He sighed. He kept on sweeping, he was bound to it.
The evening light filtered through the broken wall where the Purple-Knight-of-Valor had broken in with his horse the Brown-Steed-of-Confusion, and had come in through the wall instead of the open archway just a foot to the left.
The light also filtered thru the arch way.
The drawbridge across the moat was down (mostly damaged but still intact) since the battle mostly due to fleeing minions and a cowardly dragon. The minion kept on sweeping, as he tried to pull together his frazzled nerves and recollect the events of the day.
He had got up at the crack of 7:30 in his regulation ditch in the basement, it was nice and damp there and he had gotten some well deserved rest during the night. He had begun to sweep the castle where he worked for the Dark-Lord-of-Oversight and had been sweeping for but a few hours when the Purple-Knight-of-Valor and his Brown-Steed-of-Confusion had burst through the wall (inches from where he had been sweeping an hour ago) and had demanded that the Dark-Lord-of-Oversight hand over the Mauve-Princess-of-Tranquility (she wasn't really mauve), and when the Dark-Lord-of-Oversight refused the Purple-Knight-of-Valor had proceeded to lay the place to waste (during which the drawbridge opened and was partially destroyed. The minion also suffered a broken toe as a result of being run over by the above mentioned cowardly dragon).
The Purple-Knight-of-Valor had kept on laying the place to waste until he realized that the Dark-Lord-of-Oversight had forgotten to lock the cell in which the Mauve-Princess-of-Tranquility was kept whereupon he stopped laying the castle to waste and liberated the princess. The two of them had gotten on the Brown-Steed-of-Confusion and had ridden off into the afternoon sun.
The Dark-Lord-of-Oversight had been killed in one of the fires on the second floor of the castle where he had over looked putting in fire extinguishers. Oh well karma was a bitch thought the minion to itself and kept on sweeping.
At this point you would probably ask if the Dark-Lord-of-Oversight was dead and the castle was in ruins why was the minion still sweeping and had not fled like his friends. Good point!
The reason the minion had not fled was this.
Due to a minor clerical error made in the 2nd dungeon from the left wing of the castle the minion was bound not to the master but to the castle and was bound to his sweeping duties for a lifetime.
2 days of sweeping later
The Maroonish-Blue-Knight-of-Indecision rode by the semi ruined castle on a Colorless-Steed-of-No fame, and wondered if perhaps there were any princesses that needed saving. His resume was pretty sketchy and dry and he needed something good like saving princesses up there to help land a cushy job. And with this in mind he sauntered over to the castle.
Shouting to the minion through the broken part of the wall he said "Oye minion, any princesses left to save in this dilapidated dump?"
The minion who was still sweeping and who couldn’t be bothered looked up with one eyebrow raised and replied "Does it look like any princesses need saving?"
"You’re right" replied the Maroonish-Blue-Knight-of-Indecision scratching his head and aching to get at that itch in his armpit which he had been trying to get to since mid-morning. It had been driving him crazy.
"It doesn’t look like any princesses would be living in this dump. Any dragons that needed slaying perhaps?" he replied licking his lips and trying to reach for his armpit under his breastplate rather unsuccessfully (dragon slaying was right up there with rescuing princesses).
"Nope!" came the cheerless reply from the minion.
Dejected, crest fallen and rather itchy all over by now the Maroonish-Blue-Knight-of-Indecision turned to mount his steed and ride away when the minion thought of something. A loop hole. He looked around and saw the half-broken-down-heap-of-a-castle around him and yelled for the Maroonish-Blue-Knight-of-Indecision to come back.
The minions spell had indicated a lifetime binding to the castle, but didn’t mention whose life time and the minion planned to exploit this weakness to gain his freedom, but first he had to sell the idea to the knight.
The knight was not convinced that knocking down a half destroyed and burnt castle would qualify for any thing greater than say kissing a princess to bring her to life and refused citing it just wasn’t worth the effort.
The minion sighed. He kept on sweeping, he was bound to it.
