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unpeumacabre · 5 years ago

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my kingdom for a horse: chapter 4

the year is 1601, a messenger has been sent to dongnae, and he has not returned. lord cho-hak-ju advises the joseon king to send crown prince lee chang to dongnae to investigate, but the plot he unravels there threatens the safety of the entire kingdom, and the stability of the dynasty.

a rewriting of kingdom, and lee chang finds love.

Rating: Mature

Relationships: Lee Chang/Yeong-shin

Read on AO3 (bc tumblr might mess up the formatting + more extensive author’s notes on the story)

Count: 3k

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In the morning, Lee Chang leaves Sangju with instructions to the soldiers to hunt for the monsters in the day, and destroy their bodies in the ways that would leave them permanently dead. The commander of the battalion also reassures him that they will further reinforce the walls and put into place new measures against the monsters, so that their defenses will hold.

Near the last few hours of night-time, nearing dusk, some more tenacious monsters had started banging on Sangju’s gates, but there had been so few of them that the guards on the walls had been able to hold them off. The men had reported a larger crowd of monsters that had been following, however, and had disappeared as the sun crossed the horizon. Lee Chang hopes there will be enough soldiers to thin them out sufficiently so they will not present a problem come the next night.

He leaves Sangju clad in thicker clothes, for winter is nigh upon them, and every breath comes out in a misty puff of air. And he leaves Sangju in Lord Ahn Hyeon’s care, as he had promised Yeong-shin.

“It is not that I am forcing you out of mourning; it is that the people need you,” he tells his master, seriously. “You must take care of Sangju in my absence.”

Lord Ahn Hyeon had gazed upon him with solemn, thoughtful eyes, then bowed and accepted with little protest. “I will see to it that the signal fires are lit, and that the men are deployed to find the monsters,” he murmurs. “Where will your next destination be, Your Highness?”

“I must trace the origin of the disease,” Lee Chang replies. “Someone is spreading this plague, very deliberately, so I must find its agent, and prove that he is an agent of Cho Hak-ju. I will journey to Jecheon, and if I do not find answers there, then on to Wonju, and so forth, to the other cities. I must stop the plague before it reaches Hanyang, and consumes the royal family.”

“You are certain you do not wish any of my guards as accompaniment?”

“I have Mu-yeong and Yeong-shin with me,” Lee Chang answers steadily. “And I wish to travel incognito – it will be difficult with an entourage.”

“Mu-yeong and Yeong-shin,” Lord Ahn Hyeon repeats softly, and his eyes dart towards Lee Chang’s left. Lee Chang feels Yeong-shin shift uneasily next to him, but otherwise, he makes no acknowledgement of Lord Ahn Hyeon’s gaze upon him.

“Yes, you will be safe with them by your side,” he acquiesces, and returns his piercing scrutiny to Lee Chang.

His eyes linger on Lee Chang for a moment more, then he nods, and sighs.

“If I may, Your Highness – I was wrong about you. You are not still the boy I left behind in Hanyang three years ago,” he says, so softly that only Lee Chang hears him.

“That boy would not have survived the past few days,” Lee Chang returns, with a dry smile.

“Mm, that is true. You make an old man long for his days back in Hanyang, Your Highness,” says Lord Ahn Hyeon, returning his smile; and it is on this bittersweet note that they make their parting once more.

The road to Jecheon is hard-going for their steeds, but it is quiet and with little distraction. They travel a great distance in the one day, and Lee Chang estimates they will likely reach Jecheon the next morning. They break for the night in a relatively-sheltered area of the plains, from which it will be easy to see approaching monsters, and then they divvy up the night watch as usual.

Seo-bi wanders off to gather more herbs to treat the various scrapes and wounds they have acquired here and there, and Yeong-shin volunteers to accompany her, both as a guard and to hunt meat for their supper.

The moment they are alone, Mu-yeong sidles up to Lee Chang, where he is seated by the fire and sharpening his blade with his whetstone.

“Did you speak to the tiger hunter last night?” he asks, glancing watchfully out towards the plains.

“I did,” Lee Chang says quietly.

“…And?”

“I do not know what to make of him,” he confesses.

“What to – Your Highness!” Mu-yeong splutters. “It is true that he has conducted himself well so far, but he is a dangerous man, and we do not know who he is, or why he has placed himself by our side for so long! He may well be in the pay of one of the numerous officials who wants you dead – oh!”

