Oomph, I did it.
Extremely not proofread, but JC! I already took two days to let this thread sink.
The light flickered and cast huge and hideous black shadows across the floor. In the barren hallway, only dwarves created them. Egdoth looked in front of her feet closely, hastening her steps to pass through another shadow. Each time with fear she watched as her feet in green stockings dissolved into blackness, then discovered with wonder and relief them in their place when she left the shadow. Of course, she knew that running from shadows was silly, and even futile, because her own black shadow kept rotating around her as she moved between lights. But her fear of embarrassment was easily subdued by the thrill she received from this innocent occupation. And by the feeling of lightness that the end of the workday created inside her. And by the anticipation of a long reclining session she had in front of her.
She came to the massive rock door of the canteen, and observed for the last time her shadow as it partially disappeared in the united brilliance of two torches by the door. She entered.
There were about a dozen dwarves around the tables, holding quiet conversations and enjoying slow mugs of booze. Most of them Egdoth didn’t know well, they were odd-jobbers like her and she didn’t get to talk to them often. She recognized Rafar the cook and nodded a hello to him, then walked down the passage between the tables towards the stockpile. She knew Rafar was staring at her back as she was walking away. Through an open door next to the stockpile she glanced Namash, the brewer. Namash, in a stained apron, looked openly back at her, but without hostility. Egdoth wondered once again, how Namash and Rafar lived together, behind closed doors, where their jobs didn’t keep their conversations emotionless, didn’t keep their smells and touches in their workshops. Rafar was cheerful, but serious and devoted, Egdoth imagined. Namash was emotional, impulsive, and tired. She couldn’t stand drunkards near her brewery - get your pint and walk away, or else. If she was in a good mood, you’d get a short reproach and a heavy look. Egdoth imagined that Rafar kept her at bay with his composure. But she had no way of knowing what happened behind closed doors.
She relished the thick sweet smell of booze around her, then picked up a heavy granite mug, a ladle and poured herself some longland beer from a barrel. Namash had already turned away, when she went back to the tables. But she knew that the brewer looked at her back. She slowed down coming closer to where Rafar, on a senseless whim. He glanced up at her briefly, and she thought, flushed a bit. Well, she didn’t want any trouble, neither for herself, nor for him. She walked ahead and sat at the next table, facing away from Rafar. There was only half-a-foot of air between their backs, but there could be no chatting. The vapours from the mug tickled her nose and with a smile she took a sip.
“Egdoth!”called a young male voice. She turned to the door and saw a tall dwarf with a long lavish beard and a grin on his face striding towards her. “I hoped I’d find you here,” he said, stopping by her table.
Everyone stared at him, and Egdoth felt a little embarrassed to have this attention near her. He wore a gleaming mail cuirass and steel-studded gloves, there was a sword at his belt and he couldn’t be anyone she knew.
“You don’t recognize me?” he said. “I’m Urist."
It was Urist. She let out a gasp.
The last time she’d seen him, he was a little taller than her, all he could boast of was a dark stubble on his chin, he was thin and a dreamer.
“Urist!” She jumped up and hugged him. Then stepped away, taking him in. “What’s happened to you? I mean, last time I saw you, you were going away with that expedition.”
“A lot,” he said, his voice rich and low, making her chest tickle. “I just have to handle some business with the brewer, and then I’ll tell you everything!”
He gave her a brilliant smile, then turned towards the brewery door, and Egdoth started slowly sinking back on her seat. Rafar followed Urist with his eyes, then looked at Egdoth. The room filled with murmuring.
Urist stopped on the threshold of the brewery and began talking with invisible Namash. Then she appeared in the doorway and they both went to the exit, Urist bouncing his new, springy stride. They stopped at the door, looking outside in a business-like manner.
Then there was a scream.
A dwarf screamed somewhere in the hallway.
The scream was only a beginning of a wave of voices.
Then there was an approaching avalanche of steps.
Everyone jumped up from their seats, looking at each other in shock. Rafar stared at Namash, one foot in the hallway.
Then, shouting began around Egdoth.
“What’s going on there?”A bulky dwarf in blue overalls shouted, addressing Urist apparently, who should have had the best view.
Urist turned his face to the room.
“I don’t know. Everybody seems to be running from something.” He was frowning, and Egdoth didn’t know that frown. He must have learned it while he was away, and she didn’t like it.
Rafar decisively moved to the exit.
“We should stay inside the canteen probably”, said Urist, looking at him. Rafar stopped by his wife and Urist. The rest of the dwarves decided to get closer, too. Egdoth quickly jogged to Urist’s side. He glanced at her and put an elbow out, warning her not to get any closer to the door.
“Booze”, suddenly said Rafar.
There was a wheelbarrow in corner across the hallway, with several barrels on it.
“Yes”, Urist said. “Orab wanted to put them in your stockpile, they had to cut down for a new office.”
