With this short story comes a special surprise that even I didn't see coming! My lovely wife wrote this installment in the Magic Realms series of fantasy short stories and did one better than just writing it ... She read it! What I mean to say, is that she read it out loud and you will be able to find a link to it on Youtube right here:
Now, for a bit about this story. If you've read through the other stories in this humble blog, you'll find one in which some Solar Storm Troopers appear. Rather than keeping you in suspense, here is the link to that short story so you can enjoy and read on when you're done with this one!
Twenty-four young men and women stood at attention in front of their tents in the early glow of the autumn sun. Each was dressed in a white sleeveless shirt, olive green canvas pants with a small knife strapped to the belt, and heavy boots.
Duncan marched along the line, inspecting them with critical coal colored eyes and his characteristic scowl, his dark-tanned hands clasped behind his back. While the cadets were not much smaller than he was due to their extensive genetic treatments, his presence as their drill instructor from the beginning still demanded their respect.
“Do you call this a formation, cadets?! Well? Do you?!” He barked as he stormed back, causing them to straighten their stance as much as humanly possible. “Today we will embark on a new mission! You will form into your teams and march across your designated fields.” He pointed at the vast tended acres of fall vegetables.
“Once you reach your area of operation, you will proceed to extricate as many ripe pumpkins from the vines as possible!” He spun as he reached the end and stood, continuing to talk at full volume. “You will do so with extreme precision and care! If I find one bruised squash, you will lose the privilege of joining the High Templar on his turkey hunt! Do you understand?”
“Sir yes sir!” The cadets rang out in union.
“Now!” Duncan walked to a position where he could look at all of them. “You will stand at attention and wait for a speech from High Templar Leon!”
Leon, a man of short and wiry stature, with stark white hair and moustache, stepped from his small tent dressed in simple brown linen pants, white shirt, and leather sandals. The cadets found themselves staring at the leader they usually saw decked out in full armor, now appearing to be little more than a crazy old half-gnomish farmer in appearance.
The High Templar walked to stand beside Duncan, who towered over him by a good two feet, and folded his hands behind his back. His sea-green eyes scanned the line briefly before he nodded in satisfaction.
“Cadets.” He began in a crisp, even voice that caught their full attention. “I brought you here today to help harvest these fields. We may be officially a military unit, but we are not above simple tasks. Part of your work done today and the coming days will go towards feeding us and the rest of the Solar Storm during the harvest celebration taking place in one week.”
Leon paused before continuing, looking over them with a touch of pride. Not one had stepped down from the offer to join him on this mundane mission.
“You’ve been training hard after your genetic treatments. Now you will exercise your teamwork and endurance!” He grinned. “You don’t need me to tell you what to do! Now get out there and show me your best!”
The cadets saluted and shouted as one. “Sir yes sir!”
“Cadets!” Duncan shouted. “To your designated field!”
The twenty-four cadets broke into six groups and took off running down the beaten footpath. Four of them, three boys and a stoutly built girl, sprinted for one of the farther fields containing medium sized white and orange striped pumpkins.
“Caroline, you’re on cutting duty.” Said the tallest of the boys, who had close cropped dark brown hair and hazel eyes. He turned to the other two boys and gestured as he spoke. “While she’s cutting pumpkins, you two will work with me to haul them to the front of the field as quickly as possible. We’ll start on this front corner and work our way towards the back before returning this way, taking the field one strip at a time.”
Caroline took the small knife out of her belt after she retied her deep red hair into a tighter bun on the back of her head. She nodded with satisfaction as she adjusted her grip on the handle. “I’m ready.”
Tucker, a wiry boy with a mop of sandy brown colored hair as long as he could get away with, grinned. “I bet we can get our field done before the other teams!” He got a coy smirk. “That is if Caroline doesn’t slip and nick herself.”
Caroline shot Tucker a glare. “You wanna eat dirt, Tuck?”
Tucker held up his hands quickly in a gesture of peace. “Not today! I’m sure you’ll do a great job.”
Conner scratched his chin. “We’ll trade off cutting in shifts so no one slips up, alright?”
Sykes, the smallest boy in comparison to the others, glanced at them with keen silver-blue eyes and spoke in a subdued voice. “If the delinquent doesn’t get himself punched, we should get started.. The other teams are already harvesting.”
The other three looked to see that Sykes was right. Conner slapped his hands together. “Alright team! Go and get those pumpkins!”
Farmers stood watching the effort of the teams from the hilltop, thankful for the immense, if slightly unusual, help. Their wives and families began the process of weighing and sorting the squash for storage and cooking while a small group tended to fixing dinner for everyone.
Leon worked in a field alone, quiet with his thoughts and the task at hand. He felt a deep contentment as he easily lifted each pumpkin and set them in a growing heap by the well trodden foot path. His nails and hands became increasingly dirt stained as the day wore on, but he didn’t care.
Just like fall on the farm.. Leon thought with a peaceful smile. The clear sunshine beat on his back, but to him it felt like a warm cushion. Quite a change from the skin-like electro-mesh that usually rested against his body, topped by cybernetic woven armor, electronics, and select pieces of refined plate.
As the sky began to turn towards a brilliant fall sunset, he set the last red-orange pumpkin down and began a slow stroll down the lane, peering at the fields his cadets were still working in. He couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction at seeing that Conner’s team had moved on to another field after clearing theirs.
He had high hopes for the team after seeing how well they worked together when they weren’t fighting each other.
Leon paused his walk and let loose a sharp whistle. Two notes that caught the attention of all six teams, bringing them running after setting down the last pumpkins.
Duncan came to stand beside Leon, his customary position, as the last stragglers came into line in front of the High Templar. All of them were bright eyed, though a little sweat stained from the long day of labor broken only by a brief break for lunch.
With a silent nod, he walked to the head of the line and continued on down the path. Duncan began barking orders at high volume, getting the cadets into a marching formation as quick as a flash behind Leon. He trotted up the line until he was marching alongside the first two cadets in formation. He began keeping the pace with an absurd ditty.
Leon concealed his smile, holding his head up proudly as he lead the troop to the tables for dinner.
Just some background on the audio before it gets posted and you give it a listen over on Youtube. We lack audio editing software so the recording was done entirely in one take. The rattling you hear toward the end was a thoughtful addition made by our pet bunny who decided to make his presence known. If you like this special extra content, please be sure to follow my author page on Facebook and share it with friends! When things are ready, I'll launch a special challenge for all of you dear readers out there. Until then, enjoy and read on!
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