“It is alright,” Lee Chang murmurs calmly, swiftly pressing the fabric of his robe against his hand, where his carelessness has opened up a cut in the join of his palm. “My mistake. I was being incautious.”

Mu-yeong helps him clean and bandage his wound in a guilty silence, but he is not to be so easily put off the subject.

“Your Highness,” he presses, and his voice now holds a tinge of hurt, “Do you trust him more than you trust me, when I say that we cannot put our faith in him?”

“It is not a matter of weighing you against him,” Lee Chang says, a stern rebuff. He feels the sting of his fresh wound in his clenched fist, and forces himself to regain his composure. When next he speaks, his voice is cool once more.

“It is not that I do not trust your intuition in this matter,” he tries again. “He may very well have ill intentions. But my opinion on this is an opinion of necessity. He is a powerful warrior, and he knows these parts well. We would do well to have all the help we can get.”

“Then I will keep an eye on him,” Mu-yeong says obstinately. “I will protect you from his treachery, if indeed he proves to be a turncoat.”

“And I will rest well,” Lee Chang replies, granting Mu-yeong a soft smile, “knowing that you are by my side.”

Lee Chang takes the first watch that night, and even when his shift has been relieved by Mu-yeong, he remains sleepless for hours still, and tosses and turns in his bedroll. Yeong-shin is an enigmatic figure indeed, and yet he fascinates Lee Chang so. Lee Chang wonders why.

The next morning, they reach Jecheon in good time. It is a bustling city, smaller than Sangju but well-developed in its economy. The markets are in full-swing, and the shouts of customers and sellers alike fill the air. Seo-bi slips away to purchase more food and herbs, but Yeong-shin stays close.

“The crowds can be dangerous,” is his response, when Lee Chang asks him if he will not be making his own purchases.

“I am not helpless,” Lee Chang says patiently.

“And he has me,” blusters Mu-yeong.

“I know you aren’t,” Yeong-shin says bluntly, but still he doesn’t retreat. Lee Chang resigns himself to having two overprotective men plastering themselves to his side as he wades through the crowd. He almost trips over an old man buying crockery at one of the stalls, and bends to pick up the man’s straw hat when it falls to the ground. The man accepts it from him with a down-turned head and quiet words of thanks, and soon disappears, washed away by the surge of the crowd.

It seems an endlessly-long time before they reach the magistrate’s court, but finally they do. He is holding court, and as Lee Chang watches with aghast eyes, he orders a peasant stripped to his flesh and whipped within an inch of his life.

“My Lord – please believe me – the bull is mine - ” howls the man, but the governor turns a blind eye.

“How can it be your bull!” he sneers. “Tis the colour of gold – how would a lowly peasant like yourself be granted with so beautiful a creature? It clearly belongs to Lord Choi. Be grateful that I am being so merciful to you. Theft is punishable by death in my book, you know. Be grateful that I am only letting you off with fifty lashes!”

“My Lord, have mercy,” sobs the man, shrieking in agony as the whip tears at his flesh. “I have cared for this bull since it was a calf. I purchased it from Kim Oh Do in the marketplace – he can vouch for me!”

“Lies, lies, and more lies!” squeals a rotund man standing beside the magistrate. “I bought that bull from Kim Oh Do. You stole it from my farm two days ago!”

“Ten more lashes, for his lies,” orders the magistrate, and the poor man being whipped hardly has strength to react to the addition. His back is raw and torn open by the whip, and the copper tang of blood fills the air. Lee Chang can bear it no longer.

“Stop this immediately!” he roars, and strides into the court. The guards unsheathe their swords and step forward, but immediately Mu-yeong and Yeong-shin are beside him, sword raised and musket cocked.

“Your head would hit the ground before even you touched a hair on his head,” Mu-yeong snarls, and the guards balk.

“Who – who – who are you?” squawks the magistrate, shooting up from his seat in indignation. “And how dare you invade my court! Do you know who I am?!”

“Do you know who I am?” Lee Chang fires the question back at him, his voice cold. “By drawing your weapons on me, you have committed yourself to the annihilation of your whole family.”

A familiar figure stumbles out from the doors bordering the magistrate’s seat, and although it is initially difficult to recognise his face in the low light, the shape of his beard and belly give him away.

