Here's one more
Cattank. Or rather, continuation on one of them.
As Onni and Lalli walked into the woods, Mikkel and Sigrun went to open the double doors to the storage compartment. “Maybe there’s still some…
oj, dritt!” A heap of bones rattled to the ground, as the doors opened. “What…? Did you have a secret food stash back here after all?” Sigrun was indignant.
“Well, I don’t think you would have wanted to eat this fella,” Mikkel responded, gingerly picking up a… skull? with several jawbones jutting in weird directions.
“Troll bones? What the Hel?” Sigrun grabbed her blade.
“I think mostly small beasts. But yeah, not a pantry. They are all dry as bone, you can put that away. Besides the mages said no danger.”
“Yeah, about that… Reynir! Come here! And stay back!” When the consfused Reynir circled the Cattank at a distance to see the rear, Sigrun demanded “What is this? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Ah, um… we didn’t feel anything? Not even Onni did. I think they’re all dead?”
Sigrun was poking at the bones still inside with the blade. “I guess they are. But why are they here? The doors were closed, and there’s no traces of nesting. Besides they are from many different creatures. I’ve never seen the like. Any ideas?” she questioned Reynir, Mikkel and Emil who had also walked round to see what was going on.
“Well, I can tell these creatures were not burned. But that’s all I know.” Emil volunteered.
“Yet, all the bones seem intact. They weren’t crushed or cut to death either. Reynir, are you absolutely sure the foxes were normal animals?”
“Yes, they are so cute! And beast foxes wouldn’t have cubs!”
“Hmm, this is a conundrum indeed.”
***
Approaching the cairn, Lalli thought he saw some flickering in the shadows among the trees. Must be his eyes playing tricks on him, as when he wiped his eyes, he didn’t see anything (stupid wet eyes). And there was no feeling of any danger.
The cairn was… beautiful. Lalli was surprised at the number of flowers growing over the stones. Even the small pole he had erected was blooming with white flowers of a vine encircling it.
“Lalli, this is beautiful! How did you plant the flowers so early in the spring?”
“I didn’t. I only added the pole. I was expecting a bleak heap of stones.”
“Well, you must have accidentally chosen a particularly fertile spot then. She would have loved this.”
***
With the Hotakainens returning to the Cattank it was soon established that none of party had ever heard of a creature or phenomenon that would create such a collection of clean and neat grossling bones. Still, all of the mages were sure there were no live grosslings nearby. “Well, I guess whatever it was, it’s long gone. A troll killing thing is a good thing in my book!” Sigrun concluded.
What with the mystery of the bones and everyone visiting the cairn (Reynir couldn’t get enough of the flowers, and how lovely it was they happened to grow right there) it was evening before they had moved the foxes, so put up camp on the clearing next to the Cattank.
While the others were preparing dinner and setting the defenses, Reynir was painting the misdirection
galdrastafur around the tent. Suddenly he heard a polite voice.
“Ah, eXcusE uS… Do yOu mind?”“Um, sorry, wha… who are you?” Turning, Reynir saw two indistinct shapes flickering nearby. They were remotely human shaped and looked like they were made of fog or perhaps white smoke. At first Reynir thought they looked like oversized hattifnattar, but then he realized he’d seen similar creatures before. But the these things had beautiful shining eyes, not burning red. And they didn’t feel dangerous.
“sOrry, we… please fOrgiVe. It’S haRd to rEmeMber maNneRs after a feW decCdes of deaTh.” Reynir just stared, thinking frantically.
“I am ElLa, anD tHis is Abdi.”“I… nice to meet you? I guess?”
“wEll, We met bEfore… tHouGh I gUess we looked diffeRent?” said the thing called Abdi. Reynir frowned in confusion.
“sOmeTHinG liKe tHiS?” suddenly Abdi was black, and his (its?) eyes were glowing red. A maw full of red teeth opened under the eyes.
“Aagh! Get back, you fiend!” Reynir brandished his brush in desperation.
