Tales From The Darkness

A quick post today, and deviating from my series. A while ago, some of you will remember I talked about a competition called WriteOnSite, where you have to write your contribution in 30 minutes. Since then I haven't actually competed in the competition (mostly because I've run out of credits on the site, and am too poor to buy more), but I have started doing something almost as good. When the themes are posted, bang on the dot of 5:30 every Saturday, I copy them down and take a bash at writing a quick piece based on one of them. This is one of those pieces. It took me more than the half an hour required by the competition, but since I'm not entering, I don't rightly care :) I've put the theme at the bottom, for reference.

When I started writing this sentence, it didn't have a name. For the hell of it, I'm going to call it...

'Tales From The Darkness'.

In that land, it was always dark. The inhabitants had evolved to make use of the faint glow that radiated in from the Brightness around the edges of the world, but preferred communicating using sound and touch. Sometimes, they would sit around and speak of the myths of invaders from the light. One such story, called by some the Cleansing, and by others the Great Betrayal, was told to the young ones as they stood as close to the edge of the world as they dared get and blinked in squint-eyed wonder at the blinding light that hung beyond.

Many generations ago, the elders would begin, their world had been one of wonder and variety. There had been the plateau to the north, a giant, circular mountain with vertical sides and incredible striations. There had been the Tangle, two fields wide and just as high, made of unknown fibres drawn out to incredible lengths and twisted together. There had been hundreds of cotton mist herds, drifting aimlessly through the fields, and the mysterious wire giant, which lived in the caverns overhead and would run across the land on a multitude of impossibly long legs. The wire giant had once left a length of wire hanging from the sky, which was climbed by the two adventurers who discovered the caverns. But that's another story.

The Cleansing destroyed all of that. The cotton mist is only just recovering from the disaster. It's true that the dust storms have stopped since then, but it is a small thing to be thankful for.

'So what happened?' the little ones would ask, turning from the Brightness so they could be wide-eyed with awe.

First of all came the shaking. The very sky above us began to move, ever so slowly, and as it moved dust began to fall. The stories say that the dust which blew in the storms was bad enough - sometimes, it would catch a field of cotton mist and the whole herd would tumble away with the storm - but this was worse than they had ever seen. Dust the size of small hills began falling, crushing anything in its path. Some broke apart as they hit the ground, causing even more damage. Even the wire giant took fright, and in mindless terror fled into the Brightness.

But the movement of the sky and the flight of the wire giant were only the beginning. Slowly, the Brightness began to push its way inland.

(The young ones would gasp at this and huddle together, glancing at the Brightness behind them.)

It was as though the sky were falling away upwards. Soon, the entire world was covered in light. People tried to flee, but there was nowhere to run. In desperation, they flocked to the largest structures they could find. Some gathered at the plateau, some at the roving globe, some at the Tangle. Wherever they went, they burrowed down deep into the grass underneath, into the only darkness left in the new world of light.

Next came the noise. Such an almighty roar you have never heard in your life. It made the grass itself quiver with fright. The roving globe began to move, revealing those hidden beneath it. The Tangle was drawn towards the noise, inexorably. A monstrous creature, twenty times the size of the wire giant, reached down with its five legs and plucked the plateau right off the plain.

Finally, the worst happened. Like the Tangle, other things began getting drawn towards the source of the roar, hidden in the blinding light. The cotton mist, the wire left by the giant, even the dust which had fallen from the sky. There were a few survivors who witnessed something so huge, so monstrous, that they could not describe it save for that it seemed to suck the very world up into itself.

This ultimate monster, this demon, travelled across the world and carried everything up into its maw. But as it travelled, it brought darkness back with it. People saw the shadow moving in, believed they were saved, stepped out into the fading light to find too late that the darkness it brought was as bad as the light. It was death, drawing everything to itself and giving nothing back. That is why some people talk of the Great Betrayal - they believe the darkness turned on us that day.

Not everyone died that day. Some, the deepest few, managed to hold on to the sturdy grass roots long enough for the monster to pass them by. They held on for their lives, and were rewarded with them. Eventually, the light retreated and darkness returned. The few emerged from their sanctuaries with caution, and found the danger had passed. But the world was barren, devoid of life and landmarks. Everything they had known was gone.

(By this time, the young ones would be clinging to each other in amazed terror. The more impressionable of them would begin burrowing into the grass in fear, mimicking the people long since gone. The elder would relax, release the tension.)

It took a long time for things to begin to recover. Although from the surface things looked bad, the survivors soon realised that there was hope yet. Deep in the grass, some of the cattle mites had escaped the ravages of the monster. Similarly, some houses had been dug into the earth below the grass, and were fine save for a missing roof or buckled walls. That is why we build our homes in the deeps, rather than in the open like we used to. Should the light invade again, we'll be better prepared.

The young ones would applaud, and run back to their parents yelling and jumping and pretending that they were the Great Betrayer. The parents would laugh and tell other stories - the discovery of the caverns in the sky, the appearance of the Tangle, or the recent theories on the purpose of the four valleys left after the Cleansing, one in each corner of the world. Then they would glance at the Brightness, mutter a cantrip to ward off the light, and take their children home.

In the land of Undr Sofar, life went on.

Theme: Under the sofa.