“It is the P-p-p-prince!” Cho Beom-pal whispers frantically into the ears of the magistrate. “The Crown Prince Lee Chang!”

Murmurs begin to spread among the residents of the court, then as one, they fall to the ground.

“All hail His Royal Highness!” wails the governor, his nose buried in the dust as he grovels. There is a sort of savage pleasure, Lee Chang thinks, to be taken in the way he and Lord Choi choke as they inhale sand up their nostrils.

“I have come here expecting a fair and noble man who justly deserves the mandate bestowed upon him by my father,” Lee Chang says, every word clear and crisp and cold, “and instead, what do I find? Help him up, and make sure he gets medical attention,” he says to the guard who had been flogging the peasant. He prowls towards the governor, who is now shrinking into himself and unconsciously wriggling backwards.

“Instead,” he murmurs, softly, and leans down to stare into the magistrate’s eyes, “I find a cowardly, unjust worm who serves only the rich and condemns the poor. It seems it is too much to ask, for a single magistrate in the south to fulfill their mandate to serve the people,” and he directs an icy glare at Cho Beom-pal, hunched over away to the side. The man shudders.

“Rest assured, my father will be hearing about this,” he says, straightening up and glancing around at the rest of the residents of the court. “I am sure he will be as disappointed as I am, that the nobles of this great kingdom have fallen so far in their stature.” He turns back to the magistrate.

“Get up,” he says dispassionately, “and prepare your soldiers for war. You saw the signal fires lit, did you not? There is a plague descending upon Jecheon, and it will be here by nightfall. Monsters that are half-dead, half-alive, and who crave human flesh as fodder, will come upon Jecheon in the night – monsters who can only be slaughtered by fire, or by separating their head from their body. You must send your guards to the gates to defend the city, and set up a barricade.

“Furthermore,” he continues, “there is someone spreading the plague internally, within the cities – you must send guards to investigate this matter, or you will be facing monsters both within and without Jecheon. Advise the citizens to hide in their homes and climb as high as they can, beyond the reach of the monsters.

“Dongnae has already fallen, no thanks to the man you have welcomed into your court,” and he directs another disgusted look at Cho Beom-pal, “and if you do not act, Jecheon will be next.”

“Yes, Your Highness!” answers the magistrate in a tremulous voice, finally daring to look up. “Your orders will be carried out to the letter – please be rest assured!”

“See that they are,” Lee Chang says coolly, “or your head will be the next one rolling on the ground. My blade will gladly do the honours.” He spins around, and makes for the entrance to the court. The guards part around him, and it descends into a scene of chaos, with the magistrate shouting out orders, and his men hastening to obey.

In an undertone, he murmurs to Mu-yeong, “Send a messenger to tell the king that someone has been spreading the plague of the resurrection plant around the cities of the south, and that I am investigating the matter. Tell the messenger to make sure my words do not fall into the hands of the Haewon Cho clan, and that they must be delivered directly to the king himself.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Mu-yeong says, and with a final distrustful glance at the men in the court – and Yeong-shin – he departs.

“The more enemies you make, the more I find you need me at your side,” Yeong-shin says quietly, from his side.

On impulse, Lee Chang turns to him. “Will you dine with me tonight? Later, if we calm this madness?” he asks.

Yeong-shin’s eyes widen, the first time Lee Chang has seen him so fazed. “Why me?” he says, voice rough. “Will you not be dining at his lord’s table?”

“I feel no urge to take my supper with that worm of a man,” Lee Chang says in disgust. “And I…” he hesitates. Somehow, I am compelled towards you, he thinks, privately, but of course he does not say it aloud.

“Your prince commands it,” he ends lamely instead, and tries for a smile to show that he does not mean it seriously. It does not work, and Yeong-shin’s gaze is still confused. Confused, and guarded.

“You may decline if you wish,” Lee Chang says softly. “I will take no offence.” His fingers itch – but he knows it would be improper to touch a man of so much lower a station than him. Perhaps he would not have minded, if they had been in private – but now, they are in public, and so subject to many prying eyes.

“How could I decline when the prince of my nation asks me so courteously to honour my table with his presence?” A tinge of bitterness has entered his voice. It is difficult to see his expression, for his head is turned partially away, and Lee Chang frowns.

“Yeong-shin,” he starts, but Yeong-shin shakes his head.

“It is getting late,” he says. “Did you not intend to conduct your investigations?”

