Tent #12

Unnamed Town

Gunter Abel woke from his sleep. He vacantly stared at the warm wooden ceiling and spent a moment gathering himself.

“Are you up, my love?” A sweet voice called out from his side. Turning his head, a content smile filled Gunter’s face as he saw the figure of his wife busily folding some clothes.

“Aye. I am now, love,” Gunter replied and rose from his bed. Stretching his stiff limbs and legs, he then walked over towards his wife and gave her a little kiss on her forehead.

Scrunching her brows in revulsion, she complained, “Your breath stinks. Go and wash up.” She handed him an empty wooden bucket containing a towel.

After receiving the items, Gunter gave her a quick peck on her lips and quickly ran out of the clothed partition. He was immediately greeted with the sight of four or five other people busily moving about as they got ready for the day.

“Oi, Gunter! You’re up!” A man greeted seeing Gunter walk out of his section of the shared residence.

“Aye. Good morn’in to you too, Adrian.” Gunter replied and nodded to the others along the way as he headed out of the shared residence.

A draft of cold, morning wind hit Gunter the moment he walked out of the tent-like structure. Pulling in his woolen coat to guard against the weather, he quickly walked around the corner of the structure and arrived at its back. There, he came across a wooden barrel containing water from the river.

Walking up to it and filling his wooden bowl with the water, Gunter then headed off towards one of the many wooden shacks lined up near. Entering one of the empty ones, he closed its door and went about his morning duty.

Fifteen minutes later, Gunter opened the door to the shack and came out enlivened and spirited. The wooden bowl in his hand was once again empty, but the towel hung wet against his shoulder.

As he walked back towards the entrance of the shared residence, he encountered his good friend, Lloyd Hearth.

“Good morn’in, Lloyd,” Gunter greeted.

“Ah? Gunter! Just the man I wanted to see!” Lloyd returned his greeting uproariously. “Ya still remember yer promise, right?” He asked.

Rolling his eyes at the question, Gunter replied, “Yes, yes. I’ll help you move out your stuff.”

Llyod’s home was scheduled for dismantling and reconstruction today. Earlier, he had extracted a promise from Gunter to help him in moving out his and his family’s items from the house before the construction crew could begin their work.

Now that he thought about it and the amount of effort that would be involved in doing it, Gunter slightly regretted his choice to offer help.

“Thanks! I owe ya one for the help!”

Now that sweetened the deal a bit. Just a little bit.

“Do we head over now?” Lloyd asked. He was a little anxious to start moving since he didn’t want to turn up late for his job. Heaven knows that the foreman wouldn’t appreciate it.

“Wait a moment. I’ll change my clothes first and then we can leave,” Gunter explained and entered the residence after receiving Lloyd’s reply.

He passed by the walls of curtains once more before entering one of his own. Inside, he found his wife in the process of changing her clothes.

“Close the curtain quickly! You don’t want the others to see me, do you?” His wife urged anxiously.

“Not like this, I don’t,” Gunter laughed in response and quickly closed the curtain behind him. He then changed his own clothes while being subject to snarky teases from his wife.

Five minutes later, the couple left the shared residence. Gunter’s wife upon seeing Llyod greeted him. “Hello, Lloyd! How’s Beatrice? Gosh, I haven’t seen her in some time.”

“She’s doing well. Kept complaining about her back hurt from shoveling dirt and clay all day,” Lloyd answered. He then turned to face Gunter and asked, “Shall we go?”

“Go where?” Gunter’s wife asked curiously.

“To help him move his stuff,” Gunter blandly replied.

“Oh, your houses are finally up for reconstruction, huh?”

“It finally is! And let me tell ya, I’m glad that it's happening,” Lloyd immediately replied. Playfully punching Gunter on the shoulder, he continued, “Now I can finally show up to work all fresh and spirited like this guy.”

“That’s going to be a bit hard with Beatrice around,” Gunter joked, earning a pinching from his wife.

