The events of the 12th of Moonstone, 1067The summer heat beat down upon my back just like the ol' lady I've been supporting all these years. It never changes, this life. You don't get used to it, not really, not the heat, the sun, the swelter, the sweat... no, you just get used to it, you learn learn to cope with enough daily problems to bring down an entire city.
You just put your head down and throw yourself into your work to make it day-to-day. Or you don't, end end up throwing yourself at the camels. That idiot Hammer Wavepaddles obviously couldn't handle it all; her stupid sense justice probably drove her mad. That's all right. One less Dwarf to worry about out here. One less Dwarf with a hammer - that's worth more than a half dozen others..."'Oy, Riddlewire, what the hell are you mumbling to yourself over there?"
Riddlewire's head snapped up, eyes widened. As quickly as the surprise caught him, it melted to anger, and he turned his blackened, furrowed gaze upon Vatek standing a few steps away. The Guardsman looked nervous, and constantly glanced over his shoulder to the Poison Contrustion slowly rising up to blot out the sky.
"I'm not mumbling
anything," Riddlewire snapped, "I'm taking assessment... of the situation."
"And what have you assessed?"
"Well, we have a dead hammerer."
"That's brilliant!"
Riddlewire bared his teeth, and took a quick pull from his hip flask. He grimaced, and he wiped his mouth with the back of a hand. "Fine, ya' jackass. Look here."
Vatek sidled over, peering down at the mangled, hoof-smashed corpse. Wavepaddles robe was torn and bloodstained, but it was cut up on in the center, her intestines pulled out and stepped on. Her face was a mask of horror, and though the top of her head looked caved in from a dread camel, her face was covered in ash, her mouth smeared with berry dye to form a crude smile.
"Here's how it went down," Riddlewire said, his voice low and authoratative, "Between The Duke and his wife, Kuli and his religion, and Stravitch and his insanity, Wavepaddles was constantly bombarded with requests, lies, and idiots. After years of this, of having her duty stopped at the eleventh hour, of being constantly pushed around, of being of no use during Master Estetar's meetings, she snapped. Her mind broken, she dressed herself like some tarted up harlequinn, and came out here looking for victims.
"But she didn't find any. Instead, she found a herd of dread camel. Oh, she fought vallently, but they tore her down, and ripped her open, and feasted on her insides until she was found and they were destroyed. And that leaves us now - one hammerer gone, and with a whole lot more good fortune. And less paperwork for me to fill out."
Vatek listened to this all in silence. When Riddlewire was finished, he screwed up his mouth and leaned over, plucking a small piece of paper from her chest cavity. It was stained in blood, but the letters, thick and unsteady black gothic type, had a single sentence scrawled on it:
THIS GIRL LOVES YOU INSIDE-OUT
Vatek held it out to Hikan and smirked. Aryn's guard snatched it away, and tucked it inside a pocket of his trenchcoat with a growl. "Now you listen to me, you and I, we're the only ones to know about this. And you're going to keep it that way. Whoever stuffed that note in her corpse, they're around here. And if they think that bumbling story about the damned camels is what
I believe, and you confirm it, then they'll get cocky. They'll make mistakes. And we'll be able to find them. As long as you don't go blabbing to everyone about it. Alright?"
Vatek was about to respond, but Riddlewire leaned over slightly, a wide grin spreading on his face. "Stravitch seems to be looking for you."
He laughed as Yellowbolted's sunburnt face actually went white, and turned to hurry off towards the construction site, to try and convince the drunk Captain of the Guard he had
always been there today.
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Topic: Migrursut: What Comes After The World Ends? [Epilogue] (A Community Fort) (Read 390412 times)