24: The Ghoul

So, mum, this is what happened next. Sorry to leave you with such a cliff hanger, again, but I had to catch the post. I’d like to say that this turned out to be not as dangerous as it looked, but in the end, it was much more dangerous (Yes, it was very dangerous and frightening. How d’you do, Mrs. Chard – Willow).

Remember, I was left on guard while Guido was doing a patrol around the outside of the tower. Willow and Dreamy were sleeping around me, and keeping me warm, and Blume was sleeping off her beer, and snoring quite loudly, or maybe that was the dwarfs. And this strange figure emerged from a stone trapdoor and began pushing up the new dwarf-built floorboards and started pulling itself up into the room.

It was scrawny and dirty and very frightening, but I managed to keep my wits about me, and I simply levelled Blume's blunderbuss at the creepy figure and when I had it squarely in my sights, I pulled the trigger.

Of course, I’m not that experienced with black powder weapons, though I hope to be one day. And Blume hadn’t loaded it, because as I understand it now, you don’t leave them hanging around loaded. This can be dangerous, as it can go off accidentally, and it also lets the damp get into the powder. But I didn’t really know any of this.

So when the Blunderbuss didn’t go off, I was a bit surprised, but I shouted as loudly as I could, ‘wake up’ and hoped Guido would hear me, too. Then I dropped the blunderbuss, drew my sword, and charged at the creature. Unfortunately, it managed to deflect my blow with the piece of sharp bone it was wielding, and then it stabbed me in the head (I think I will probably end up with a scar on my forehead). And then it sank its teeth into my arm. I dropped my sword, and nearly passed out.

I was barely conscious, now, and most of what happened next wasn’t very clear to me as I was helpless, on my back, being dragged towards the trapdoor by my ankles.

Guido did hear my cries and he came running, muttering a prayer to Myrmidia. And, of course, the noise woke everyone else up. The dwarfs were a bit slow to stir, but Willow woke up quickly enough. Although I think she had been dreaming about monsters and so had to take a few moments to convince herself that she wasn’t still dreaming.

Dreamy was up quickly, and without his bow (as I understand it you don’t leave a bow strung in the same way you don’t leave a gun loaded) he drew his sword and came rushing to help me. He managed to distract the creature, but it struck back and would have landed a very telling blow on him but, as fate would have it, he managed to dodge out of the way at the last moment. I think Dreamy was behaving a lot more recklessly than usual. I think, with his bow, he is able to pick and choose his moments, but up close, in a hand-to-hand fight, he is not able to do that. And faced with such a creature he began swinging wildly.

Then Guido arrived. But I think when he saw the frightening creature who was dragging me across the floor he hesitated. I appreciate him coming to help, but it seems to me, that with all his talk of time to shine, and seizing the opportunity, and the science of battle, then this could well have been his time to shine, to seize the opportunity, and to come to the battle a bit quicker than he actually did.

And Blume woke up. I think she was probably still a bit hungover from the dwarf beer, but she was alert enough to load her Blunderbuss quickly. And I think during this time the dwarfs were beginning to grab their tools and things.

And the creature dragged me closer to the trapdoor. I could only look at Willow and tell her to tell you something. I can’t remember what I told her to tell you, but it doesn’t matter now, as you can tell I am fine after all and don’t need to tell you anything, though I do need to tell you I don’t need to tell you anything and that’s what I’m telling you now (And I don’t need to tell you what I would have had to have told you – Willow).

I don’t think Willow could hear me, anyway, but she ducked down and started to crawl across the floor towards me, still hiding inside her sleeping bag and careful not to attract the attention of the horrible creature.

By now, Dreamy was in a bit of a state, and I think he was shouting ‘not again’ over and over again, as he was  fighting the thing. I know he had a hard time of it in the Fighting Cocks, and he doesn’t talk about it much, but I would guess that he was thinking about something that happened back then. And it didn’t help him fight, because the creature took a very nasty bite out of his arm. I expect it was a bit of a treat for the creature getting some halfling food for a change.

And now we really needed Guido, and although I could see he was hesitant, he resolved to help me, and charged in to fight. And he hit the creature with a strong blow.

Then Blume pointed her blunderbuss at it. The problem was that had she fired she would have hit me as well, and certainly Dreamy and Guido, and perhaps Willow who was still crawling towards us. I know she has done this sort of thing before, choosing to shoot one of us, for the greater good. But now it looked like there might be none of us left, except her, which isn’t really the greater good. But thankfully, she decided against it, and instead shouted at us to get out of the way, which, at the time, was easier said than done.

