Garo
Boy Wonder
Welcome to the twelfth round of the Writing Community Competition, where Zelda Dungeon members get to show off their writing chops. Last round, our winner, writing about the theme "Hearts", was Cfrock, with a piece about a thrilling game of hold 'em and the unfortunate aftermath. This round's theme is "Time" - you can read the entries in the spoiler tag below.
Vote in the poll above for your favorite entry.
Next round's theme will be...
We're going to try another three-week cycle in the hopes that we have more entries; this puts the deadline for the next round at Friday, November 2nd, at 9:00 PM EST.
A Link In Time
The branches of the shriveled oak tree swooped down into the swamp water. It was clear the plant was nearing the end of its life, joining the adjacent vegetation in its state of squalor.
The soft trampling of feet broke the stillness. A girl of about fourteen crossed the narrow passé-ragged and filthy but communicating a certain beauty in her rosy cheeks. Her tender frame dared to challenge the hopelessness of the surrounding situation.
She entered the dilapidated hut at the bottom of the path. It wasn’t much but she called it home and managed to get by somehow.
“Hello, honey,” an amiable woman of twenty twice proclaimed upon the youth’s entering. A strange gloom appeared to clout her countenance. “Your grandfather is dying,” she stated as calmly as possible. It was clear she wouldn’t be able to maintain her composure for much longer.
The girl appeared visibly shaken but did not say a word. Instead, she headed upstairs to the old man’s chamber to confer with him one more time. The soft trampling of feet broke the stillness.
“Lucy, is that you?” the old man maintained upon the girl’s entrance.
“Yes, grandfather, yes. It is I. Hold on. You’re going to make it. We’re all in this together.”
The old man emitted a peculiar laugh, filled with no remorse. In fact, he seemed almost happy. How could that be? Soon he would be taken to the heavens.
“Grandfather, don’t laugh,” Lucy croaked, now visibly shaken. “Please don’t. My childhood wouldn’t have been the same without you and I don’t know how I’ll manage when you’re gone,” the tears now streaming down her pink hued cheeks.
“The death of an ancient is a beautiful thing. You see-Old people live life to its fullest. They go to school and earn an education; marry and create a family; retire and observe as their children found the next generation. The flow of time is cruel but this old timer here used it well.”
He closed his withered eyes. The girl’s sobbing subsided as she lay by his bedside. All was quiet except the ticking of the clock. Lucy rose and kissed the old man’s now cold, lifeless forehead. The soft trampling of feet broke the stillness.
Cfrock
No Time Like The Present
Case Number: HSP 05/06/03/9557
Incident: Arson
Reporting Officer: Chief Inspector Roger Bywater Date of Report: 11/11/2019
The following is an extract of the Journal of Dr. Frederick Larkin, taken from C/Insp Bywater’s report.
15/10/2019
The past few years have been gruelling for all of us but at last we have a functioning prototype. Working with Dr Porter has certainly proven to be the awe inspiring adventure I hoped it would be but who could have imagined that after only 6 years we would have a time machine?! Even as I look upon it I can scarcely believe it exists. I am in no doubt that it wouldn’t were it not for Dr Porter’s radical theories. It’s so refreshing to work with someone bold enough to defy his contemporaries and try something different. And just look at what it has produced! I can’t wait for tomorrow. It is going to be the single most important day in the history of physics. No, the most important day in all of history!
17/10/2019
I couldn’t bring myself to write yesterday. To do so would require concentration and I was simply too excited to focus on any one thing. It worked! Or at least, we think it worked. The machine started up as we had predicted and then vanished in a flash of brilliant white light. Dr Porter was inside it. If our calculations, plans and theories are correct (and all indications at this point suggest they are) then he is now 500 years in the future. A few years ago I would dismiss such notions as fanciful science-fiction but this is all too real.
21/10/2019
We’ve all been incredibly busy gathering data over the last few days. There is hardly time to sleep, let alone write. I wonder what Dr Porter is experiencing? My heart almost stops at the thought of what knowledge he will bring back from the future. My mind fails to comprehend what we will be able to do when Dr Porter returns. Cure cancer? End hunger? Will it mean an end to global warming? Will we finally be able to send men to another planet? So many possibilities race through my head every moment that I sometimes need to sit down. Dr Porter is scheduled to return in two days. I will be too busy to write again until then.
24/10/2019
Yesterday was perhaps the happiest and saddest day of my entire life. Dr Porter did indeed return with the time machine but it was not the bounteous, world-changing event we had anticipated. Now that I think of it, I don’t know what I expected. Would he step out with volumes of research and blueprints containing theories and inventions beyond our mental capacity? Would he emerge with a device that would alter our world forever? Whatever I had envisioned, it was far from the dishevelled, wide-eyed figure that clambered drunkenly from the time machine. Dr Porter recoiled from us all and locked himself in his office. We heard sporadic screaming that went on through the night. I don’t think any of us have slept.
