A Tale of Two Cities

Here’s a little story for ya’ll, albeit from the pc version. That’ll explain the differences in technology and population.

The first crown Danny Blondin ever saw was on the head of a king, riding through town on his horse. “I am your king.” Announced the newcomer.
“Hail,” Danny replied, just in case. He had heard stories of monarchs. It looked like the king had heard these stories too, for he scarpered from the city fairly quickly, never to be seen again.
Danny was only five years old at this time, a blond headed boy barely out of his mother’s arms and wondering what to do with his life. The answer presented itself in a row of potatoes he discovered just outside the nursery. Beginning to water, replenish and plant the potatoes, soon Danny had expanded the farm to several rows and was filling baskets with these potatoes ready for baking. However, while taking in his latest haul to the oven, he noticed that an old man had come to rest by the fire next to Danny’s quietly dawdling mother.
“Right, I’m retiring,” the man said with a sigh and a nod to Danny, piquing his curiosity. This looked like an interesting character. The old man wore clothes of coloured fabric and a backpack over his shoulder with a sword innocently sheathed there.
“Any life stories for us?” Danny inquired, trying to sound casual while placing his basket down by the oven.
The old man shrugged. “Me and my generation have been working on the walls. That’s a story,” he said, reclining backwards, “look in the archives if you want knowhow.”
Danny turned to see a crate of baskets filled with written paper. He picked one up and began shifting through it.
“We have laws? Wow,” his mother said while the young man read out the papers, “there’s always more to learn about this place.”
“Law five: always name your kids,” Danny read out, “law nine: don’t let the fence fail.”
They all looked up to see Danny’s sister walk into the building, having lashed her high horse to a fence outside. This was Daisy; the adventurous one.
“What are you up to?” She asked with raised eyebrows.
“Plotting,” the old man replied quickly, “how about you, eh?”
“We’re looking through the archives…” Danny muttered, pulling out another sheet of paper. “Town north east,” it read.
“All these laws remind me of our first queen,” the mother rambled while Danny stared at the paper, “my sister had to stab her.”
There was a pause.
“Stab her?” Daisy was incredulous, looking at her calm mother with disbelieving eyes.
“Yeah, we had a revolution and everything. She was corrupt, you know.”
While his mother talked, Danny’s mind was flying away to lands unknown. He had lived his whole life within these here city walls. But… well. Another town?
“My time is up,” the old man interrupted his thoughts, “sorry, kids. See you next life.”
Before Danny could question him, the old man died in the sudden, predictable way of the world, clattering down into a peaceful pile of bones.
Danny looked at the old man’s discarded clothes (and the backpack with its sword) before turning back to the paper. He picked up the backpack and put it on.
“There is another town. Up north,” he stated to the others. Daisy’s face brightened up.
“Sounds fun,” she said, “who wants to go?”
Their mother was already shaking her head. “Come now. We can’t all go off exploring. This town needs workers.”
Daisy seemed to consider this, before nodding.
“Fine. I’ll go. Danny can stay - thanks…”
She began backing out of the door, saddling her horse and riding off to northward plains before anyone could stop her.
The mother turned to her son with a worried look. “You’ll stay, won’t you darling?”
Danny felt the burden of the pack on his shoulders, and nodded.
The archives were full of many laws. Laws on what to do, what not to do, what people really should be doing anyway. After he had finished looking through them, Danny returned to his potatoes. Now the farm was really thriving, Danny could see it growing while his own life force diminished. Soon he was at the bakery, roasting those potatoes and any pies he could find lying around. The town was bustling, if not quite as much as it used to, but… that was all right. His mother was tending the carrot farm while Danny waited for his potatoes to grow.
It might take some time.
What was he doing here? Baking potatoes nobody would eat, wasting resources while there were greener pastures just around the corner? His mind turned to the adventures he could be having, fighting off the enemies of the town, exploring strange lands, hacking routes through the woods.
And yet the potatoes still had not grown.
Ah, forget it.
Danny picked up his sword and headed north, through the gates and out of the town before anyone could stop him. Yes, this was it, this was what he had dreamed of, slipping through the undergrowth in search of new cities, a new life. Danny felt like a king in those moments, but not one crowned with mere gold. A king straddled in the gleaming silver of adventure.
The grin fell from Danny’s face when he came across a grave. An old grave, with old pre-revolution garments fallen around it. A lost adventurer, perhaps? Around him the jungle buzzed as Danny looked on to see a living person standing over this grave, picking through the ancestor’s belongings.
“Hey, you there,” Danny called out, startling the youth, “where is the city?”
The younger man paused.
“Which one?”
“The northern one.”
There was another pause. Something made the boy snigger. “It’s north, clearly. Much further north.”
Danny looked ahead into the dense jungle. He had already travelled far further than he had expected to need to.
The young man looked his lost senior up and down, before sighing. “Do you want me to show you the way?”
“Yes, please,” Danny said eagerly.
And so the duo went on, pushing through dangerous terrain. Danny kept a hand on the hilt of his sword, just in case they met with any unwanted opposition.
