“Daaad! C’mon, do I got to?” A voice whined out from the kitchen accompanied by the sounds of sizzling grease and people moving about, it was another busy morning at the ‘Tipsy Vampire’.

“Get your ass our here and start wiping off tables.” A gruff voice answered back with a threatening over tone. “And take off that blasted thing!”

Willis looked down to his side where he wore a beaten up short sword scabbard, with an equally beaten up hilt protruding from it. Willis wore it proudly and audibly groaned in protest as he removed the weapon from his belt and handed it over to his father who he watched put it under the countertop.

‘I’m almost sixteen summers old, almost old enough to join the town watch and my father still treats me like a kid!’ The thought caused Willis to angrily slosh the bucket of soapy water around as he roughly slammed it down on the table top.

He didn’t know why he was stuck here working, always working! He wanted to be out with his friends, roaming the forest and hunting animals. Like in the stories his father used to tell him, he was a pretty decent shot with the bow and Captain Elias had said he showed great promise with the sword, all he needed was to get a little more meat on his sword arm.

Willis was tall, already over six feet and if he were going to look anything like his father he would bulk out eventually too. He didn’t know why his dad worked at this tavern, he was one of the biggest and strongest men in town, Captain Elias was constantly trying to get him on a patrol. Why wouldn’t you want to join the town watch and become a hero? Willis just didn’t get it.

He scrubbed away at the table top tirelessly, his eyes glazed over and mind lost to his imagination as he relived those stories with himself as the hero. How grand would that be he thought?