100 Words a Day 1244

The Tar Kingdom men stalked over to the bar. It was impossible to tell if they were raiders or sailors from a merchant ship. The room parted before the rough men like the sea before the prow of a fast ship. When they reached the bar, they growled their request at the inn’s proprietor, an enormous man covered in nautical tattoos. They crashed against him like a ship against sharp rocks, unable to faze him with their bluster. After several minutes of bargaining, one of the sailors took three gold studs from his ear and placed them on the table.

100 Words a Day 1243

The row of trees that lined the road on either side up to the castle were old, with thick trunks. Rusted chains emerged from the rough bark, slowly being absorbed by the trees as time progressed.  Fresher loops of chain secured wretched unfortunates all along the way, victims of the wrath of the king of the moor. They were in various states of decay, those that were lucky enough to be dead. The less fortunate slumped against the gnarled, woody flesh of their jailors or hung in crude cages suspended on the larger branches and swinging slowly in the wind.

100 Words a Day 1242

“How was your weekend?” I asked.

“It was great!” Susie responded, smiling. “I went to this new bar with my girlfriends.”

“Cool,” I said, absently, not terribly interested.

“What about you?”

“Nothing exciting. Just sat at home and played video games.”

We fell silent. We didn’t’ have much in common beyond the fact that we worked in the same office.

Our lack of commonalities was apparent from the moment I arrived at the office. There’d been a party that day and our boss had introduced us, assuming that the two young people would have plenty to talk about. We didn’t.