exhausted. At last you send your geologist to find iron and inform the settlers that you won’t talk to them before the geologists come back. You minimize the browser to concentrate on your letter, but you can’t find any words which describe your feelings. Again you pick up the old letter, but deciding that keep reading something that you don’t want to write is not a good idea, you instead crumble the letter to a ball and throw it the general direction of a waste bin. Missing by a good distance you let it lie where it fell. After some time you realize that all you do is sit and watch the empty document and you stand to get tea, on the way back you decide to pick up the letter which fell on the floor, but you don’t see it anywhere. You look around on the floor for it, but its nowhere to be seen and you guess (correctly) that the cat is at it again, good thing you didn’t let him back in your grace this morning.
You call the cat all over the house, but he has gone outside. As you start searching outside you sincerely hope that he didn’t bring the letter with him. You leave the door open in your hurry to catch up with him, but you very soon realize he didn’t go very far. In fact he is only 5 meters from your door rubbing against the leg of HIM. Of all people. You heart is pounding, now is the time to go and say hello. Then you see that he is standing reading a crumbled piece of paper, and you pale as you realize which particular paper he is reading.
Blushing furiously you rush forward to try to get the letter back, and not knowing what you really want to say you just start talking to get his attention. He looks up and smiles at you when you inform him that it is just a very old letter and that he wasn’t suppose to see it. Blushing even more when you realize that you just told him that it was meant for him you immediately tell that you were trying to rewrite it. His smile broadens and you nearly faint when you think of what you just told him. Trying to cover up, you continue to babble, and the confessions just spill out of you, and you don’t know how to stop. Going on seems the only way to distract him from understanding what you are actually saying.
At last you run out of things to say. When you fall silent he smiles at you and takes your hand. You can’t look at him and you take a deep breath, you must say something. But before you can think of anything he reaches towards you and kiss you lightly. A chorus of cheer follows this, as your geologists returns.

[rhogamma]

But what shall I do? Send this old piece of paper? No. You decide that it would be a better idea to write a new one in which you would not only tell her about your feelings but also about what you have achieved in your life so far. You shake your head. What a hopeless thought. You are and have always been just an ordinary settler. Why should she choose you because of one simple love letter? Even though you felt excitement at first the more you think about it the more your courage begins to sink. You didn't have the guts to tell her your feelings in the past why should you have it now after all these years?
„Because I'm tired of being alone. I don't want another Valentine's day to pass without using this chance.“ you answer to yourself. And at least it was worth a try.

Even though you have an idea of what to write because of the old letter your hand is trembling while looking at the yet empty sheet of paper. Sitting in front of the desk feels like a giant Déjà-vu. It's the same as it was the last time many years ago. In no time many letters which you have decided of not being good enough for her are all spread over the floor. What a waste of material.

Suddenly you hear a noise on the door. You turn around and of course it's the cat. Who else should it have been? It stares at you as if it wanted to say:

“Look at me. I'm innocent. I didn't do anything.” You sigh.

“You know exactly what you've done. But I have other problems now. Go and play somewhere else. Leave me alone with my business. And stay away from the books!” Of course the cat doesn't listen to you. It comes in and begins to play with the wrapped papers on the floor. You try your best to ignore it and continue concentrating on your love letter. But before you could write any word the cat jumps onto the table.

“You really love provoking me, don’t you?” An innocent 'meow' was the answer.

“Fine. You asked for it.” You try to catch the cat but it was way faster than you as if it had foreseen your moves. Without hesitating it grasps the old letter with its mouth and jumps off the table in almost no time. With a big grin on its face as if laughing at you the cat runs out of the room.

“Oh, come on. You can't be serious. I didn't mean it. You will get an extra portion of food. Come back. Pleaaaase?” No answer. You have no choice but to chase after it. The cat was nowhere to be found as usual and you notice an open window in your house. It could be anywhere by now. At least it left the books untouched this time. But how could you be able to finish the letter without the original one? You have almost no inspiration left for this. Giving up is no option for you though. Maybe the books can give you some inspiration? You randomly pick one out of the shelf. But before even noticing the title you hear someone knocking on the front door. Who could that be?

With a lot of suspicion you open the door and nearly trip backwards because you can't really believe, what you see: It's her. The most beautiful woman you've ever seen. The one you've intended to send the letter to.

“Hello.” she said with a smile on her face. You are not able to reply anything. Your lips seem to be sealed and the only thing you can do is stare at her because you still can't believe what's going on.

“Is that your cat?” she asked. You somehow manage to look down and the cat she was referring to is indeed the one who escaped you earlier. The same innocent look as before. As if this animal had planned all of this all along. You throw an angry look at the cat and nod because you are still too overwhelmed to talk.

“So I assume this letter is from you as well?” You feel helpless and have no idea how to react.

“I...I guess so...” you admit hesitantly.

“So how did you find out?”

“F...find out...what?”

“That I do love cats and poems and that I can't imagine any way more beautiful than this to confess your love to me?” And without giving you the time to answer she steps in, embraces you and kisses you.

You never felt so happy before and decide that it's definitely time to rethink your opinion about cats.

[Kennister]

Cat got your tongue?


