Danny gazed out of his office window, his eyes misting over, contemplative. He watched as Delilah and the convoy of guards that he had assigned to her, disappeared around the bend in the distance, and into the woods. She would be safe in their hands, and he was sending her 'home' after all.
Seeing her again after all these years had stirred memories inside of him that he would have preferred to forget. The pain and heartache of that decision, 14 years ago, had haunted him ever since.
DEE-LI-LAH ...he let the sound of her name roll off his tongue, pronounced. It was a beautiful name for sure, and one that his 'Tolchi' had been set on from the start. And she was so delightful too. What a beautiful young woman she was growing up to be. Oh, and how she had giggled and laughed at dinner with him. Like mother, like daughter. The regret seared through him again. He swallowed hard.
It had been an impossible position to be in. 'Tolchi' had been the love of his life. After her, nobody had ever come close. Perhaps that was why he was still alone after all these years? The odd drunken nights of debauchery could never replace her affections; his heart just would not allow it.
But in the long months that he had been away, campaigning for the Solar Baron in his youth, his 'Tolchi' had grown lonely and Fredrick's once philandering eye had pounced. Busk had inserted a knife that had torn them apart, inch by gut-wrenching inch over a period of several months, creeping into Tolcetta's heart and selfishly stealing a piece for himself.
The sound of shattered glass hit him before the pain. He looked down at the fresh blood dripping from his knuckles. Raising his eyes, the jagged edges of the broken window in front of him was a stark reminder of the hurt and anger that he still needed to address.
He unclenched his fists, fighting hard against the rising angst. It would not be helpful to anyone to succumb to the grief now.
His mind wandered again. When he had finally returned to claim 'Tolchi' as his Bride, her feelings had already changed to that of ambivalence. She had been honest with him from the start about the affair, he'd give her that. She had tried to convince him that she still loved him; showed him in all ways conceivable between lovers, but he could feel the tension, the unspoken heartache, and he knew deep down that he had lost her, that a beautiful and pure heart that had once belonged to him, now resided with another man... and he was left to pick up the shattered pieces of his own.
Tolcetta would not leave him willingly and so he had been forced to end it. He had loved her too damn much to demand the same in return from her. His aspirations to become head of the Barony one day were also too big to set aside for a complicated and messy marriage that would likely fall apart under the additional stress of further long absences.
And then there was Delilah... Tolcetta had fallen pregnant after his return from his travels. The timing?... They had sat and worked it out together... the facts were indisputable...the baby was definitely his and Delilah was the only blessing to rise from the ashes of their doomed relationship. With marriage out of the question and a desperate desire for his daughter to have a happy life, his only option had been to deceive Fredrick. Make him believe Delilah was his. Tolcetta had played along. What he hadn't counted on was Busk's wife's fury and the apparent power that she had had to destroy Tolcetta's life. He had also not counted on Busk's own insincerity when it came to love.
And so, he had arranged for Tolcetta to be sent away for her own protection. He just did not have the requisite power or authority at the time to ensure it himself, if she had stayed. Busk, however, had refused to allow her to take Delilah from him and had insisted on raising her himself, and his wife had simply had to fall in line. If there was one person she listened to, it was her husband.
Danny brushed a rogue tear away with the end of his sleeve. He could still remember the last time he had laid eyes on his daughter. She had been what...7? 8 years of age? He had been on a mission for the Solar Baron to the Fruit Barony and had been astounded to come across the young girl crying and pleading with her cat to come down from the tree. She was so strong in character yet delicate in that moment. He would have recognised her anywhere. She was the spitting image of Tolcetta. Stunningly beautiful ...even more so now he thought. He had not been able to exercise restraint. Healing her heart that day had trumped everything. She had spoken of her cat throughout dinner and it had made him smile to think back on his intervention.
The knock at the door interrupted his reverie.
come in..
he beckoned.
With that, Barry strode in.
Danny, we've just received word. Your brother and his wife have arrived in Port and are on their way to the Barony.
Well, that is good news
declared Danny.
Um, one other thing...Tolcetta is with them!
Wesley!!! What on earth are you doing here? And who the hell is that attached to the end of your arm?
Mr Preda was less than amused to see his erstwhile double agent bursting in unannounced. The relationship was supposed to be covert. Mrs Preda on the other hand was beaming.
Mr Preda, Mrs Preda...
Wesley nodded quickly in deference to them both and then, dumping both Henry and the backpack of broken tablet pieces at their feet, quickly chose to dispense with any further formalities. Pointing to his gifts he exclaimed with pride:
This is what you need to win the war!
This is my entry to @dibblers.dabs 'A Tale of Two Pizzas', the first attempt to create a collaborative novella on the Hive blockchain.
