After a long journey, you have finally reached the Dark Lord's castle to confront him. What you did not expect is a line of adventurers that stretches past the castle's gates.
The queue...
“Hey mate, what’s going on?” Grayson asked the person at the back of the queue…
He had done all he had been told to do, all he had been destined to do, he had travelled far and wide, fought great and dangerous monsters, escaped dangerous ruins, almost losing his life to get the next clue for how to defeat the Dark Lord.
It had consumed him, it was his be all and end all, and now, when he finally reached the Dark Lords castle, his sword sharp, his armour set, his nerves steeled and ready for the epic battle he had spent years preparing for…he found himself, at the back of a queue…
“It’s a queue mate…” said the person at the back of the line, turning briefly to see who was behind before turning back and pointing up the line.
Grayson was taken aback by how nonchalantly he had been answered…
“I can see that,” replied Grayson annoyed, “why is there a queue?”
This was not right, he thought, this was not what all the fables, songs and legends spoke of. He was destined to come here and defeat the Dark Lord, or so that is what he had thought, what he had been told.
The person at the back of the queue turned, looking a little exacerbated, “a queue to fight the Dark Lord,” he responded once again only turning quickly as if to make sure the same guy was there he was answering.
Grayson was taken aback, his brain logically telling him what was happening, but still in disbelief, as if this was a bad joke, or a test by the Dark Lord, “is this a test?” He asked himself, confused.
“Oi,” started the person at the back of the queue not hiding his exacerbation, as the person in front of him moaned as well, “here we go again,” said the person in front of the person at the back of the queue. “look mate, let me guess, you’re the chosen one, right, told from birth or you found a mysterious weapon, or scroll etc that you were the one to defeat the Dark Lord and save this world and those that lived in it. Then you went on an epic adventure, finding weapons, information, blah, blah, blah, until you got here, right?” Questioned the man at the back of the queue wildly exaggerating as he spoke.
Grayson was shocked, this random person had just, mockingly, summed up everything he had been doing for years, had believed for years, had sacrificed, had nearly died for, in a few seconds…
“Ok, I can tell from your expression that that was all correct, right, so here is the deal no one told you about, and not going to lie I did not know about until I got here, neither did this guy in front, or her in front of him and so on and so forth, right up the queue likely until you get to the Dark Lord himself,” continued the person in front looking back and forth pointing up the queue.
“No one knows when exactly this happened, but some elders from several clans, country kings and lords, no one really knows the origins. Had sent out adventures like yourself, me and everyone else here on an epic quest to fight and defeat the Dark Lord, but they kept on failing, the Dark Lord would keep coming from his Castle wreak havoc etc.
So, they came up with a plan, the idea, a simple but effective one, instead of finding the best of the best, numbers were and better and quicker option, the more adventurers they sent the greater the chance there would be that someone would finally defeat the Dark Lord, so they went back to wherever they came from and started all these legends and myths.
There was a side benefit they didn’t realise, so many of them doing this all at the same time, these legends would grow and before they knew it the Dark Lord had so many adventurers at his door he wouldn’t have time to go out and wreak havoc as he would be too busy defeating all these adventurers.
Make sense, you keeping up?”
Grayson was stunned, how can this be right, he questioned as he started to fill with a combination of confusion and anger, he went to speak but the person at the back of the queue spoke again first.
“No this is not a joke, this is not a test, and you’re confused and angry just as I was when this guy in front to me told me, when she in front told him and then that guy and so on and so forth, basically you have two choices, stand in the queue and wait or head on home,” he finally finished turning back to face the other way.
Grayson went to speak when there was a roar, a flash, followed quickly by a vibration and a distant maniacal sounding laugh which he was not sure if he heard or not, seconds after there was a groan from the crowd as people appeared to shake their heads, shrugged their shoulders with a few “oh wells,” and “next up,” could be heard as the queue moved forward one step.
Grayson didn’t know what to do, he put his sword down into the ground and leaned on it not realising someone was walking up behind him, as the person behind him asked, “what’s going mate?”
Grayson turned, “it’s a queue mate.”