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Harry Harrison, the doctor at Castle Norwood, was ready to have a really good day. Every day was actually a really good day though. So today would be a really great day. Today, a frosty winter day in January, was his birthday. So not only would he be doing is usual of absolutely nothing, but he would also be receiving gifts. To him, there was nothing better in the world than receiving gifts for doing absolutely nothing. He counted off on his fingers the gifts he expected to receive. There were his parents, who always gave him a gift, even though he never even sent them a card on their birthdays. There was the faculty gift from the castle, because the castle was also a school. They always liked to make their staff feel special. Staff members at the beginning of each year would donate money into a fund for the gifts that were later distributed. Doc Harrison never donated money of course, because he felt that doing that would be paying for his own gift. He'd rather just receive the gift for free without paying. Which of course he always did. Then there were the gifts from the students of the castle. Now, being the doctor at Castle Norwood was not just about runny noses and high fevers. Castle Norwood was a school where magic and weaponry were practiced. So children quite often came in with serious injuries like a bite from a dragon hatchling, hearing loss from a banshee, a broken arm from a battle mace, a near drowning from a water nixie, and the occasional accidental poisoning from an elixir gone wrong. Doc Harrison certainly was a master medic and always knew the best remedy for each situation. So for his talents, he expected a little gratitude. Students had a lot on their mind though with their studies. So, the week before his birthday he sent out reminder cards to the students about his birthday as well as subtle hints for what they could get him.
Dear Billy Bagwell, I hope your dragon bite has healed nicely. It's a good thing I stopped the poison before it killed you. It would have been a shame to see you die an excruciatingly painful death. My birthday is next week and I am going to celebrate at Squiggly Squirrel's Tavern. It's so nice when I receive gift certificates for there from the people who appreciate what I do for them.
Sincerely,
Doc Harrison
PS - I know you appreciate what I did for you.
The letters went on like this until he made sure he covered everything he wanted. If he wanted more things than there were students he helped, he suggested that some of the more serious cases provided two gifts. Yes, Doc Harrison knew today was going to be a great day. He had done all the preparation, and now it was time to receive. He went down to the messenger's post to check on his mail. Normally, he would just send a student for his mail, but today was the one day each year that he didn't mind doing it on his own. No doubt the head messenger would be mad at him as he was every year for filling up the station with gifts behind the counter. However, as he walked up, he didn't see his usual stack of gifts piled up around the counter. 'Maybe they decided to give me my own personal storage room,' he thought selfishly. "Doc Harrison, box 2302," he said with a smile. The clerk looked up with a smirk and replied, "Just one moment." This gave Doc Harrison an uneasy feeling, because they never smiled at him here. He put the thought away though, and figured maybe that was just their birthday present to him. The messenger post employee came back and placed two small letters on the counter. "Box 2302, have a good day." Doc Harrison stood confused a second before regaining his composure and then blurted out, "NO GIFTS!?!" "I'm sorry, but not today sir," the worker replied with a smile that implied she wasn't really sorry at all. "But... WHY?" he complained, bewildered by the day's events. The attendant just looked down at the two letters he was holding, suggesting that the answers were in there. He ripped open the first letter from Earl Harbinger, who ran Castle Norwood, and pulled out a creamy white stationary with the castle's seal at the top. Dear Harry,
You have been my friend now for quite some time, and we appreciate your efforts here at the castle immensely. You are a superb physician with many talents. However, I regret to inform you that some of your tactics have been wearing thin on the staff's patience. The hospitality committee that is in charge of staff gift distribution says you have not donated to the fund in your 23 years as a staff member here. They said you even went so far as to complain about how 'lame' your gift was last year. The messenger's post has also informed me of the large amount of letters you send to students prior to your birthday to request gifts. Gifts are to be given out of kindness in this castle and not to be requested as payment for services rendered. Therefore I have collected the cards you attempted to send out to the students to avoid what I am sure was just a mistake in judgment on your part. I continue to appreciate all that you do for this castle, and give you my sincerest wishes in hoping that you still have a wonderful birthday. Sincerely, Earl Harold Harbinger Castle Norwood Steward "How completely and utterly ridiculous!!" he shouted and stormed off back to his room. How could this happen to him? How could the Earl do this to him? 