Dearest Ophelia ##2
Written in Ommwriter, which doesn’t format anything. Sorry if it’s hard to read (if anyone reads it). This is draft2 of my “Dearest Ophelia” story which I wrote back in the day. Find version 1 here.
I attempted to write a story for Fiction Writing for a few days before giving up. All the scenarios I came up with were boring. I blame WftO for using up all my creative juices. Anyway, the prompt was a “Bear at the door” scenario.
A bear at the door scenario is basically:
Character is confronted by a problem
The problem is big
The problem must force the character to act
In order to act the character must resolve an inner conflict
P.S. I began writing this after no less than two beers. I am currently working on NUMBER FOUR and my story progressively got worse (I’m sure of it– but am not sober enough to really know it). So, this is also an exercise in WRITIN WHILE DRANKIN.
I watched Teniente General Andreas pen the letter to Ophelia while we sat in a makeshift tent in a small clearing of the Queen’s forest. The Spanish spring brought mosquitos and heat so oppressive that even the general had taken off much of his armor. The men slept outside, the few that had been given the first shift of guard duty stood sullen at the edges of the clearing, staring out into the inky black night. The cicadas — as plagued by the heat as we were — sang loudly. It was unlikely any man was asleep with the noise. The general sat silently for many minutes, smoking out of his long pipe. The light from his lantern cast eerie shadows across the walls of the tent as the smoke wafted upwards, casting a pall over his stern visage. At length he wrote, sitting next to him I couldn’t help but let my eyes wander over his page. His own gaze was cloudy, we were all tired and I could sense his own mind was far from this tent. He wrote to Ophelia.
Dearest Ophelia, It feels as though a whole life has passed us by since we lay side by side in your father’s orchard, and the sound of the cicadas sounded more like a sweet concert than the insistent droning that it takes on now.I have been given a letter of arrest for you, and those that stand under your rebellious flag against the Queen. In the letter it attests to treasonous behaviour, as well as murder. Ophelia, why you must fight in this war is beyond me — for while I have always known you to be a fighter, it never occured to me that you would abandon all that you love and attempt to bring chaos and disorder to our country. Before I left your mother sent word to me, she begged me to try and reason with you, as if I had no intention of doing so. Perhaps what you told her of us was only a half-truth, if so I wonder what else you kept from me, how long you had planned the assassination, your motives behind the murder of the Queen’s son. All of this I can only hope to learn with time. But I delay myself.
I write to you to beg, dearest Ophelia, to beg you to give up your colors, to tell your men to lay down their arms, their flag, and return escorted to the Queen’s tribunal and await trial for your most heinous crimes against a child, not even of age, and to seek repentence for your crime. Look around Ophelia, the forest only gets darker from here, we both know that your troup will tire long before I give up, and I assure you that I will find you. I shall send this letter by runner, my most trusted man, to your encampment. Perhaps you will see the wisdom of my words and await my arrival peacefully. Never forget that I love you, Yours always, Teniente General Andreas Ortega
He stared at the letter for what felt like an eternity, I could feel his heart beat as he placed his quill down and folded the letter over upon itself, and over again. He picked up the small copper dish beside the lamp and gently turned it sideways across the letter. Wax the color of congealed blood dripped down upon the letter. Three drops that looked like tears splattered upon the table as he lowered his seal. The General handed me the letter, ”Northwest, they’ll be heading across the river and into the hills. Make haste and make yourself known as you get close — I don’t need you needlessly dead as well. Ask for a letter in reply and wait at the river. We’ll be with you in no less than two days. I pray to God that this letter finds her well.” He said, placing the letter into my open hands. Stopping momentarily to pack his pipe again I extended a match. The smell of sulfur filled the room, reminding us both of the scene at the Queen’s estate.”I pray to God that she listens,” His soft tone showed the pain in his task, sent to track down the woman he loved and kill her, if necessary. A curt nod from him signalled the return of his composure, gesturing with a small motion of his pipe toward the flap in the tent he encouraged me, “Swiftly.”