You can catch up on the story so far here
And the latest contest post here
If this all looks a little daunting, fear not, for I believe a summary post of the story may be forthcoming soon.
What an amazing story I'm very far behind on all of these so missed out in participating. I could jump in now but there is so much that has happened I wouldn't know where to begin.
But this was great I really felt for Danny and my heart goes out to him he had a lot going on and your descriptive sentences were really captivating. Thanks for sharing this in #PYPT today
!PIZZA
Thanks Drabs :-) I appreciate you stopping by. @dibblers.dabs is running a slick operation here !LOLZ There will be a summary forthcoming I am told... still time to change your mind haha. Would love to see your name included. It's gonna be epic! Who am I kidding? For us, it's already epic 💖!PIZZA !ALIVE
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Excellent work as always ❤️ So mow we know the truth 🙌 I can't imagine how hard it was for him not to tell her after meeting her...
!LUV !PIZZA !ALIVE !LOL
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thanks my friend. Right??? He must love her so much and also not want to break her emotionally whilst the Barony depends on her. I guess he needs her trust too. I am sure the truth will out at some point! !PIZZA !ALIVE !LUV !LOLZ
I don't think it would break her - but it will be a shock! Wasn't her biggest wish to meet Tolcetta?
!PIZZA !ALIVE
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!PIZZA !ALIVE it was :-) I just thought perhaps he needed her to be focussed and not distracted by emotions like anger or more if she learned the truth right now about who father was and what had happened. Let see how it plays out... No doubt Dabs will throw something interesting our way to work with ;-)
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I look forward to seeing what's next :) ... Things are really heating up 🔥
!PIZZA !ALIVE !LOL
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You get me very excited to jump in and be a part of it - you know that! heheheheh
as soon as the summary gets completed - I'll read it and see what forms in this brain of mine hahahahaha
But loved hearing all these details with you and trying to catch up on it in Dm with you! You're an incredible writer and you make these characters jump to life!!! hehehe
thank you for saying that. It means so much coming from you ❣️ when I write from that place within, I can feel the difference. !LUV !PIZZA !ALIVE
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Cool Story.
Very creative, and I enjoyed it.
Thanks for presenting on #PYPT on @dreemport today!
hey Bluefy, thanks for visiting my post hehe. I'm getting the hang of PYPT now ... thanks for appreciating the story...it's just one chapter in a gazillion !PIZZA You ready to write the next one?
We shall see!
You know you want to hehe
HAHAHAHA
!PIZZA
The depth of your characters is like fine wine; easy to savor and you can “taste” all the intricate complimentary flavors. Emotive, also, and a delicate cliffhanger to keep the reader hooked. 👍🏿
This really looks like something I might enjoy 😉. Going to look at the archives
oh yes, do we have a fish on the hook? hehe... I do hope you come and take part @itsostylish. that would be amazing!!! Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'm really happy you liked it. The story is a bit of a soap opera to be fair... but the few of us doing it are all having a ball... and it's a half-decent story, so I think once all the bits are edited and tightened in the final process when all is said and done...I think we'll have something good here 💗
@leprechaun please could you look into the rewards being shown on posts? They are completely wrong hehe ...very overinflated... I've been noticing these anomalies for a few days. Thanks :-)
That's a lot of PIMP. It might be a bug involving concatenation rather than addition.
haha exactly 😂The rewards are more in line on the other front ends. Just thought I'd flag when I saw the glitch repeating.
@leprechaun, I see from my current posts this issue still persists, is this something that you will be fixing in proofofbrain.blog or something inherently incorrect in pipe.media front end? Sorry I don't have a handle on the tech like you do ;-) I like to using .blog as it provides a FULL view of rewards on a post..it seems to be the only front end that gives this transparency. I'd just like to be able to see the correct total showing on my posts !LOLZ
Yes, I am sorry about this. I think though that the site having its own or plugging into a Chat system is the most important feature for the site and its summer here. That is an ugly bug, and guess I could put that as number 2.
Thanks @leprechaun, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Go, enjoy the summer !LOLZ !PIZZA !ALIVE
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I'm waiting for the summary post.
Just by reading through, I could tell that the story is developed from previous episodes.
Good luck in the contest.
Thanks my friend. You should definitely come and have a go once a summary is created!
I will watch out for it. Hope you know I wouldn't mind being poked once the summary is ready?
will do!
👍👍👍
Ill work on the summary more today, i hope to have it up in a the next days ...busy.
You can start reading the first summary, as the next summary will continue from where the first left off and will Not include the first section up to week 11 but will continue from there.
Here it is ---> https://ecency.com/hive-185582/@an-man/summary-of-a-tale-of
wow, that is really amazing love story.
so this is just a part of a whole.. story?
