22nd Granite 273
Three wounded dwarves rested their injuries in the Second Hospital, which was a small room adjacent to the main chamber.
"I wonder when our dinner will get here," Fizzle said. "I'm getting hungry."
"Be patient," The Lord Of Hats said. "You know that those two are doing the best they can, doing all of the work of the fortress all by themselves."
"Three," Lazarenth said.
"Huh?" The Lord Of Hats replied.
"Three dwarves. I heard Yeol has started doing work now."
"Where did you hear that?" Fizzle said.
"That little kid who comes around here sometimes. He stopped by the other day and told me, while you two were asleep."
"How's the kid doing?" The Lord Of Hats asked.
"He seems to be doing pretty good," Lazarenth said. "I showed him how to solve a Dwarven puzzlebox. First time I've ever seen the kid smile."
---
Grumbling to herself, Yeol continued to engrave the memorial slab.
She did not like working with stone. Stone was so dull, so rough. The gleam of crafted metal puts even the best stonework to shame.
Spermy Smurf strolled into the workshop. "Yeol! How are the memorials coming along?"
"Fine. I'm about halfway done with the last one. I finished the other one yesterday. It's right over there." Yeol gestured.
Spermy Smurf walked over to the finished slab of rock, a memorial eulogizing Xexre, and frowned.
"I thought you said you were good at working with stone, Yeol."
"I'm rusty. It's been years since I've done this. And anyway, it's a whole lot better than that crap you were making."
Spermy Smurf narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?" Then he shook his head. "No, no... never mind, forget it... I'll just go and put this in the memorial chamber with the others."
---
23rd Granite 273
Yeol set down her chisel and breathed a great sigh of relief.
It was finished now. The last of the memorial slabs. All done.
Now to place it in the memorial chamber with the others, and put Fenbab, the last of the spirits of Gemclod, to rest in eternal peace.
But one of the other two dwarves could take care of that. Right now, Yeol needed a drink.
As she made her way up the stairs towards the liquor stockpile, she heard a great crashing sound from below. She paused.
---
"Nimby, I've brought you your dinner," Skanky Burns said as he entered the room. "Hope you don't mind roast donkey."
"Don't mind it at all," Nimby replied.
"Do you need any more water?"
"No, I'm fine."
A crash echoed in the distance.
Skanky Burns raised her eyebrows. "What could that be?" she said.
---
MortuusLupus and FebrezeNinja sat at their desks in their office. FebrezeNinja had a small pile of pebbles on his desk, and was awkwardly trying to toss them one by one with his injured hands into a steel bucket across the room. MortuusLupus absently tapped a miniature hammer onto the miniature anvil of a toy mini-forge.
FebrezeNinja released another pebble, missing the bucket widely, and leaned back in his chair. "Do you remember Leperflesh?" he said.
"You mean Leperfish?" MortuusLupus replied.
"I'm pretty sure his name was Leperflesh."
"I'm pretty sure it wasn't."
"Let me check the records." FebrezeNinja walked over to the row of stone cabinets and began rummaging through it.
"H, I, J, K," FebrezeNinja said to himself. "K, K..." He stopped for a moment and smiled. "KoffeeKup! Hey, remember him?"
"Yeah, he was the dwarf that was so happy to be here."
"He really loved Gemclod."
"Yeah. He was so excited when he first arrived. He was always full of energy and enthusiasm"
"Gemclod needs more of that."
"Gemclod needs more of a lot of things."
FebrezeNinja's smile faded, and he sighed. "Yeah," he said.
"So whatever happened to him?"
"Well, let me take a look." FebrezeNinja studied the record for a moment. "Oh, he was one of those that got killed by that big dusty flying demon."
"That's a shame."
"It says here that he shot a goblin to death with his crossbow in one of the battles, though."
"Well, that's something."
FebrezeNinja slid the cabinet shut again.
"So what did you find out about Leperfish?" MortuusLupus asked.
"You mean Leperflesh?"
"That's what we were trying to find out."
"Oh. Oh, right." FebrezeNinja opened the cabinet again.
"Let's see. K, K, L! Hmmm... Lady Bene, Lazarenth -- hey, he's still alive! -- LCQC, Leal, Leonyth... ah, here it is!" FebrezeNinja looked at the record and frowned.
"I was right, wasn't I?" MortuusLupus said.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"His stone tablet got its top right corner broken off."
"Really?"
"Yeah. The letters L-E-P-E-R-F are carved into the rock, but the rest is missing."
"That's too bad."
"Yeah."
"Do you think his name might be recorded somewhere else?"
"I don't know. I'll look around."
A loud crash echoed from the stairway door. The two office-dwarves looked at each other, concern on their faces.
"What was that?" they said in unison.
--
The flesh creatures were very close now. Roresa could smell them. The smell of fresh flesh lingered in the air here. A flesh creature must have passed through this very room just a few hours ago.
The beast quickened its pace.
In its haste, it knocked over a large wooden loom, which fell apart in a mighty crash of wood and splinters. The sound echoed throughout the stone halls.
