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Edited by CommonBlueberry: 12/18/2021 8:40:48 PM
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The Land of Solitha Chapter 1: Things that Go Bump in the Night

[spoiler]Yes, I changed the name because it sucked. Thanks, Aifos![/spoiler] Nona and Reke lay asleep in one of the tavern’s upper rooms, courtesy of Lydia. It was clean, simple, and sported a few amenities such as the nightstand, a few candles, and a small bucket of water. It was more than good enough for Nona, who had nothing to pay. Reke slept in a small, circular cot-nest on the nightstand. Lydia had multiple beds for tiny folk, and Reke preferred to curl up with warm embers surrounding him, no blanket necessary. It was the perfect arrangement after a long day’s travel, until an awful screech pierced through the air. Nona shot up, frantically searching for the danger. As his eyes slowly adjusted, he saw nothing. The room was exactly as they had left it when they retired. Reke shifted in his sleep, but, other than the lizlai’s surprisingly loud snores, nothing was amiss. As the adrenaline wore off, Nona concluded that it must’ve been nothing more than a bad dream and let the weight of weariness pull him back to sleep. As soon as he closed his eyes, another screech filled the air. The human lay still, anxiously opened his eyes, and listened to the night. Perhaps the noise came from his addled mind: after all, he had lost all his memory, so it was entirely possible that he could also be experiencing hallucinations. Or maybe it was simply a harmless animal call he couldn’t remember, and it only sounded like a dangerous threat. Reke was sleeping fine, blissfully snoozing away, even with the horrible noise, so it should be fine. It should be fine, he just needed to get back to sleep, but fear in the pit of his stomach only grew. He clutched his ears as another scream reverberated throughout the town. No matter the cause, it was getting too prevalent to ignore. Nona clumsily climbed out of bed, throwing on his coat, and stumbled out the door. He felt his way down the pitch-black hall, riddled with yawns, but remaining alert for anything strange. He tiptoed to the very end of the hall, creeping up steadily. He rounded a sharp corner and banged his face into the wall. Rubbing at his now bruised face, muttering curses to himself, he felt the wall, discovering a doorknob. Wondering where it went, he pushed it open, and was immediately greeted by the cool outdoor air. Lydia jumped when Nona walked out on the patio, nearly dropping her small, piping hot cup of tea, but recovered quickly when she saw that it was only the human. She invited him to sit with her, dressed in a warm woolen shawl over her nightgown. Her usual smile was replaced with an anxious, thoughtful expression. “Couldn’t sleep?” she asked, looking out over the plaza. “Yeah. What’s making all that racket?” he coughed out the last remains of a groggy dry throat. “That,” she answered, pointing down at the square with her cup. Nona got up and leaned over the railing, searching for the perpetrator of the noise. All he could make out were the general shapes of the well and the stands, but nothing moved, as far as he could see. There didn’t seem to be anything out of order, and there certainly wasn’t anything that could make that awful noise. “You can’t see it?” she asked, sensing his confusion. “Oh, right, you don’t have Lycan eyes,” she chided herself, answering her own question, “Here, let me show you.” She grabbed a darkened lantern off the patio table, leading Nona back down into the tavern then out into the plaza, taking a flint as she went. With one hand, she lit the lantern, and Nona squinted against the sudden light, but Lydia adjusted immediately, trudging out towards the well. A thumping noise emanated from the depths of the boarded up well, and the wood shuddered against the pressure. Nona glanced at the Lycan, but she didn’t stop, heading towards the well unfazed. They arrived at the well, with scratching and snarling noises accompanying the thumping. She held the lantern over the well, shining light onto the wooden barricade, beckoning the human forward. He glanced uncertainly at Lydia and gulped. She gave Nona an encouraging nod, so the human willed himself forward, doing his best to control his breathing. He placed a steadying hand on the barricade and peered in between the wooden panels. A pale creature, with flashes of teeth and claws raged against the well’s cover: banging, thumping, and crashing in a futile attempt to escape. Nona was morbidly fascinated with the rabid creature, he watched as it slammed its face into the wood, a single crazed yellow eye darting around, seeing all it could see. It fixated on Nona. The human, paralyzed by fear, held the creature’s bloodshot gaze for a moment. Then, the eye retreated into darkness. Nona leaned