Goldenhold
Chapter 41: Behind a Dwarf
They continued to pull out adamantine in globs, handing it up in chains to the top. It was some of the most tiring work out there, but then again it paid well, and it was a joy to be mining the metal of the gods. The people in the pillar were surrounded by light blue, which gave off a wonderful glow.
Efud glared at the light blue below him with his blue eyes, his muscly arms swinging the steel pick victoriously into the ground. It went straight through. Puzzled, he swung more around it, the steel creating a small hole, a chunk of adamantine falling out. Darkness was below it, but some parts seemed to glow, Efud moving to the edge to make sure he didn’t fall in. Several people in the shaft stared down the hole, seeing glowing pits. A curious dwarf pulled a torch off it’s slot in the shaft and tossed in down, illuminating the darkness.
They saw creatures of the depths stare up at the torch, then up at the hole where it was dropped from. Simultaneously, they let out a horrible, terrifying screech. Every dwarf stood, paralyzed as demons opened their wings and started to fly up. Efud was one of the first to react, pushing dwarves who were slower out of the way, accidently shoving one down off the ramp that spiraled down the adamantine column.
Looking down, he saw the dwarf he shoved be surrounded by flames, and torn apart by a red demon with bat wings, three eyes, and even a beard of tentacles to grab it’s victims. It pulled on the edge of the hole, it’s strong exoskeleton squeezing through out of desperation.
The paralyzation had stopped, everyone was on a run for it, besides a few who wanted their burial to be surrounded by the god metal. Those few saved the lives of those who cared about self preservation.
Efud soon was caught behind a slower dwarf though, and he was so close to the mouth of the column, almost out.... but the demon was reaching out with a tentacle, about to grab him around ankle, dragging him to be eaten.
In that split moment of terror, he decided the dwarf in front of him was worth less than himself, the miner grabbing him and tossing him behind. The tentacle wrapped around the dwarves ankle, and Efud turned around to look at him.
The face of the dwarf had many laugh lines from his many years, and was possibly old enough to be a grandparent. The vest he wore was trimmed with gold, meaning that he was going to go to some sort of celebration that day. Perhaps one of his children’s birthdays or his own? His shoes flew up into the air, along with a pair of socks. His eyes had some sort of primal terror in them, but complete understanding also.
One dwarf jumped after the socks, taking note that they were made of a light blue cloth. He was the next to be killed, and someone ahead yelled, panting, “They were dyed you idiot!”
As soon as they made it up to the tunnel, all the miners split to various different hydraulic elevators. Efud went for the staircase however, deciding the demons would distracted more by gobs of people than himself.
He was right, the first of the three elevators dwarves burned to cinders in one breath, another demon heading to the second.
He started up the staircase and didn’t stop running. He swore he heard the sound of wings going up the center of the spiral staircase but he didn’t look back.
He just kept on running, sprinting up past the entrance to the bottom cavern level and pulling the lever by the gate, letting the gremlins in that were still trapped in the carvern. For a moment they held still, the light from the fortress blinding them. Then they began to sprint in and deliver justice.
A guard on the barricades turned around and yelled, “WHAT THE HELL YOU THINKING YOU CIVILIA-” but he was dead from an arrow to the neck.
Efud grabbed an elevator on that level, sending him upwards towards the fortress main. The gremlin would be wonderful bait for the demons.
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Topic: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Novel Length Story) (Read 115787 times)