Week 11 Story, The Battle

Ush-Goth was tired.  Warring and raging and all sorts of barbarian things required rest.  That wizard guy was stupid for spending sleeping time reading, everyone knows that time is only for fighting, sleeping, and eating, Ush-Goth thought.  He found the shadiest tree he could find, threw his animal fur cloak over himself, made sure his trusty battle-ax was next to him, and fell asleep. Several good dreams of raiding, pillaging, and cracking skulls later, he was awoken by a great thumping noise and a massive pain in his skull.  This was the moment that Ush-Goth lived for, he sprang into action, in one smooth motion leaping to his feat, grabbing his battle-ax, and rushing off to warn his companions, who had given themselves some fancy name that he could not recall at the moment.

Barbarian, from pinterest

The first person Ush-Goth encounetered was Adalard, the Rogue, who asked Ush-Goth why he was running.  Ush-Goth's only response when he ran past was, "big fight, warn others."  So Adalard followed after Ush-Goth to warn the rest of the Quintet of Capriciousness.  The soon ran into Luna the Ranger, who also heard the warning and joined them in finding the others.  Likewise, Dro'Vahkin the Wizard aided them in their flight.  Finally, they encountered Sir Uther the Paladin, who, upon hearing that the party was under attack, had the presence of mind to ask where.  In response, Dro'Vahkin pointed at Luna, who said that Adalard told her, who in turn said that Ush-Goth was the one who first delivered the warning.  Sir Uther asked Ush-Goth to show them all where the enemies were, so off they went back to the sleeping tree. 

Once they got there, there were no enemies to be see anywhere.  Sir Uther used his perception to have a look around, and when he did he found a large walnut on the ground.  He realized that the walnut fell right where Ush-Goth was sleeping, and must have been what had woken him up.  He reported this to the rest of the Quintet, who had a good laugh at the expense of Ush-Goth.  Ush-Goth, however, felt no embarrassment, and swore up and down to the rest of the party that he saved their life by warning them of an attack.  

Author's Note:

This week, I rewrote the story The End of the World, where a rabbit is sleeping and woken up by a fruit falling on his head.  Not realizing this, he dashes off through the forest, warning the zebras, the giraffes, and all other animals of the danger awaiting them, the end of the world.  This snowballs throughout the forest, until the animals come across the lion, who asks what is going on.  The animals all blame each other for the story's origin, until it is finally traced back to the rabbit.  The lion takes the rabbit back to investigate, where they both discover that a nut was the cause of the rabbit's panic.  For this story, I made Ush-Goth play the role of panic spreader, due to barbarians being famous for their somewhat low intelligence.  Like the Lion, Sir Uther gets to the bottom of the issue and realizes that it was just a case of jumping to conclusions, showing that sometimes people should take a step back and evaluate the situation.  However, in this case, Ush-Goth is not repentant, because he lacks the intelligence/common sense to realize what he did wrong.  

Bibliography

Twenty Jataka Tales, The End of the World, Noor Inayat