“Yes,” Lee Chang says quietly, accepting the change of subject and coming back to himself with a start. He curses himself. It is not like him, to be so distracted. They make for the city.

I must find out who has been spreading the disease among the population, he thinks to himself. The guards at the gates will be a good place to start. And then… and then I will dine with him, later tonight.

Unfortunately, his search brings little fruit, as neither the guards nor the regular vendors in the market have observed any suspicious figures who had approached them. Furthermore, news of the monsters has spread throughout the city, and the people are in a panic, shutting themselves up at home and refusing his questions. It is a maddening state of affairs, but Lee Chang knows of no other way he would have handled matters. Jecheon needs to be prepared for the onslaught that will soon follow.

As night draws nearer and nearer, he grows more and more desperate. The herbalist is the last lead he has, but she knows nothing of a resurrection plant as well, and reports that no one suspicious had visited her either.

“Except for someone who came this morning,” she recalls, “asking the same questions you did. A lady, not fair of face, dressed in white and green. Quite suspicious, if you ask me, with blood spattering her coat - ”

“This woman I know,” Lee Chang dismisses her words, wanting to reprimand her for her careless words against Seo-bi, but chary of offending her and wasting precious time soothing her ego. “Is there really no one else you recall? Anyone who had been acting strange, anyone at all?”

The urgency of his tone compels her to think further, and she taps her chin with a finger, caught up in her thoughts.

“Well, there was that one man…” she murmurs, drawing out the words as she thinks. Lee Chang feels Yeong-shin brush against him, and he forces himself to stop tapping his foot against the floorboards in impatience.

“A man, you said,” he prompts, as gently as he can.

“An old man,” she says. “He asked where the hospital was – I told him it was just down the road, the first left and then three doors away, and I found it odd that he did not know. He must have been a stranger. He seemed like a doctor, a harmless old man, and so I hardly thought of him at first… but see here, have you heard the terrible news? That monsters will come upon us tonight craving for our flesh?” She starts quaking, and there is real fear in her eyes. “I do not know what to do,” she wails, and tears spill from her eyes. Lee Chang suddenly regrets his earlier impatience.

“Lock your doors, and climb as high as you can, if possible,” he advises. “They cannot climb without aid. And bring flame and blade with you, if you can.”

“Will Jecheon fall?” she turns her tearful eyes on him. “I fear it will. Oh, what am I to do! My son… in Hanyang… I fear I will never see him again.”

“Jecheon will not fall,” Lee Chang vows, and every word he says, he believes in. “As long as I live, none shall fall in Jecheon if I can help it.”

“As long as you – who are you?” she asks, eyes widening, but Lee Chang is already halfway out of the door.

“Thank you for your information,” he says quietly. “I will see you tomorrow morning, for you will still be alive. I know you will.”

“The hospital,” he says to Yeong-shin urgently, as they leave the herbalist’s store, “we must hurry there – this old man she speaks of, he must be the one - ”

Then he realises that he can no longer see Yeong-shin’s face clearly. The lamplight in the herbalist’s shop had blinded him to the falling of night-time.

A scream rends the air, and he smells the familiar stench of rotting flesh, and hears the terrible gnashing of teeth. There is a click next to him as Yeong-shin arms his rifle.

“Too late, Your Highness,” he says grimly, “It has begun.” There is a flash of white as he offers a quick smile Lee Chang’s way – not even a proper smile, more a baring of his teeth – and says, “We will have to put off that dinner for another day.”

“I will hold you to your promise,” Lee Chang sighs, and his heart begins to beat faster. He unsheathes his sword. Even in the dimness of the night it glitters and catches the faint glow from the moonlight.

His last coherent thought, before he dives into the fray, is a prayer for Mu-yeong, and a prayer for Seo-bi.

#upm works #upm #changshin #kingdom #kingdom netflix #lee chang #yeong shin #lee chang x yeong shin #mu yeong #beom pal #seo bi #kingdom fanfiction #changshin fanfiction

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mnranger5 · 8 years ago

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My one sports blog of the year, and Jeremy’s Ticket Guy, Minneapolis & Chicago, IL, 4/3/17 - 4/9/17

This blog officially has multiple personality disorder. Some days it’s a fishing blog. Some days it wants to be a Green Egg barbecue blog. And other days, it looks more like a travel blog. This week, I’ve been fortunate enough to make it to a few really special sporting events. That said, bring on the sports blog!

