UnChosen

(set:$shove to false) "Come on, throw the ball harder!" I shout. //Jeez, why is Calvin such a wuss?// "I can't!" he replies, "You'll hit me with it!" //This again...// I sigh, adjust my hat, and tap my bat against my foot. "Listen, Cal, I need to practice, and you promised to help me. If you're still worried about my aim, just hit the deck after you throw!" "But Tara, last time you-" "''No `'`buts`'`!''" I snap, "This isn't complicated. I want my team to ''win'' a game for once. If no one else is going to get better, that means I'm the one who has to pick up the slack. Now throw the damn ball!" Calvin at last winds his arms up to pitch. //Why am I friends with him, anyway? Pity? Whatever, here it comes...// I swing, striking the baseball with a resounding crack, and it goes flying. "''Whoo!'' Did you see that!? Now that's a home run!" "Yeah, you knocked it out of the park," Calvin sighs as he walks over to me, "Literally. I think it landed in the woods somewhere." The rush of adrenaline from my amazing swing comes down, and I realize that Calvin's right. The ball is somewhere in the woods, and there's maybe an hour before sunset. "I guess we can call it quits for today. Will you help me find the ball?" Of course, it's not a request on my part. [[In The Woods|InTheWoods]]

//Agh, this is hopeless! You'd think a basedball would stand out in the woods.// I call out to Calvin, "Have you seen anything?" "Nothing," Calvin called back to me, "Maybe we should just go home? It's only a baseball." I didn't want to admit I was thinking the same way. "Just a little longer, okay? We've still got like, half an hour before dark." "That's a long time for us not to find anything. These woods aren't exactly safe at night you kno''what the heck!?''" Calvin's words blend together into a yelp, and I rush to his side. As I come to a halt, I see what spooked him. "I don't remember there being a cave here..." is the only thing I can think of to say. It isn't so much a cave as a fissure, resembling a jagged claw mark. The mouth looks about thirty feet across, and the ground slopes away at a sharp angle that makes viewing the interior from the entrance impossible. "It looks new," he says while running his hands through the upturned soil by the opening, "But that isn't be possible. We don't get earthquakes around here." He pulls out his phone and activates the flashlight. A single streak of disturbed earth, roughly the width of my hand, trails down into the darkness. "No." //Well that was quick.// "You don't even know what I was going to-" "We're not going into the cave to look for your ball, Tara," Calvin says, "That's reckless, even for you." //Damn, he's adamant about it this time. Oh well, guess I'll just have to persuade him. Now, should I do this the easy way, or the fun way?// [[Push Calvin Down the Slope|Push]] [[Go Into the Cave Alone|Pull]]

(set:$shove to true) "Alright, we won't go into the cave looking for the ball," I say, "I'll go in after you 'accidentally' fall in." Without giving Calvin a chance to respond, I push him so that he goes tumbling down the slope. //Ugh, he has such a girly scream. No wonder I'm his only friend.// Ten feet down, Calvin scrambles in the dark trying to find his phone. I activate the light on mine, and point it around until I see the dropped phone. "What is ''wrong'' with you?" he says as he snatches the phone up and checks it for damage. "Don't be such a baby, Cal," I reply, "It was just a few feet of mud, not the Grand Canyon! Now come on, let's go find the ball. Sooner we do, sooner you can leave." "And why should I help you after you pushed me like that?" "You wouldn't leave me all alone down here, would you?" I raise the pitch of my voice and bat my eyes at him. Calvin's eye twitches, but he walks off into the dark, using his phone as a flashlight. //Hook, line, and sinker.// [[In the Cave|InTheCave]]

(set:$shove to false) "Alright, you win. We're not going into the cave," I say, walking past Calvin, "You can stay up here by yourself." "Tara!" he calls after me as I walk off into the darkness. Once I'm out of sight of the entrance, I stop. Soon enough, a light appears from around the corner. "Come on, you know this isn't safe," Cal scolds me. "You still followed me, though," I reply, flashing him an innocent smile, "Look, five minutes. That's all I ask." "No way. It's just a baseball, you can always get a new one." I pull my phone out of my pocket and turn the light on. "You can go back if you want; I don't need you here," I point out. Calvin's eye twitches with annoyance. //Hook, line, and sinker.// "Fine, have it your way," he grumbles, "I'll stay for five minutes, then we're leaving ''together'', got it?" "'Kay!" my voice echoes about. //Now, where could that ball be?// [[In the Cave|InTheCave]]

