I put the book down and sigh as I gaze up at the sky. And I can’t help but wonder ‘am I ever going to get out of here?’ but of course I already know that the answer to that is a resounding – NOPE.

And of course it’s not from a lack of trying or motivation, believe me when I say ‘I want to get the hell out of here!’ but wanting to and being able to are very different things.

“Stephen”

I mean don’t get me wrong the city in which I live is nice and all, but…

“Stephen”

In all honesty it’s quite boring and uneventful, like seriously I would rather be a farmer in the middle of nowhere than live here any longer, it’s THAT SERIOUSLY FUCKING BORING HERE!

“Stephen!”

And don’t even get me stated on how stuck up some of the people can be around here I mean really you’d think they were born on a high horse or something and the attit- “STEPHEN FOR THE LORDS SAKE ANSWER ME WHEN I CALL TO YOU!!”

I turn around from where I’m sitting and look across the empty rooftop to where the voice is coming from and when I see who it is I can’t help, but let out a deep sigh. “Don’t just sigh at me like that, answer someone when there calling for you!” she yells at me making her way to me.

The girl before me is of average height and of a slim build with long dark blond hair that goes just past her shoulders, she has bright blue eyes and where’s a pair of half-moon spectacles As well as – “what are you doing just sitting there staring at me for, say something?”

“Hey will you quit interrupting my train of thought I’m trying to do my inner monologue and introduce you to those who are reading my story!” I yell at her. She then stands there and blinks for a second and then face palms herself and then heaves and annoyed sigh and asks “who would want to read your story?” I shrug and replied simply “dun no bored people.” She shakes her head in annoyed fashion that said things like ‘why do I put up with him’ and ‘I can’t believe that came out of his mouth’ and other such thing I won’t go into.

Oh and before I forget this fifth-teen year old girl here name is Anna and she’s a long term childhood friend of mine…often time I wonder how and why.

Oh I guess I should introduce myself since I was rudely interrupted and wanted to be proper with how I told this story my name is-“Stephen will you please stop staring into space and monologuing or whatever and talk to me!”

I glare at Anna and she glares back at me and yes as yelled at for like the fifth time my name is Stephen not Steven it’s Stephen my name is neither spelled nor pronounced Steven so please get it right…please.

Anyway now that basic introductions are over we can move on with the story! I stand up from where I was sitting and dust myself off “so what’s up Anna is there something you need or…?” I let the question hang there and she promptly answers “you’re late for work! It amazes me sometimes that people even hire you” I sigh and roll my eyes at this, normally this would be a much appreciated gesture, buuuuuut not for me and for one specific reason. “Anna I can only be late for work if I’m actually employed some place and last time I checked I at best work part time. Otherwise I just do grunt work for literal pocket change.”

Sad, but true this is the situation someone in my social standing has to deal with. If I go look for a job anywhere in this city I will A.( get the door slammed in my face B.( hired out of pity, but payed much, much less than some else doing the same job or C my current situation doing the literal crap jobs for only a hand full of coppers. In all honesty it doesn’t matter if I show up or not as long as someone takes out the trash, chops and carries all the wood, cleans out all the grease in the ovens…cleans out the bathroom.

Long story short I’m basically everyone’s errand boy and janitor and yes it sucks just as much as it sounds thank for caring. (No really thanks for caring it’s kind of appreciated)

Anna shakes her head in the same way that says she about to lecture someone and by “someone” that usually means me.

“Stephen even if it’s only “part-time” you should still show up for work on time! If you do maybe your employers would have more faith in you and you might actually get paid more than a few copper piece.” She rants like she always does when someone does something even remotely wrong, which isn’t often considering where we live so it’s mostly reserved for me.

I look her straight in the eyes and say to her “we both know the reason I don’t get payed a lot is because I’m a ‘longhorn’ Anna. We both know there is no other reason than that, so quit trying to fool yourself otherwise” we keep staring at each other for a good long minute, but Anna is the one to brake eye contact. She usually is whenever we have a conversation/ argument like this…which is to say a lot, which begs another question why and how are we even friends?