“Hahaha! That’s so true!!” Lloyd didn’t seem to mind the joke and laughed roaringly.

The three then continued to make conversation while heading towards their destinations. Before long, they separated.

“I’ll see you in the evening then?” Gunter asked his wife to which she replied.

“Right.” She then clenched her fists and heroically spoke, “Today’s going to be the day that I finally put some manners into that Jacob brat! For too long he’s gone unspanked!”

“Don’t terrorize the children too much,” Gunter helplessly replied. His advice was almost immediately disregarded by his wife.

“Be careful while moving the stuff, ya hear me? You don’t wanna put out your back,” Gunter’s wife warned and the group separated.

“She’s a fun one, yer wife,” Lloyd commented.

“That she is,” Gunter smilingly agreed.

“When are ya having some kids?” Lloyd asked. This time, Gunter’s reply wasn’t very quick.

A pained, disappointed look flashed across his face but was quickly hidden by a fake mask of indifference. While trying his best to maintain a stable tone, Gunter replied, “After things properly settle down. Right now, it isn’t the proper time to have kids.”

“That is true,” Lloyd agreed with him. “Although, things have been looking up ever since that little prince arrived. This town is truly blessed to have him, I’ll tell ya that.”

Gunter didn’t reply but instead nodded. His mood seemed to have soured a bit after the conversation as he kept his replies to a minimum after that. Sensing his dear friend’s sour mood, Lloyd wisely decided to stay quiet.

The duo arrived at Lloyd’s shoddy residence where they were met with his wife, Beatrice. After some small talk, they quickly got to work. The moving smoothly ensued.

After an hour of back-breaking work, Gunter waved goodbye to Llyod and his wife and left the scene. The majority of the work had been completed and the remaining tasks did not require his presence. The hard work had also cleared up his mood, wiping away that previous feeling of sourness almost entirely.

After looking at the sky, Gunter noted that he had around an hour or less before he had to begin his work at the mining site. He quickly rushed to the mostly-empty Feeding Shack and received his daily allowance of hot food.

“The weather’s a bit chilly today, isn’t it?” Gunther made some small talk with the serving staff while waiting for his bowl to be filled.

“Haven’t noticed. It’s warm where I am,” replied the server, pointing to the multiple burning stoves before him. He then filled up a bowl with steaming hot gruel and handed it over to Guter. “Here ya go.”

“Thank you,” Gunter thanked the man. After receiving the bowl, he walked towards a random, empty bench and sat down. Placing the bowl on the crude table before him, he muttered a small prayer before digging into the bowl with a spoon.

‘That’s odd.’ He thought to himself as the first spoonful of gruel slid down his throat. ‘It feels a bit chalky and coarse. The taste is also a bit odd.’ It tasted bland and was a bit hard to swallow down his throat.

After thinking it over for a few seconds, Gunter shrugged his shoulders and quickly chugged the contents down his throat. He figured that he was thinking too much and threw away his suspicions.

After finishing his meal, he returned the bowl to the canteen worker and quickly rushed out. He now had only about fifteen minutes or so before which he had to report to work in the eastern part of the town. The mining team did a headcount in the town every day before they headed towards the mining site. Getting to the eastern part from the Feeding Shack would take him ten minutes on a good day.

Gunter ran like hell. He barely made it in time.

“Alright. Just about everyone seems to be–” Jason, Foreman of the Coal Mine, was just about to tally his count when he was suddenly interrupted.

“I’M HERE! I’M HERE!” Lloyd arrived while crying at the top of his lungs.

“Join the lines,” Jason coldly ordered before finishing his tally.

Meanwhile, Lloyd made his way through the lines and arrived next to Gunter. His face was beaded with sweat and his back was almost entirely drenched. His chest heaved with exhaustion causing him to huff and puff.

“Are you okay?” Gunter concernedly asked.

Lloyd simply waved at him signifying that he was fine. He was simply a little out of breath.