Monday was Game 1 of the 2017 MLB baseball season. Since the Royals were in town for Opening Day, Dyan bought me insanely awesome tickets that were about 20 rows behind the Royals dugout.

It was a chilly 50 degree day with a raw wind out of the north. The pregame ceremonies included a tribute to the late Yordano Ventura, which was a pretty classy gesture by the Twins organization. There was supposed to by a F-16 flyover by the Duluth Air National Guard, however, the low cloud deck prevented it from taking place. Bummer.

Unfortunately for Royals fans, there wasn’t much to cheer about during the game except for a Mike Moustakas homerun. The Twins shut down the Royals bats, and took advantage of a really poor outing by the Royals bullpen. Twins took the game, 7-1. In game 2 of the series, the Royals bullpen imploded once again in a 9-1 stomping.

I had a light day at the office on Thursday, so I decided to take a “long lunch” and head down to Target Field for Game 3 of the series. When I pulled into downtown, temps were still in the 40’s, but at least the sun was shining. I bought a ticket in the outfield bleachers, a spot Dyan and I had sat at on several warmer occasions. Once I entered, I noticed the lower level bleachers were shaded by the upper deck. I took a seat, and froze in the chilly breeze. Around game time, I headed to the concession stand to buy a hotdog and in doing so, I walked past the upper deck above my seat. The section was empty. I chatted briefly with the usher about the chilly weather and he suggested I park myself in the middle of his section, which was in direct sunlight, and out of the wind. I did.

It was cool, but the sun sure felt good for a couple of hours. The Royals showed a little more life with a couple of dingers by Perez and Moose, but the result was the same. Royals bullpen gave up a few runs in a 5-3 losing effort. I bailed out of the game in the 7th inning and was back in the office by 2:00.

Later Thursday evening, UMD played Harvard in the Frozen Four. The winner of the game would play for the Championship on Saturday night in Chicago. As a family, we watched the game and all witnessed the Bulldogs take the lead with 26 seconds left in the third period. The Dogs survived a last minute push (included 2 hit pipes) and won the game 2-1. After the game, the texts between Jeremy, Scott and I began flying. Within the hour, we had plans to drive to Chicago the following day and attend the National Championship game on Saturday night. We also briefly discussed tickets, and I suggested we buy them in advance off StubHub, but Scott and Jeremy assured me there would be plenty of tickets to buy from scalpers on game day.

After a full day of work on Friday, Jeremy picked me up at 3:30 and we headed toward Rochester where we met up with Scott. During the drive, we discussed our plan for getting tickets again, and the guys once again assured me that tickets from scalpers was the way to go. We rolled into downtown Chicago around 9:30 and checked into the DoubleTree, a couple of blocks off Michigan Ave. Next stop, the bar.

We hit up Mother Hubbard’s Sports Bar for a couple of pitchers of beer before heading over to Hub 51 – a swanky happy hour bar with an oonce-oonce meat market club in the basement. We had a few beers and then decided to see what the club was all about. Between the marijuana stench and clientele (looked like an audition for a Snoop Dog rap video), we were out of our element. We stayed just long enough to get photobombed by this drunk lady.

At 2AM, we then headed back toward the hotel in search of some late night food. The front desk attendant gave us a couple of nearby recommendations, but even more cool, is that he sent us on our way with warm cookies (DoubleTree gives warm cookies to all guests at check-in) that were so delicious!

The Bellwether restaurant was located a block away at the Embassy Suites. We had wings and cheesy spin dip, which was decent for late night food. The place seemed more like a club than a restaurant. That’s no filter, everything was lit up in purple!

On Saturday morning, we made a quick stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast and photo op in front of Trump Tower before grabbing a public transportation pass and boarding the train.

Coincidentally, the Twins were in town taking on the White Sox. None of us had ever been to Guaranteed Rate Stadium (formerly known as Comisky Park) so with no plans, we decided to catch a bit of the ball game. The train ride was only 20 minutes and we arrived at the ballpark about an hour early. We bought $7 tickets and strolled into the stadium. It was winter hat giveaway day!

We hung out near the Twins dugout for 30 minutes watching Sano crush ball after ball into the stands. That guy is a beast.

We meandered through the stadium taking in the sightlines before settling on these seats in dead center field. There wasn’t much of a crowd, and the ushers weren’t policing tickets.