She’s literally the only person in this city outside my family who talks to me like she honestly is looking out for my best interest and not like some asshole waiting to cause trouble. Even thou she’s nagging two thirds of the time she’s doing this, but still the fact that she came all this way to find me just so I’m not late for work says a lot about her…that I’m not going to talk about right now cause we’ve got other stuff to do to move this story along!

I grab the book I was reading of the ground and glimpse at the title:

A brief history of the ‘towering city’

I shake my head and wonder why on earth I was even reading this crap. Then I remember the latest issues of my favorite books hadn’t come out yet, and for those of you who are curious they are a set of story known as ‘manga.’

They are one of my few sources of entertainment around here and I treasure them and my subsequent reading time greatly. So whenever I get my hand on something go to read I make it my priority to read the living fuck out of it, which is why I’m way out here on this rooftop where “almost” no one would know to or even bother to look for me. One of the only exceptions is the girl standing before me.

I walk past Anna to the stairway she used to come to the roof.

“Look Anna if it makes you feel any better I’ll get off my ass and do something okay?”

“It’s not whether or not I ‘feel better’ it’s about you going to work and doing your job!” she shouts at me as I begin to descend the stairs. I didn’t need to turn around to know that she had that same old ‘why do I even bother it’s like talking to a brick wall’ looks on her face, but that didn’t mean I didn’t listen to her. I just didn’t care or bother to follow it most of the time.

I walked down the stairs and out onto the winding city streets. The wide cobblestone road before me and the closely packed buildings to either side, and far above me dominating much of the city skyline is the Grand Cathedral of the gilded dawn and much of the “upper city.” I head ‘up’ in that direction as that’s where many of the city shops, schools and (older) homes are…as well as my own.

I guess now is the time to fill in some background huh?

Well this is how things are, the city I’m in right now- my home town- is the: “Towering city” Babble literally the holy capital of the world. Everyone here is a devout follower of the “Way of Gilded Light” a religion that has spread throughout most of the country over the last few millennium so there’s pretty much no one who isn’t a part of it.

It’s called the “towering city” because as the city grew over the years it didn’t just grow out, it also grew up as in they built on top of the old building and now the city looks as if it’s a giant tower reaching toward the sky. Pretty cool sounding right? And don’t get me wrong the city itself is nice enough looking…it’s just the people that’s the problem.

As I walk up the road people clear out of the way for me. Not out of respect or politeness, but of disdain and fear, I can see it in their eyes and face as they move to either side of the street to get as far away from me as possible. As I walk past them I can feel myself moving back into a familiar posture: hands in pockets, shoulders hunched, head hanging low and a constantly annoyed, angry and overall miserable look on my face. If you described this to anyone in this city they’d probably say it was me twelve times out of ten which annoys me even more.

I come to a stop in front of a shop window that has a full length mirror in it and look at my appearance in its reflection.

Average height (about 6, 1) with light brown skin, I was wearing a simple work shirt and pants with heavy boot- even though its summer I wear them for when I have to do the CRAP jobs if you know what I mean- a plain face with a head of shaggy dark hair that looks like I just got out of bed (even after its been combed) and my own brown eyes stare back at me. My gaze is drawn to the top and sides of my head where the things that have caused me the most trouble, the most aggravation and most of all the overall reason why everyone treats me the way that they do. My gaze is drawn to the large set of ram’s horns curling over my head.

I look around at the people in the streets, most of them have relatively short horns and they take great pride in that fact. I think I need deliver some exposition to explain thing a little further.

Several millennium ago when the Way of Gilded Light hadn’t spread to the point it is today, something strange happened to the people of Babble, the children here suddenly began being born with rams horns. At first people began to panic, but it’s written in the Holy Scripture (history books) that and angel descended onto the confused people and explained.