in, trying to find it in the depths of the well, when that horrible shriek cried again, and the creature lunged at the well with all its might. The wood bounced under Nona’s hand, and the creature fit its claws between the barricade and the surface of the well, desperately reaching for a touch of the human’s delectable flesh. The human pushed off the well, falling to the ground in his haste to get away from the creature. “Wha- what kind of pet is that?” he stuttered in between panicked breaths, pointing at the well. “A beast of the Underrealm,” she replied, lowering the lantern. Nona had seen enough. Lydia helped him to his feet, ready to head back to the tavern. “They’ve been getting worse and worse. The mayor used to only board up the well when the Nightclouds were heavy, but now we do it every night. Thank Farantho we did, otherwise one of those things would’ve gotten into town! And then…” she shuddered at the thought. “Most folk have learned to tune out the noises, but one day our little barricade and our walls won’t be enough. That won’t come for some decades, but still, I don’t like the idea of those things prowling about at night. It’s not natural,” she explained. Lydia stopped when they reached the door, firelight reflecting off the grooves of the silly wolf, casting shadows on her worried face. Before opening the door, she said: “There are far worse beasts than that.” ... [spoiler]I have a quick question for all of my readers regarding the length of this story. I've never done anything on this scale here, so I'm not quite sure how much to put in a single post. I was originally planning to only post the body post today, but that seemed to short, so I went ahead and edited the second part in the comment as well. Would you guys prefer the shorter episodes, like only the part that is in the body; or the longer episodes, like the body and the comment together? [/spoiler]

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  • Edited by CommonBlueberry: 1/9/2022 11:19:21 PM
    The next day, Nona crawled out of bed and stretched, wiping his eyes. Reke was still asleep and did not seem to be rising any time soon. The human plodded over to the bucket and splashed his face with water, then wet his fi-blam!- and ran them through his hair. When he assumed he was at least reasonably awake and presentable, he climbed down the stairs, where the fresh aroma of tea and a savory stew rose to greet him, bright and early in the morning. Lydia was behind the counter, chatting with a new patron, glancing every so often at a large black pot suspended over the fireplace. “Hey Nona, good news! Condi the Bioshifter here has just agreed to take you and Reke to the Imperial City,” she called out. Condi was an interesting sight to behold. He wore dark, simple traveling clothes, but his skin was a mottled brown, fading in and out of the tavern background as Nona watched him. In one hand, his long, rootlike fi-blam!- drummed on the table, while one the fi-blam!- of the other were held precisely in line. The human blinked, trying to make sense of the Bioshifter’s face. It had defined features, a broad nose and brows; small, perceptive eyes; and wide mouth, but each feature seemed to mesh into the whole; Nona couldn’t tell where one feature stopped and the other started. Likewise, his hair was a bushy mess, with strands fading into his head and disappearing into the camouflage. He gave a little wave to Nona with his drumming hand as the human took a seat next to him at the bar. “So, what brings you here?” Nona asked pleasantly. “Business in Iffet Plains. They say some madman is butchering bavrens and terrorizing towns in the area. Sounds like another crazy mage looking for the Golden Bavren for its magical properties. Figured I’d better stop here and prepare, and now I can make a bit of coin too taking you across to the foothills,” he answered. “Do you think this mad mage has anything to do with the war on the Underrealm?” Lydia asked. Condi shrugged. “It’s possible, but I doubt it. Too hard to find bavren at night,” he explained. Lydia changed the subject from serious talk, asking about business in the wilderness. The stew cooking on the pot was a courtesy of Condi. He brought down a deer before he entered the town because he needed the extra bone and antlers, but there was no way he could eat the meat all by himself. Reke eventually joined them for breakfast, and other villagers popped in after smelling the delicious stew outside. Lydia sent Nona out on various errands: drawing more water buckets from the well, picking up the usual orders she’d made with the local stands, and sorting through her stockroom in the cellar, among other various chores. Nona was glad to help, for he had no way else to repay her kindness, and she was happy to have an extra hand for once. The villagers paid him no mind, even with his awkward gawks at their beaks