That's right...just a part..there is rebellion, spies, romance, intrigue, drama, competition...all good fun...have a read of the archive if you have time otherwise wait for the summary post :-)
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STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
@wrestlingdesires ... what did you think?
You've written another great piece this week @samsmith1971. I get the feeling you waited for @wrestlingdesires to write his entry on purpose and continued on from it lol! The conflicting family relationships here will be interesting to untangle! !PIZZA !LUV !ALIVE
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haha thanks Dabs. Well...now...whatever makes you think that? ROTFL 🤣 To be fair, I've been a bit last minute with so many things on Hive recently as I have a lot going on with a few communities I am involved in. But yes, after naturally ending up writing after @wrestlingdesires who is always ready to roll hehe, I guess I can avoid writing conflicting storylines. I think we all try to write so that our writing can stand alone if you chose one winner, or follow in tandem with the other pieces without conflict if you wanted to choose all 3 to include. It does allow for quicker development and progression of the storylines if you choose. And you will have seen from the comments that we sometimes bounce off storyline ideas playfully in the comments with what ifs and little challenges to write about certain characters, but in the end, we still write our own stuff and surprise each other haha. Not sure @an-man is very happy with me right now haha ... he was dead set on Delilah being Fredericks daughter. I do hope you include this entry. It creates some interesting stuff going forward: Frederick and Delilah think she is his. Danny and Tolcetta know she isn't. Tolcetta still yearns for Frederick, who didn't seem to care less about her when it came to the crunch, and I think we all now get to see the soft side of Danny that @wrestlingdesires has been alluding to all along...and an insight into why he is such hardened loner. !PIZZA !ALIVE !LOLZ !LUV
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Bouncing ideas around makes it that much more fun! What a great entry, by the way ❤️
I like the end of your work this week. However i think there is a conflict with what has already transpired for a previous section already in the story line. https://ecency.com/hive-180164/@an-man/a-tale-of-two-pizza-dd116efa41029
" "I, umm, yes it was the Fruit baron who was my lover. It makes me happy to hear that my daughter is alive and well, but it does make for quite the situation indeed." Tolcetta said surprised and happy."
I am surprise that @dibblers.dabs missed this. He is always so keen to make sure that the semantics are enforced and that diligence has left out many good pieces from many writers submissions for the sake of the story line......not sure what happened this time. But it was already sorted as to whom Tolcetta lover is as well as who the father of her daughter, Delilah, is.
It could be that everything anyone says in this story is not at all what they say it is, every changing and opposite from one week to the next, but then i am not sure what the point of writing a collective story is if everything changes at a whim.
Let me know what your thought are...
hi @an-man :-)
I was fully aware of this piece of yours, hence my comment that you wouldn't like my post haha.
I put Delilah at age 14... you made her 'about 15' afterward... a mother should know her daughter's age, right hehe? Or is Tolcetta being vague deliberately?
Our stories don't conflict in so far as Busk was her true love, she admitted it as did Danny. But for the sake of Delilah they both agreed to make Busk appear as the father... I simply turned her tentative account to Manzanilla into a cover story (in line with the 'lie' that she and Danny contrived).
It is clear she wasn't being completely open with Manzanilla as she says
She kept it vaguer until Manzanilla pried. Her saying that the fruit Baron was the father is in keeping with what I have said about her and Danny conspiring to flaunt that story, so I see no inconsistency there either;-)
It is the nature of collaboration in writing something like this that we can all take things down paths the other may not have chosen or expected. The art of the collaborative novella is to be able to adjust and adapt on the fly. This has happened a couple of times to things I have written...I have been planning to take things in one direction and then yourself, Dabs or Wrestling take it in another...and I have had to go with the flow hehe. Because you introduced her hesitancy in revealing her former life, it inspired and enabled me to show the hidden story beneath it all.
I think there is a distinct difference between showing a hidden story that complies and fits with the created narrative, albeit not what you had envisaged, and creating a factual impossibility such as having a character appear simultaneously in two different places at once.
Let's enjoy the creative process together and all continue to learn and grow from the experience. !PIZZA !ALIVE
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Yup time passes and her mother said about 15....not 15.
You take what Tolcetta said as unclear, it could have been taken as the words were or interpreted however, what ever really. Such is the beauty of this, indeed.
Seems like anything is possible if it was not specifically said even then if it is said it could be that it is not truth, until it is or is not. Cool, ill make sure to be more interpretative of what seems like fact. Thanks for that.
"factual impossibility such as having a character appear simultaneously in two different places at once." Lame Low Blow... sam...we all miss read sometimes. reread top line. wahaa ;-)
I am sorry you feel that way.
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Honestly, I do not think I have read something this advanced before on Hive or a least in a really long time! This is like out of a high level novel. Great writing!