“I’m going to Midi City myself,” the young man continued, “went as soon as I heard about it. Did you?”
Danny stiffened “Yes, of course,” he lied.
Before things could get embarrassing, they were both distracted by a cloud of dust rising up behind them. Thundering past was Daisy on her charger, bringing it to a stop to greet the two of them.
“Danny!” She cried, “You came after all. What about your potatoes?”
“My potatoes are fine, thank you Daisy,” he muttered in return, annoyed at her again already, “this is my companion. I don’t know his name -“
“A pleasure,” the younger man said, tipping his scavenged bowler hat, “the city can’t be far away now.”
“It’s just up ahead,” Daisy returned with a grin, “I see signs of civilisation up ahead. Come on, brother,” she galloped off again in a melodramatic cloud.
Danny coughed. “You heard her,” he said after a moment.
The younger man led the way, after that. But it did not matter much; they had soon arrived. A stone road snaked gently up into the unseen body of the metropolis above, supported by a sweet maple tree grove alongside it. Danny and his companion came up to this mark of luxury and looked at each other in wonder. The younger man leapt ahead, delving into the northern parts of the city while Danny followed the road ahead cautiously. A sign on a nearby stone wall read “Midi City”, so he opened the door to discover that it was a bakery. He went inside to discover a raucous of activity.
“Get out of the way, old man,” somebody said, pushing past Danny. Old? He had to remind himself of his impending demise by scratching his balding head. Oh well, he was here now, wasn’t he?
This bakery was not as big as the one back at home. Good.
When he left the building, Danny noticed his little sister and travelling companion begin talking to the workers inside, discussing grand alliances and roads and trade. Danny was not as interested in all this as when he was a young man. Now all he saw in this new city was a different set of people with a different set of walls.
The middle-aged man sat down on a tree stump and watched the life bustling around him.
“Teach me,” his tired ears picked up, “teach me how to farm.”
Danny turned to see a mother with her young daughter asking for advice. The woman looked up when she noticed Danny looking at them. “Don’t worry about her,” she said, almost apologetically, “she is not very experienced.”
“Teach me, please,” the girl replied.
Suddenly, Danny remembered his farm. His poor, unnecessary , somewhat ridiculous potato farm back in the home we was beginning to forget. A farm without somebody to continue it.
“Let me teach her,” Danny spoke up suddenly, “I can take her to the southern city and teach her how to farm.”
The mother seemed to think about this, before shrugging. “If you can give her a job then… by all means…”
The girl was more enthusiastic.
“Another City? Great,” she said, shivering in the cold wind. Danny took off his sheep skin and rabbit hat, giving them to the girl while wishing he had more.
“Stay close,” he told her as the mother was swallowed back into the city, “it’s a long journey.”
The girl nodded.
And so, on the way back to his home, Danny had a new companion. This time the long journey seemed longer, watching out for the little girl who was called (he came to remember) Akiyah.
“Here,” he told her, finding some old fabric from an unfortunate traveller on the way back and discovering it to be a dress, “put this on.”
The girl did as instructed, discarding the cold fleece with a nod of thanks. They turned to see the embracing stone wall of their new home rising before them. Akiyah looked on in wonder as Danny showed her to his patch, instructing her in the ways of potato farming and giving her some of the finished product to eat.
Akiyah had grown into a young woman on their long journey. As he explained the craft, she had a baby. A boy she named Danny.
This made the old man pause.
“Thank you,” he told them both at last, “for the legacy.”
Danny hesitated before pulling off his backpack and passing the inviting burden on to his apprentice. “I hope it serves you as well as it did for me,” he told the young woman, who smiled.
So they went back to potato work, cutting seeds and digging tubers. Danny’s mother had died many years before of old age by her carrot farm, and her son was glad he had repopulated their home like she would have wanted. It was only then that Danny realised that his own time was almost up.
“Right,” he said with an internal smile, “I’m retiring.”
Turning to Akiyah’s kids, he imparted, “There’s a city up north. Here’s better, but I’ll leave that up to you lot.”
Akiyah scowled playfully, before frowning with confusion. “How do you mound the potatoes again?”
Danny looked around her a bowl and some soil. “Well, you -“
And then he died. His bones clattered to the ground in a heap, rustling gently in the wind.
They all looked at where Danny had been.
“Oh yes, you use a bowl of soil,” Akiyah said eventually to the empty air.
There was a silence.
The second boy named Danny looked at the bones of his namesake sadly, before taking some more potatoes into the bakery for cooking.
He noticed a box full of baskets of paper and began reading them.
“We have laws?” He asked nobody in particular.

7 Likes

The northern town wasn’t speaking another language?

1 Like

Nah, funnily enough they were distant relatives, which was convenient. Imagine how the story would have went if I had needed to use me sword XD

1 Like

Do like my sword sword sword my diamond sword sword. You can not aford ford my diamond sword sword >.>

Lmao sorry that just poped into my head for the first time in years lmao

1 Like

@Mandrake


Sorry, back on topic.

2 Likes

Lol sorry for bringing it off topic lmao.

1 Like

We have laws about that? :wink:

1 Like