“Did you eat?” Gunter followed with another question.

“Nah,” Lloyd replied, straightening his back and stretching out his waist. “If I'd stopped by to eat, I would’ve definitely been late. The foreman would’ve chewed me and spat me out like a dog’s bone.”

Gunter chuckled at his friend’s reply and the two continued their good-natured conversation.

A few minutes later, the group of coal miners began their march towards the mining site under the foreman’s lead. After working there for the last five days, everyone was more or less familiar with the route hence there was little tension within the group.

The march lasted for just under an hour and a half –courtesy of having half the route cleared by the woodcutters– and the miners arrived without any incident. Being familiar with their duty, they neatly entered the tool sheds in proper lines, retrieved their tools, changed their clothes into something more appropriate for the work, and entered the mines.

Work began.

The day passed monotonously and the only break was for lunch at the Field Kitchen. This time, Gunter found nothing unordinary about his food, hence reinforcing the idea that his meal in the morning was a fluke. After lunch, the miners resumed their duties once again and the working day soon came to an end.

After retiring their tools, changing their clothes, and resting for half an hour, the time came for the workers to return to the town. Once again, all workers lined up and they began their march back to the town.

Thirty minutes into the walk, Gunter suddenly flinched.

“What’s wrong?” Lloyd, who walked next to him, questioned his friend on his sudden startlement.

“I think a drop of water just hit my nose,” Gunter replied unsurely.

“You think a drop of water hit your nose?” Lloyd frowned. Just as he was about to continue with his question, he also flinched.

“A drop of water just hit my nose!” Lloyd exclaimed.

“That’s what I said!” Gunter rebuked.

Clamour soon spread amongst the miners as more and more people started noticing the falling rain. The interval between the falling raindrops rapidly shortened and before long, it had begun to rain.

And then, it started to pour.

“F*CK!” Jason cursed at the sudden change in weather. All day long there had been no signs of bad weather. It had come suddenly and caught everyone unprepared.

“Quiet down, lads! Let’s continue onward” Jason roared at the clamoring crowd. Due to the pouring rain, his voice traveled only so far before being drowned out by the weather. Fortunately, the miners were sensible people who quickly repeated his instruction to the rest of the workers.

Having received their order, the group began to trudge on forward through the pouring rain. It was difficult, especially since they carried a small load of coal on-person, but it wasn’t all that impossible.

“Couldn’t this accursed weather come a little later? I would’ve been home by then,” Lloyd complained.

“Look on the bright side,” Gunter encouraged. “You make it through this weather, you have a nice, warm bed waiting for you back in town.”

“Right!” Lloyd slapped his head. “I forgot about the new houses!” Strength seemed to have entered his body as he straightened his back and trudged forward.

Gunter chuckled at his behavior and continued to walk in measured steps. He wasn’t as strong or well-built as his friend and therefore needed to be smart in order to conserve his stamina.

Ten minutes later, the rain intensified yet again. Now, it was a proper downpour.

While others complained and cursed at the weather, Gunter kept his silence. Not because he didn’t feel any grievances towards the weather, but because he was too tired to waste any energy complaining.

With his head lowered and back slouched, Gunter continued to march forward. His tiredness was becoming more and more noticeable.

‘I need to distract myself.’ In order to stop thinking about his tiredness, Gunter shifted his attention elsewhere. He really didn’t have any energy to engage in conversation with his coworkers –neither did they– and thus settled on looking closely at his surroundings.

As he peered into the dark, rainy forest, Gunter soon noticed something.

‘Is there something… moving in there?’ He could’ve sworn that he saw something move behind the trees!

Just as he was about to consult his query with his friend, Gunter suddenly froze in his tracks. His pupils widened and his heart skipped a beat in shock.

A clear pair of eyes stared at him from within the forest. Eyes that were filled with coldness and brutality.

Howl!

“WOLVES!! THERE ARE WOLVES WITHIN THE FOREST!”