'Double H' had betrayed him. He called the Earl Double H because they both had the same initials HH, and Doc Harrison had given him the nickname to kiss up to him when he first got the job. Now, he was just feeling double crossed. Doc Harrison entered his office still perplexed by the day's unexpected outcomes and realized he had not yet opened his other envelope. This letter was from his parents. He could at least count on them for something. There was no gift, so there must be money inside he thought. He ripped it open and reached inside the card for the money to grasp..... his heart skipped a beat. For in his hand he held ... absolutely nothing. Nothing but empty air. He opened the card that he would usually just throw out without reading to see a short note scribbled inside by his parents. Dear Sweet Precious Harry, We are so proud of you and the doctor you have become. We find that are little trinkets probably have meant little to you and that you have all you need these days. Therefore, your father and I have decided to use your birthday money to take a trip to the Terrigian Mountains. We love you dearly and hope you have the happiest birthday sweetykins! Love, Mommy and Daddy Doc Harrison dropped to his chair. "What have I done wrong?" he cried out to no one in particular. It was then, that he heard a tiny little squeak! squeak! In the corner of the room watching this madness was a hideous looking rat. It had big ears, scraggly fur, crooked teeth, and an enormous nose. The one thing about the rat that was not hideous was its smooth, well-colored, almost elegant tail. "What's your problem? Did you get cut off from all your gifts too?" the doc said grumpily letting his head drop back into his hands. Now, Schnozimo didn't respond because.... Well, because he couldn't. He wasn't able to talk, since he was a rat. However, even though his vocal cords were not designed for human speech, he was extremely intelligent and could understand the human language. As a matter of fact he also understood, Trollish, Gnomish, and Elvish too. He even knew how to read and write in English and Gnomish. He had heard poor Doc Harrison's laments and wanted to help him out. He knew a little bit about receiving punishments in life with his dreadful appearance. Before he consoled the doc, the first thing he wanted to do was let Doc Harrison know his name so he climbed up onto the doc's dusty old desk and licked his paw. He began spelling it out by wiping away dust with his wet paw leaving nice big block letters. S C H N O Z I M O Then he squeaked to get Doc Harrison's attention again. Harry looked up at this little creature and noticed it pointing to the letters on the desk. "Shh... Shhnawwzzimoh," he pronounced the name out and the rat nodded happily. "Well, what do you want Schnozimo? Would you like me to get you some cheese, and that way you can 'not get me a gift' on my birthday too?" Schnozimo looked right him and pointed at his nose, his ears, and his teeth. Then, he caressed his tail lovingly. He was trying to show the doc that even though he had bad things in his life like most of his looks, there were still good things like is tail. He tried to show it to the doc this way, because he figured it would take too long to write it out in the dust. Then he held his tail and twirled around gently in circles as if dancing with it. He wanted to show loving the good things in life. Now, maybe he should have written it down, because some things get lost in translation. For what Doc Harrison saw was an ugly arrogant little rat bragging about a tail while he had nothing. Absolutely nothing. Maybe on a different day it would have been different. But on this day, a switch flipped in Doc Harrison and pure loathing seeped into the corners of his brain. While Schnozimo was twirling like a frumpy ballerina, Doc Harrison reached over for his thickest, heaviest book on healing, 100,000 Cures from Cuts to Curses by Mother Goose. Today, however, this book would not be used for healing. He raised it gently into the air and slammed it down toward Schnozimo crashing onto the table with a resounding, THUD!! "SQUEEEAAAAKK!" Schnozimo squealed in pain. In his reverie he had not seen Doc Harrison raise the book. As the book came closer though, Schnozimo had glimpsed the shadow from the corner of his eyes and sensed the danger. He leapt swiftly to dodge the incoming attack and almost completely evaded the book. The last inch of his tail though could not outrun the swift strike. Doc Harrison heard the squeak, and raised the book to see the injured Schnozimo in shock, gently lifting up his now crooked tail. My goodness, he thought as his senses came back to him. Inconsiderate as he was, he had never been one to do physical harm to a person or animal for that matter. He quickly grabbed an elixir from his cabinet to numb the tail and a scalpel, which is a small operating knife. He had seen this type of injury on a centaur, half man/half horse, and knew that only way to end the pain to the tail quickly was to amputate it or cut it off. Schnozimo saw the doctor returning with the knife and figured he was coming to finish the job. He scurried frantically, but was pinned by the doctor's right hand. 