The voice replied, "We'll see how you feel, this time next year." You could hear the footsteps as they left.
---
Bomrek, pet of Risen, was a small puppy with white fur and a black tail. His head and ears were patched and golden, and his tiny paws spotted brown.
Bomrek watched Risen closely as he moaned in horror. It wasn't a normal noise from the master, so Bomrek crept up close and nuzzled Risen's muddy leg. Bomrek did not know why, but he felt very sure that Risen was the best dwarf there ever was.
Risen eventually earned his name when, at the sound of a large creature leaving the nearby lake, he lept to his feet clutching at Bomrek. Risen knew Bomrek was the best dog, ever, and he would die to keep him alive. The monstrosity now approached with heaving, watery plops - a gigantic cave toad!
All those present joined in defense. The aggressive toad was soon wounded and limped away, skulking about the water's edge and threatening us with great piercing toad screams.
The toad final succumbed to the wounds caused by the fight. The heavy, bulbous creature was thrust into the lake to prevent its corpse stink attracting further predators. Larger ones.
Life then began, anew. Boulders had been left by their captors, really gneiss ones. A workplace was constructed allowing the "Untested" to skin and gut the blind, albino cave fish with ease. These fish were the only species present, but they were present in huge numbers and would become the main source of protein for these captives. So too the various fungal sprouts were collected.
Occasionally, naked mole dogs would crawl through the fungal fronds and steal food. Their fuzzy paws proved effective for stealth operations. The strange naked rat creatures were horrifying in the dark caverns.
Without an axe, no wood could be taken, and no barrels constructed, so no alcohol distilled. These dwarves struggled with this fact, greatly.
But life went on with little interruption until another commotion was heard at the cavern airlock. Another six very confused looking dwarves appeared, and were soon brought up to speed on the whole situation. Most of these new dwarves became despondent, much like the original three.
This regimented, boring life of survival was distinctly unpleasant to the dwarves, who expected a bare minimum of civilization when arriving but nothing like this. The only two activities were fishing, drinking stale cavern water, and watching fungus grow.
"If only we had an axe, they moaned." Yet still, these unlucky few now lived three seasons amongst the mushroom forests and cramped passages. Then, disturbingly, more voices were heard. Many, many more.
A huge sprawling stream of new dwarves stumbled out of the airlock. At least thirty. A huge wave of hopeful migrants, all callously tossed down the pit, into this hellhole. Would the fish stocks feed this many? The fungus certainly wouldn't as the slow growing mushrooms barely sufficed for the current few.
Most were indoctrinated into cavern life. They had no choice, really. Two dwarves were convinced they might find an upward passage and left into the dark, never to be seen again, and even though none of us acknowledged this event, it was decided there was no other way out.
So, life continued. But Risen had been counting, you see, and was ready for the year to be up. Four days remained. He didn't know what to expect. In all honestly he just wanted out. Revenge and associated thoughts would come later.
Oh, and Bomrek? Now a fully grown dog. Scarred after the toad fight and another, lesser encounter with a gorlak. One of the other captive dogs had faced a naked mole dog and lost when the mole tore out his guts. Bomrek was both lucky and smart to have survived this whole year.
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ooc: ai generated images when appropriate. most of the fortress are living off cave fish in the caverns, while the original seven work tireless on the pyramid. this season I get to 'rescue' the first batch of untested from the caves, and put them to work. The third, much larger migrant wave have another .75 years to go before release.
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Topic: The Spry Volcano (Read 3444 times)