Ah, a torrent of comment-catching-up! I'm glad you feel I can still be entrusted with Red, for all he's currently lying in a hospital bed, but I'm more pleased that I'm managing to capture his attitude to life correctly :) And, as per your request (but a little later than you expected) we shall continue this.
The goblin apprentice "There were no claw marks on the body," said Katya. "Go and start looking over there." She pointed to the right of the waterfall. "I'm going to go and start over here, where I definitely won't be able to hear any more questions over the noise of the water." "That big?" asked Iversen, but Katya was always walking off and pretended she didn't hear him. And then tried not to think about something that was so big that the forensic mages might not have realised that some sign of damage was actually a claw mark. The walls were surprisingly colourful up close; from a distance away they looked black and grey with streaks of white through up but up close she could see how there were tiny patches of many sorts of colours. Black seemed to the medium they were all set in, and as she relaxed a little and started thinking about geology she realised that she'd been assuming the base rock was basalt, but it looked rather too shiny for that. She ran a hand over it feeling the rough, crystalline surface, and scratched at a chip of it that refused to break off. "Chromite?" she wondered to herself. High levels of chromium would not be especially good news in the cave, and she looked over at the waterfall wondering how safe the water was to drink. The stroked the wall again and then, without making a conscious decision, let a trickle of Power run into it. The rock sang beneath her fingers and she closed her eyes, feeling the resonance in the Power that she was holding, and letting it form a contour map. "Katya!" Iversen's shout caused her to open her eyes again. "Schorl," she said, seeing that he was walking over to her. His stride was determined and he looked focused. "Black tourmaline. Not what I was expecting at all, but very good news. I have a good update to the map now!" "Katya, what did you do?" Iversen's voice was level but there was anxiety beneath it.
"I checked the composition of the cave," she said. "And it's schorl, which has very good resonance properties. I can update the map easily now, we won't have to worry about it being wrong. In fact, if the schorl stretches far enough we can use it to map the whole place." "The cave rang like a bell," said Iversen. He sounded like he was deliberately slowing his words down, and his face was red and blotchy. He shuddered for a moment. "It wasn't exactly loud, but... I felt it in the Power as well." "Well yes," said Katya. "You run a signal through and you see how fast it comes back. We taught you this in first year, right?" The corner of Iversen's eye twitched. "I was taught at Gothenburg," he said, "but yes, it's the first couple of months. But we were also taught not to go announcing our presence to anyone and everyone in a hundred kilometres!" Katya opened her mouth to reply and then paused, thinking. "That sounds like you think there's someone here," she said. A coldness started spreading down her spine. "What did you find?" "This." Iversen held up a ragged satchel dusted with frost. Part of it was slightly shredded. "I had to pull it free from ice," he said. "There're notes inside and, surprise surprise, map-making tools." "Oh." The coldness spread to her arms and legs and she wanted to hug herself, but equally didn't want to risk appearing nervous in front of her student. "Notes on goblins," said Iversen. "And, rather worryingly, goblin apprentices." "I didn't know goblins took apprentices." "They don't," said Iversen. "It's a mistranslation for giant-sized goblins."
Greg - well, I'm happy to report that things are going in a different direction than I originally expected them to go. And that I'm actually rather enjoying this!
3 comments:
Ah, a torrent of comment-catching-up! I'm glad you feel I can still be entrusted with Red, for all he's currently lying in a hospital bed, but I'm more pleased that I'm managing to capture his attitude to life correctly :) And, as per your request (but a little later than you expected) we shall continue this.
The goblin apprentice
"There were no claw marks on the body," said Katya. "Go and start looking over there." She pointed to the right of the waterfall. "I'm going to go and start over here, where I definitely won't be able to hear any more questions over the noise of the water."
"That big?" asked Iversen, but Katya was always walking off and pretended she didn't hear him. And then tried not to think about something that was so big that the forensic mages might not have realised that some sign of damage was actually a claw mark.
The walls were surprisingly colourful up close; from a distance away they looked black and grey with streaks of white through up but up close she could see how there were tiny patches of many sorts of colours. Black seemed to the medium they were all set in, and as she relaxed a little and started thinking about geology she realised that she'd been assuming the base rock was basalt, but it looked rather too shiny for that. She ran a hand over it feeling the rough, crystalline surface, and scratched at a chip of it that refused to break off.
"Chromite?" she wondered to herself. High levels of chromium would not be especially good news in the cave, and she looked over at the waterfall wondering how safe the water was to drink. The stroked the wall again and then, without making a conscious decision, let a trickle of Power run into it. The rock sang beneath her fingers and she closed her eyes, feeling the resonance in the Power that she was holding, and letting it form a contour map.
"Katya!" Iversen's shout caused her to open her eyes again.
"Schorl," she said, seeing that he was walking over to her. His stride was determined and he looked focused. "Black tourmaline. Not what I was expecting at all, but very good news. I have a good update to the map now!"
"Katya, what did you do?" Iversen's voice was level but there was anxiety beneath it.
"I checked the composition of the cave," she said. "And it's schorl, which has very good resonance properties. I can update the map easily now, we won't have to worry about it being wrong. In fact, if the schorl stretches far enough we can use it to map the whole place."
"The cave rang like a bell," said Iversen. He sounded like he was deliberately slowing his words down, and his face was red and blotchy. He shuddered for a moment. "It wasn't exactly loud, but... I felt it in the Power as well."
"Well yes," said Katya. "You run a signal through and you see how fast it comes back. We taught you this in first year, right?"
The corner of Iversen's eye twitched. "I was taught at Gothenburg," he said, "but yes, it's the first couple of months. But we were also taught not to go announcing our presence to anyone and everyone in a hundred kilometres!"
Katya opened her mouth to reply and then paused, thinking.
"That sounds like you think there's someone here," she said. A coldness started spreading down her spine. "What did you find?"
"This." Iversen held up a ragged satchel dusted with frost. Part of it was slightly shredded. "I had to pull it free from ice," he said. "There're notes inside and, surprise surprise, map-making tools."
"Oh." The coldness spread to her arms and legs and she wanted to hug herself, but equally didn't want to risk appearing nervous in front of her student.
"Notes on goblins," said Iversen. "And, rather worryingly, goblin apprentices."
"I didn't know goblins took apprentices."
"They don't," said Iversen. "It's a mistranslation for giant-sized goblins."
Greg - well, I'm happy to report that things are going in a different direction than I originally expected them to go. And that I'm actually rather enjoying this!
So far.
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