I like the prompt tag you found for this, nice work!
First watch We let Jimmy sleep through the night, though there's been plenty of times when all three of us have shared watches equally. Ben and I agreed without words that having one of us properly fresh while in this city was a good idea. He woke me after what felt like five minutes, but the fire had burned low and was banked, and the stars had all moved around, so it must have been at least ten. I sat with my back against the cold stone wall for a while, watching the stars slowly drift across the sky through the doorway; we'd piled up planks and wood in the way but there was a gap at the top that I could see through, and maybe even dive through given a running start and something nasty enough chasing me, so it seemed like it would do for now. Then the chill started to make my muscles ache, so I warmed myself briefly at the fire and then decided that I could do with stretching my legs. I moved the wood aside slightly, trying not to let it cascade everywhere and wake the others up, and when I could squeeze through I did, and stood outside on the staircase. There was a soft breeze that just tickled my shirt now and felt nice against my face for all that it reminded me I hadn't shaved in a week. There was nothing to see really: the city was dark and without a moon the starlight did nothing more than deepen some darknesses and soften others, but there was no detail anywhere. And then I noticed a light: a tiny flickering orange pinpoint off to my left. At first I assumed it was my eyes playing tricks on me, but as I turned my head this way and that, looking at it out of the corner of my eye, it doubled, and then doubled again. After a minute or so the light had spread out enough that I could identify it as a collection of torches having been lit, and then, as my eyes adjusted, I realised I could see a gleam and a swirl that had to be water. I kept watching, with the shapes and shadows making more sense as I realised that this had to be the boat that we'd figured must exist. It appeared to have turned up now, some time in the early hours of the morning -- and that must have been a terrifying journey down that near-underground river in the dark! -- and something was happening over by the dock. Which, now I thought about it, we hadn't even taken a look at when we arrived, though we must have come out somewhere close to it. A faint noise lifted on the breeze and reached me; mostly fragments of sounds that ended up sounding like monkeys calling to one another. It all sounded the same; I couldn't tell if there were two men or twenty, or even if they were all men for that matter. Then, just as I was starting to get both cold and bored, there was an odd hooting sound that seemed to come from somewhere deeper in the city. There was silence for a moment, then it came again, now echoing slightly from the buildings as though whatever was making it had dropped lower down into the city. In the distance several of the torches suddenly went out, and only two flickers of orange remained. I wondered for a moment why, then I realised: the light would only attract the attention of whatever was hooting. I turned back and checked; the light leaking from our room was well-blocked by the wood pile in the doorway. Relieved I turned back and heard more hooting, and then heavy footsteps pounding down the streeet, racing past our building. That continued for at least a minute.
Greg - yeah, that's one of the few I've been able to match as well as I'd like.
The ship appears at last! And... well, that is a worrying sequence of events following its arrival. This is a particularly well written section, the atmosphere is wonderfully created.
2 comments:
I like the prompt tag you found for this, nice work!
First watch
We let Jimmy sleep through the night, though there's been plenty of times when all three of us have shared watches equally. Ben and I agreed without words that having one of us properly fresh while in this city was a good idea. He woke me after what felt like five minutes, but the fire had burned low and was banked, and the stars had all moved around, so it must have been at least ten.
I sat with my back against the cold stone wall for a while, watching the stars slowly drift across the sky through the doorway; we'd piled up planks and wood in the way but there was a gap at the top that I could see through, and maybe even dive through given a running start and something nasty enough chasing me, so it seemed like it would do for now. Then the chill started to make my muscles ache, so I warmed myself briefly at the fire and then decided that I could do with stretching my legs. I moved the wood aside slightly, trying not to let it cascade everywhere and wake the others up, and when I could squeeze through I did, and stood outside on the staircase.
There was a soft breeze that just tickled my shirt now and felt nice against my face for all that it reminded me I hadn't shaved in a week. There was nothing to see really: the city was dark and without a moon the starlight did nothing more than deepen some darknesses and soften others, but there was no detail anywhere.
And then I noticed a light: a tiny flickering orange pinpoint off to my left. At first I assumed it was my eyes playing tricks on me, but as I turned my head this way and that, looking at it out of the corner of my eye, it doubled, and then doubled again. After a minute or so the light had spread out enough that I could identify it as a collection of torches having been lit, and then, as my eyes adjusted, I realised I could see a gleam and a swirl that had to be water.
I kept watching, with the shapes and shadows making more sense as I realised that this had to be the boat that we'd figured must exist. It appeared to have turned up now, some time in the early hours of the morning -- and that must have been a terrifying journey down that near-underground river in the dark! -- and something was happening over by the dock. Which, now I thought about it, we hadn't even taken a look at when we arrived, though we must have come out somewhere close to it.
A faint noise lifted on the breeze and reached me; mostly fragments of sounds that ended up sounding like monkeys calling to one another. It all sounded the same; I couldn't tell if there were two men or twenty, or even if they were all men for that matter. Then, just as I was starting to get both cold and bored, there was an odd hooting sound that seemed to come from somewhere deeper in the city. There was silence for a moment, then it came again, now echoing slightly from the buildings as though whatever was making it had dropped lower down into the city.
In the distance several of the torches suddenly went out, and only two flickers of orange remained. I wondered for a moment why, then I realised: the light would only attract the attention of whatever was hooting. I turned back and checked; the light leaking from our room was well-blocked by the wood pile in the doorway. Relieved I turned back and heard more hooting, and then heavy footsteps pounding down the streeet, racing past our building. That continued for at least a minute.
Greg - yeah, that's one of the few I've been able to match as well as I'd like.
The ship appears at last! And... well, that is a worrying sequence of events following its arrival. This is a particularly well written section, the atmosphere is wonderfully created.
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