13th Granite 273
It wasn't fair.
Magil Zeal's parents and his brothers were gone, and it wasn't fair.
He had already thrown a tantrum. He had broken lots of things around the fortress. It had made him feel better. A little.
And the big dwarves were all very nice to him. There was the dwarf in the workshop, who would tell little Magil about the exciting stories he was engraving on the big pieces of stone. There was the friendly dwarf who carried water and food to all of the dwarves that were hurt. There were the two dwarves in the big office who always seemed to have lots of free time to play with little Magil. There were all of the hurt dwarves, who slept most of the time, but would always be nice and friendly when they were awake. As for the new dwarf, who spent most of her time eating and sleeping, maybe something bad had happened to her too, and she just needed some time to feel better.
He missed his mommy and daddy. A lot. And it still hurt to think about what happened. A lot.
But maybe he would be okay.
---
14th Granite 273
Skanky Burns prepared another bucket of water, this one for the injured Baron of Gemclod, CommaToes.
Deep down, Skanky Burns knew that most, if not all, of the wounded were unlikely to ever be able to contribute to the welfare of the fortress again. But she did not begrudge them anything. They had all given everything they could for the fortress when they were able. And, were their fortunes reversed, she knew that they would all be happy to bring water and food to her.
After all, she thought to herself, we are Dwarves. We look out for one another. It's what we do.
As she entered the main chamber, she nearly bumped into Yeol, who was headed towards the well.
"Yeol! Glad to see you're awake! Listen, there are a few other wounded dwarves who still need water, and we could get this done twice as fast if you could --"
"Not now, not now... I need to take a bath. I just woke up," interrupted Yeol.
Skanky Burns shook her head and continued walking towards the baron's room.
---
15th Granite 273
MortuusLupus and FebrezeNinja sat at their desks in their office. MortuusLupus tapped on his desk with the fingers of his one remaining hand. FebrezeNinja fiddled with an old bone flute he had found in one of the stockpiles, an instrument in the Calaveran style that had been carved by Shorter than Some many years ago.
"Mortuus, who was your favorite overseer?" FebrezeNinja asked.
"That's a tough one," MortuusLupus replied. "Minty, the guy who was the overseer when we got here, he was really good. The fortress seemed so strong when he was in charge. I really thought Gemclod would stand forever in those days. And I liked Daeren too, but I think he was just dealt a really crummy hand. What about you?"
"I don't know. I liked a lot of Charlie72's scientific ideas, but maybe the world just wasn't ready for that kind of stuff yet. And Lady Bene seemed like she could have been pretty good, if it weren't for the fact that she died one month into the job."
"So who's your favorite then? Yeol?"
"Well, I always liked the armor she used to make. But I thought it was kind of weird, the way she just disappeared for all those years."
"What about Mr. Vile?"
"I don't know. He always seemed kind of mean-spirited to me."
The office was silent for a few moments.
"I think I'd have to say that my favorite overseer was Pozzo," FebrezeNinja finally said.
"Why is that?"
"I feel like she's the only one who really understood me. I think she understood both of us, in a way."
MortuusLupus thought for a moment, and then spoke. "I agree. Pozzo is my favorite too." He paused. "She could be a bit of a slave-driver sometimes, though."
---
16th Granite 273
Another memorial slab was finished, which meant that it was time to start working on yet another. If the records were correct, there were now only four dwarves left to memorialize.
Spermy Smurf made his way to the stockpile where the blank stone slabs were kept. He knew that the last few memorial slabs he had completed were not up to the standards of his earlier ones. The one he had just finished, to memorialize Toffile, was particularly crude. But, he reasoned, it did not matter. The most important thing right now was to put the ghosts of the fallen dwarves to rest as quickly as possible.
Perhaps if Gemclod were to rise from its current ashes, a more skilled craftsdwarf could create new memorials for the fallen to replace these. And when that day finally came, perhaps Spermy Smurf could do work that he was more suited for.
Later that day, Skanky Burns took Toffile's finished slab and installed it in the memorial chamber.
---
17th Granite 273
She did not remember much.
She remembered that she used to live in this place. And she remembered her mother.
And then something happened. But she was still here with her mother, so it was okay.
She would follow her mother around the place. The walls would no longer stop them.
There were only a few dwarves left in the place. Sometimes, when they passed through the round rooms, a dwarf would be there, carving pictures on rocks. She liked to watch the dwarf carve the pictures.
And then one day, her mother was gone. She looked all around the place, but she could not find her mother.
She began to get scared, and worried. Where could her mother have gone?
She wandered back to the round rooms. The dwarf was still there, carving some more pictures on another big rock.
She silently fluttered up behind the dwarf and looked over his shoulder.
He was carving a picture of her. In the picture, she was standing with her mother, her father, and her older brother. In the picture, she looked happy.
When the picture was finished, the dwarf stood up and left the room. Then another dwarf came into the room and picked up the big rock with the picture of her and her family on it.
She followed the dwarf with the rock into another room. This room was full of rocks with pictures on them, all sticking out of the ground.
The dwarf stood the rock up on its edge inside of a small hole in the ground. He put dirt all around it inside the hole. so that the rock would stand up like the other ones.
And with that, the spirit of TildeATH was laid to rest.
---
18th Granite 273
Flesh.
The smell was unmistakable. There were flesh creatures living up above that waterfall. Judging by the smell, many of the flesh creatures were already dead, but a few of them were still fresh.
Roresa flew up towards the ceiling of the caverns, then charged headlong into the falling torrent of water.