#homehold

[uncle-jaskas-writings]

Homehold 3

Never had any tunnel felt so long. What was a ten-minute walk stretched into hours as he ran in the darkness, fingers gliding along the tunnel wall. Panic swelled as his legs burned, exhaustion choking his lungs. A horrible screech game from behind as he started to wave his arm up and down in a vain effort to find the markers on the wall. A curse left him as he stumbled on a large loose rock underfoot, momentarily stumbling. Quickly he corrected his course and ran his hand along the wall again. Any other time he could just wait for the hard wall of the cave to disappear under his touch and turn then but now the few steps it’d take him to react to the turn could mean life and death. Then he felt it, a quick gap in the stone along shoulder height, repeating every three meters. A small divet. The thumping of the monster behind him grew louder. Then, suddenly there were two holes in the rock where before there was one. And then three. Dustral would have sighed from relief if the burning of his lungs allowed it. Again and again three holes slipped beneath his fingers.

The corner of the tunnel wall still came suddenly. He managed to grab a hold of the corner and use the momentum to swing himself left at the junction, if only barely. Immediately a faraway light burned bright spot into his vision after the deep dark. For a while he kept close to the left-hand side of the tunnel though he knew there was no need. He was nearly there. Nearly safe. Soon enough the rough-hewn floor of the tunnel gave way to smoothed floor. He felt his pulse rapid and throbbing at the back of his eyes as his eyes adjusted to the light of the crystal lamps. Evenly paced, they shone a pale but welcome light from their pedestals lining the wall of the tunnel. He could see it now, the seal fort, growing ever larger in the horizon as he ran. A whimper left him as sharp pain seemed to pierce his lung on the right side. He had thought of himself as a fit dwarf until now, but the spider at his back seemed determined to prove him wrong. Rows of crystal lamps were regular now, paced just far enough from each other to prove only slight gaps between their radius of light. And then came the tiled floor.

One. Dustral gasped for air as he counted the rows of slightly darker tiles on the floor. He was at his limit, only the adrenaline and threat of greedy fangs inching ever closer to him pushing him to keep running. Two. The thrumming of legs grew ever closer. Three. The spider screeched, pedipalps reaching forward and trembling in excitement as it slowly gained on its prey. Four. For once, Dustral hoped that everyone was as anal about doctrine as his mentor has been. Five.

He threw himself flat on the ground the moment his foot touched the darkened tile. The spider screeched in excitement as it tried to halt its momentum, two of its front legs raising in air as slobber dropped from its mouth. Pedipalps pulled back as they grazed the dwarfs back.

A hideous crunch rang out as the bolt pierced the exoskeleton at the head of the spider. Fraction of a second later, another bolt, as long as three dwarfs laid flat, whistled through the air and pierced the cephalothorax, jerking the monstrous spider back. Dustral skidded along the floor like a stone skipping along the surface of a lake, barely managing to pull himself into fetal position. The dying spider let out a horrible screech, accompanied by hard blows of trashing legs against the stone of the tunnels walls and floor. Dustral crawled forward as a third bolt flew past him, nailing the spider to the floor with a crunch, as if some giant had stepped on a snail the size of a cow.

[uncle-jaskas-writings]

Homehold 2

Dustral muttered few choice expletives as few hairs came off with the last clumps of putty which he stuffed back to the tin which he promptly slammed shut. He eyed the crack in the floor as he slipped the tin back to it’s pouch, dropping down to one knee while relighting his headlamp. No amount of light would be enough to see to the bottom of the chasm but at least he could better assess the condition of the chasm. It probably wouldn’t cause problems further down the line.

As the dwarf inspected the crack something shifted in the silent darkness of the tunnel. Slowly, silently it moved forward. Eight legs held the enormous spider in the center of the tunnel, almost as if it was hovering in air. Even the precise senses of the bird couldn’t detect the spider as it pushed itself out of the tunnel. Pedipalps raised, fangs already twitching in excitement it readied itself to pounce upon the unsuspecting dwarf.

Just then the tiny songbird turned its head to preen itself once more, the panicked chirping startling the dwarf, who in turned to see what was happening. Only the light of his headlamp saved him, causing the spider to miss its lunge as it tried to shield its eyes from the sudden light, desperately kicking itself away from the light while screeching horribly. The kicks send the birdcage along with other equipment scattering along the cave floor while Dustral scrambled up. He jumped, only barely escaping the next lunge of the pedipalps as the spider recovered and quickly followed him across the crack. His luck was short lived as a mid-air hit sent him landing on his stomach and knocking the air out of him.