26/10/2019
We composed ourselves enough to run some tests on the time machine but all I can think of is Dr Porter. He came out of his office briefly yesterday. I tried to approach him but he flinched at the sight of me so I backed off. I asked him what was wrong, what had he seen? He immediately began weeping uninhibitedly and fell to the floor. I tried to lift him and carry him back to his office but he struggled against me, constantly murmuring “Bad… It’s all gone bad… All bad…” What he meant scares me more than I care to say. I don’t think I will get any sleep tonight.
30/10/2019
We have been leaving food in Dr Porter’s office for days but no one has seen him since Saturday. I spend a lot of time sat outside his office. What has happened? This man was to be the most important human to ever live. He invented time-travel! What scientific achievement could come close to that?! But instead of being lauded at press conferences, appearing on the cover of Time magazine and winning his much deserved Nobel Prize he hides in his office, less than a shadow of his former self. He keeps muttering “All bad… All gone bad…” to himself while sobbing. I can hear him scratching at the walls but I can’t bear to go inside. What I might see could destroy me. How could things go so wrong?
1/11/2019
I considered using the time machine last night. I thought of going back by just over two weeks and stopping Dr Porter from travelling to the future. If he never went there then he would still be the brilliant man who inspired me to become a physicist. It kills me to hear his wails. Why did we build this machine?! It seems to have done nothing but steal Dr Porter away from me. Perhaps it would be better for us all if I just destroyed the damn thing!
…
Maybe I should. We certainly aren’t going to ever use it again.
5/11/2019
I can’t help but feel a deep depression about mankind’s future. Dr Porter travelled 500 years and came back as less than a man. What exactly had he seen? What is mankind’s fate? I thought the future would be a wondrous place but it seems there is nothing to look forward to. This machine was the worst thing we have ever created.
7/11/2019
Dr Porter hanged himself in the night. I will burn the machine and all of our research documents. No one will make this mistake again.
Notes: The journal was emailed to Dr Larkin’s wife around the time the fire which destroyed the lab started. Dr Larkin’s was one of the four bodies found during our investigation. Neither ‘time machine’ nor any research notes survived.
Wiggy
Time is a funny thing, it gives a man perspective. Throughout my life I have done great things and I have committed appalling acts of moral failure. Being human, I can’t be too ashamed of being fallible. You all make me proud however; you are my great things, my family. I love you all dearly.
When I met you Susan, I faltered here and there. I did not treat you the way I meant to and for that I beg forgiveness. I was brash and egotistical as a young man, feeling as though I had no need of any one woman. I did need you though. Even after everything I had done to you, you supported me.
Even as I felt useless after losing my legs, you put me to work raising our family. It would be wrong to say being disabled humbled me; I retreated when the accident happened, and I became, if anything, more self-absorbed. You humbled me; you gave me a purpose that wasn’t my own, but over the years it became more fulfilling than all the parties and hedonism I could muster in my youth.
I like to think I was a good father to our children, Jonathan and Sarah. I loved them with everything that was left of me.
I’m so sorry I never ever played football with you Jon. And Sarah, I’m sorry I’ve never been able to protect you like a father should. Despite my physical failings however you have both turned out as wonderful as any dad could ever hope.
When you both graduated, the tears stung my eyes. A doctor and writer in the family was more than I could handle and I am very sorry for embarrassing you like that in front of all your friends. It was… difficult, Sarah, when you decided to travel. I wasn’t used to not having you around and when Jon decided to move to London for work I found the lack of direction in my life unbearable.
Your mother unfortunately bore the brunt of that frustration. Even now, I cannot believe that I could ever have harmed her like I did. But it doesn’t do to evade responsibility for your crimes and it is only through the good nature and love of your mother that we managed to stay together and I could begin to atone for what I had done.
I am so very lucky to have had you all in my life, without you I would have just been a miserable, grumpy old man with more hate than love in his heart. Now I can boast I have made the world a better place by virtue of providing the world two more great people and I have left a wife with hopefully more good memories than bad.
I leave my home and personal property to my wife Susan and my savings are to be split equally between my two children and my wife.
Signed: J.Feldmann Date: 3/4/1997
Witnesses(s): Peter Lawrence Cunningham, Sandra Cunningham
Declaration
This is the last will and testament of James Sebastian Feldmann. This document was drafted with the aid of Wright & Co Lawyers. At time of drafting, we can confirm that Mr. Feldmann was of sound mental capacity and that all aspects of this document conform to U.K. law.