I don't know what I was expecting, but the cave is... normal. The walls are rough hewn and without any support beams to hold up the ceiling, though it gets more cramped the deeper we go. The occasional clump of moss is the only sign of life, and everything is silent aside from our footsteps. Despite the trail at the entrance, there is no immediate sign of my ball. "Can we please go back now?" Calvin whines, "I don't want to get lost." "It's a straight line, Cal," I point out, "Okay, more like a wave, but no forks either. Besides, it's only been two minutes. Grow a spine, will you?" The path widens, and we come to a larger area, a proper 'room', maybe twenty feet in all dimensions. I see my ball on the ground in the middle of the room, but my eye is drawn to something behind it. "Is that a sword?" Calvin asks. He seems to be right. Thrust into a slab of carved stone in the center of the chamber is a large sword. As I approach the altar, Calvin grabs my shoulder to stop me. "Please don't. I have a bad feeling about this." "Come on, it's just a sword..." I mutter. All things considered, I think Calvin's feeling might be right, but my curiosity trumps my fear. "It's probably like Excalibur, or something. Wouldn't that be awesome if one of us could pull it free?" "You're thinking of the Sword in the Stone, and that's not an excuse, and you're not listening to me, are you?" Calvin drones in the background as I examine the sword up close. Using my bat to get a rough size estimate, I realize that the sword is huge: the cross guard isn't quite as wide as the bat is long, and the visible portion of the blade is twice the bat's diameter even at its narrowest. It has a series of runes etched into it, in a language I don't recognize. The hilt has a strange design: rather than being a single piece, it consists of four strands of metal that spiral around each other and curve outward at the end, resembling a frayed rope. //Might as well...// I wrap my hands around the hilt and pull... [[Free the Sword|Unchosen]]

I tug, twist, and yank, but nothing happens. The sword refuses to budge, and I'm left with sore palms from gripping the rusty hilt. "Man, it's in there good!" I call out to Calvin as I scoop my bat up from the ground, "Guess I'm not the chosen one or whatever." "Quit messing around," he replies. (if: $shove) [//Guess I'll be doing this the hard way, too.// I grab Calvin and drag him up to the altar. "Just try to pull it out. I promise we'll leave after you give it a good yank."] (else:) [//So typical of him...// "Hey, Cal, don't you want to try to pull it out? You always liked fantasy stories..." At first he seems like he doesn't want to, so I continue, "We'll leave right after you give it pull. Promise."] Calvin wraps his left hand around the hilt first, but before he can grab it with his other hand, the sword begins to glow. He yelps as the hilt twists apart and wraps itself around his wrist. "Tara! Help!" I try to grab his hand to free it, but my fingers stop as if they hit a glass wall. //Huh? Why can't I touch him?// I have little time to contemplate the invisible force preventing me from touching my friend before I'm knocked backwards. The glow from the sword intensifies until I can no longer see. I hear a pop, the sound of Calvin yelping once more, and the clang of metal against stone. When the glow subsides and my eyes adjust to the dark, I turn on my flashlight again to see Calvin huddled on the ground. And I laugh. I can't help myself. "What's so funny?" he whimpers. All I can do is point at him. He looks at where I'm pointing, and realizes what I'm laughing at. "Ah!? What happened to my clothes!?" His fear turns to embarrassment upon discovering that his tee shirt and jeans have been replaced by a pink dress with frilly ribbons along the hem, puffed sleeves, jeweled buttons that sparkle as I shine the light on them. Once I catch my breath, I walk to the far side of the room and help him to his feet. "Hey, look on the bright side. That getup looks like it's worth a lot more than your old clothes were!" "This isn't funny!" he shouts back, waving his arms. There's a thick bracelet attached to his left wrist. I catch his hand to take a better look at it. "Huh..." I mumble, "These look like the runes that were on the sword..." My examination is cut short by a clicking sound. [[Creatures in the Dark|TheClicking]]

