17

  Susie

  “Hail!” the Lord announced, “The great wolf has been slayed, our kingdom can sleep well and come to breakfast with ease again,” he raised his glass, “All thanks to these brave heroes from the far off and distant kingdom of Nebraska!” he said, holding out his other hand as the four of us stood at the head of the great party. Well three of us stood, Christian was bowing and holding his cheaply made sword on the ground against his head as he accepted the great praise of Lord. The other three of us, having not spent our lives enveloped in the ideas of chivalry, just kind of awkwardly stood there and couldn’t help but smile as we accepted the praise.

  Cody and Brad were all about it, taking bows and enjoying the reverence the great fantasy court was giving them for the slaying of the Wolf. I just looked around, wondering what was so amazing about everything.

  The Lord came down from the throne and approached Christian, “Rise, brave Knight of Nebraska,” he said. I looked over and saw Christian, a man so lacking pride back home, stand tall and proud in front of the mighty king. The King put his hands on Christians shoulders, “You are the one who slayed the beast, am I right?” he asked, knowing that Christian was the most experienced and mightiest knight in our little crew, knowing it was Christian who sliced his sword through the mighty beast’s heart and ended the supposed threat that it had posed to the lands.

  I saw for a moment, what Cody kept trying to tell me made him a noble man. He took the praise from the Lord and took it with honor. He blushed the same way he did when I took his hand in our first meeting.

  It’s true what people say about the quiet ones, you can’t trust them. When I delivered my section of the story to Cody, I apologized. I apologized for insulting his friend, and I apologized for how messed up things got between us. Had we been able to really get to know each other in the way we did Somewhere else we could have had something special. We really could have. I don’t know if we would have gotten married, I don’t know what could have happened. The fact that his actions destroyed that chance is the thing I’m least mad at Christian for.

  “I accept your praise, with honor, your lordship,” Christian said, I saw a grin come across his face. He was so at home here, everything he did here, no matter how horrifying, just earned him more praise and triumph. No wonder he was in the kind of headspace to think what he did later was okay.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “I’ve a gift for you,” the Lord said, he waved his hand, and two knights came towards the throne we were all in front of. They came carrying a great wooden box, he turned it up, opened it, and displayed a great artisan crafted sword.

  “This was the very sword I wielded when I saved Princess Marion,” the Lord took the sword and raised it in the air, he looked to his lady. I wondered what story this Princess Marion could have come from. It was like Christian told us, stories were real here, and this king was the brave Prince Charming that actually saved a princess, married her, and made her a queen. I’m really resisting the temptation to spoil things right now. To tell you that seeing how a man like this Prince Charming, now King Charming could have warped the reality of how he approached the world to the point he-

  No, not there yet. There’s even more messed up stuff happened between this point and that point.

  I overheard Cody and Brad whispering to each other as the two Knights brought the sword towards Christian.

  “Man, that’s actually a princess? Like one from a story?” Brad said, “She’s pretty hot, hell all the girls here are hot, that’s fantasy land for you,” he smiled, nudging Cody.

  “Yeah, she’s pretty good looking,” Cody said. He didn’t know I heard that, but I caught him shooting a look over to me, our eyes met, and I smiled at him. I was almost as much caught up in the moment as the boys were. We were heroes here, apparently. And heroes are due a great celebration. I want you to keep in mind that this was before I saw how awful things could get. Even slaying a beast was just innocent fun for us four brave travelers from the great kingdom of Nebraska.

  “I impart this sword to you,” The Lord said, taking the blade and tapping it to Christian’s shoulders in a knighting ceremony, he even bowed before the great Nebraskan hero. I even heard whisperings from the maidens that Christian himself must be a prince of Nebraska. Of course, with the way Somewhere Else worked it could only be a prince who could have done something as brave as slaying a monster.

  Those foolish girls, Christian wasn’t a prince, hell Cody and Brad weren’t princes and they got almost as much attention. We were just kids, foolish kids. I could see how this world made sense to Christian. I could see how it made sense to someone with such wrecked social skills as he had.

  I’m sorry, Cody, I’m being mean again. Let me be clear, Christian was brave when he faced down that Wolf. If news of what he did that somehow could have made it to the cheer squad, he probably could have gotten a date for prom. He could have gotten a lot of things. But he didn’t choose that path, he chose the easy way. He chose to play by this world’s rules, and he was punished for it, but we’ll get to that later.

  Christian took the sword in his hand he turned to the crowd of nobles and fair maidens gathered and raised it to a hailing a cheer towards him. We all turned as well, watching those people of Somewhere Else clapping and cheering, watching women swooning and eying him up. We all had a great time that night, maybe too great a night. I’ll leave it to Cody to try and explain what happened next. I had fun, that’s all I’ll say. I had fun, and it wasn’t a big deal, not as big a deal as Cody might make it sound. It wasn’t a big deal.