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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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