((i dunno))
From the Journals of Aban Brothertreaties:
Well, this is it.
I have quite a lot that I want to get down, and a very short time to write it in, so I'll have to cover the basics quickly. Remember that tunnel we were digging under the ocean? That tunnel was an enormous success, in that it reached the opposite shore long before the bridge. Unfortunately, it turned out that all of the enemies of Oceanbridge had gathered there. Goblins, naturally, along with the frost giants, the walking dead, and bird men and ape men, and of course those strange undead goat men. The whole menagerie. And they all came down the tunnel and into the fortress. I'd ask how they new that our tunnel would come out there, but I'm sure I know.
But it led to running, panic, and all of that usual fun. I've written about it so many times, do I really need to write it again? How many times can one dwarf write about a fortress falling to disaster?
Why am I still alive to write this? Well of course, some of us are very good at running now, and there's still the safe room. Those of who made it in here in time (or at least, the one's who I know the names of) are: Remalle, Gar, Ishar, Di, the Soldier, Neo, Naithal (At least, I think he's back. How many Naithal's have we had?) Slime, Croaker, the mayor, (Whose name I'm not going to write down), a few others. Enough to make it clear that there aren't many of us left.
I talked to Remalle about everything that's happened. I don't know if he's really all that sane now, but he told me more about that future he says he saw, where Rakust had gone mad. Driven mad, he told me, by the Bridge itself, the Bridge being both a symbol of and a prison for the god. And how he thought that Bomrek, the goddess of Fortresses, had gone mad ages ago when the mountainhomes were built, for the same reasons. That she had started this whole thing by driving the queen mad, and making us start to build this bridge so many years ago. It all made my head spin, and the worst of it is that he thinks that horrible future will still happen, because we failed, somehow.
Yeah, we talked for a long time. I don't know how much of it is true. I do know that there's something pounding at the door of the saferoom that sounds a lot like a frost giant (yes, I know what a frost giant pounding at the door of a saferoom sounds like). I suppose it's time to put this book down, and face up to the whatever the gods have in store for us.
............................
The dwarfs of Oceanbridge were huddled in a small group, behind a pillar in the saferoom, away from the slowly breaking door. Remalle was absentmindedly carving a stone slab in memory of a farmer he'd watched die in the latest attack. Neo was cleaning his sword and preparing for (yet another) death. And Aban was writing, as she had been since the very first day in Oceanbridge.
Gar meanwhile had been watching her write in silence, and then in growing frustration, before he finally just shouted , "So, why the hell aren't we leaving out the back way yet?"
Remalle stopped carving, Aban stopped writing and everyone in the room stared at him as he glared right back. "There's a back way?"
Gar rolled his eyes. "Of course there's a damn back way! You think I'd design a safe room without a back way out? How long have you people known me? Goes right out into the jungles. You can all die here if you want, I know you're all great at that, but I haven't died once yet, and I don't intend to start now."
Aban spoke slowly, a strange new idea entered her head. "You mean, we can just leave? Abandon the whole thing?"
"Of course, why not?"
Remalle shook his head, "Aban, if we abandon the bridge forever, that means-"
"I know what it means, but..." And that was when Aban finally realized something important. "Ok, forget the bridge, forget everything. Let's get the hell out of here. A bunch of insane gods can fight over this ruin till the end of time for all I care. I'm... I'm done with this. This is the door, back here?" She pointed at a patch of off color marble in the wall, near where Gar was standing. He nodded.
"But, Aban, we need to stop them somehow, now, otherwise things will just get worse everywhere! Don't you believe what I said?"
Aban shrugged, and with a gentle push, she opened the door leading to the escape tunnel. It swung open easily, and brought the scent of salt water with it. It felt right. "Well... you know what? I think we've done enough. I mean, look at this place. Look at how huge and confusing and awful it is. Do you know what I think that means? That means that this is the mountainhomes now, and up there is... most of a bridge. Those are they symbols, right? That's got to be worth something. You said in the future you saw, the bridge collapsed when the fortress fell. Well, it hasn't, and I don't think it will. Those stupid gods want us to stay here and follow their insane plans, but... we have changed things, Remalle, somehow. That future won't happen. I admit, the new future might not be better... but we aren't going to find out about it here. I'm going. The rest of you can follow me if you want to."
"That makes not one damn bit of sense."
"Shut up, Gar." Aban turned her back on the saferoom, and with one deep breath, she walked through the door. She turned back, and said "Come on, people. Let's go. We're done here."
And they all followed her.
Remalle did too, though he was the last one to leave. There was something he had to do, something that had somehow become his task. He had to remember.
He looked around the room, at the marble and microcline walls, covered all over with the strange history of Oceanbridge. There was the many deaths of Derm, the Soulchopper. There was Peacespray, the greatest soldier the fortress had know. The forgotten beasts were there too, even the one who had nearly killed Remalle himself so many years ago. Various mad mayors and their individual downfalls, dwarfs running from the bridge and dwarfs returning to it. A engraved image of Wilberforce leading a charge against the apemen, and of Ishar killing a frost giant with her bare hands. Gar and his magma pumps, and so many others that only he remembered, from Karakzon to Guy, from Turk to Person to Nix. The mad queen, long dead and forgotten along with the Mountainhomes. And of course, Rakust and a bridge, over and over.
He took it all in, and then, on a whim, carved a few more quick lines into the floor. They weren't much, but it had to mean something. It all had to mean something, even in the end.
And then he ran.
................................
((That's all))
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Topic: Oceanbridge - A Fortress Defense Community Fort: Reclaimed, Again! (And Again) (Read 182928 times)