While basking under the sun, we began talking about hockey tickets again. Prices were not coming down on StubHub, but rather increasing a bit. Jeremy began searching Craigslist to see what was available [Red Flag #1 - Craigslist]. Braun looks up from his phone and says, “I found a set of 4 tickets in section 102, row 4 going for $125 each [Red Flag #2 – Nearly center ice seats, 4th row, for cheaper than anything else we have seen. Too good to be true?].

Jeremy calls the seller and the guy indicates he wants to keep all four together, so we’d need to buy all 4. Jeremy tells him we are only willing to spend $300 total. We figured we could sell the 4th ticket at the gate and have a little beer money! The guy tells Jeremy he will sell them for that price. He says he is at work, and will text us his address. Three innings went by, and the seller had not texted us, so we assumed the deal was off.

We then decided to leave the stadium so that we could meet up with our college roommate, Ian, at a bar near United Center before the hockey game. On our way out of the stadium, the ticket seller texts Jeremy to meet him at a Starbucks only 5 blocks from the baseball stadium! Such a giant city, yet Jeremy finds the one seller that happens to be within walking distance from us. What are the chances? We were stoked. Jeremy had a Ticket Guy!

On our way to Starbucks, we talked about how we were going to validate whether the tickets were legit. Jeremy was adamant that we all needed to be present to validate the tickets. We had a picture of what the actual tickets looked like, and we agreed if anything seemed off, we’d walk away from the deal. As soon as we got to Starbucks, Scott decided to call Myrriah (awesome timing Rutz!) leaving just two of use to validate the tickets. We waited for about 10 minutes before the most stereotypical gangster-thug walked in the door. He had a bandana covering portions of his dreadlocked head, pants sagging to his knees and more gold teeth than white [Red Flag #3 – Why does a this guy have hockey tickets?]. He pulls out an envelope that held 4 tickets, and a purchase order.

Jeremy started looking at the quality of the tickets while I tried comparing them to the picture we had. Some of the coloring and fonts looked off, but I rationalized these variances by figuring there were likely multiple ticket printers used for all the seats. I noticed the seats were even better than the seats he advertised on Craigslist [Red Flag #4 – why did he have different tickets than were advertised?] The tickets he was presenting were actually center ice, 7th row – virtually the best seats in the stadium (seats are highlighted in yellow on the picture below).

They were high enough that the glass was not an obstruction, but low enough to be right on top of the action. As bad as it sounds, I began thinking to myself, “This guy has no idea how great of seats he is sitting on – he’s probably never even been to a hockey game. If we get these seats, we will be scamming him at this price!” So naive....

I looked at the receipt, and noticed the name on the receipt as Jessie Walker. I asked the seller if he was Jessie, and he said ”Yep, yes I am!” matter of factually. Jeremy asked him point black if the tickets were real, and “Jessie” responded, “Come on guys, you can trust me, you got my word on this!” He was actually much more personable than what he looked like, which probably was the reason we hadn’t walked away from the sale.

We continued looking for imperfections, but in hindsight, I was really just glancing over the seats hoping Jeremy would make the decision to pay so that we could get on our way. I overlooked every red flag and sold myself on the seats being real. I wanted them to be real so bad. I wanted to sit in those seats for the National Championship Game!

Jeremy finally pulled out the $300 and handed it to Jessie. Jessie was out the door so fast – he never even counted the cash. As Jessie walked out, Scott walked in. We had tickets to the game! Scott looked at the tickets, and gave a shrug of approval. As we all stood around skeptically admiring our purchase, a voice from across the Starbucks yelled out, “You guys! You guys! Make sure those tickets are real!” It was the Starbucks manager. She had seen the whole deal going down and apparently was trying to get our attention during the transaction. She said she has seen many ticket scams in her store and we needed to be careful. Unfortunately, that bit of advice came about 20 seconds too late. Jessie was gone. The money was too.

We left Starbucks worried. That skepticism was much more real. We had no idea if they were real, or fake, but that Starbucks manager, and all the red flags were causing me to have a pit in my stomach. As we walked toward the train station, Jessie called Jeremy. Jeremy picked up the phone and immediately Jessie began getting confrontational saying we had shorted him money. Jeremy indicated our deal was $300 for 4 seats but Jessie was recalling a different sale price apparently. He said nothing else and hung up. At this point, I was a little freaked out. This Jessie dude was not a good guy. He is the exact kind of guy you could easily see carrying a gun around for protection, or worse, for getting what he wants. As we made our way to the train station, I kept looking behind us to see if we were being followed. At the train station, there was a police presence, so I sensed we were safe. This is where we all started looking more closely at the tickets. Were they real, or were they fake? Then Jeremy found it.