*ENDS*
The branches of the shriveled oak tree swooped down into the swamp water. It was clear the plant was nearing the end of its life, joining the adjacent vegetation in its state of squalor.
The soft trampling of feet broke the stillness. A girl of about fourteen crossed the narrow passé-ragged and filthy but communicating a certain beauty in her rosy cheeks. Her tender frame dared to challenge the hopelessness of the surrounding situation.
She entered the dilapidated hut at the bottom of the path. It wasn’t much but she called it home and managed to get by somehow.
“Hello, honey,” an amiable woman of twenty twice proclaimed upon the youth’s entering. A strange gloom appeared to clout her countenance. “Your grandfather is dying,” she stated as calmly as possible. It was clear she wouldn’t be able to maintain her composure for much longer.
The girl appeared visibly shaken but did not say a word. Instead, she headed upstairs to the old man’s chamber to confer with him one more time. The soft trampling of feet broke the stillness.
“Lucy, is that you?” the old man maintained upon the girl’s entrance.
“Yes, grandfather, yes. It is I. Hold on. You’re going to make it. We’re all in this together.”
The old man emitted a peculiar laugh, filled with no remorse. In fact, he seemed almost happy. How could that be? Soon he would be taken to the heavens.
“Grandfather, don’t laugh,” Lucy croaked, now visibly shaken. “Please don’t. My childhood wouldn’t have been the same without you and I don’t know how I’ll manage when you’re gone,” the tears now streaming down her pink hued cheeks.
“The death of an ancient is a beautiful thing. You see-Old people live life to its fullest. They go to school and earn an education; marry and create a family; retire and observe as their children found the next generation. The flow of time is cruel but this old timer here used it well.”
He closed his withered eyes. The girl’s sobbing subsided as she lay by his bedside. All was quiet except the ticking of the clock. Lucy rose and kissed the old man’s now cold, lifeless forehead. The soft trampling of feet broke the stillness.
Cfrock
No Time Like The Present
Case Number: HSP 05/06/03/9557
Incident: Arson
Reporting Officer: Chief Inspector Roger Bywater Date of Report: 11/11/2019
The following is an extract of the Journal of Dr. Frederick Larkin, taken from C/Insp Bywater’s report.
15/10/2019
The past few years have been gruelling for all of us but at last we have a functioning prototype. Working with Dr Porter has certainly proven to be the awe inspiring adventure I hoped it would be but who could have imagined that after only 6 years we would have a time machine?! Even as I look upon it I can scarcely believe it exists. I am in no doubt that it wouldn’t were it not for Dr Porter’s radical theories. It’s so refreshing to work with someone bold enough to defy his contemporaries and try something different. And just look at what it has produced! I can’t wait for tomorrow. It is going to be the single most important day in the history of physics. No, the most important day in all of history!
17/10/2019
I couldn’t bring myself to write yesterday. To do so would require concentration and I was simply too excited to focus on any one thing. It worked! Or at least, we think it worked. The machine started up as we had predicted and then vanished in a flash of brilliant white light. Dr Porter was inside it. If our calculations, plans and theories are correct (and all indications at this point suggest they are) then he is now 500 years in the future. A few years ago I would dismiss such notions as fanciful science-fiction but this is all too real.
21/10/2019
We’ve all been incredibly busy gathering data over the last few days. There is hardly time to sleep, let alone write. I wonder what Dr Porter is experiencing? My heart almost stops at the thought of what knowledge he will bring back from the future. My mind fails to comprehend what we will be able to do when Dr Porter returns. Cure cancer? End hunger? Will it mean an end to global warming? Will we finally be able to send men to another planet? So many possibilities race through my head every moment that I sometimes need to sit down. Dr Porter is scheduled to return in two days. I will be too busy to write again until then.
24/10/2019
Yesterday was perhaps the happiest and saddest day of my entire life. Dr Porter did indeed return with the time machine but it was not the bounteous, world-changing event we had anticipated. Now that I think of it, I don’t know what I expected. Would he step out with volumes of research and blueprints containing theories and inventions beyond our mental capacity? Would he emerge with a device that would alter our world forever? Whatever I had envisioned, it was far from the dishevelled, wide-eyed figure that clambered drunkenly from the time machine. Dr Porter recoiled from us all and locked himself in his office. We heard sporadic screaming that went on through the night. I don’t think any of us have slept.
