Chapter 1: The start of it all
The morning sun was just beginning to come over the horizon as the sound of a 3 year old baby started crying. Both still in bed, the female named Lynda rolled over still half asleep from a long night of getting the baby to bed. “Hun can you go see what Mindy needs? I’m way too tired from getting her to bed last night.”
“Sure” said Sinder. “She is probably hungry. She eats almost as much as me and she is just a child” he said getting out of bed and getting dressed. Lynda grins dozing off again “She sure does. She takes after you”
Sinder heads into the baby’s room and up to the cradle. When Mindy see’s her dad coming she stands up grasping the bars of the cradle trying to climb out to him. “Daddy me hungey.” She says whining. Sinder picks his daughter up and holds her. “How about pancakes?” he asks. Mindy’s eyes light up at the word and she squeals with delight “Yes yes yes!”
Sinder chuckles and takes her to the kitchen and puts her in her high chair then starts getting out the supplies needed to make breakfast. The smell of cooking blueberry pancakes starts wafting through the entire house. Lynda soon gets up after he starts cooking because she was hungry too. “Darn you and your pancakes” she said with a slight grin “they smell too good to stay asleep for long”
Sinder chuckles and sets the tables with the pancakes, syrup, and butter “well don’t let me keep you from eating them” he said. Mindy instantly starts grabbing pieces of the already cut up pancakes and smears the syrup on them and shovels handfuls into her mouth munching happily. “I swear hun. She definitely takes up after you in stomach. I remember before we started dateing in school I saw you most days just shoveling your lunch down. I don’t know how you two don’t get stomach aches from that.” She says while laughing slightly at how their child is eating. Sinder chuckles “Slow down there mindy. And Lynda if you remember correctly there were a lot of family members in my home when I was growing up. I learned better to get as much as you can BEFORE it’s all gone.” At that they are both laughing while Mindy’s face is being covered in syrup.
After a nice breakfast mindy is a mess of butter, syrup, and left over pancakes. “I’ll get the dishes hun. You just take care of the messy one over there” she said smiling. Mindy grins mischievously “Oopsy. Big messy.” She says with sticky fingers. “Now we can’t have that now can we mindy. Let’s get you cleaned up and you can play with Mr. quacky.” Says sinder taking mindy out of her chair. “Yay quacky!” she said squealing at the name of her favorite bath time toy.
After a bath sinder walks out carrying a freshly cleaned up 3 year old. “Lynda I think it’s about time to for a family outing. What do you think?” Lynda smiles and nods “That sounds like a great idea. Mindy where do you think we should go?” Mindy climbs up onto Sinder’s shoulders and says “Park! Me want to play on playground!” Both Sinder and Lynda chuckle and nod “sure lets all go to the park and play” they say.
So, they head out walking to the local park, Mindy running a little ahead “Mommy, daddy hurry!” she says speeding up eagerly. “Is that a challenge mindy?” sinder says with a grin. Lynda just chuckles and starts speeding up “better hurry or you will be beaten my girls” she says as both mindy and her start running. “Oh no you don’t, I will win” sinder says sprinting to get ahead. All 3 of them are a block away before sinder takes the lead “Ha ha looks like I’m winning guys” sinder says while winning. As he runs into the park mindy runs up close behind him and tackles him “I got you daddy” she says proudly. Sinder puts her on his shoulders and starts running around “No I got you mindy.” He says.
Lynda sits on the bench while they are running around “Mommy come play tag with us” says mindy. “Oh no I couldn’t possibly catch you two.” She says chuckling. “common you are just being chicken. I know you are fast” sinder says. He leans down and whispers to mindy “On 3 we chase her ok?” mindy grins “ok daddy” she whispers back. “one, two, three!” mindy and sinder both start running at Lynda. “ahh! No don’t catch me!” she yells as she bolts for the play ground. Unknown to them a tall man with a little muscle, and a robe is watching them judging sinder.
As the family is running around and playing the man starts chanting a spell. Sinder, having sensed something was up kept playing to see what was going to happen. The man raises a hand and a bolt of energy heads straight for them. Sinder quickly grabs Lynda and mindy and pull them to the ground nearly avoiding the bolt. “Daddy I’m scared what’s happening?” mindy asks. “Lynda take mindy and go home. I’ll deal with this. I’m not sure how long this will take so take good care of her” he says. Lynda nods, then picks up mindy and starts running away for home as another bolt strikes the ground at sinder’s feet clearly a challenge as he takes out his buckler and unsheathes his sword.
“Striking at my family was a mistake on your part” sinder says. The man starts chuckling. “what’s so funny. I’m gonna kill you and your lau-.” He is knocked out by a bolt to the back of the head as another man in robes walks up behind him “A fool this one is falling for the oldest trick in the book. If he hadn’t been focusing on his family he would have expected a sneak attack. He will make a fine soldier to our army.” the first man says. “Agreed. Hopefully this will turn the tide of battle” the second man says as they both pick up sinder and carry him off.
People in the pub start to gather around the traveler as he started to speak “It was a day like no other day” said Sinder. “You would think that a warrior such as yourself would be used to this kind of thing by now” said a townsman taking a sip of his ale. “Yes you would think that my friend” Sinder said with a slight grin at the corner of his mouth “but it does get tiring after a while when people don’t give you a break to even be with your family.”
“Why don’t they stop?” said another townsman. “I don’t really know. But if I had to take a guess I’d say….probably to try to prove they are better than me” said sinder, grin quickly fading from his face. “I even missed my baby daughter’s 3rd birthday party because someone just wouldn’t let up until they got me to fight.” He said with a sigh “my wife wasn’t very happy about that but we both knew it would have turned violent if he continued. Now let me tell my story”
All the townsmen around him quieted down to listen. “Good. Now like I said it was a day I couldn’t soon forget. The war was long, bloody and gruesome.”
