This short chapter is at least half-focused on Stendy.
Chapter 24
After three minutes of hiking, we stopped along a small waterfall that poured itself into a small pond located on the left side of the trail. The five of us sat silently on a log, and after the long day of traveling, we all decided it was best that we rested for about twenty minutes or so before we continue on to the Hall of Valor, which is only about a four minute walk from here at most. Because we're in Sovngarde, there is no cell phone reception, so I don't know what the time is, and it doesn't seem like the space sky ever changes. The five of us began to eat and drink again. Looking into the water, I could see my own reflection, and the fish that swam underneath.
The swimming fish reminded me of how I hated fishing. That thought also reminded me of how I used to dislike my brother Isaac alot. I came to remember that that memory was back when I was six-years-old before first grade started.
My dad, Isaac, and I went out to Stark's Pond one Saturday morning to go fishing on the west side of the lake because that was the only area where fishing was allowed. We were the only family out there in the cool morning, so there wasn't anyone we could directly talk to. All we had were three buckets filled with ice-cold lake water and three fishing poles, one for the each of us.
After an hour of fishing, Isaac caught about seven fish while my dad caught eleven. I, on the other hand, had yet to catch any at all, and I was pissed. "Augh! I hate fishing! This place sucks!"
"It's all about patience, Cole. It took me about two months to catch my first fish you know." My dad rubbed my back with a caring smile, but I saw it as a mockery.
"I never catch anything at all," I grumbled beneath my teeth as a gust of wind almost blew the black hood off my head. "I wait and wait, but nothing ever catches on my hook. Isaac got his first fish after a week. It's cold, and I wanna eat again."
"Cole, we just had breakfast," my dad argued.
"Yeah, you don't want to be like that fatass Eric Cartman who always bitches all the time." Isaac snickered softly beneath his yellow scarf that covered his mouth.
"Isaac shut up!" I glared Isaac down, who only kept laughing. Comparing me to Eric Cartman was quite an insult. "I swear I will-"
"Both of you knock it off!" my dad warned. "Cole, be nice to your brother, and Isaac, watch your language!"
Without saying anything more, I turned my attention back to the fishing pole. After five minutes of not appearing to catch anything, my gaze drifted to the other side where I saw four boys. One was fat with a light blue cap, red jacket, and brown pants, and I immediately recognized him as Eric Cartman - literally everyone in school knows that fat kid. I don't know his other three friends however; one had a blue hat, a brown jacket, and blue pants. The next one had a green ushanska, orange jacket, and green pants. The last one had an orange parka and orange pants. The boys were busy laughing and kicking each other in the balls for some reason.
"I'll kick you in the nuts!"
"No, I'll kick you in the nuts!"
My dad's words drew me out of my daydream. "Cole, pay attention."
"Huh?" I saw my fishing pole, mounted on a tree stump, begin to bend towards the surface of the lake. That meant I was only sure of one thing. "Yes!" I grabbed my fishing pole and tried to reel it in, but the physical tension was too strong. "Daddy! Help!"
My dad came to my aid. He grabbed my hands with my rod, controlling the rod for me. He stopped reeling as the fish pulled. "Don't reel when the fish is pulling, or you'll break the line." Even with my dad's help, I could still feel the fish pulling on the fishing pole and I could still feel the tension. The fish then gave up pulling. "Now you reel it in." He then helped me rotate the lever backwards. The fish tried to pull again so we stopped reeling. "Now hold it steady." Then the fish gave up. "Now reel."
After a few seconds, there jumped out of the water was what I could possibly imagine to be the biggest trout I've ever seen. "Woah!" It was pure glory. The fish then jumped into my hands.
After snapping the hook off, my dad and Isaac gathered around me. "That is the biggest trout we've ever caught," my dad said.
"That is so cool!" Isaac screamed in amazement. I couldn't believe it. My first fish was also the biggest one we've ever caught, it was huge and amazing. After that morning, we sold most of the fish to the farmer's market in town while we took home the fish I caught to be eaten.
I won't lie, I was a huge pain in the ass to my dad back when I was younger. I was really selfish back then, and looking back, I never realized the struggle my dad had to face raising the two of us alone. But I was reminded that because honestly, I don't know if I'm going to see him after today, and there's a real possibility that I might die. I don't think my dad can live with himself if Isaac and I die.
Stan and Wendy sat to my left while Isaac sat to my right side staring into the pond. Ray sat far away from the rest of us on the left. I've noticed that Isaac's recently become more talkative and started contributing more other than sex jokes, although thankfully, such jokes were few and far in between recently. I still would have almost kicked his ass two nights ago had Wendy not intervened. That said, he's still my brother, and a part of me, and as much as I did look out for him, he was the one who did remind the others of what PETA could do, and if it weren't for his good memory, I might not be here right now. Or even earlier when I was pinned down by the Nazi Zombie in our own house, and if he weren't with me, I would have been eaten and zombified. "I remember going fishing that one day where I caught the biggest trout."
"You still remember that?" Isaac asked. When I nodded, Isaac continued. "Would you ever go fishing again?"
