Pride & Glory
act one : heads and hearts too full
Smiling and waving, posing and pouting, a cast of colorful kids float beneath the waves. The surface is bright, blue-green and bubbling, a warm welcoming glow invites a further look inside...
A note in black and white appears- its origins unknown. "It's me again", it says. "This accursed place has stolen too much from me. I can no longer take the piercing frost alone, and I am struggling to find the way forward. I can only hope you are holding onto you own sunlight. I want to see you again. Please wait for me just a little bit longer.
...
chapter one . A boy walks alone under a damged wooden sign. "BELL TOWN" it reads, clear and simple through the splits and notches. Fabrics of red and green drape on either side, tied in loose knots to let the wind carry it's gently notes. Round, brass bells hang down. Many seem to be missing, but the wind shows their still carried song. Framed with the sea, a tall red tree, and images of horns and goats and fish and plump yellow lemons The boy seems anxious, dressed in his bright red Messenger's cap and matching long, loose coat. The sky sings an early morning, as the bright shades of blue drift from the horizon.
Moving forward, we see the path the boy walks along. The sea meets the land at a steep cliff, fenced off by loose poles with many missing ropes. A large ship is seen just at the bottom, hopefully attached to an unseen dock. The tall red tree towers above the landscape, its bright green leaves settling on the grassy plateu. Inside the hollowed top of the tree is a huge brass bell, seemingly damaged, or maybe just very old.
The boy looks off into the distance, away from the sea, and over a long stretch of hills freckled with small trees and shrubs and paths that lead to round leaf-homes. Blankets of clouds appear beyond his sight, perhaps leftover from the morning's fog. The path the boy is on leads to a large circle of gravel and stone in the shadow of the tall red tree. People seem to be putting up tents of sorts, all shapes and sizes and shades of red and green. The soft lavender of his Messenger's Bag seems terribly out of place. "It was the last day of Snow", the boy thinks to himself. "Though, it really hadn't snowed much, and the late morning in Bell Town was the same as ever."