I contemplated the love letter, and tapped the musty envelope on the palm of my hand. I should have sent it. I should have said… something. I sighed and placed it back on the desktop. I decided against throwing a shoe at the cat, in spite of my desire to do so. Instead, I opted to take him for a walk. It was one of those things you have to do when you buy a cat, named Woofers, which was raised by dogs. You should hear him bark. Quite pathetic.

The air was cool and crisp and the sun was out. Woofers would occasionally "bark" which completely confused the dog populace and sent the occasional one off to seek therapy. We passed by golden wheat farms, the Brewers and the Bakers. I made sure to wave, and say hello to those that were near.

“Bark!” barked Woofers.

A small, brown dog that happened to be in mid-process of watering a poor hapless flower, jumped up, yelped, and scurried off with his tail between his legs.

Did Woofers wink and smile at me? Daft me! Cats can’t smile and cats can’t wink. I’d been alone around this one far too long.

We wandered through a forest of pine, and then by the sawmill that stacked out freshly cut lumber. The smell reminded me that I still had to re-shingle my roof. As we ambled we came across a meadow, and a brown deer bounded out from a stand of hardwood trees, startled by something or someone.

Woofers barked, although not very enthusiastically. I believe it was because he realised the prey was too big for him. There was a slight slouch of disappointment in his normally proud gait. But it didn’t last long because he gracefully leapt ahead, barking at me to follow and to keep up.

“We’re going that way are we?” I asked.

Woofers reply was to race back and rub in and around my feet, softly woofing a string of soothing wuffs. His head quirked up, and off he sprung again. His tail was tall amongst the thickets, but he quickly stopped and turned and trilled me to the chase. I laughed out loud and quickened my pace to follow my fearless leader. Before long my stomach began to grumble and Woofers darted into some blackberry brambles.

“You’re on your own now Woofers!” I shouted out.

I listened for a response but heard nothing, and set about gathering pieces of wood to spark a small fire with. I unpacked a little tin pot, filled it with some water from my deer-skin flask, and hung it above the dancing flames. My stomach growled again, so I picked some blackberries. I put them in a small pile on my picnic linen alongside a small wheel of white cheese, half a fresh loaf of bread, and some deer sausage. It made me pause. Memories flickered back to when I had first met Emily. It was close to where I was now.




…I had been on an errand to the store house and decided to take a short cut. Actually it was a little out of the way, but I was keen to see something different. Along my way I was hopping from rock to rock, and jumping from log to log, and climbing the occasional tree. I was swinging down to the ground from one particular branch and at the last moment saw her, too late to avoid a collision. Onto to the ground we tumbled and into the air went her picnic basket; from the basket’s open flap, out flew her picnic food.

I quickly rose to help her up, “I am so sorry. I didn’t expect anyone.” The words rushed out, bumping into one another. “Let me pick this up.” And as I bent to retrieve her items, she did the same and our heads clonked together.

“Ow!” We said in unison.

“I am so sorry!” I blurted again.

She rubbed her head, winced and gazed around at all the items on the ground. She looked back at me and suddenly grinned. I almost fell back as my heart pounded in my chest, my mouth suddenly dry. The world seemed brighter and warmer all at once. And I was speechless.

“Cat got your tongue?” She’d asked me and laughed.




My thoughts turned once more to the love letter never sent. How foolish I’d been not to say anything to Em. Her name is Emily, but I’ve always called her Em the few times we’ve met since. Our eyes usually meet and linger briefly, only to shy away. When I’ve tried to speak with her, the words fumble off my tongue and stumble out of my mouth.

I sighed, and was startled by a small feline figure darting by me. “Bark! Bark!”

“Oh there you are…”

A large dog sprinted past, “Meow! Meow!”

I gawped.

“Cat got your tongue?” A soft familiar voice called to me from behind.

I gulped and turned.

“Hello Kennister.”

“Hello Em.”

“I see you have a cat that barks.” She grinned.

“Woofers.” I said. “And I see you have a dog that meows.”

“Tuffy. That’s her name.”

Our eyes began to shy away. But I breathed in deep and heard her do the same, like whispers about to take on canyons and mountains, and above us both, the sky. I see her smile and I feel like I can float and fall all at once. Goosebumps prance all over my skin. I glance at her arms and see she has the same. I realise I don’t need to send a love letter any more.


Woofers watches his human holding hands with the other. He stops, turns, and looks back.

He looks at you and winks and smiles.

[BB_Dantesama]

This contest is now closed, results will arrive at some point today

[BB_Dantesama]

Hello guys,

Thank you so much for your wonderful stories: original, dramatic, emotional! They were all extremely detailed and unique.
I've had a few manly tears whilst reading through all your stories! True story!

Thank you again!

I have decided to award 8 stories with the same amount of gems.
Choosing simply 3 top stories was near impossible...

All these stories bring something fresh to the table. Well done


Without further ado, here are the 8 authors that really impressed me. (in no particular order)

-captainsue
-Kennister
-LadyElia
-Tacisis
-Dopey
-freyjamoon
-Alsh
-lulu10093

The rest of you will earn 150 gems for your participation

Expect to receive your rewards at some point today.

Best

BB_Dantesama