“sorRy, sorrY! Abdi, I tOld you noT to do tHat! See, hE’s all staRTled up!” Abdi returned to his fog and brown eyes again.
“PleAse eXcuse hiM. That’s nOt whAt we are noW. It was all bEcauSe of NielS. NiEls and his uNrelentiNg revenGe.”“I, um, I don’t understand?”
After a long and somewhat convoluted explanation, Reynir understood that Ella, Abdi and some others had been part of the ghost horde led by Sleipnope, but had left some time after the battle where Onni had saved the expedition. Or most of it, anyways.
“YoU see, we Were nevEr really inTo NiEls’ pursuinG vengeaNce on the liVing. But, somEhow, we jUst got sWept alOng in tHe eXCitemeNt. SudDen freEdoM to MoVe, nEw sOUls to cRusH, yoU kNow hoW it goEs. But, yEah, after the fiRe eagle we staRted re-eValuating the plaN.”
“AlsO we felT very sOrry for the nice lAdy! HonEst!”
“AnywAys, we weRe hopinG NielS woUld be saTisfied about the venGeance thiNg with the laDy’s… aCCident, but nO. I was beComing cleaR he actuAlly meNt it wHen he saiD we wEre goiNg to purSue you to tHe end of the EartH. So, we dEcided to leG it.”
“RatheR, we sOrt of driFted aWay. But still, wHen NiEls and the otHers contiNued to hunt yoU, we stAyed here.”
“SomE time lAter, theRe was a weiRd thinG. A pillAr of light apPeared and iT… callEd to us. IvaR, MettE and AisHa deciDed to folloW it. AnD IvAr of couRse was alReaDy hurT. But wE had had enoUgh of all granD scheMes and staYed firmlY put. AiSha wasN’t sure if it wOuld work foR her, but sinCe she haSn’t come bAck I’m surE it must hAve.”
“AnyWays, ever since thEn we have beeN liVing here. We’ve doNe whAt houSekeePing we can, and I’m haPpy to tell you thAt there arE quite A lot of healtHy aniMals here noWadays. Do you suPpose she woUld have likEd that? And the floWers?”“She? Oh, you mean Tuuri” Reynir felt a fresh pang of sadness. “I’m sure she would have.”
“GoOd. We… for wHat’s it woRth, we arE sorRy. We woulD like to apoloGize to you.”“Well, I’m not the one you want. Her family is here too.” Reynir beckoned towards the rest of the camp, still busy with evening preparations, and strangely unaware of what was going on.
“We wEre… aFraid so. I don’t thinK we haVe the couRage to aPproach theM. EspEcially the FiRe EaGle MaN. WoulD you tEll hiM thiS? And let hiM knoW we truly aRe sorrY.”
“And tHat it waS NielS all alOng, not uS!”“I suppose I can. But he’s skilled at leading people into the beyond. Would you like to go?”
“UmM, not reAlly. We’ve leaRned to likE this plaCe. And, wE don’t knOw whEre we woUld go, or whetHer we will be aBle to go toGether.” Ella and Abdi looked at each other, and for a moment a tendril of Ella’s fog circled Abdi gently.
“AnD the foX familY will need pRotection. The pUps are still veRy small. If yoU don’t miNd, we’d liKe to stAy?” “Um, well, you do seem to make good guardian spirits. Please keep up the good work!”
“We prOmise. But wE meant to aSk you somEthing.”“Oh, what is it?”
“CoulD you remoVe the mark you mAde on the baCk dooRs? The interioR is spaciOus for the tWo of us, but noW, with the foxEs in the mAin room, it wOuld be conveNient for us to haVe use of the baCk doors... And to, yOu know, to feEl truly at... at hoMe.”“Oh yes. Of course. I’ll do that first thing in the morning.” Home decoration for ghosts? I wonder what’s next?
Of course, the thanks goes to
@Purple Wyrm for this delight:
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1070.msg161775#msg161775
