Excerpt: Green Guard

He woke in the smooth circular room. There was no light , and no sound except his breathing. His head hurt. He rolled over and pushed up on his hands and knees. Carefully he felt around the floor was smooth, no edges or pits, no nap, no grain. Cautiously he crawled forward til his hand bumped a wall. He crawled til he was pressed against the wall, rolling against the wall he sat up. Reaching up over his head he felt along the wall. Going up on his knees, he continued to feel along the wall. Not feeling a ceiling slowly he rose pressing against the wall with his hands higher than his head till he was fully standing. Raising up on his toes slowly with his arms fully extended over his head he felt no ceiling. Carefully taking inventory he discovered he was wearing a long over shirt which reached his knees , no shoes no pants no stockings. No pockets, nothing in his hair, or around his neck. He slowly sat down. Feeling his eyes he tried closing them opening them , no difference. Holding his eyes open he slowly turned his head in both directions, lightless dark in all directions. He decided not to yell or make noise, yet. Stretching his arms to each side along the wall, he felt nothing but the same smooth surface at the floor. Carefully he slid down to his full height stretched out on the floor, keeping his arms touching the wall. He came back to the wall. He needed a marker, hesitating he stripped off his his tunic and wadded it up in a small ball putting it next to the wall. Placing one heel at the edge of the ball he carefully marked off heel to toe along the wall. Five steps along the wall, he felt an edge, dropping to the floor , and feeling long the bottom edge there was a raised gap almost a finger deep. Carefully he raised up feeling along the side the edge turned a hand above his head. He felt along the top edge almost four heel toe steps along he came to the other edge. Standing in front of the door, he felt the entire surface there were not breaks. At the bottom in the middle was a small swinging gate two and half hands high and three hands wide. Carefully he felt his way past the door and twenty- two more heel toe steps later he came back to his wadded robe. No other breaks or corners were in the room. He pulled the over shirt back on , it was not cold or hot but he still felt chilled. Thirty three steps around a circular room. A ceiling higher than his head, the room was probably 10 heel toe steps across a little less than twice his height. Know this he stretched out along the wall and rolled , yes just about two and half rolls. There was no ledge no hole no bucket no water no food. He had been thinking dungeon or prison.

It was time to start making noise. Maybe there was a keeper somewhere waiting on him to wake.

There just were not any words he wanted to yell. Still he edged along the wall to the door. He sat there poking the small flap. Finnially he found the words, “ hey, somebody , I have to pee now. Anybody, you forgot to put a pee bucket in this hole of a room. I could pee through this hole in the door but sooner or later I am going to need to poop. “ He started pounding on the door. The noise seemed too small. And his hands hurt. Finally after some thought he counted off fifteen toe heel steps to the opposite side of the room and discovered a bucket on the opposite side of the door. “ I know that this was not here earlier. “ Feeling inside it was empty, “food and water maybe cider would be good, if you can put a bucket here surely you can feed a hungry growing boy.” The flap thunked, and a sliding sound came from the opposite side of the room. Then futher away came the sound of a door slamming shut. Feeling his way back to the door , he discovered a small bowl of steaming liquid with lumps and a wrapped loaf shape object. Unwrapping the loaf he realized he had an oil cloth large enough to cover the bucket . The steaming liquid turned out to be a weak broth with turnips and the loaf was stuffed with meat and cheese. Gratefully he consumed the evidence that he was not going to be left to starve, and used the bucket to relieve himself covering it with the oilcloth to contain the smell. After some thought he dragged the bucket to the door and pushed it carefully through. Cushioning his head on his arms he closed his eyes tired of straining to see against the dark and drifted off to sleep.

There was a field of green that stretched on far as he looked. At the very edge of green was an hazy outline of a forrest. He was filled with wonder the great forrest. He was pushed from behind turning there was a glowing roan stallion with a white blaze on his nose and white felocks. The light danced off the glistening coat. The Roan nosed him again , a gleam in his eye. Laughing , He vaulted to the back of the Roan. Together they galloped toward the hazy forest the wind streaming in his face. There was a thundering of hoove, to the right Henry saw a larger black stallion easily catching up with them thundering past and circling them. Laughing at the stallions antics , He and the roan kept going toward the forest. Soon he could hear more hoofs pounding behind him, glancing over his shoulder there were a pair of matched greys keeping pace and behind them a brown mare was trotting along. The black stallion would circle all occasionally as if herding all the horses to follow . “Not alone , “ he mummered as he opened his eyes once more to darkness.