Three days later on the bank of the river I heard the approach of the brigade. I stood at attention and waited. Some moments later I saw the General rush out of the treeline and come to me. He grabbed me by the arm and led me away, shouting back at the men to make camp. The sun was setting and the water would cool the night enough to let the men sleep soundly. When the sounds of the soldiers had turned into the collective gurgle of the stream he stopped me and stood inches away, whispering softly but hurriedly into my ear, “What news?”"None, my General, she penned a letter silently with no seal and broke camp immediately afterwards. I expect she’s four days away at our current pace. Her troup numbers just over ours at twenty three, though there were perhaps more unseen by myself. She is headed toward the mountains, I followed them some distance before turning back.” Upon my report I removed the letter from inside my breast pocket, he grabbed it from my hands and quickly opened it, scanning the words before the light disappeared. I have no shame in admitting I had read it again and again while I waited, though I would never admit it to the General. It read,
“Dearest Andreas Teniente General of Her Majesty the Queen’s Army, I did not expect that the Queen would entrust to you such an assignment, which makes my escape all the more unbearable to continue, but I must Andreas. For reasons you can not, will not, understand I have chosen my own path — just as you must. Those that I am fighting for do not have the luxory of lying in an orchard peacefully. The men, women, and children of the revolution are too busy being beaten, murdered, starved, and otherwise forced into what I can only call slavery of the soul.The world is a large place Andreas, and we only lived and understood a speck of it, a tiny droplet of water in the whole ocean. My eyes have been opened, and I now implore you to see — see for the first time the injustices done by the Queen. Your mission is not one of justice but instead a quest to quell the downtrodden. You are but one tiny oar that helps move the great ship of inequality forward. I have put down my paddle and have seen others do the same. I will not surrender to you, nor shall I await a trial that already has a chosen verdict. No, I will fight, and I will continue to do so until every drop of blood has been spilled from my body upon our land. Our land, I say this in the hope that you will see, with new light, what has happened to our land, our country, over these past years. I pray for you Andreas, I pray that you will understand what I am fighting for and join our cause. Until then, I can only run, and with the righteous speed of God I will forever outrun the Queen’s reign, until it forever crumbles and turns to dust under the heel of the People’s Republic, a new order that will represent all people within our lands, not the paltry few who have the power to oppress the voice of many.Your love, Ophelia — Capitan General of the People’s Army”
The last words were inscribed with such ferocity that the ink had bled and run across the page — looking more like veins than words. I had been moved by the letter, and saw the General shudder at the raw power that had gone into crafting the letter. We stood at length, the sun had long since set and still the General stood there, eyes upon the letter. He spoke softly, an utterance which was lost amid the gurgling water beside us. My request of him to repeat himself yielded nothing and we returned to camp in silence. He told me to sleep well, not as a suggestion but as a command. He entered his tent and sat there all night. I sat outside, watching the smoke slowly drift out until my head fell against my chest. The next morning the General exited his tent dressed only in light uniform, a pistol had replaced his sword and he ordered the men hurriedly to begin marching upstream. Declaring to them that we would soon complete our mission if we cut east upon the fork in the river. Upon his orders the camp burst into a hustle of activity, the men were spurred forward not only by his declaration but by the easy nights rest upon the bank. He pulled me aside as they broke camp, “We shall go on alone. Get provisions for two days, leave your armor and weapons,” he paused for a moment and added, “Immediately,” in a worried tone. I took off my armor, leaving it against the stone which I had kept watch over for three days. Our provisions I put in a small sack and hurried into the Generals tent and retrieved his pipe from where it lay, still smoldering upon the table. ”Quickly” He said, and we quietly stole across the river and into the woods. Two days into our silent journey I remembered the pipe, so mindfully taken from the Generals tent and produced it as we sat against the trees. We had slept barely a wink since departing from our main forces and I could sense the growing tension in the General. I cleared my throat as I offered the pipe to him, he offered a rare smile in thanks. Clearing my throat again I dared to speak, “General, may I speak?”As his pipe puffed and flared to light he nodded softly, exhaling a plume of gray smoke into the sky. ”Thank you, sir, might I ask a question?” Holding my breath I could feel his gaze become more focused. His pupils contracted into tiny pinpricks of ink. ”For now, simply Andreas will do.” He nodded his head as though acknowledging his own name for the first time. His mouth repeated silently Andreas before closing around his pipe.”Well, Ge- I mean Andreas, I was curious as to what the mission objective is. Or rather, what we two hope to accomplish in breaking away from our forces.”Following the statement which I had revised over and over again within my own head for two days I began to stutter an apology. I had no right to ask questions of the General, nor any direct order from the Queen. He stopped me with a hand, and passed his pipe into my own. ”It is not,” he began again, “I hope, no, I pray that Ophelia will see reason only upon seeing me, if at all. While I see her cause, and her causes for choosing it, I can not — I refuse their objectives. Their goal.”He retrieved his pipe once again, puffing twice or three times. ”But, Ge– Andreas, do you not sympathize with her actions? With those she is fighting for?”The words came out slowly, dripping out of my mouth as though refusing to leave my lips. If only they could climb back inside me — for who was I to ask questions of the Queen? ”Have you…” He paused, exhaling deeply, “ever been in love?” He questioned.”N…No sir, at least, I don’t think I have.” I replied. He extended his pipe once again and this time I took a small breath of it. ”You would know. It’s not something I can explain to you, but perhaps there is still time to find it. Let me try and explain, you would do anything I ask you to — correct?”"Yes sir, General sir.”"And if I asked you to kill a man you would do so unquestioningly, correct?”"Yes sir, General sir.”"And if I told you that man had a wife and three children, you would still follow orders, correct?”"Yes, sir.” ”And if I told you to kill the mother of those children, still yes sir?”I nodded silently, though I could feel drops of sweat beginning to pool across my forehead. ”And if I told you to kill the children?”"Sir…” I began, ”You would. You would do it.”I nodded. ”That is what love is like.”We sat for a moment longer, his pipe ran dry and he tapped it softly against his left boot. The heat of the day was just beginning to rise to an unbearable pitch as the General stood up. His foot stamping the still smoldering ash into the hard earth. He began to march again. “Tonight, tonight we find them. I ask you to love me and follow my orders exactly as I tell them to you. Whatever I say once we arrive you shall do it, understood?”Not pausing for a moment I replied, “Yes. Sir.”
Don’t need to finish it because IZ FO CLASS and IZ A DRAFT