'Oh well,' Schnozimo thought, 'I cannot go forward with a ruined tail anyways. He may as well end it, for I have nothing left to live for.' He felt Schnozimo's body stop struggling and rubbed the elixir on his tail to prepare to amputate it. At this touch, Schnozimo looked up and saw the blade lowering menacingly towards his beloved tail. With a renewed vigor, he struggled furiously against Doc Harrison's grasp. Wriggling his bodypartially free, he saw his chance. He opened his mouth wide and chomped hard down on to the outside portion of the hand holding him captive. "YOWWWCCCHH!" the doc screamed, flinging the scalpel through the air and releasing Schnozimo at the same time. Feeling his freedom Schnozimo scrambled off the table, past the two day old tuna fish sandwich and towards his home behind the gap of the third and fourth stone in the base of the wall. He sat there panting heavily as the adrenaline of the events slowly wore off and the pain slowly grew. He looked down at his tail that was so gloriously beautiful before. It now had a sharp right angle bent into its last inch. Not only that, the elixir that was being used to numb the tail had stained the end a deep purplish black color that made it look as if it were rotten. He was no longer the beautiful tailed Schnozimo perfectly pleased with his life. He was now the crooked tailed Schnozimo and had a new goal. It was not to share the tale of his now inglorious tail, but to get revenge on the evil doctor that he had so kindly tried to help. Little did he know, Doc Harrison's thoughts were almost exactly the same. His lack of birthday presents had been forgotten, and he had a new mission in life. Catch Schnozimo and make him pay for everything that went wrong with this day. For it was surely the rat that had cursed this day and getting rid of him would bring back all of the doc's formal glory. The two beings, rat and man, had a single thought going through both of their minds.
'I will get revenge!'
MARK MAFFEO
Doc Harrison & Schnozimo - Hate at First Bite
Harry Harrison, the doctor at Castle Norwood, was ready to have a really good day. Every day was actually a really good day though. So today would be a really great day. Today, a frosty winter day in January, was his birthday. So not only would he be doing is usual of absolutely nothing, but he would also be receiving gifts. To him, there was nothing better in the world than receiving gifts for doing absolutely nothing. He counted off on his fingers the gifts he expected to receive. There were his parents, who always gave him a gift, even though he never even sent them a card on their birthdays. There was the faculty gift from the castle, because the castle was also a school. They always liked to make their staff feel special. Staff members at the beginning of each year would donate money into a fund for the gifts that were later distributed. Doc Harrison never donated money of course, because he felt that doing that would be paying for his own gift. He'd rather just receive the gift for free without paying. Which of course he always did. Then there were the gifts from the students of the castle. Now, being the doctor at Castle Norwood was not just about runny noses and high fevers. Castle Norwood was a school where magic and weaponry were practiced. So children quite often came in with serious injuries like a bite from a dragon hatchling, hearing loss from a banshee, a broken arm from a battle mace, a near drowning from a water nixie, and the occasional accidental poisoning from an elixir gone wrong. Doc Harrison certainly was a master medic and always knew the best remedy for each situation. So for his talents, he expected a little gratitude. Students had a lot on their mind though with their studies. So, the week before his birthday he sent out reminder cards to the students about his birthday as well as subtle hints for what they could get him.
Dear Billy Bagwell, I hope your dragon bite has healed nicely. It's a good thing I stopped the poison before it killed you. It would have been a shame to see you die an excruciatingly painful death. My birthday is next week and I am going to celebrate at Squiggly Squirrel's Tavern. It's so nice when I receive gift certificates for there from the people who appreciate what I do for them.
Sincerely,
Doc Harrison
PS - I know you appreciate what I did for you.
