After his father died, the boy took up his sword. His father hadn’t been a knight or a soldier, and he’d barely ever left their little village. But he practiced every day, before he became ill.
His mother watched him training and worried about him. As he grew up, she encouraged him to apply for a job as a guard at the castle. The boy resisted her. He didn’t want to stand around all day.
His father had carried a sword for protection, but he’d never seen the world. He would take his father’s sword with him on his adventure.

“Sword, reconstruction” by The Swedish History Museum, Stockholm is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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Everyday Drabbles © 2025 by Hugh J. O’Donnell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0