15th Malachite, 354
"Come one, come all, to the Dog House!"
A carnival atmosphere had descended upon the town of Olonkulet with the opening of Urgash Bonefetish's long-awaited 'Dog House', a massive dog farm and slaughterhouse perched at the southeasternmost corner of the town walls. Dwarves of all ages milled around the compound and the nearby streets, holding freshly cooked hotdogs (no cat, guaranteed!) with prickly pear relish and redbulb flour baps. The troubadour sang songs and performed sleight-of-hand tricks for spare firecaps, and Kel Ragebrew (finally recovered from his multiple beatings) had set up a concessional stall to sell drinks. Fora wandered over to him with a pair of hotdogs, passing him one and picking up a small mug of beer.
"I've got to say, I'm impressed with the food," she commented, leaning on the stall and sipping her beer. "Urgash breeds some good dog."
"Yeah, Mincewind made those," Kel pointed out. Fora sprayed beer in all directions.
"And he's actually selling them?!"
"Oh, they're fine, I've had three. Apparently he told the girl she was mixing cement when he gave her the sausagemeat."
"How does that even-" Kel raised a hand.
"Don't question it, just eat it." He glanced backward at the general workshops. A few construction workers were setting blocks on the upper level at a relaxed pace, having brought some mugs and houndburgers up for the day. "Sort of slowing the work on my still, but it'll do." He sold a mug of glow wine to a passerby and looked over at the Dog House compound. Many children were happily petting the dogs in the cages or on their restraints, while other children were admiring the wide array of deadly tools/weaponry available in the slaughterhouse. Urgash himself was there in a bright purple coat and top hat, dyed purple with royal moss, demonstrating the sausage machine in action.
"And that's how we turn puppies into meals, kids! But remember, never waste the parts, so next we'll take a tour around the tannery where you can learn the sixteen different uses for urine and dog muck. First, though, who wants candied tripe?" A chorus of cheers came from the children as Urgash passed around a platter of the strange, anonymous cuts of wobbly meat. Kel shook his head and turned to address a new customer.
"Danielle!" he greeted, pouring out a fresh mug of glow wine. "Care for a drink? Only a firecap."
"Two drinks," Danielle said, "because I actually know what the value of that is per mug." Kel grumbled and poured her a second mug. She quaffed some and put it down.
"I'm surprised it's really happening," Fora commented. "I didn't think Emerin was going to let up on the whole private enterprise thing."
"I gather the Nishans were putting a lot of pressure on her about it," said Danielle, then chuckled. "Gethro was right against it, which probably tipped the scales."
"Not fond of him, then?" Kel asked.
"Not especially, no," came a voice from his right. He turned to see Emerin leaning on the stall with a plate of houndburgers. She tossed a couple of firecaps on the table. "Give me some paint stripper, aye?"
"Aye, boss," said Kel, taking a copper canister from under the table. He poured Emerin a mug of the absurdly potent drink made from turpens and she sipped at it gingerly, wrinkling her nose.
"By Deler's left testicle, that's strong," she coughed. "Have they done the display yet?"
"Not yet," said Fora, shaking her head. She pointed to the five marksdwarves on the town wall above the compound, fiddling with their bows, then looked at Danielle. "Surprised you're not up there with him doing the tour." Danielle shuddered.
"We have an arrangement. He doesn't disturb me when I'm filing, I don't disturb him when he's with the dogs. I have a spinning blade trap organiser in my office for a reason, you know."
"Don't you work all the time?" Emerin asked, raising an eyebrow.
"And he breeds dogs all the time, it's a perfect relationship," Danielle said drily. "We never see each other long enough to get irritated by the other and meet up every couple of days for a drink or a romantic meal. Why, how often do you see your beau?"
"Not as often as I would like," Emerin admitted, "though I suppose it's different for different people. I guess I'd rather we weren't working all the time."
"Then maybe you ought to make time. Ah, the marksquad looks like it's about ready. I'll go join Urgash." Danielle set her mug down and walked over toward the compound, where Urgash was just finishing the tour with a demonstration of proper skinning technique. Fora put her mug down as well.
"I'm going to go find some more hotdogs. Back in a bit, Kel." She wandered off into the crowd. Seeing the stall relatively unoccupied, Emerin leaned in toward Kel.
"Say," she asked, "I'm told you might be able to hook me up with something, uh, special? In the drinks variety."
"Not sure what you mean, Mayor," Kel said neutrally. Emerin pursed her lips.
"I've been having... dreams. Odd dreams. I know you were responsible for something like that happening to people, and I reckon you must've figured out a way to stop it, because you're not gibbering." Kel stiffened.
"There is an... antidote, yes. I don't know if it will just work on ordinary dreams, though."
"Yes, well, I'm willing to try anything right now. Slip some by my apartment this evening, I'll see to it your brewery gets a head forward in the work schedules."
Kel said nothing, but Emerin detected a microscopic inclination of his head. She leant against the stall and picked up a houndburger, looking up at the marksdwarves on the wall. The new marksdwarf corporal raised his bow in sync with the others, shouted a command to the other marksdwarves and as one they fired. Five bolts arched through the air, streaming brightly coloured tassels from the ends. The crowd cheered as they passed over the town and onto the mountainside below. Somewhere in the distance, a goat bleated in panic.
Nobody minded.
Poll
Author
Topic: Olonkulet - Bloodlines (Read 62406 times)