14th Moonstone, Early Winter, 106
“Ambush!” cried Eshtan the metalsmith as Skakdi warriors sprang out of hiding onto the skyway. She could see four swordsmen a few paces behind the wrestler that had appeared next to her. Fear overtook her common sense. She ran away from the fort’s entrance, heading for the hills. Right into the swordsmen.
She flailed at one of the swordsmen as it charged at her. It attempted to dodge the blow, but failed to watch its step. It jumped right over the edge of the sky way, down four stories. It died the moment it hit the ground.
Etash continued to run forward, dodging blows from the swordsmen as she went. One finally managed to land a hit on her as she was passing along the very edge of the skyway. She was knocked off, falling three stories. She would have survived, were it not for her wounds.
“No!” Milly screamed, as she had been on her way to the forts entrance after spotting the Skakdi. The ambush squad turned towards her.
“Kill . . .” they hissed, moving towards her, a glossy look to their eyes. They caught up to her, the wrestler injuring her lower body with a kick. She attempted to fight back with a punch, only to have the wretched thing catch her blow and break her right arm.
“Help!” She cried desperately, knowing she was too far for it to come in time, but hoping against hope that it would. She recieved a blow to the neck from a swordsman, and then had her gut slammed by the flat of another’s blade. She felt sick, she was stunned, and as in extreme pain. A final blow from the wrestler sent her flying backwards. Before passing out, she noticed she was having trouble breathing. Now unaware of her surroundings, she was decapitated from a horizontal slice from a swordsman . . .
Arriving at the entrance, Zasit and his corporal, Astesh, engaged the Skakdi. The battle started well enough. Several blows failed to connect to either dwarf. Astesh became careless. He had always been cockey. He dodged, not noticing the absence of a floor.
“Look out Astesh!” cried Zasit. Astesh flailed for the edge in vain, only to miss, falling eleven stories down onto the lower slopes of the mountain. “Damn it!” Zasit lashed out against his current foe in anger, grabbing the skakdi swordsman’s upper and lower bodies in either hand, and bringing his knee into its stomach, knocking it unconscious.
The rest of the squad arrived, immediately swarming the swordsman that Astesh had tried so hard to dodge.
“Where’s Astesh?” Sheen yelled, unable to reach any oponents.
“Skydivin’, unfortunately.”
The swarmed swordsman soon fell unconscious, dropping his sword, but they wanted revenge. They continued to beat it. After killing it, they swarmed the final swordsman. Zasit was still busy with his skakdi.
Then Morul’s squad arrived, raining bolts, quickly dispatching the two remaining, unconscious skakdi. As the final bolt struck down Zasit’s skakdi, he noticed the glazed look in its eye . . . the same look that the goblins from autumn had.
Sheena looked over the edge of the skyway. “Captain, you’re not going to believe this.”
“What is it?” Morul asked. She had recently been promoted to Captain of the Guard, a position that had been vacant for quite some time.
“It’s Astesh, sir . . . he’s floating.” Sheena said simply. They all looked over the edge to see Astesh frozen, crackling blue swirls floating around him. “He’s got a prick on his forhead . . .”
“By Rafum’s lucky rabbit’s foot . . . What manner of magic is this?” Zasit said.
“I’m not sure,” Morul said slowly, “but we better tell Ezum about this. She’ll probably find out on her own anyway. There should be some way to get him back, if we look through enough books.” she concluded, to the groans of all present.
Well that didn't go well. I really need to make some sort of rail for the skyway. Sorry about your dwarf, Mook.
What happened with Astesh is this; He fell off, and I saved when he had only fallen one z-level. So now he's frozen. I have an idea on how to get him out.
Is it just me or am I using a lot of ellipses?