National Novel Writing Month, Day 4 – Sixth Scene written: “A Viking in Rome”
Today, I was working so much on other stuff that I almost didn’t write anything. But finally I got to sit down at midnight, and wrote another scene “A Viking in Rome”. My word count has reached 4.040 words now, after 4 days. I need to accelerate if I want to reach 50k by 30th of November to win the National Novel Writing Month!
— Excerpt: A Viking in Rome: After the Viking got the case from the Coordinator —
The Viking examined the case the Coordinator gave into his custody with curiosity. So this was the case containing what they were looking for throughout all the centuries, the lost artifact. He felt excitement rising in him, thinking of all the possibilities it would give them. He almost felt disappointed about the nonchalant way the Coordinator gave him the case, no ceremony, no big fuss. But then, the Coordinator was a busy man and he was just another operative. He thought about celebrating the big event with his brothers with lots of met.
Before Rune became the Viking, he was living peacefully in a village in Scandinavia, settled down with his wife and three strong sons. That was already after many years of participating in raids into the east, into the illiterate slavic regions of his time. The term viking originally meant „to go on an expedition“ or to „to go on a raid“ in later times. He was born the son of Sten, thus Stenson. It is also not a coincidence the his name was Rune Stenson, rune stone. Born around the 10th century B.C. into the height of viking power and expansion he had all the adventures a born explorer like him could imagine to have.
He never imagined that his explorations would bring him as far as Italy of the 20th century. But here he was, in the heart of the Roman Empire. Though during his own time, the bright light of roman empire has already faded into obscurity for almost five centuries. And now, one millennia after his own birth, Rome was a just a shadow of its former self. Surely, the 20th century Rome was full of people, but it was incomparable to the heydays of Rome, when Cesar had been entertaining the whole empire with his many beast shows and gladiator fights at the Colosseum. Those were the days! The people here seemed to be very self-satisfied with themselves, lost in their daily routine. From his briefings he has seen that the romans were proud of their history and their ancestors, but they seemed to be only living in the past, two thousand years and nothing changes in Rome.
Rune was walking up the hill deep in his thoughts when a group of girls chatting loudly passed by him, dressed in long coats, sporting pale faces, black coloured hair and in general a very dark look. He remembered the term „gothic“ for this type of fashion style. To him the Goths were another teutonic people who invaded Rome successfully between the 3rd and 5th century B.C., very tough and dangerous. But then he was also a stranger here, and how could he know precisely what the local customs are.
The Villa Borghese was just next to Piazza del Popolo, where he left the Coordinator without much small talk, a hill overlooking Rome. The temperature was very high, the august sun was burning his pale, nordic skin. He was sweating in the black suit they gave him, tailored perfectly to his bulky figure, but still black and therefore very hot. He wondered if those girls were also sweating heavily like him with their long black coats. It was so much nicer in summer at home in the northern regions, but it was not his first time outside his original region, so he took it with bravado.
He was expected to get to the small lake in the park in about an hour, so he had time to explore his surroundings a little bit. He reached the platform overlooking Piazza del Popolo and the rest of Rome with all its cupolas. There weren’t any tall buildings in the entire historical centre, almost similar to the last time he visited Rome a few centuries in the past. He almost expected to see the Coordinator down there at the obelisk at Piazza del Popolo, but of course the Coordinator already left to some other errand.
Rune heard high tone chattering of the same girl group again, then suddenly his entire body convulsed. He had just a single thought – the case! His body totally out of control he overthrew himself again and again. He lashed out trying to hit someone, the old warrior in him reacting instinctively. But it was all in vain, they gave him another electroshock, then everything went black.