Mountain Thunderfist: Mountain Thunderfist [1/2]

[AdamEss 58]

 

Mountain Thunderfist was born to a pair of mixed race giants called Fingerians in the Land of Foon. Shortly after the Dark Lord began to gain power and hunt the giants down, they fled, and used what turned out to be a dimensional portal that brought them to our world behind an ice rink in northern Minnesota. They taught a young Mountain about his homeland as he grew and his lineage. For all intents and purposes, none of that was really super important to the remainder of Mountain's life, except for not dying a horrible death in a faraway world. Which sure....not dying as a child is important to growing up and playing hockey..a..rguably the most important thing actually...but not really to any extant other than that . What will be mentioned was the prodigious rate at which he grew. Even at just 8 years old, Mountain towered above his peers already, standing 4'11 and weighing almost 90 pounds. The kid was huge. And seemingly every sports coach in North America salivated at the mouth as they tripped over each other to convince Mountain and his parents (Rosethorn and Hardbrick Thunderfist) to have Mountain join their sport. A football coach and a lacrosse coach actually had a fistfight on the family's front lawn. It ended when the youth hockey coach arrived and broke up the fight by body checking both other coaches at once. Mountain fell in love with hockey on the spot.

 

His sheer size and early developed athletic prowess proved somewhat of a problem, but also a blessing in disguise. He was still too large to play his peers, even by the standards of the sport so it was agreed that he would move up and play among the 12 year old kids. This forced him to catch up against much more skilled opponents form day one. Opponents who were 12 year old boys presented with a freakishly large 9 year old. You've met 12 year old boys. You know exactly how this goes. Said 12 year old boys had however not accounted for the fact that the target of their bullying was a literal giant whose parents were barbarian warriors. Mostly because it was (as I mentioned) no longer really important to the story. They probably would've ignored the information even if they had it. In the end, I doubt any of them were really worried about the details. Just the pissed off 9 year old thrashing them on the ice virtually every day as he skated around (with surprising skill) and knocked foes on their pubescent rear ends. Also, he learned some hockey. He actually became a top flight passer in addition to his natural affinity for defending the net form oncoming attack.

 

By middle school, Mountain ate, slept, and breathed hockey. Also, he was an excellent gardener. He watched hockey on TV, studied it in books and magazines, and refused to even consider another sport. Rosethorn and Hardbrick supported their son's passions and the ability to fit into this world that it helped give him. They also did their best to fit in but only really succeeded about as much as most who grow up and then go through such a drastic change. They was always some weirdness and obvious "difference" to them no matter how well liked they were by their friends and neighbors. Which is to say the everyone just assumed they were from Quebec. The Thunderfists were a relatively normal norther Minnesota family. They worked hard, they loved each other, and they couldn't pronounce S's without adding a W afterwards for some fucking reason.

 

Mountain continued to grow until his size actually created a question of whether he'd be forced to sit out until he entered high school due to the disparity. Ultimatley the town threatened to riot if they were forced to keep him off the local 13-15 year old team. Sure, they didn't use the word riot but that's pretty much what the plan was. Instead, Mountain was allowed to play and dominated everything aorund him. Yet still the young man knew intrinsically that he wasn't being challenged enough. He would practice with the high school team, play pickup games on the ponds with adults, and anything he could think of to test himself at a higher level. All the while managing to be a consistent B+ student at school and an avid member of the 4H. He also tried to have a paper route. One week and 13 broken windows later, it was mutually decided that this might not be the avenue for him.  It was during this time period that he announced that he hated nachos one day. Even now no one knows why.

 

High school saw a 6'3 Freshman Mountain Thunderfist playing varsity and knocking the crap out of people on a regular basis. His actual play had significantly improved over the preceding couple of years due to his indomitable will to challenge himself over and over again, made even stronger by the fact that so many things came easy for him. In additon to his burgeoning hockey career he was also a pretty nice guy who always had a kind (if somewhat loud) word to say to people and maintained his very good grades and helped people around the town frequently. Basically, he was one of the most hated people in school because every other teenager was ridiculously unhappy with having to hear themselves compared to "that Thunderfist boy". Because if there's one thing parents are good at, it's making teenagers despise one of their own for being too successful by comparison. But man could the guy play hockey. And grow tomatoes that were amazing. To be honest, the tomatoes probably didn't help his popularity with his peers. Mountain himself was more or less unaware of this all because mostly no one was going to tell him to his face. Or more like to his chest. So he continued to focus on his passion of hockey and helped lead the team to a State Championship as a Freshman.

His other three high school years weren't as successful for the team as  super suspicious rezoning sent some of the town's players to a different school, though Mountain himself continued to impress and slightly terrify fans and parents alike. I mean it was so suspicious that if this were the mid 90s, a talented teenage ninja would have come in and thwarted it all. That shit happened constantly in the mid 90s. It was a weird time. Mountain impressed multiple colleges and professional teams alike but as it turned out, when Mountain graduated high school he disappeared. Like....just totally fucking disappeared for a couple years. His parents wouldn't say where he was his freinds didn't know and the entire town was on the verge of really trying to get involved in the situation and figure out what was going on before cooler heads prevailed and reminded them....Quebec.

 

 

Several year later, Mountain returned, walking over the hillside and blocking out the sun on those who saw him. Because they were children. I mean, yeah he's tall as fuck but most people can still see the sun. Mountain returned and brought with him directions to a lavish and well tended garden that he claimed would feed the town after he had gone. Which....while noble, wasn't exactly true. The town had a thriving agricultural and commerce setup and one really really good garden didn't change that. No one corrected him though because he was a freaking giant at this point. They just thanked him and his parents brimmed with pride. And then Mountain joined the VHLM draft pool with basically zero additional warning. Also, he got a puppy at some point. His name is Max, but this is not Max's story.

[JG10 28]

1300 words. Good job. I liked how you made it more about his upbringing rather than just about hockey

[oilmandan 686]

Review: Awesome story. Plenty of laughs to be had while reading this. I especially liked how he was thought to be from Quebec because he was different. Only thing I'd change is to break it up more a a couple more paragraphs. Otherwise very well done!