Oh. Wow. It feels like I wrote this FOREVER ago.
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"Hey, Nil, look who it is!"
"Holy Armok! That crazy SOB is still alive! Well... that means I win. Pay up!"
"Armok damn it. I can't believe I lost THAT bet."
"Well, you did. Come on, let's have it.... 20☼, and not a single tiny sun less."
"Alright, alright, take your dirty money. Well, let's take the guys and go get our stuff back. Wait, where'd he go?"
"Kol, you go get the others, and I'll go find Zas. Hey! Hey, Zas!"
"NO!" Zas' mind roared, "This is too soon! Too soon! I'm not ready yet! Why are the here ALREADY? What am I going to do?!?"
"Zas! We're here for the pick and that mule we left behind!" Nil panted, out of breath, as he ran up to Zas.
"Okay, okay... come on Zas, think of something... I'll just have to stall him!" Zas mind raced as he started to speak. "Oh, hey.... Nil... it's been a while, huh?"
"It sure has. Where's the pick? And the mule?"
"Oh, they're, uh... right... well... down, uhh, there." Zas pointed.
"Well, let's go get them... Zas, is everything alright? You seem a little... off."
"Oh, no. I'm fine. Perfectly fine. /S a lot more fine than you're going to be..."
"What was that?"
"Nothing. You go on ahead down there. I'm going to go.... get something.... for you to eat. Yes! Some food. You're hungry, surely! I just know it!"
"Well yeah, a little, I guess..."
Cautiously, Nil walked down into the tunnel. It was illuminated with light pouring in from every side.
"Wait a minute." Nil thought, "what's holding up the ceiling?"
Nil walked cautiously down to the end of the tunnel, where he saw the answer to his question- a single support. As Nil turned back towards the way he came, he he heard a sharp noise come from the support. His head turned, and for a brief moment he was terrified. Then, nothing.
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Mmmm, violence!
Sorry about how short that was, the arrival of the migrants really split things up. The next update is completely text (with almost no dialogue), and it's also long, so the two balanced each other out quite nicely.
With Nil dead, the fate of the other four migrants hangs in the balance...