26/10/2019
We composed ourselves enough to run some tests on the time machine but all I can think of is Dr Porter. He came out of his office briefly yesterday. I tried to approach him but he flinched at the sight of me so I backed off. I asked him what was wrong, what had he seen? He immediately began weeping uninhibitedly and fell to the floor. I tried to lift him and carry him back to his office but he struggled against me, constantly murmuring “Bad… It’s all gone bad… All bad…” What he meant scares me more than I care to say. I don’t think I will get any sleep tonight.
30/10/2019
We have been leaving food in Dr Porter’s office for days but no one has seen him since Saturday. I spend a lot of time sat outside his office. What has happened? This man was to be the most important human to ever live. He invented time-travel! What scientific achievement could come close to that?! But instead of being lauded at press conferences, appearing on the cover of Time magazine and winning his much deserved Nobel Prize he hides in his office, less than a shadow of his former self. He keeps muttering “All bad… All gone bad…” to himself while sobbing. I can hear him scratching at the walls but I can’t bear to go inside. What I might see could destroy me. How could things go so wrong?
1/11/2019
I considered using the time machine last night. I thought of going back by just over two weeks and stopping Dr Porter from travelling to the future. If he never went there then he would still be the brilliant man who inspired me to become a physicist. It kills me to hear his wails. Why did we build this machine?! It seems to have done nothing but steal Dr Porter away from me. Perhaps it would be better for us all if I just destroyed the damn thing!
…
Maybe I should. We certainly aren’t going to ever use it again.
5/11/2019
I can’t help but feel a deep depression about mankind’s future. Dr Porter travelled 500 years and came back as less than a man. What exactly had he seen? What is mankind’s fate? I thought the future would be a wondrous place but it seems there is nothing to look forward to. This machine was the worst thing we have ever created.
7/11/2019
Dr Porter hanged himself in the night. I will burn the machine and all of our research documents. No one will make this mistake again.
Notes: The journal was emailed to Dr Larkin’s wife around the time the fire which destroyed the lab started. Dr Larkin’s was one of the four bodies found during our investigation. Neither ‘time machine’ nor any research notes survived.
Wiggy
Time is a funny thing, it gives a man perspective. Throughout my life I have done great things and I have committed appalling acts of moral failure. Being human, I can’t be too ashamed of being fallible. You all make me proud however; you are my great things, my family. I love you all dearly.
When I met you Susan, I faltered here and there. I did not treat you the way I meant to and for that I beg forgiveness. I was brash and egotistical as a young man, feeling as though I had no need of any one woman. I did need you though. Even after everything I had done to you, you supported me.
Even as I felt useless after losing my legs, you put me to work raising our family. It would be wrong to say being disabled humbled me; I retreated when the accident happened, and I became, if anything, more self-absorbed. You humbled me; you gave me a purpose that wasn’t my own, but over the years it became more fulfilling than all the parties and hedonism I could muster in my youth.
I like to think I was a good father to our children, Jonathan and Sarah. I loved them with everything that was left of me.
I’m so sorry I never ever played football with you Jon. And Sarah, I’m sorry I’ve never been able to protect you like a father should. Despite my physical failings however you have both turned out as wonderful as any dad could ever hope.
When you both graduated, the tears stung my eyes. A doctor and writer in the family was more than I could handle and I am very sorry for embarrassing you like that in front of all your friends. It was… difficult, Sarah, when you decided to travel. I wasn’t used to not having you around and when Jon decided to move to London for work I found the lack of direction in my life unbearable.
Your mother unfortunately bore the brunt of that frustration. Even now, I cannot believe that I could ever have harmed her like I did. But it doesn’t do to evade responsibility for your crimes and it is only through the good nature and love of your mother that we managed to stay together and I could begin to atone for what I had done.
I am so very lucky to have had you all in my life, without you I would have just been a miserable, grumpy old man with more hate than love in his heart. Now I can boast I have made the world a better place by virtue of providing the world two more great people and I have left a wife with hopefully more good memories than bad.
I leave my home and personal property to my wife Susan and my savings are to be split equally between my two children and my wife.
Signed: J.Feldmann Date: 3/4/1997
Witnesses(s): Peter Lawrence Cunningham, Sandra Cunningham
Declaration
This is the last will and testament of James Sebastian Feldmann. This document was drafted with the aid of Wright & Co Lawyers. At time of drafting, we can confirm that Mr. Feldmann was of sound mental capacity and that all aspects of this document conform to U.K. law.
*ENDS*
Vote in the poll above for your favorite entry.
Next round's theme will be...
Anger
Max. 1000 words
Max. 1000 words
We're going to try another three-week cycle in the hopes that we have more entries; this puts the deadline for the next round at Friday, November 2nd, at 9:00 PM EST.
