The
Toy
Hank is falling from the sky.
How did he get himself in this kind of trouble
again? He asks himself. The jump had to be a thousand feet above his head. The
ground is coming at him quickly, and no parachute to break his fall.
Hank closes his eyes at the expected impact. He makes
a soft “humph!” as he hits the earth. He takes a short shallow breath, and
slowly opens his eyes. He survived. He gets up slowly, and looks around. The
landscape is slightly familiar to the soldier, the ground softer than dirt or
wood. He was lucky…again. The strange patterns of the terrain did not match his
green camouflage pants or his solid dark green shirt.
There she was, maybe a few hundred feet away. His brown
eyed girl, trapped between two mountainous pillars, and surrounded by more than
nearly a dozen sworn enemies.
No time to wait and no time to lose, Hank springs
into action. She was beautiful as always, her long hair flowing, her big brown
eyes sparkled in the light. He could see the panic and fear on her face.
The first two attackers fell easy enough, and with a
roundhouse kick, three more thugs went down. All at once, five of the would-be
kidnappers jump on top of the fighter, he dispatches them in a matter of
minutes. Now it was just Hank and the ten-foot tall beast master.
The poor hero took two punches to the head and falls
hard, then he struggles to his feet just in time to miss being pummeled by the evil
creature, who had leapt in the air to crush Hank with both feet. This momentary
shock stuns the beast and Hank quickly takes advantage of the situation.
Seconds later, Hank stands over the huge foe, victorious. The skilled war hero,
wipes the sweat from his smooth face, and turns to untie the beautiful damsel.
He longs to finally get a chance to kiss her.
A booming sound comes from out of nowhere. A voice.
The sound fills the room like thunder from the sky.
Hank feels his strength leave him, “Not again!” Hank hears himself say. What is
this cursed voice and the spell it casts on the soldier? Hank lays on the soft,
cold floor. He cannot move his limbs, he is paralyzed. He is not alone; lying
just mere feet from him is the girl he risked his life to rescue. She looks at
him, the fear is gone from her eyes, but she too is unable to move. She, the
unnamed girl, the girl of his dreams, is helpless, and Hank can do nothing.
Night comes; the darkness creeps in the room where
the dashing hero continues to lay. The worst part for Hank isn’t the fact he can’t
move, this has happened more times than he can recall. It is the fact that once
again he had gotten so close to the beautiful girl, only to be denied talking
to her, or otherwise get to know her. Each time he manages to save her from
impending doom, she vanishes from his sight before he can get a chance to ask
her her name.
The lights come on, Hank can feel life coming back
to his limbs. Now is his chance to talk to the girl. Maybe, ask the girl her
name? Again, the brave soldier is denied. He feels the wind beating across his
body as if caught in a vortex. The motion stops, almost as suddenly as it had
started. Hank finds himself standing on a tall towering structure. He is
overlooking the entire kingdom he has fought so hard to protect for these many
years. “Why? Why, do I always end up here?” he can only ask himself in dire thought.
His body is so rigid, even his eyes are frozen in position. Occasionally, he can
detect shadows, or some kind of movement. It is large, with a full head of
blonde hair. The large creature never seems to bother anything, it is just
there lurking in the background.
Tonight, like all other nights, Hank will stand
there in silence. Although, unlike most nights his body is turned in an unusual
manner. He likes when this happens. He can see some of the thugs he had
recently fought against. Like him, they too find themselves stuck in the same situation.
The reason he likes this strange angle he now finds himself, is that he can see
her. With her long flowing hair, her big brown eyes, just standing there, she
looks so peaceful. “If only?” he thinks, again to himself. The misery of another
lonely night goes by.
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