“We can’t leave it,” said Rafar and walked outside.
“Hey,” said Urist, but Rafar’s mind was set. He crossed the hallway, picked the wheelbarrow by the handles and prepared to go back.
Urist saw something down the corridor.
“Stay back,” he shouted over the tumult. And then they lost Rafar’s sight.
A dwarf with eyes popping out of his head and the mouth open in a scream run down the hallway. And a whole crowd behind him.
The dwarves in the canteen shrunk back, in a single movement.
Some of the crowd Egdoth knew, they lived and worked closer to the fort entrance, and she hadn’t gone there too often. But she remembered some as woodcutters and those guys had a lot of nerve to go outside. They were first to meet a titan last year and dropped wood on him to hold him off. Now a part of a crowd running away in panic. Running away in such a primal fear that they didn‘t recognize Egdoth, the didn‘t even notice the canteen‘s door. Or maybe they didn‘t think it safe to hide in from whatever was pursuing them.
“Rafar!” shouted Namash.
The crowd started getting thinner and through the flashing of bodies Egdoth saw Rafar on the other side, apparently plastered on the wall to get out of the way of the crowd. The wheelbarrow was beside him. He seemed pale.
“Rafar!” said Namash again.
Egdoth looked at Namash, and saw tears on her face. She felt a sting of conscience for her earlier behaviour, and with a startle thought that Namash might loose her husband today.
Then there was another scream, full of pain and animal horror, such as hadn’t been heard since the titan’s attack. Urist pushed back, spreading his arms to protect everyone behind him with his body. It seemed that all the crowd had run past, and the way for Rafar was clear. And then Egdoth saw his face.
He was staring down the hallway, in the direction from which the crowd came. He was perfectly still and his skin was perfectly white. His eyes were very wide and he had an expression of extreme bewilderment and his mouth was slightly open. He stopped clinging to the wall and stood straight like a straw.
Then there was a thud and a steel helmet rolled into Egdoth’s view. She inclined her head to the side and saw that it belonged to a dwarf who lay on the floor without movement, under a strange veil of darkness curling in a cloud around him. Although, to Egdoth it seemed more like petroleum that had been mixed with water and now floated in it in an oily spiral, gathering into one, taking hold of the whole mixture. It was an oily blackness, floating in the air, gathering into a big destructive mass to take hold of everything.
Egdoth felt a breath of air on her ear and realized that it was Namash who kept calling Rafar over and over again, and tugged at Urist’s arm that held her back. Rafar didn’t move.
Urist turned his head and looked at Egdoth with an expression that she didn’t know yet, then dashed out of the canteen. He gave a swirling blackness a single glance and grabbed Rafar by the hand. Rafar looked at him without understanding in his eyes, and Urist tugged harder. By short jerks, Rafar moved several paces, when he blinked and said hoarsely, “Booze.”
“Come on,”said Urist. “There’s enough yet in there.”
But Rafar had his mind set. With his free hand he reached out to a handle of the wheelbarrow and grasped it firmly.
“Let it go!” Urist shouted, to no avail.
Then he sensed it, and Egdoth saw it. The dwarf who lay in the dark, exhaled with a hiss, brought his arms forward and started getting up. But it wasn’t a dwarf anymore - his face was consumed by darkness completely, skin turned gray, cheeks sucked inside and his eyes - solid black. The blackness was oozing out of him like mist from a block of ice in the cupboard.
Urist watched him get up. Then he said, “Alright then,” pushed Rafar behind him and took the handles of the wheelbarrow. With a screech, it turned and started rolling.
The creature that had once been a dwarf groped around as if blind. Egdoth found herself observe it stumble to sounds and with shame tried to find in its face features of a dwarf she must have known. She found them, and looked away in terror. They were features of one suffering.
Urist was almost at the threshold, and Namash came forward reaching to Rafar, who was still dancing around the barrels. Urist looked back. The creature lurched forward with a growl, almost getting him. Urist ducked out of the way, and it stumbled at the wheelbarrow that rose on one wheel and slowly turned over. There was a crack and booze splashed around from a broken barrel.
“Booze,” said Rafar with sadness in voice. Urist got up. Then they heard loud hissing and turned around to find the creature slowly dissolving. The splash of booze reached its head, and now the drops were eating holes through its skin, revealing darkened muscles. While body was slowly getting stripped of its flesh, the blackness was also strangely changed. It blended with booze, not willingly, trying to persist, but in the end it turned, becoming paler, wavering, changing colour. In some places it became blue, in some green, in some brown, and in some - red.
Urist jumped at Rafar, pushing him inside the canteen, the cook already carrying a barrel in his hands. Even though one creature was slowly turning into a pile of rainbow, the blackness that could not be mistaken for a simple shadow crept down the hallway. Urist grabbed the doors handle with all his strength and slammed the door shut.
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Topic: The Stories (Read 2251 times)