“Fear not good people of the holy city and rejoice! For thine children have been marked as part of ‘gods flock’ and will from this day forward be known as ‘those favored by god.’ And with the mark upon their heads it shall show their devotion towards god and test their faith and if it holds true the mark will be discarded and they shall take flight in the heaven as a true servant of god!”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

What that means is horns act as a sort of “faith meter” and can show how faithful someone is toward god and how strong their faith is. “But Stephen!” you may ask “how can set of horns show how close someone is to god?” and that is a good question with a very simple answer, it’s all about how big your “horns” are and no before you say anything I’m not making this up.

Basically horn length determines the strength of your faith, the shorter it is the more faithful you are. And no before you ask, there is no way to fake it like filing your horns or cutting them as they will grow back to full length with extreme swiftness. For example if I broke my horns right now they would grow back to full in…a week…tops. And they will automatically grow or shrink depending on the person their attached to, so me for example being a “long-horn” means that you guessed it I have longhorns. The longest horns…in the city…period and the worst part about it is that I’m the only one and that automatically make me the disgrace of the entire city without question.

Being a longhorn in this city basically means that I’m a heretic and an outcast and that my way of thinking is in opposition to the people around me…and it freaks them the fuck out that someone doesn’t want to fallow their religion.

Someone like Anna on the other hand is the picture perfect Image that people around here aspire to be. Her horns in contrast to mine are only a couple of inches long at most and are getting just a tad bit smaller every so often. And when someone’s horns get small enough, they’ll either UN-grow or fall off completely and that’s when the truly devout get their prize and “take wing.” What that means is that they’ll get wings, like actual functioning angel wings, so then they’ll be able to fly around and ‘be closer to god’ as it were.

And on the topic of Anna she’s really close to ‘taking wing’, everyone who see her or knows her very well can tell that. Personally I give her another two years tops before she gets her wing, which is impressive in its own write as most people take decades to get where she’s at now and most never even get close to getting their wings. I on the other hand I keep getting farther and farther away like some sort of joke.

I move away from the window and kept going on my way in my now somewhat sour mood. Its mid afternoon now and everyone’s going about their job busily (while still avoiding me) as I made my way up the slightly busy street I began to hear a familiar and yet very annoying sound. I took a moment to listen to the sound and frowned deeply when I realized what it was.

Kyaaaaaaaaa

Kyaaaaaaaaa

I heaved a deep sigh and moved into a nearby alleyway a few moments later the source of the sound made its self-apparent “fan-girls!” I muttered darkly, as I watched as several girls my age surrounding a single figure coming down the street. I sigh deeply again, there is only one person that I know that has fan-girls that surround him like this.

As they pass by I get a clear view of the one being surrounded and when I see him I involuntarily grumble his name in shear annoyance “Alexander.” It’s not that I have anything personal against the guy it’s just, well…he’s my antithesis, the anti-me. I mean look at the guy, tall with short blond hair and blue eye, with a great looks and he’s from a well off family. With a really good personality and an overall good guy to be around, it’s no wonder that he’s so popular and to top it off his horns are as short as Anna’s. He’s more or less the poster-child for the city as to how you’re supposed to be, but of course if there’s an example of what you’re supposed to be there also must be one of what you’re not to be…and I’m it.

I silently move back into the alley and out the other side and continued on my way for a few minute when I notice some more girls who are clearly looking for someone.

“Hey if you guys are looking for ‘Blondie’ then you just missed him, if you cross the alley and continue down the street then you should find him easy” I say to them as they approached. They immediately stop where they are and give me nervous glance’s as I continue to walk forward.

For every step forward I take, they take another two back ‘are they seriously this afraid of me?’ I can’t help, but think to myself, after a minute of them backtracking I get tired of it pretty quick and lightly jog around them so now they can move forward without me in the way.

Just as I was about to continue on I thought I heard one of them say something. I turned around to look, but they were still standing there with the same nervous looks. “…why…” one of them said just as I was about to turn around. “Why would help us? How do we known you’re not trying to send us into the alley so your friend can rob us or worse?!”

“Yeah, you tell him!”

“Yeah, how do we know it’s not a trap longhorn?!”

I can’t even begin explain how tired of all the baseless suspicion I am, so I tell them “that can’t happen, for me to ‘rob’ you like you say I would actually have to have friends”

They look a little taken aback, but I don’t give them a chance to say anything else and quickly left.