or snouts or antennae. Many of them had thick, guttural voices or high-pitched squeals, and, after asking for a repeat many, many times for many, many different villagers, Nona was starting to get the hang of talking to these strange folk. He popped in and out of the Grinning Wolf for more of Lydia’s orders, where her, Reke, and Condi were planning the journey ahead. Every time he walked in, Condi seemed a little different: his resting hand grew a little bit sharper, his tunic started to bulge, and bones in his forehead and nose thickened. He also ate ravenously, perpetually having a bowl of stew in his hand. By lunch, their path was laid out, and it was decided that Nona, Reke, and Condi would depart tomorrow. In the evening, with no more orders from Lydia, the human took a stroll to explore the town a little more before he left. He hadn’t noticed it before, but each house was built slightly differently, to accommodate the needs of the folk who lived there. Many door handles were very low, for the small folk, and, instead of the regular rounded doorknobs, others had grooves for mitten-like hands to fit in. Some houses huge windows running down its length, with vines crawling out and clutching the walls, while others were barren and kept in complete darkness. It was getting late, the Nightclouds, those purplish-gray clouds that hovered around the eastern sky, covered the distant ball of light that was the sun. They thickened and it was getting darker. They expanded, the swirling mass of clouds meandering towards the west. He saw them go, and, as they got closer, they moved faster until they finally reached the town. He watched the line between day and night, the line where light and darkness met as it hurtled past him, continuing westward. Nona found his way back to the tavern in darkness; running around all day helped. A small crowd was gathered around the well, neither jeering nor cheering. They anxiously milled about, waiting for something to happen. Nona made his way through the crowd, trying to make sense of it all, until he spotted a familiar pair of furry ears poking out. He waded his way through to Lydia and whispered to her, “What’s going on?” “Condi agreed to get rid of the beast in the well. That should give us some peace for a little while,” she whispered back. The three identical golem brothers: Dol, Pol, and Rol stood by the well, adorned in their uniform steel caps. Dol stood in front of the well, using an old -blam!- as a prybar for the wooden barricade. The other two golems stood at the sides of the well, spears at the ready. Condi stepped out of the tavern, fully transformed. His tunic was gone, replaced by shiny, beetle-like carapace armor that covered his torso, biceps, and thighs. His hair was mostly gone as well, replaced with a pointed carapace helmet with a nose guard. One of his hands was gone, replaced with a clean spike, carefully sharpened throughout the day. The crowd waited with abated breath, torchlight flickering over the four warriors and the well, all waiting for the Underrealm beast to appear. Nobody made a sound as they heard the clicking of claws slowly climbing up the stone well walls. The beast started with a small, experimental hit against the barricade, nothing more than a bump, as if sensing the da-blam!- around it. It sniffed and bit at the -blam!-, but the golem held it steady. Condi -blam!- back his spiked arm and counted down from three. With a well-practiced motion, Dol heaved down on the -blam!-, peeling open the barricade. Condi struck lightning fast, scoring a grievous blow against the creature. It shrieked, lunging up at the Bioshifter as he pulled his arm out the well. The other two golems swiftly pulled down the barricade, slamming the creature back down into darkness. They held it down with their weight as the creature ferociously banged against the wood, shrieking and clawing. A few of the villagers gasped and scurried away, but Nona was enraptured by the practiced violence. On another count of three, the golems lifted, and Condi struck again, punching it twice. They repeated the process a few more times, and eventually the creature gave a final, piercing shriek, fading down into the depths of the well. Most the villagers had disappeared by then, and even more faded away, their interest wavering. Silence filled the square, and the golems eased off the barricade, but Condi commanded them to hold, explaining that there could be more creatures. Sure enough, the clicking of claws, slowly climbing up the walls began again. At that, Nona and the rest of the villagers left, leaving the four warriors to take care of the rest of the beasts. … Next Chapter: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/260285089?sort=0&page=0 Previous Chapter: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/260165652?sort=0&page=0

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