I shook my head. "Ha, hell no. That's boring." Isaac chuckled in response.
Wendy's words then silenced us. "You know, Stan, Harbinger almost reminds me of my grandma. The one who died last year."
"How so?" Stan replied. "I don't know much about your grandma by the way."
Wendy cleared her throat. "He's fairly strict and kind of overbearing, but he looked out for us, helped us succeed." She sighed. "He also died like my grandma did. Taken away from me at the worst possible time."
"Well I get the worst time here," Stan said, "because...you know, Terrorblade. But what was the bad time for you back when your grandma died?"
"When you tried to date Ms. Ellen." Wendy's words made me cringe. Oh shit, here we go. I looked at Isaac, and he only shot me a disgusted look. Even he knows that this is gonna be awkward.
Stan suddenly went soft. "I was weak, you know how guys are, I-I..." But Stan could never find his wording.
"Stan?" Wendy put her left hand on Stan's right shoulder, but he turned away in shame.
"I just want to improve." The hurt flashed in Stan's eyes as he eyed Wendy for a second then looked down at himself. "I just hate being reminded of my past mistakes."
"Yeah, you're right, I shouldn't have brought it up, I keep making you feel like crap." Well, that ended pretty fast. "But you know, you did more than enough for me in the past few days to make everything up for me, Stan."
"Yeah." Stan blushed and nodded. "I guess I did." The two held hands and looked at the small waterfall. "You know, I wouldn't mind having you around to join me, Kyle, and Kenny more often for adventures, even though...um, you're still not that fond of Kenny, are you?"
"Eh." Wendy just shrugged. "I mean, he's a pervert, but he truly means well." This is rather jarring to hear about. "You know, speaking of which, I'm amazed he had a girlfriend like Kelly in the first place, sohow did Kenny and Kelly meet?"
"It was the rainforest trip we went on that you never went on, remember?" Stan asked.
"Oh yeah, because I never got in trouble for disrupting the class, haha." Wendy laughed a little, then she fell silent. "So I'm assuming they're dating again, am I correct?"
Stan nodded. "That's what it seems like to me, at least."
Wendy shrugged. "I don't understand what Kelly sees in him to be honest."
"Well Kenny's not a bad person," Stan said. "He's a really nice guy. He makes us laugh, he cares about us, hell, you see the way he treats his sister?"
"I do notice, and it is really nice, sorta like how you treat me." Wendy's smirk at Stan caused him to blush again. "There is a difference though, his is familial love, protecting siblings and all, while with you and me it's romantic...and when we get older maybe other stuff..."
"A-alright, W-Wendy, u-um..." Stan stammered.
Wendy laughed. "I'm just teasing. I don't know. To be honest, yeah, I wish that I can replace Cartman in your adventures, I'd like to hang out with Kenny and Kyle. You know, speaking of which, I think Bebe would go great with Kyle."
"Is this like that one Truth and Dare thing again?" Stan shook his head.
"I do see them fit together, trust me."
Stan chuckled. "Is this one of those things where someone's best friend has to go out with their girlfriend's best friend? Really? Really?"
"I don't see the problem." Wendy shrugged. "I have my analysis deep down."
"But it's like what Cole said, you can't just shove two people together and make them click instantly," Stan argued.
"But everyone else does that all the time, how do you think Token and Nichole first went out? Or Craig and Tweek?" Wendy asked.
Stan rubbed his chin. "Oh yeah, good point. But Craig and Tweek were never gay, you know this, right?" They were never gay, that is true.
"Yeah." Wendy laughed again. She turned to me, then back to Stan. "I'm gonna let you guys on a little secret; the Pleases and Sparkles Club is pretty much what runs the show in the 4th grade." That makes sense. Wendy is the leader, and they do political stuff.
"What exactly do you girls do other than make lists all day?" Stan asked.
"Well, in simple terms, we decide what's hot and what's not." Stan tilted his head, raising his eyebrow at Wendy in confusion. "What I really mean is that we set trends for the other 4th grade girls, from what we wear to how we act, but I'm sure you already figured this out." I nodded, because that seemed to be more-or-less true. The popular girls really do control 4th grade society, and it really doesn't take a genius to realize this. I guess it's one of those thing where guys need girls or something.
Stan nodded. "Gotcha. But back to what we are saying before, what do you see in Kyle being with Bebe? Because I don't see anything at all."
"I'll tell you later." Wendy chuckled for a bit. "And Bebe had a crush on Kyle at one point."
"Oh, yeah, I remember reading that note out loud in 3rd grade." Stan shuddered. I don't know what that note was since I wasn't in Stan's 3rd grade class, but his reaction made it seem like it wasn't good at all.
"What about Butters? Doesn't he have a Canadian girlfriend?" Wendy asked. Yeah, somehow, Butters got a girlfriend before I did. Shocking.
"Yeah, I'm not sure if they still talk." Stan shook his head. "He never told me anything about Charlotte. That's her name, yes."
