Drums
Lalli was startled awake. He must have nodded off, sitting on… what was he sitting on? High on a sweeping stone staircase. Where was he? Checking his surroundings, he quickly noticed the following:
1) It was very dark
2) There were several other people around him
3) They were inside, in a huge room or corridor made of stone – a tunnel?
4) At the foot of the stairs they were resting on, was something Lalli didn’t want to meet
Nevertheless, everything seemed safe and peaceful right now. Based on the observations, Lalli established that they must have escaped from a grossling into a safe but dark indoor space.
Onni stepped up and offered him a drink. “Here, I think we all need this, though there is not much left.” The drink smelled like the sweetest thing ever, but Lalli only took a small sip. It was very invigorating and tasted like… like all summers ever, bottled together. It made Lalli immediately feel better.
While Lalli was contemplating the strange drink, Onni raised his staff and made a small light on the top. “Come, let us go now, for the way is long.” Around Lalli, people were getting up and gathering some equipment around them. Lalli picked up his bow and arrows (Bow?) and arranged them on his person.
They were ready to go, but where? The tunnel seemed to lead deeper into the interior of the huge building they were in. The building must be bigger than anything Lalli had ever imagined, even bigger than Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik. And that was a ridiculously large Old World building. Stupid Old World people. Lalli let his senses search around, and realized they were not in any building – they were underground. Inside a mountain! There were no grosslings in the vicinity, just people. People he knew, although some of them felt a little strange. The whole thing was… never mind. They were leaving.
Onni led the way, holding his staff with the light above him, Sigrun almost at his side. Next were Tuuri and Mikkel, almost identical in their matching brown cloaks. Lalli was next. The rest of the company followed after him, with Emil at the rear. There was something different about Emil too… oh yes, his blade was longer than the one he usually carried. Tall and muscular, he looked quite fetching despite his simple dark green garb. Why can't I remember how we got here? And where are we anyways?
The tunnel seemed to lead them downward from the stairway. There were many side tunnels, as well as cracks and chasms in the floor and the walls, and they had to be very careful. The air got warmer and stuffier, but Lalli tasted it and knew it was safe to breathe. He noticed that many of his companions had difficulties with the uneven floor, which seemed surprising since despite it being dark, Lalli was still able to see his surroundings reasonably well. Tuuri and Sigrun were doing well, especially considering their short legs, but Mikkel, Reynir and Bjarni (Bjarni?) often needed a helping hand.
Onni and Sigrun appeared to be finding the way together, and Emil was guarding the rear. This consisted mostly of him saying grandly every now and then: “Fear not!” and flicking his hair in a heroic fashion. Thus, helping the others fell mostly on Lalli and the admiral. Lalli helped by showing them where they could step, but as their legs were a lot shorter than his, there were some particularly tricky patches where the admiral actually had to pick them up bodily and lift them over a chasm. Reynir’s braid, longer than he was tall, getting under everyone’s feet didn’t help at all. Stupid braid.
Thus, they proceeded, with the admiral Hold on! What is the loud military person doing here at all? This is not Öresund. Actually, I don’t think we are in Denmark at all. They don’t have any mountains, do they?
Norway has mountains. So yeah, they must be in Norway. “Sigrun?” Lalli asked.
“Yea?” was her very curt answer.
“Are we in your lands?”
“Indeed, master bowman. This is the ancient realm of my people. Isn’t it magnificent?” Her eyes had a glint similar to that of her axe, and her voice was filled with unfathomable emotion.
Lalli wasn’t sure he found the place under the mountain to be that impressive, especially in such disrepair, but grand it was. The tunnel was spacious for their group even at its smallest and opened up into great caverns at varying intervals. Massive columns lined their path, and sometimes they passed under intricate vaults. They must have walked for miles, and still it went on.
Well, Norway is an entire country, and as Lalli well remembered from the maps, it was nearly completely covered in mountains. He hadn’t been aware they had roads inside the mountains, though. Maybe it was convenient in such terrain? Or maybe most of the Norwegians are even weirder than Sigrun? She’s not always very practical. Stupid Norwegians. Lalli didn’t like the tunnels, he wanted to feel the sun and taste the wind!
After several hours, they came to an intersection where the main tunnels forked into three, all going approximately into the same direction – east, Lalli’s senses told him. And… was there something else? No, the darkness must be playing tricks on him. Stupid darkness. Onni and Sigrun were whispering and pointing into each of the tunnels. Since when are they such great pals?
“I have no recollection of this place” Onni spoke gravely. “And I am too weary to make decisions. You must be weary too. So, let us rest here a while, and sleep, and gather what strength we may in this desolate place.” Opening into the intersection was a room in the wall, where they decided to camp. The room was otherwise sheltered, but in the middle was a great hole in the floor.
