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This is a long way from Taldàna, thought
Eréus. The twisting scrub trees were black under
the night sky, obscuring the island slope to the beach far
below. Eréus had never seen trees like these,
their limbs smooth and deep red rather than covered with bark.
He wondered whether the beetles and the insects that
plagued the forests, marshes and beaches had simply chewed
the bark away. He finished cleaning his armor and sharpening
his sword before settling to sleep. On the hillside
above his pallet stood the blocky sentinel Graiç, its
wooden head creaking one direction and than the other as it
held tireless vigil over the camp. It was a strange blessing
to have found the helpful monster in Paldor's hold.
Before drifting to sleep, the wooden construct
let out a sound of splintered alarm. Zildara and Paldor
raced up the hillside to investigate his call and tried to
help the powerful thing pull its leg out of the hillside where
it was standing, one leg sunken to the "hip". As
they pulled, and the stones around Graiç fell into
the hole, a foul odor poured down the ridge like a living
cloud. It was the smell of rotting and it woke those
who had not stirred before. The remaining Uren and Dorkun
were not all who were stirred to action by the foetid stench.
The ground itself seemed to move and then, from the
forest line dozens of small round shapes began pouring forward
onto the barren hillside.
From a distance they appeared as stones stampeding
up the slope, but as they neared the moonlight revealed their
gaping maws and pinpoint glowing eyes. Small clawed
hands and feet flailed forward as they ran, their mouths dripping
with dirt and blood as they gurgled. Screams rose from
the camp as they rushed over top it, people grabbing for what
weapons and shields they could reach. Many of the stone
things stopped to claw and bite at people's legs, while others
streamed unopposed toward the gaping hole where Graiç's
leg had sunk into the hillside. Farwin was the first
to succumb to the greedy mouths and slashing claws, being
dragged to the ground and swarmed by the monsters. Eréus
tried to reach the fallen man but then another was pulled
to the ground, and another. It was all he could do to
fend off those who had stopped to feed on him on their way
up the hillside. Toward the hole, Eréus could
make out the shape of Graiç lifting the mawled body
of Zildara into the air as the stone monsters swarmed between
Paldor and it. To his left, the Aylyrear "Tattoo"
gave out a small cry as he too was swept beneath the torrent
of gnashing stone teeth and pounding feet. Eréus
clutched at the pendant about his neck, hoping for Amra to
guide his hand and choices but he remembering his quest he
continued to hack at the biting stones. In minutes the
last of them dove into the rotting hole, leaving the broken
and torn bodies of five Uren behind them and a camp in splinters.
As Eréus looked around for more, he noticed with
grim awareness that every stone on the hillside and the island
itself could be one of those monsters. Stepping gingerly
he and the others gathered the bodies of the fallen and tried
to salvage what remained of the camp.
...
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