An hour went buy and I was finally on my own again, in a side street a little of from the main street. Living here wouldn’t be so bad if it for th-“hey longhorn!” someone shouted from behind me. The people if it weren’t for the people here living here wouldn’t be so bad “don’t ignore me I’m talking to you longhorn!” of course I ignore him and continue on my way. I don’t really feel like fighting right now so I’m gonna just ignore them, I could hear them still shouting at me as I continued down the side street, but this isn’t the first time I’ve been yelled at like this and I won’t be the last.

Suddenly a sharp pain hit me in the back of the head “ow, ow, ow, ow!” my hand instantly went to the spot where I was hit. I have turned around only to find a rock flying toward my face, but I manage to just barely duck out of the way. I look back to see the guy who was yelling at me had another rock in his hand ‘for fuck sake can’t I get a brake around here?’ I think to myself as I face the rock thrower and I now notice for the first time that he has three friends with him. “Hey longhorn answer when someone talking to you!”

“Okay then how can I help you guys today?” I answer back. I already know that this is leading to and is going to end in a fight, I’m just waiting for them to make the first move.

“We don’t like the likes of you in our neck of the woods so we’re going to teach you a lesson about knowing your place longhorn!”

“You tell’em Dave!”

“Your gonna regret coming here”

The rock thrower-Dave- and his three friend began to close in on me with confident looks on their facieses, but despite being out numbered and half surrounded.

“Heheheheheh…” I couldn’t help, but laugh at them and this whole situation, when they saw me laugh they stopped their advance and stood in place with looks of a mixture of confusion and nervousness. “What’s so funny longhorn?” Dave shouted, I stopped laughing and smiled and evil smile “it’s just I don’t know what’s funnier, the fact that you guy actual got up the courage to pick a fight with me or…”

“…or?” I let the question hang in the air for a moment then answer “or the fact that you actually think you’re a threat to me.” That set Dave off and he charged at me, but I saw this coming after all this isn’t my first fight.

I sidestep Dave at the last moment and stuck my foot out causing him to fall on his face, another of Dave’s friends charged at me, but I was too quick for him and got the first hit and got him square in the face. While he was reeling the other two came forward swinging, I was about to go for the attack when I got grabbed from behind by Dave. I immediately kicked the nearest of his to friends in the gut and slammed my head into Dave’s face until he let go, I then went up to the one I kicked and hit him in the face with a hard right. Then I squared off with the forth un-harmed one, he swung at me a few time, but I easily dogged them, it’s pretty clear that’s this guy hasn’t been in many fights if at all. (Which isn’t that surprising when the entire city is like this) out of the corner of my eye I see Dave and the other two begin to close in so I decided to wrap thing up. I fake out the one I’m fighting, grab him and knee him in the gut followed by a swift head-butt that sends him to the ground.

Turing around I quickly charge at the other three, they’re slow to react and I ram into Dave shoulder first sending him flying back onto the ground. I then deliver a punch to the face to the one on the right then a kick to the gut to the left one. I then continue to attack the left one with several punches to the face and gut before he finally fell to the ground beaten and bruised. I then proceeded to do the same to the one on the right and with everyone on the ground I then quite literally “kicked them when they were down.” Making sure that they all stayed down and wouldn’t try to start something again, after that I moved farther up the street so I could admire my handy work. The four of them were all groaning in pain, all of them had bruises and at least three of them had Black eye's.

It took a few minutes, but they managed to shakily get to their feet.

“As I said before I find it funny that you guys thought that you were actually a threat to me”

“W-well get you for this longhorn!”

“Oh, please by all means try this again…I need the practice!” I said smiling evilly

“This isn’t over by a long-shot next will be different next time-” I didn’t let them finish instead I stepped forward menacingly while cracking my knuckle’s. That got their attention and they immediately turned tail and ran, uh limped away. After they rounded the corner I let out a heavy sigh “I need something to eat” I mutter to myself and continue on my way to the upper city.

This has been just another of the many long days of my life and they don’t look to be changing anytime soon.