Falling Angels: Chapter Four
Nov. 8th, 2009 01:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanI got to have two weeks and three days of normal before the shit came down.
Normal is relative of course. There was the usual bi-annual zombie influx and that one incident where all the tree pollen fermented all at once and I was cleaning up drunk sprites all over the property for about a week. But that's all stuff I expect and know how to deal with. What is strange and unusual in my world is to have a kobold show up at my front door with a message.
First of all, non-humans tend not to ring the doorbell. It just does not occur to them. So when somebody does it's usually because it has received explicit instruction. When I opened the door, the kobold held up a necklace that meant nothing to me but was obviously the focus of this particular quest in his tiny ferret-like brain.
"The family needs you" it informed me, and then ran off into the woods.
Well, bugger. It's not like I can call people up on the phone and find out what the hell is going on. So for the second time in a month, and based solely on a single sentence from a faerie, I packed up my bags to go to the Farm. I packed my extra water for the two feral gangs I was now supplying, included my extra large package of meat for the increasingly populous trolls and passed without incident through the streets of the city to the Farm.
My first indication that something was wrong was when I got to the edge of the Farm property and was able to pass completely unmolested to the house.
I abandoned my cart on the steps of the house. What the hell, nothing I had there was irreplaceable. It was the smell of burnt meat that eventually led me to Sim's body. His teeth were bared against an invisible enemy, hs entire body arranged in defiance. Even the little mutant chihuahua head that we had always mocked for looking so out of place against the massive body was frozen in a pose of defense. I crouched by his body and wept quietly.
It was Sue who found me there and led me back up into the house. She showed me Heike's body and the scorch marks in the childrens' playroom. There were bodies in the halls, people I felt I should recognize but I had never taken the time to know. I wept again, more at my own failure than due to grief.
Eventually I woke up on one of the guest beds; tired and headache-y. For the first time I actually focussed on articulating the question that meant the most to me.
"Where the hell is Wayne?"
Normal is relative of course. There was the usual bi-annual zombie influx and that one incident where all the tree pollen fermented all at once and I was cleaning up drunk sprites all over the property for about a week. But that's all stuff I expect and know how to deal with. What is strange and unusual in my world is to have a kobold show up at my front door with a message.
First of all, non-humans tend not to ring the doorbell. It just does not occur to them. So when somebody does it's usually because it has received explicit instruction. When I opened the door, the kobold held up a necklace that meant nothing to me but was obviously the focus of this particular quest in his tiny ferret-like brain.
"The family needs you" it informed me, and then ran off into the woods.
Well, bugger. It's not like I can call people up on the phone and find out what the hell is going on. So for the second time in a month, and based solely on a single sentence from a faerie, I packed up my bags to go to the Farm. I packed my extra water for the two feral gangs I was now supplying, included my extra large package of meat for the increasingly populous trolls and passed without incident through the streets of the city to the Farm.
My first indication that something was wrong was when I got to the edge of the Farm property and was able to pass completely unmolested to the house.
I abandoned my cart on the steps of the house. What the hell, nothing I had there was irreplaceable. It was the smell of burnt meat that eventually led me to Sim's body. His teeth were bared against an invisible enemy, hs entire body arranged in defiance. Even the little mutant chihuahua head that we had always mocked for looking so out of place against the massive body was frozen in a pose of defense. I crouched by his body and wept quietly.
It was Sue who found me there and led me back up into the house. She showed me Heike's body and the scorch marks in the childrens' playroom. There were bodies in the halls, people I felt I should recognize but I had never taken the time to know. I wept again, more at my own failure than due to grief.
Eventually I woke up on one of the guest beds; tired and headache-y. For the first time I actually focussed on articulating the question that meant the most to me.
"Where the hell is Wayne?"
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Date: 2009-11-08 07:38 am (UTC)