There was silence for a few moments before Wendy spoke again. "Stan, have you ever wondered what you'd want to do when you grow older?" To be honest, I don't know what I want to do when I grow older. To be honest, life sucks and we die, and we pay taxes along the way. But if I really had a choice, I'd honestly be a pro video gamer, honestly. I'd probably put videos of me playing video games for a living.
"Um...you first?" Stan raised a nervous eyebrow at Wendy.
"Alright." Wendy let out a yawn before she continued. "Me, well you know me. I'd work in a government position, it's been my area of interest since I was young. If I can't become President of the United States, I'd at least want to be working for the town government. I don't know which department exactly, but yeah, that's what I'd do. How about you, Stan?"
"To be honest..." Stan blushed and looked down at his shoes. "...I don't know...it kinda sounds stupid...but I'd just want to raise a family. That's honestly my one dream."
"Stan, that's a wonderful dream." Wendy held Stan's arms with her hands. "Just wondering why though."
Stan gave a worrying sigh. "Well..." He closed his eyes. "I just want a stable family. My mom yells at my dad all the time because my dad is a fucking idiot, my grandpa gambles too much, and my sister is still a bitch." Hearing that touched me in the heart. For quite a while I thought Stan had a perfect family. But come to think of it, everyone has struggles, everyone has secrets inside themselves, and Stan's no different from me, no different from anyone else for the matter, and it was stupid of me to think that I was the only one struggling for a long time. The world's not about me, and it shouldn't be. That said, if raising a stable family is what would make Stan happy, then who am I to judge?
"I'm really sorry Stan." Wendy shook her head. I couldn't see her reaction since the back of her head was facing towards me. The two of them drew into a hug. "But it's still a great dream to have nonetheless."
"Yeah." The sadness from Stan's face slowly faded away as they drew out of the hug. "Thanks, Wendy."
"On the plus side, we can both get married and still achieve our dreams at the same time," Wendy said.
"Woah!" Stan began to blush, his face becoming as red as Isaac's chestplate as he wrapped his sickly green cloak tighter around himself. "Are we like...way too young to think about marriage?"
"Well yeah, but you know, doesn't hurt to plan in advance," Wendy replied.
"Hello there, children!" Hearing a familiar adult male voice, I turned around to see Chef walking towards us along.
"Hey Chef!" Stan, Wendy, Isaac, and I replied.
"Where's Ms. Ellen?" Wendy asked.
"Oh she stayed behind." Chef looked back from where he came then back to us. "Say, shouldn't you children be moving on or something?"
"We're just resting," Isaac replied.
"Stan. Wendy. I'm assuming your date is going well?" Stan and Wendy both nodded to Chef's question. "Cole. Isaac. How come you two never talk to me?"
"Um..." I don't have a good answer. I looked at Isaac and he just gave me a blank stare. "...sorry?"
"Who's the kid with the pink hair?" Chef asked.
"It's Ray," Stan replied. "He's...having a bit of a rough time right now because Harbinger just died."
"Oh..." Chef just looked down at his feet. He walked over to Ray who was still sulking by himself. He's been aloof the entire time we were here, and I'm pretty sure the recent events are just bugging him up the ass.
"Chef is your name, right?" Ray asked.
"Yes." Chef sat down between Ray and Stan. "You can ask me whatever you want."
"Chef, why do bad things happen to good people?" Ray asked. "Good people don't deserve to suffer."
"Well, Ray, that's a very philosophical question, but let me put it to you this way." Chef cleared his throat. "Hardships can never be avoided, but they are how we grow as a person. The old saying is that 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. We need life experiences to grow as people and to see things in different perspectives, if we only stay in our safe spaces all the time we will never realize what we can be capable of. Does that answer your question?"
"I guess it does." Ray stood up. "Thanks Chef. I think it's made me stronger. I'm actually about ready to kick some ass. You guys with me?"
"Yeah!" Stan stood up.
"Let's do it," Wendy said as well.
The five of us and Chef continued down the canyon for two more minutes before we reached a bridge made of bone that extended across another rift towards a building made of stone. At the beginning to the bridge stood a single stone knight. It had already acknowledged our existence but it did not attack. We cautiously walked close as it kept its gaze at us. The only thing it said was, "Dovah." It then moved out of the way to let us pass.
"Um...ok." Stan turned to the rest of us. "I guess this is it. Ready?" The rest of us nodded.
What inspired me to put WoW powers in the first place?
When I first played the game, I asked myself how could two children take on Nazi Zombie fetuses but well-trained soldiers couldn't? Does the Stick really have power, and did the Nazi Zombies ignore Craig and Clyde because Clyde had the Stick? And if that's the case, does the Stick really grant power? And how would Butters call down lightning against Dire Bears and SWAT soldiers?
With these floating around my head, I have to find some game influence. Likewise, this is South Park, and crazy shit happens in South Park after all. The reason why I used WoW specifically is because the boys played WoW before and the WoW classes seemed most synonymous to the roles the kids roleplayed as in the Stick of Truth. Read Chapter 20 if you want my take of what classes the KKK and the Drow Elves would play.
