Urist sighed as he went down the stairs, hoping he wasn't being sent to meet another lunatic deep in the bowels of this maze. He turned down the described hallway, passing sealed chambers with slitted glass viewports in heavy-duty slabs of stone. At each doorway was a lever, obviously to open the slab. Urist passed them, growing increasingly confused. These weren't living quarters. Who could he possibly be meeting down here?
He came to the prescribed doorway, and looked in the viewslit. He tried to peer throught the tiny slit into the darkness, but all he could see were gnawed bones scattered about the room. Just as he was about to turn to leave, a bony, clawed hand smashed into the glass pane, bouncing off. Urist jumped back, startled. He heard a ferocious roar.
The roar of a Holistic Spawn.
'...we even have a spawn research center...'
Another roar, from the next door down.
"Surprised? Former militia members. Ashsaber and Softa. They got infected during battle, and so we sealed them in. Some of the other dwarves figured it would be good to research their foe." A sneer entered the speaker's tone, "Like RESEARCH will help understand them. They're an abherration. A mutation. Born from pure betrayal."
Urist turned toward the voice, his jaw hanging open, his beard twitching furtively, "You mean to say... That these were once your fellow citizens?"
The speaker nodded, still concealed by the shadows. "Indeed."
Urist snarled, "You MOTHERFUCKER! YOU LET THESE BRAVE SOULS GET CORRUPTED? FOR WHAT?"
"I did not. They were injured in battle. If you had seen the previous state of our... Medical facilities, you would understand that this is practically a mercy."
Urist snapped, rage turning his vision red. He came to with his hands wrapped around the speaker's throat, choking him. He let go, dropping the stunned dwarf to the floor. Urist shook his head, looking back at the chambers. Dozens of them. He opened his mouth to speak, and found no words. He stumbled off, back into the fortress, into the dining room.
The dwarf he had met earlier that had drank whatever that had been was seated in a corner, sullenly surveying the dining hall. Urist sagged down into the chair in front of the dwarf, his eyes glassy from shock.
"Seen them, did you? Drink from that mug over there, the one with the aventurine cabochons." The other dwarf nodded sympathetically as Urist gulped down the concoction, "Better?"
Urist's vision was swimming, everything was crawling. He could hear colors. The other dwarf had a concerned look, "Hey fella, you okay? You don't look so good. Kinda... Well, kinda pale. Maybe you should go see a doctor."
Urist snapped out of his intoxicated haze, "Doctor? No. No doctors. Last doctor I met got butchered like a pig by my former best friend."
The dwarf shrugged, "Hey, Mitch has these boys doing much better than they were. Now they only kill like one in one hundred patients, instead of twenty out of thirty."
Urist stood, the strange feelings rushing back in as he did so. He swayed a bit, then said, "I'm... I'ma go up to that tower... I need to get some fresh air." The other dwarf shrugged.
Urist stumbled through the hallways, the faces of other dwarves leering at him from every shadow. They gave him strange looks as he passed, and he heard murmurs following in his wake. He passed the barracks, and stopped, doubling back. Inside, Fischer and the overly dramatic dwarf from the depot were chatting in a corner.
Urist came up to them, "Hey... Hey. Why did you do that? Why did you send me down there?"
Fischer smiled gently, "Now you're beginning to understand. Do you see why we are like this? Do you get it yet?"
Urist shook his head roughly, "No. That... Was wrong. Anyone can see how wrong it is to do that to your former fellows. They should die in battle."
The dramatic dwarf got a grim look, and spoke up, oddly without his vampish mannerisms, "Don't you dare abuse their sacrifices. They VOLUNTEERED for study. Once we knew they were infected, we asked them what they wanted us to do. They wanted to help dwarven kind." He pushed the highly confused Urist back, "They are MY FRIENDS. I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR THEM."
Fischer chimed in, "WE would do anything for them. We feed them, keep them safe. Despite their... Mutation, the core of the dwarf that once was is still in them. You can see it if you look deep enough. When we can learn nothing more from them, then we shall give them a warrior's death, and a full and proper burial in accordance with the traditions. Until then, we need every advantage over the spawn we can get. And we have learned so much from them."
Urist sat down on the floor heavily, trying to understand through his drug-induced haze, "Like what?"
Fischer smiled, "The spawn fear only one thing."
The other dwarf finished the thought, "Hell."
So... I'd like to see how this continues. I need to brainstorm a bit for the next update.
Ninja'd: And yeah, I'd rather see a blaze of glory than a whimper of fear.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2278042 times)