He scrambled away on all fours, dodging the lunges of the spider and even kicking one of its legs as he got up to run. The light of his headlamp bopped up and down as he ran and clambered up the pile. A screech left the spider as its leg slammed towards him, grazing the back of the reflector of his headlamp with enough force to rip the whole lamp off his cap. As it tumbled down the light went out but not before hitting one of the eight legs of the spider. The thing screeched and kicked, giving Dustral a blink of an eye to get to the other side of the hole. He half-slid half-ran down the rubble, stumbling as he blindly reached to his left side to find the wall. The tunnel was pitch black. Only noises where his rapid breathing. And the thumping of eight legs gaining on him.

[uncle-jaskas-writings]

HomeHold

//A quick little thing to get the writing habit back, hopefully more will come.

Steady thud of heavy boots echoed in the cave. Dustral ran his hand against the uneven wall of the tunnel. He liked being the first in the tunnels. First to see the virgin rock before the walls were straightened and the cave’s mapped. He whistled happily as he walked towards the end of the tunnel, gently stroking his beard. A nearly straight wall of rock came to the view of his headlamp and he tossed the packback he carried with the pile of equipment he had hauled earlier. He took a bent iron rod, stuck it in the rock so it stood up and carefully unhooked a small cage from his belt, hanging it from the rod. A small bird fluttered around in the cage for a while before settling down. It stared at the dwarf as he assembled a system of pipes and gears, hooked a large leather bag the pipes and started to crank a great wheel. Slowly the bag started to grow larger, until it was nearly the size of Dustral himself. He then put on a harness attached to the leather bag like the backpack before. After adjusting the harness, he produced a leather mask with crystal goggles which he placed on his mouth and nose. He then took a small tin from a pouch on his belt, opened it, bracing for the foul scent that assaulted him (and the small bird) as soon as he opened it. Quickly he took the grayish putty within, sealing the leather mask around his mouth and nose. After a few deep breaths he connected the pipes of the leather bag to the mask. He took a quick breath. The sealing held. Quickly he turned off his headlamp, then taking out a small two-part lantern. Water sloshed inside as he set a drop rate for small pebbles. He struck the lantern alight before closing the two halves tightly. After feeling around the seal for escaping gas he hung the lantern from his belt.

Dustral wound a timepiece on his wrist, setting the time to five ticks before grabbing his pickaxe and starting to hack at the wall at the end of the tunnel. It took him two ticks until, with a loud crack, the top of the wall caved in, leaving a hole large enough for him to climb through. Immediately after the crack he felt the air rush into the opening. A good sign. He took up the iron rod, holding it at arm’s length so that the birdcage was at the opening. One. Two. Three. He counted while the bird preened its wings. Then he climbed through the hole, holding the bird in front of himself all the time. On the other side he was met with a large elliptical cavern. At least Dustral tought it was elliptical. It was hard to say with only the small lantern as a light source, but with keen eye and experience he thought the cavern to be some 20 meters tall and 30 meters long and half as wide. On the other side of the cavern another tunnel loomed. Here and there stalagmites dotted the cavern, the fall of a particularly large one having blocked the entrance he had breached.

The ticking of his timepiece got Dustral to move again. Three ticks. The only other noticeable feature of the cavern was a large crack running the width of the cavern, nearly splitting it in half. He slowed his pace as he approached the crack, paying close attention to his footing as he neared the edge. The crack was around half a meter wide and sharp around the edges. Again he counted to three, this time holding the bird above the crack before taking a peek down. As far as he could see, the width stayed the same. No defects that he could see. Stone looked solid. He took a few steps back from the edge, grasped the iron rod with both hands and jumped over the crack. Fourth tick. Dustral landed on his feet with ease. Once more the bird went first as the rod poked into the tunnel leading deeper into the mountain. He took the birdcage from the rod and placed it on the ground before striking the rod into the stone in front of the tunnel. After hanging the bird from the rod he disconnected the mask from the leather bag, sighing along with the hiss of air. He took off the mask, stuffing it in his belt before starting to twiddle the foul putty off his beard and mustache.

From the deep of the tunnel a faint glimmer rose. Two, six, eight reflective orbs stared at the dwarf and the caged bird. Neither of them noticed anything.