Shadows: Chapter 1
The normal description for the kind of success that happened on the mainstreet that morning, just a few hours after the violent death of a nymph on a alley behind the Dragon Inn, usually involves the words tongues and fire, violent force and falling pieces of death, smashed bodies and deafening noise. But, truth be told, none of the elftowners able to talk about it would have used any of those expressions. Most of their words would have showed a pretty different picture, an instant of perfect silence, when nothing seemed to move and when the light, blinding, fought with the darkness, almost as blinding on its own way as the light, that seemed to want to consume all what was around the epicenter of the disaster. Then, after this suspended in time instant, yes, the movement started, all at the same time and everyone on synchrony and total chaos with the rest, the force of the explosion (for that was what happened on the mainstreet and the reason behind this paragraph) sending the bodies in all directions. Then, when the force had dissipated, the explosion seemed to crawl back over itself, into what had once been part of the mainstreet of ElfTown and now was, simply, piles of rubble and ruins, masonry and stones. And the silence ruled once again.
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[ Lady Shanra Joan vó Ni-j'Saônuu ] walked right along with [ TheRogue ], while him kept an eye on everything what was happening inside the guards barracks.
- How many? he asked.
- Hedda is working on them. So are my group of followers, my healers. We've been able to recoverr most of the victims of the explosion. Only a couple of fatal victims, that were beyond any help – there was pain on her voice when she said that. – You would never guess what we found there, between the victims.
[ TheRogue ] stopped in the middle of a stride and turned to face her, clearly interested on anything out of the common (or more our of the common than all the crazyness that seemed to have taken hold of all the damn city). Anything that may relate this to the Elftowner eater.
- What? –
- A [ skylie ] – answered the healer [ Lady Shanra Joan vó Ni-j'Saônuu ]. – One of the clones.,
- Fuck. Do we know what was it doing there?
- No, but they are appearing everywhere- This one is pretty much dead, and we didn't even bothered to try to bring it back.
- It is the... what? Third, fourth, this last couple weeks? – [ TheRogue ] started walking again.
- Sixth. They are everywhere.
- Do we have any idea what they are up to?
- No, but we have Calico working on it. After all, it's her area. She loves to hunt the clones. I think she also got help from [ ButterflyFairy ].
- Well, that's probably for the best. Still, we could use [ Calico Tiger ]'s help with the Eater.
The two guards stopped in front of a door. The man opened it and allowed his companion to enter the room.
- Ok, let's forget about the clones and the mainstreet disaster. Let's see what we have on last night's incident – keeping her voice professional and calm, the young woman avoided her tiredness to show – [ Itayyam ] is making a sketch of the creature, from what [ LMPilgrimPoet ] has been able to tell us. It's amazing how many details she was able to observe in that second. She's strong. Besides that, what did you find?
- Not a lot, as usual. Some marks of claws on the walls and floor and then nothing. Whatever it is, it is big, that I can tell you. And travels unnoticed. – The man let himself fall on one of the chairs, while the high elf lady stood near the window, looking at the constant activity of the Wiki District.
- Do we know how? Or how he... – she stopped for a second, then corrected herself - ...it chooses its victims? Do we know anything? – she raised the voice a little, frustrated.
- Tell you the truth? Not a lot. Patrollers search the streets, all the other available guards are out there. Everybody is working on something.
- Where is True?
- I think he's on the mainstreet disaster area. He wanted to clean it, check for clues and make some reconstrution. He'll surely report as soon as possible. – The man put his feet, that had been on the desk, on the floor, when [ Lady Shanra Joan vó Ni-j'Saônuu ] directed a harsh look on his direction. – Sorry.
- No problem. There's too many things going on.
- Yes. You know what I find myself hopìng, even if it sounds weird? That all this is related somehow, that the explosion has some relation with the Eater and even the clones. That would make our life easier. Only one lead to follow.
- - Yes, I know what you mean – with a soft voice she sat down and the two just stood there in silence for a while.
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The youngest guard of all also stood in silence, but he was in silence in the middle of the chaos or youths and activity. [ True, plain and simple ] had been checking the place of the disaster, talking with people and using his deductive abilities for a couple hours and had a pretty good idea of what was happening. He didn't have the name of the guilty, but he didn't care. It was enough knowing what had happened. And also that they finally had a lead onto the monster on the streets. For a brief second, the blonde guard almost smiled. Then the number of things still to do around him brought him back to reality.
He hurriedly finished scratching the last words of his report (he hated doing them that way, but there had been no time to prepare any automagical communication medium) and looked around. He finally found a not busy patroller and called her.
- Take this to the barracks. And hurry. This is big- he gave the girl the piece of paper and returned his worried gaze to the hole in front of him.
He was standing right over it, on a small promontory formed by what had once been a wall. The houses hadn't suffered as much destruction as was expected, but still the rubbles filled the place. The perfect sight he had allowed him to almost see the bottom of the pit that was the result of the explosion. “Funny, thought the guard, we didn't know there was a tunnel under the mainstreet” he let a stone fall into it “And we wouldn't have known if it wasn't for that hopeless idiot”
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[ dragonflye ] knocked on [ Lady Shanra Joan vó Ni-j'Saônuu ]'s door and entered. Inside, [ Lady Shanra Joan vó Ni-j'Saônuu ] and [ TheRogue ] had been joined by [ Itayyam ].
- ... in the Herald this morning – was saying the dark haired halfling guard – It's a nice idea, I think.
- A reward for any information about the Eater? – [ Lady Shanra Joan vó Ni-j'Saônuu ] let the newspaper fall on the desk – Well, I trust [ Lerune ] and her ideas. Let's hope this helps a bit.
[ dragonflye ], tentatively, sat on one of the chairs. She was the newest council member and still was a little unsure of her position. She coughed politely.
- I have this report from True. It just arrived.
- What does it say? – asked the three guards almost at the same time.
- Well, apparently he knows what happened on the Mainstreet. Some kind of magical explosion. Somebody was trying to capture the Eater by himself and caused the explosion on the intent. There's also some kind of strange time-slower effect on the zone. Nothing really important.
TheRogue's eyes shined.
- Then it is related!
- Not only that – continued [ dragonflye ] – but the explosion also caused a part of the street to collapse...
- Collapse? What do you mean collapse? – [ Itayyam ] was already on his feet, jumping from one to the other.
- It seems there was some kind of tunnel under it. True thinks that that's where the Eater has gone.
The three guards looked one to the other. Then, [ Lady Shanra Joan vó Ni-j'Saônuu ] smiled.
- That's something. Finally! Rogue?
- I'm already on my way – the big man took his Mighty Hammer of Justice, put it on its sheath and walked out of the place.
- Well, now that Rogue is on his way, what will the rest of us, less fit for a fight, do? [ dragonflye ], [ Sunny Silverunicorn ] has been trying to find any information of what's happening on the streets. She's probably with [ Sunrose ]. – the high elf turned towards [ Itayyam ] – We should try to find out why that sketch you did looks so familiar. That may be important. Well, let's get to work.
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In the middle of the mainstreet, in front of the hole, True waited. And when [ TheRogue ] arrived, they only exchanged a couple words before jumping into the shadows. And they included “Luck” and “Take care”.
To be continued...