"What the heck is that thing!?" Calvin screams as he hides behind me. Time seems to stop while I stare at the strange being barring the way out of the chamber. The meager light from my phone doesn't reveal much of its form. All I can really see is the yellow reflection of its eyes towering above me, darting about as it twitches closer like a spider. It makes an awful clicking noise as it moves. Calvin squeezes my arm, snapping me out of my trance. "Keep the light on it, and get ready to run," I whisper to him, passing him my phone. //Whatever that thing is, it does ''not'' look friendly.// I dash over to the altar and scoop my bat off the ground before charging the creature. I yell at the top of my lungs while swinging the bat with all my might, but the creature ducks under my swing and makes a bee-line for Calvin. To Calvin's credit, he tries to punch it. The keyword being 'tries'. It ends up shoving him to the ground after he strikes it with all the force of a wet rag. //It's out of my way. I could just run. But...// Whatever Calvin is to me, I can't abandon him. So I charge the creature, now hunched over, and this time, it doesn't move out of the way. Once. The bat bounces off. Twice. My fingers start to sting. Thrice. My wrists ache. Four times I strike its skull and my bat audibly cracks. One more swing and it snaps in two, but the creature falls to the side. I stand there, breathing and still clutching the shattered remains of my weapon, when Calvin grabs my hand and pulls me away. Everything is a blur of darkness and running. [[Daylight Once More|Outside]]

We scramble up the slope and don't stop running until the cave is far behind us. Once we're sure we've lost it, we stop to get our bearings. (if: !$shove) ["Are you okay?" I ask Calvin, looking him over. Ridiculous outfit aside, he seems to be uninjured. His hair is sticking to his forehead, covering one of his eyes. //He really does look like a princess or something...//] I take a look around, realizing the woods look different. The trees all have bright leaves with strange colors, such as blue and violet. The sky is a pale green. I don't get a chance to comment on it. "Greetings, noble hero of the sword!" a deep voice calls out to us. I turn to see a tall, slender man in a garb similar to the dress Calvin got stuck in. He strokes a long white beard as he approaches. "Greetings, and welcome to our kingdom of Kiqara! Come, we have much to discuss!" I step between the strange man and Calvin. Arms shaking and bloodied, I point what's left of my bat at him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, watch it buddy!" I shout, "Who the hell are you? And where on Earth is Kiqara?" "I have no obligation to answer such questions to you," he replies. His face doesn't change, but I hear a subtle shift in his tone. His eyes look past me, at Calvin, and he continues, "But as you are traveling with the hero, I shall answer. I am Alfwold, Kiqara's chief magician. As for where on Earth Kiqara is, 'nowhere' would have to be the answer. You are no longer on Earth. Now, chosen one," his tone shifts back to normal, "You have passed the trial and obtained the holy sword. Let us be off to the capital so you may be inducted into the court as the legendary hero you are!" //This is really fishy...// I keep the bat pointed at Alfwold, refusing to budge despite the pain in my arms. "I don't know what you're playing at with this legendary hero crap, but Calvin doesn't fit the bill. If that monster in the cave was your 'trial,' I'm the one who fought it off. And if you want to take Calvin with you, you're going to have to go through me." Calvin puts his hand on my shoulder, (if: $shove) [and shoves me aside. "Cal?" I don't know how to react. He turns around, a cold look in his eyes. "Weren't you telling me I should grow a spine?" he sneers, "I don't need you. I'm a hero here. You got me into this mess, Tara, the way you always do. You can get yourself out of it this time." I reach out to stop him from going, and Alfwold points a finger at me. He says something in a strange language, and I find myself growing sleepy... The End?] (else:) [and says, "I think we should go with him." "Cal, what's gotten into you?" I ask, "You're never this reckless." I'm reluctant to turn away from Alfwold, but Calvin turns me around. "Weren't you telling me I should grow a spine?" he replies, "I don't know where we are, but it can't hurt to see what this guy has to offer us." He smoothes his hair and gives me a reassuring smile. "My offer extends only to you, chosen one," Alfwold insists, "The girl may not come with us." Calvin shakes his head. "That's no good. Tara is my knight in shining armor. Without her, I never would have found the sword. You either take both of us, or neither." The magician raises an eyebrow, but after a while, replies, "Very well. But I must insist upon proper attire if she is to be your knight." He snaps his fingers, and I feel an itching sensation as my clothes rearange themselves. A moment later, I'm wearing a suit of chainmail, lime green in color. //Hideous...// The remains of my bat have also changed, becoming a bright orange mace. "Now, may we proceed?" Calvin and I follow the magician out of the woods, but I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. //At least Cal's got me to look after him, right?// The Beginning?]