The letters went on like this until he made sure he covered everything he wanted. If he wanted more things than there were students he helped, he suggested that some of the more serious cases provided two gifts. Yes, Doc Harrison knew today was going to be a great day. He had done all the preparation, and now it was time to receive. He went down to the messenger's post to check on his mail. Normally, he would just send a student for his mail, but today was the one day each year that he didn't mind doing it on his own. No doubt the head messenger would be mad at him as he was every year for filling up the station with gifts behind the counter. However, as he walked up, he didn't see his usual stack of gifts piled up around the counter. 'Maybe they decided to give me my own personal storage room,' he thought selfishly. "Doc Harrison, box 2302," he said with a smile. The clerk looked up with a smirk and replied, "Just one moment." This gave Doc Harrison an uneasy feeling, because they never smiled at him here. He put the thought away though, and figured maybe that was just their birthday present to him. The messenger post employee came back and placed two small letters on the counter. "Box 2302, have a good day." Doc Harrison stood confused a second before regaining his composure and then blurted out, "NO GIFTS!?!" "I'm sorry, but not today sir," the worker replied with a smile that implied she wasn't really sorry at all. "But... WHY?" he complained, bewildered by the day's events. The attendant just looked down at the two letters he was holding, suggesting that the answers were in there. He ripped open the first letter from Earl Harbinger, who ran Castle Norwood, and pulled out a creamy white stationary with the castle's seal at the top. Dear Harry,
You have been my friend now for quite some time, and we appreciate your efforts here at the castle immensely. You are a superb physician with many talents. However, I regret to inform you that some of your tactics have been wearing thin on the staff's patience. The hospitality committee that is in charge of staff gift distribution says you have not donated to the fund in your 23 years as a staff member here. They said you even went so far as to complain about how 'lame' your gift was last year. The messenger's post has also informed me of the large amount of letters you send to students prior to your birthday to request gifts. Gifts are to be given out of kindness in this castle and not to be requested as payment for services rendered. Therefore I have collected the cards you attempted to send out to the students to avoid what I am sure was just a mistake in judgment on your part. I continue to appreciate all that you do for this castle, and give you my sincerest wishes in hoping that you still have a wonderful birthday. Sincerely, Earl Harold Harbinger Castle Norwood Steward "How completely and utterly ridiculous!!" he shouted and stormed off back to his room. How could this happen to him? How could the Earl do this to him? 'Double H' had betrayed him. He called the Earl Double H because they both had the same initials HH, and Doc Harrison had given him the nickname to kiss up to him when he first got the job. Now, he was just feeling double crossed. Doc Harrison entered his office still perplexed by the day's unexpected outcomes and realized he had not yet opened his other envelope. This letter was from his parents. He could at least count on them for something. There was no gift, so there must be money inside he thought. He ripped it open and reached inside the card for the money to grasp..... his heart skipped a beat. For in his hand he held ... absolutely nothing. Nothing but empty air. He opened the card that he would usually just throw out without reading to see a short note scribbled inside by his parents. Dear Sweet Precious Harry, We are so proud of you and the doctor you have become. We find that are little trinkets probably have meant little to you and that you have all you need these days. Therefore, your father and I have decided to use your birthday money to take a trip to the Terrigian Mountains. We love you dearly and hope you have the happiest birthday sweetykins! Love, Mommy and Daddy Doc Harrison dropped to his chair. "What have I done wrong?" he cried out to no one in particular. It was then, that he heard a tiny little squeak! squeak! In the corner of the room watching this madness was a hideous looking rat. It had big ears, scraggly fur, crooked teeth, and an enormous nose. The one thing about the rat that was not hideous was its smooth, well-colored, almost elegant tail. "What's your problem? Did you get cut off from all your gifts too?" the doc said grumpily letting his head drop back into his hands. Now, Schnozimo didn't respond because.... Well, because he couldn't. He wasn't able to talk, since he was a rat. However, even though his vocal cords were not designed for human speech, he was extremely intelligent and could understand the human language. As a matter of fact he also understood, Trollish, Gnomish, and Elvish too. He even knew how to read and write in