“Commision” - A misspelled word on the front of the ticket. And when it rains, it pours...

“Incorperated” – A misspelled word on the back of the ticket. There is NO WAY the NCAA is going to have tickets with misspelled words on them. We had been fooled by a guy claiming to be Jessie, the original purchaser of the tickets. Damn. We weren’t happy campers.

We hopped on the train and unfortunately chose a spot next to an older mentally unstable dude who kept telling Jeremy he was high, and going to bite him. Luckily nobody got bit on the 20 minute train ride downtown.

We may have been out $300, but Jeremy’s Ticket Guy became an instant legend. The rest of the trip, we used every opportunity imaginable to razz Jeremy about his Ticket Guy. Fortunately for us, we were able to get some authentic tickets too. After a quick pre-game happy hour with Ian and his wife Shannon at the Ogden Bar, we headed over to the Frozen Four Fanfest at United Center.

We found a real scalper named Biggie, with real tickets. He had three 5th row Club Level seats in section 232 he was selling for $200/ticket. We negotiated down to $125/seat but walked away thinking we still might be able to do better. After 10 minutes of chatting with other scalpers, we realized we weren’t going to do better. We found Biggie and offered him $340 for the 3 tickets, which he reluctantly accepted. The difference between the fake vs real ticket became obvious to us.

And the seats turned out to be awesome! Being that they were Club level, the seats were wider and cushioned (albeit poorly).

The pregame festivities were really well done with a laser and video show displayed on the ice surface.

The Bulldogs came out playing really poor in the first period. Denver is a great team, but our inept performance made them look superior. We couldn’t fore-check, we couldn’t hold the zone, we couldn’t make simple passes, our positioning on the ice was awful and we never seemed to get any kind of rhythm. Despite all that, miraculously, Denver didn’t score in the first period. Their shots seemed to all hit the pipe, side of the net or our goalie, Hunter Miska. It was 0-0 after one period. The second period started just like the first, except Denver found the back of the net twice, just 16 seconds apart. The Bulldogs finally got on the board with a goal shortly after the two Denver scores. That goal seemed to light a fire under the Bulldogs. Unfortunately, while the Dogs were looking great late in the second period, they gave up a third goal to Denver. The score was by Jarid Lukosevicious, his third goal of the game. This hat trick drove Denver fans to toss their hats onto the ice. Although down two goals, UMD continued playing well as they closed out the second period. The Dogs came out firing in the third period. Down two goals, they had a lot of work to do to get back in the game. But they owned Denver. The Dogs put 17 shots on goal compared to 3 shots for Denver. The puck was constantly in the Bulldog zone. It was a complete reversal from the first period of play. The strong play finally paid off when freshman Riley Tufte knocked in a lose puck in front of the net with less than 6 minutes left in the game. That goal set up what was likely one of the most competitive finishes in Frozen Four history. The Dogs peppered the Denver goaltender, Tanner Jaillet, with a slew of shots, but he fended off everyone proving why he had just been named college hockey’s goaltender of the year just a day earlier. The Dogs pulled the goalie with about 2 minutes left on the clock, giving them an extra attacker. But it was not in the cards for the Dogs on this night. Their final couple of pushes were strong, and nearly resulted in a tying goal, however, Jaillet was stronger as he fended off the Bulldogs attacks. When the period came to an end, the Denver players littered the ice with their gloves, sticks and helmets as they piled around one another in their national championship celebration.

We hung around and watched the trophy presentation, which was bittersweet. It was really cool seeing a National Championship and the celebration that ensued – just wish it would have been the Dogs.

After the game, we cabbed it over to Buck Town and had a couple of beers at Northside Bar and Grill and Wicker Park Tavern before closing out the night with some 1AM tacos at Flash Taco. From there, we took the blue line back downtown to the hotel.

It was an amazing week of sports! Three baseball games and a National Championship hockey game rounded out a week I will never forget. But most importantly, I learned a lesson. Never listen to Jeremy when he says, “I have a guy...”

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