This is the one that puts me over 50,000 words. Wooo!
His eyes closed briefly, as the spirits around him deemed it time to send up a clamor. That was his signal to go. He cradled her once more and made for the nearest building, hoping nothing was inside it, praying that they would get in, and thinking that he would just have to keep moving if he was going to have any hope of keeping them from not being eaten. Death was one thing, that was another. There were far fewer spirits out here than there had been before, though whether that was because there simply were not that many killed out here or some other obscure reson, he could not tell. THere was nothing to really hide them, the streets were fairly empty, the cobblestones crackked and the houses falling in. They were also of stonework. had they collaborated with the dwarves on this? How long ago? Perhaps they had something to do with the disappearances of the people here. There seemed like few other choices. Some of the shades had the marks of creatures, yes, but not all. Some seemed perfectly hale and whole, and those seemed to number more than the injured! It seemed very odd that so many, of all ages (he could see some that were no more than children, but the range of ghosts was all over the place) that were struck down when they should have been living peacefully.
The dwarves were not so ingenious as to figure out some way to pull that off. They marked their territory in war and conquest. They were not being that would leave a place like this to time, especially if there was so much of their work in it, and they had most certainly made a good amount of this place. The building of hte Other Place was the Sylphs, but Sylphs did not deal in stonework. They did not care for the deadness of it, usually, which made this place doubly odd. His footsteps made a pattering sound that echoed off the empty buldings- they had to be empty for no sane being would live here among such creatures.
Kirn crept close to the walls, where the houses connected with a few alleys. It was the alleys he had to beware, where something could leap out at a moment's notice, where they could get at the pair with little to no resistance. Kirn dreaded this, but the spirits from the houses gathered outside, following, making noise, though it was lessened somehow, in the darkness of the night, than it had been in the hallways of stone. Maybe it was the open air, because it seemed so oppressive. There were no stars in this place, just the light of the moon, and that seemed to be very little comfort to him at the moment. It was strange enough, since he didn't know what else was out here, and the similarities were striking enough to those of his own country that he was thrown off-balance when something was different. From the way the streets were laid out, to the dead things that inhabited it, even to the vaguely familiar shapes of the houses, it was overwhelming, and he didn't like the feeling. He had to steel his nerves, or they would be in far more trouble than they were already in.
A small thought went to the Prince and the other soldiers, hoping that they were all right, that they had passed through the forest safely. The Greenies were unlikely to attack them because there number was so large and well armed. That was a small comfort, though, because it still meant he and Nia were in danger.
He paused at the edges of the alleys, listening as best as he could for things. Spirits impeded his senses, though, going down the alleys to make noise, to draw whatever they could to them. He wanted to challenge them, but how could one do that to the dead? I was impossible unless he was turned to spirit himself, but he was blessed by the Gods- they would take his soul to the Next World, even if they would not take these sorry creatures. He couldn't help but hope the Gods would allow him to get some small revenge on them, though, for doing this before he was taken away.
He couldn't deny that there had once been dreams of an entourage welcoming him in the streets of the capital, welcoming as a war hero. This... was not quite the same. This was so close and yet so far off the mark that it was astonishing. He had to keep his cool, though. The spirits seemed to be fixed to certain places, so when he moved to another area, some were left behind, even though new ones joined. A few times he ducked into buildings because whatever was roaming the skies- and there seemed to be several, by his count- seemed to hear the clamor and came to investigate what was happening. It was a close call, since as they hid in the stairwell in the back, one draconian creature deemed fit to stick it's snout into the windows of the upper floors, nearly breaking the house, and indeed cracking the walls, and into the doors of the bottom floor. It seemed to find nothing of particular interest, and so decided to ignore the spirits. The thing growled, then howled fiercely, making Kirn's ears ring once more.
Nia didn't stir, however, and that worried him more than the creature. Her fever was running hot and true by now, and that made his heart beat with urgency.
Just a few streets over, he could hear a fight errupt between two creatures that inhabited this place. It was odd, knowing that they were so close, and other creatures were soon attracted by the blood that was spilling. It was a small blessing- they could hardly notice another bleeding creature over all that, could they? The houses spaced out, creating more danger as they neared The Edge. It seemed that the world was made like a bubble- the land just ran into the sky, with an abrupt distinction. It would be dangerous to touch it, he dind't know what would happen if they fell into the sky in a place such as this. There was no one to save them, and it would most certainly kill them. Kirn was certain that even if they found a hole in it to leave from, it was going to be tricky to leave- the spirits seemed to understand what was happening.
They seemed to have some sort of way to get messages from one place to another, probbaly by word of mouth but this moved with supernatural speed through them. All the spirits that could get to the edge of the land crowded against the sky, making it difficult for his to see, and making it easier to trip over something and fall. With Nia in his arms, he wasn't sure that she could take a hard fall. And with the noise... Even if the one creature had dismissed it, others might not. The only thing to do was to walk, though. Those they had passed by quieted down, while those that were ahead started making noise, giving the creatures something to track by. Kirn was right- there were others that would be intrigued by what was going on, fresh blood or not.
He stepped up his pace, not close enough to the sky to fall into it, watching his step so that he wouldn't trip. He could feel himself tiring from the events of the day. He had hardly rested, and there was not going to be any more for a while, he suspected. He glanced down at Nia's peaceful face, almost surprisingly calm since she was obviously sick and ill. A thin trickle of blood was leaking from the corner of her mouth, indicating how badly damaged she was internally. A silent prayer went of to the God of healing, that he never really called on before. This was the time for a prayer to be answered, if ever there was one.
Distraught over the creatures coming towards them and Nia's deathly state, he nearly missed the strange gap that seemed to be in the sky. His eyes had passed over it briefly, it was almost as dark as the sky itself, but with a strange tinge to it that marked it as something that wasn't quite normal. His heart nearly skipped a beat, hoping against hope... His hand reached out into it, a space barely big enough for them to squeeze through. He felt a rock wall meet his fingers. It was an exit! He slid through, hearing the cries of the creatures almost upon them. Though the tunnel was as dark as the halls in the palace of the Sylphs, his eyes were adjusted enough that this gave him no problems. His strides were stronger as the tunnel angeld up towards the surface, feeling hope bloom in his chest.
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