English and Gnomish. He had heard poor Doc Harrison's laments and wanted to help him out. He knew a little bit about receiving punishments in life with his dreadful appearance. Before he consoled the doc, the first thing he wanted to do was let Doc Harrison know his name so he climbed up onto the doc's dusty old desk and licked his paw. He began spelling it out by wiping away dust with his wet paw leaving nice big block letters. S C H N O Z I M O Then he squeaked to get Doc Harrison's attention again. Harry looked up at this little creature and noticed it pointing to the letters on the desk. "Shh... Shhnawwzzimoh," he pronounced the name out and the rat nodded happily. "Well, what do you want Schnozimo? Would you like me to get you some cheese, and that way you can 'not get me a gift' on my birthday too?" Schnozimo looked right him and pointed at his nose, his ears, and his teeth. Then, he caressed his tail lovingly. He was trying to show the doc that even though he had bad things in his life like most of his looks, there were still good things like is tail. He tried to show it to the doc this way, because he figured it would take too long to write it out in the dust. Then he held his tail and twirled around gently in circles as if dancing with it. He wanted to show loving the good things in life. Now, maybe he should have written it down, because some things get lost in translation. For what Doc Harrison saw was an ugly arrogant little rat bragging about a tail while he had nothing. Absolutely nothing. Maybe on a different day it would have been different. But on this day, a switch flipped in Doc Harrison and pure loathing seeped into the corners of his brain. While Schnozimo was twirling like a frumpy ballerina, Doc Harrison reached over for his thickest, heaviest book on healing, 100,000 Cures from Cuts to Curses by Mother Goose. Today, however, this book would not be used for healing. He raised it gently into the air and slammed it down toward Schnozimo crashing onto the table with a resounding, THUD!! "SQUEEEAAAAKK!" Schnozimo squealed in pain. In his reverie he had not seen Doc Harrison raise the book. As the book came closer though, Schnozimo had glimpsed the shadow from the corner of his eyes and sensed the danger. He leapt swiftly to dodge the incoming attack and almost completely evaded the book. The last inch of his tail though could not outrun the swift strike. Doc Harrison heard the squeak, and raised the book to see the injured Schnozimo in shock, gently lifting up his now crooked tail. My goodness, he thought as his senses came back to him. Inconsiderate as he was, he had never been one to do physical harm to a person or animal for that matter. He quickly grabbed an elixir from his cabinet to numb the tail and a scalpel, which is a small operating knife. He had seen this type of injury on a centaur, half man/half horse, and knew that only way to end the pain to the tail quickly was to amputate it or cut it off. Schnozimo saw the doctor returning with the knife and figured he was coming to finish the job. He scurried frantically, but was pinned by the doctor's right hand. 'Oh well,' Schnozimo thought, 'I cannot go forward with a ruined tail anyways. He may as well end it, for I have nothing left to live for.' He felt Schnozimo's body stop struggling and rubbed the elixir on his tail to prepare to amputate it. At this touch, Schnozimo looked up and saw the blade lowering menacingly towards his beloved tail. With a renewed vigor, he struggled furiously against Doc Harrison's grasp. Wriggling his bodypartially free, he saw his chance. He opened his mouth wide and chomped hard down on to the outside portion of the hand holding him captive. "YOWWWCCCHH!" the doc screamed, flinging the scalpel through the air and releasing Schnozimo at the same time. Feeling his freedom Schnozimo scrambled off the table, past the two day old tuna fish sandwich and towards his home behind the gap of the third and fourth stone in the base of the wall. He sat there panting heavily as the adrenaline of the events slowly wore off and the pain slowly grew. He looked down at his tail that was so gloriously beautiful before. It now had a sharp right angle bent into its last inch. Not only that, the elixir that was being used to numb the tail had stained the end a deep purplish black color that made it look as if it were rotten. He was no longer the beautiful tailed Schnozimo perfectly pleased with his life. He was now the crooked tailed Schnozimo and had a new goal. It was not to share the tale of his now inglorious tail, but to get revenge on the evil doctor that he had so kindly tried to help. Little did he know, Doc Harrison's thoughts were almost exactly the same. His lack of birthday presents had been forgotten, and he had a new mission in life. Catch Schnozimo and make him pay for everything that went wrong with this day. For it was surely the rat that had cursed this day and getting rid of him would bring back all of the doc's formal glory. The two beings, rat and man, had a single thought going through both of their minds.
'I will get revenge!'