The Shadow of War
Author's Note: This is my entry for the 7th annual Short Story Speed Writing Contest. I'm going with a fairytale like feel due to my recent infatuation of Once Upon a Time. It's on Netflix and besides the fairytale elements I think the writing is just fantastic. I also began re-reading the Brothers Grimm stories so my style here is inspired by these sources. For those of you familiar with my 2012 SSSW entry Field Marshall WHO? I'm using that same Schultz family of Friedrich, Marta, Hans, Gretel, and Ernst with mama Gretchen.
Once upon a time there lived a man. He was not a particularly handsome man nor the richest but he was a kind man. He was the type to always help someone in distress, whether they were neighbor or stranger. He cared little for fighting as he had gone off to war as a young man and while earning many medals for bravery had seen his fair share of the miserable destruction. So it was that after he returned from war and married his childhood sweetheart, he began his career as a toymaker.
In those years after the war, his country lay in ruins for they had lost their king and army in addition to the war. Now their former enemies dictated what was to be done with them and imposed heavy fines upon the land as part of the treaty that ended the war. The great armies were stripped away so they might never again threaten the world and the proud kingdom became a weak democracy-something the enemy boasted was the finest kind of government there was. And when all of this was done, that country was left to rebuild itself as the other nations retreated to their shores to do the same.
Times were difficult but the toymaker persevered, for he was a man that wanted nothing more than to bring joy into the hearts of children and adults alike. His talent became noticed and soon he earned enough in selling the toys he crafted to hire help around his shop. Then he earned more and he could purchase a larger and finer shop than the one out of his home. This continued until just before the birth of his firstborn child he held enough coin to purchase a grand toy making factory that employed many people. He was still not the richest man in all the land-for there were plenty of old nobility and others that held riches long before he returned from war- but it was enough, for now he made some of the most beautiful toys anybody had ever seen. Some said it was the talent of those who worked there that made the toys so wonderful but others said it was because the toymaker in charge stayed kind toward his workers and their loyalty towards him gave the toys their magic. Indeed for all his modest riches, the toymaker remained a happy, gentle man and so he was blessed with a large family as well.
But even as the toymaker prospered, so did another man. This man was small where the toymaker was tall, dark where he was fair, and cruel where he was kind. However this other man held great charisma, so much so that despite his many undesirable qualities he could inspire anyone to do anything with a few silver tongued words. And how very clever he was with these words for he too, took away the people's misery-by promising how great the country could become again if only they gathered enough strength to push back against those who had weakened them. And for all the people that scoffed at his speech and him, there were more that flocked to his movement. People desperate to gain prosperity again and people that wanted nothing more than revenge and violence. So it was that a dark shadow began to grow over the land as the clever little man spun his tales, attracted followers and used the government's new rules to gain power.
The toymaker and his wife watched this with unease as time flew by and their children grew older-for they could see where trouble started and the clever little man was nothing but trouble. For all their wealth and all their beautiful toys though, they could do nothing to truly stop this shadow from devouring the land. Nothing except continue to be kind in a time when cruelness abounded to those who had been marked for slaughter and blame. They spoke truth to the children when the schools began with lies and stood brave for their friends where others turned their backs.
But even their nobility was not enough as the shadow took over the government entirely and not twenty years after the kingdom fell the clever little man established himself as a new sort of king-a man higher than a king and far, far crueler. And the people he blamed in his hatred, the people who had watched with helpless terror as the noose tightened about their necks over the years began to vanish, city by city. Many celebrated for the land was growing as glorious as it had once been and the man had secretly raised the grand armies again, in defiance of the long ago treaty. These armies he used to gain back lands that had once been part of the proud kingdom before the first war. Worst of all much of this the world had observed and done nothing for they too, scoffed at the idea of him truly doing anything terrible. They had grown lax in the years after the war and no longer harbored the idea that the former kingdom could do any harm to the world.
So it was that upon the twelfth birthday of the toymaker's eldest child, the grand armies of the Fatherland marched into a land that had never been part of it in the first place and claimed it in the name of the greater glory that the clever little man so boasted about. There was little hiding it and it wasn't very long at all before everyone across the world heard of the invasion and reeled from the shock of it all. But the ones reeling the most perhaps were the citizens of the Fatherland itself.
The toymaker's eldest, a boy called Friedrich turned to his father that day and asked, "What does this mean Papa?" As he spoke his four siblings all quieted, even the youngest, Ernst, who was just four years old. His mother Gretchen also remained quiet, setting down her sewing to wait for her husband's answer.
The toymaker paused, setting down the beer he had stopped drinking at the radio's announcement and gathered his words. When he spoke at last, his customary cheer was replaced by a sadness that made him seem a hundred years older than he was. It was the sadness of a soldier who knew the cost of war all too well. It's the simple things in life you treasure and war was ruthless in destroying them. "It means peace has died in the name of war." And he did not pick up his beer to drink but bowed his head in prayer for all the children across the world that would be lost in the pursuit of one man's vision.
THE END
End Author's Note: It's the simple things in life you treasure comes from Fred Kwan/Tech Sergeant Chen in Galaxy Quest. Sorry for the shortness of this-I'm so busy working now I had to write this on the night of June 5th and the morning of June 6th. It was literally speed writing.