“This must be an old guard post” Sigrun said, “with a well for the guards to drink form.” There was indeed water deep deep down at the bottom, but how anyone would be able to reach it, Lalli had no idea.
Getting ready to sleep, they started arranging their meagre bedding on the stone floor around the well. Reynir seemed fascinated by the opening, and he crept close to the edge. For whatever passed for reason in his stupid brain, he picked up a pebble and dropped it in. After an incredibly long while, it made a loud “blip” somewhere far, far down. The echo indicated the water it hit was in a large cavern.
“What was that?!” Onni demanded, suddenly furious. Sheepishly, Reynir confessed he was the culprit. “You fool son of Arn! This is a serious journey, not a picnic! Next time, throw yourself in, and rid us of your stupidity!” Onni was fuming. “And now, everyone, quiet!”
They settled down for an uncomfortable night. After some hours, Onni woke them up. Lalli was shaken awake by him, and then he awakened some more. Where is this? This cannot be in Norway, even they are not this weird. This cannot be real. And since when are Tuuri and Mikkel about the same height?
Now that Lalli was finally lucid, he realized that there were many things amiss. He didn’t have his rifle, and everyone’s gear was old-fashioned. As far as he could recall, Bjarni wasn’t supposed to be travelling with them, and Admiral Olsen certainly wasn’t! Must be a dream again. Stupid dreams! Although this one could have been interesting, but for the darkness and far too much stone around. It was, of course, Emil’s dream. Again. Lalli didn’t find anything particularly strange about himself, but many of the others had become really short. Sigrun reached up to Lalli’s chest, but Tuuri, Mikkel, Reynir and Bjarni were even a lot shorter than her. Emil on the other hand was even taller than the admiral. I wonder why Emil dreams of this. There’s nothing but stone here!
They set out again, and continued along the corridor, which was now in better condition and the going was faster. After a while Emil *blinked* and it was evening again. They settled in for another lousy night under the mountain. Sigrun sang an interesting song, but that was the only noteworthy thing. After another *blink* they had some breakfast (all of the suddenly very short guys seemed really really keen on breakfast!) and resumed their journey. Just as Lalli was starting to fear it would be another long walk in the darkness, they came into a room with a stone coffin, which Sigrun seemed to be very taken with. There was some fuzz about the coffin, and a crumbling book Onni found and started leafing. It was about some old thing Lallil wasn’t interested in, but “We cannot get out” apparently was a phrase favored by whoever had written it.
Just as Lalli wondered again, what about these stony corridors and dusty pages was so interesting for Emil, the answer filled his mind. A deep DUM DUUMM echoed in the stone cavern, and somebody breathed. “It’s the drums in the deep! They are coming!”
But Lalli felt a presence, still far away, but so strong that he was shocked to the core by its power. It was living fire, so great that for a second Lalli thought they were inside an erupting volcano. But the fire was instilled with malice and twisted intellect, in a way no force of nature could ever be. It was terrifying, and beautiful, and evil, and wondrous, and it filled his mind. Oh. I see. This is what Emil was drawn to.
Apparently, Emil didn’t feel the living fire yet. He was holding his sword, which was now glowing blue, as was Tuuri’s shortsword. Lalli recovered a little from his initial shock brought on by suddenly feeling the fire-creature, and he realized there were other creatures much closer. Many, many creatures. They weren’t exactly trolls, but they did kind of remind him of the dusklings. And like dusklings, they seemed to be single-mindedly attacking the party. Among them, there were also larger creatures. And the huge deep drums were still beating. DUM DUM DUUM
While the living fire seemed interesting, Lalli did not feel like meeting that many not-dusklings in battle. They probably wouldn’t die for real, not in Emil’s dream. But getting injured hurts, even in dreams. I would have thought Emil gets injured often enough, when he's awake. “Come on, Emil. Time to wake up!”
But Emil was engrossed with the dream. He was arranging defenses at the door to the tomb room, swishing his glowing sword and surprisingly enough not hurting anyone. A huge creature forced an arm through the door. The admiral took a swing at it, but only succeeded in denting his sword. When an ugly foot pushed into the room, Tuuri stabbed it with her short blade, and drew from it black blood, hissing as it fell to the floor. The giant retreated from the door, but now the smaller creatures were throwing something on it. Probably they are throwing themselves. Stupid creatures. It was clear that they would break through soon. All the while the sounds of battle were nearly drown by the DUM DUMMM of the war drums. They would soon get run over here, and the living fire was approaching.
***
“Drums! Drums in the deep! They are coming!” Emil yelled, sitting up in his bed. His ears were ringing.
Lalli was standing next to him, holding a pot upside down and a wooden spoon.
“Hey, why did you do that! My ears hurt!”
“What have I told you about overly exciting bedside books?”