Then several of the Dwarfs got involved and they rained some blows down on the monster. I don’t think they hurt it much, but they distracted it from dragging me further. By now my vision was going a bit cloudy, and my hearing, too, and I think I would have passed out, except Willow finally reached me and saw to my wounds.

Meanwhile Dreamy and the creature were trading blows and Dreamy struck it, but the creature fought back and Dreamy would have been gravely injured a second time, but fate luckily made the creature miss, again.

Then Guido hacked at its wrist, making it release my ankles. And Thingrim, realising it was too dangerous to fire the blunderbuss in such confines, pushed Blume’s gun aside. And so she  grabbed my arms and began pulling me away from the trapdoor.

Then the dwarfs piled on, and they did so many blows with their axes, and hammers, and things, that the creature was soon dead. If it had even been alive. And Dreamy was in such a state that he kept attacking the monster, even though it was clearly lifeless, and he had to be calmed down by Guido and Willow. And then Guido kicked the creature away back down through the hole and shut the trapdoor behind it. There was some heavy machinery in the tower, I think it was a mirror for reflecting the firelight, or something like that. And so we put it on top of the trapdoor so nothing below would be able to open it.

Willow had been chewing something in her mouth, and then she spat it over Dreamy’s wounds. And she said it wouldn’t do any good because she was spitting it at the wrong time, and the wounds had to fester before it was useful. And the herb was very rare, and she had wasted it. But live and learn, I suppose. I was just glad she wasn’t spitting it over me.

After we had recovered a bit, Willow explained that these creatures featured in Mootland and Sylvanian fairy tales and that they were called ghouls. She said they were people once, who had become so lonely and twisted that they started eating other people. And that is what happened to you if you eat other people, you become ravenous and deformed, like that. And that made me realise that it had been dragging me down there so it could eat me. And, for some reason, Willow warned Blume that she shouldn’t start eating people. And then Blume got mad again, but I think that was partly because of her hangover.

We organised the dwarfs to look around the tower for other secret ways, and they pulled up the floorboards to look for more trapdoors but couldn’t find any. We found what looked like the old entrance to the tower but that was blocked with similar, smooth, immovable stone.

While that was happening, Guido had a word with Blume. He told her that he had noticed she had been thinking about pulling the trigger, with us all in her sights, and she was only a whisker away from doing so. Blume told him it had worked before, for the greater good, but Guido got mad about the whole thing, and was going to storm off, but Blume  stormed off before he could. It takes some practice, I think, to storm off faster than Blume can storm off.

Guido slumped down with his head in his hands, and it was strange to see, because he is usually so calm and collected, but I think travelling with us has finally worn his patience down. I didn’t really want to talk to him about it but told Willow that she might want to. But Willow went off to talk to Blume, instead.

So, I went to talk to Guido. I told him that we needed a strategy, as I thought that might get him to focus on the matter at hand, and he seemed to feel better as he started talking about a way to deal with any ghouls that might still be in the tower. And he decided we needed to open up the trap door and go down and deal with them. However, the stone slab of the trapdoor fitted so precisely that we couldn’t get any purchase on it, to lift it. We got the dwarf engineers on the job, but they couldn’t manage it. Then they tried just smashing it, but that didn’t work, either. Then Aynjulls pointed out that they still had a deadline to build to, and so needed to get back to their real work. Dreamy went out to talk to Blume, but he didn’t really, he just stood near her, ignoring her, which is the sort of conversation she seems to like best. And so she was feeling a bit better and agreed to come and help us.

I noticed how Willow was a bit nervous about the ghouls and the danger we had been in, and she was definitely a bit shaken from the previous night. And so, I suggested that she might want to go back to the Mootland, but she insisted that she needed to travel in order to help with her studies (I really do  need to travel in order to help with my studies – Willow).

Without much hope of getting into the tower we decided that at least we could wait until dark, like the previous night and ambush them, if they came through the trapdoor again. So we all headed back to Das Moot for a rest. I think we were all a bit tired anyway, having had an eventful night.

As we were still being paid, I thought it would be best to make the dwarfs’ breakfast before I went to bed. When I took them their breakfast Aynjulls gave me fifteen shillings for our previous half-day’s work, and I told her that even though it looked like we were shirking by going to sleep, we would be earning the next day’s pay during the night. She asked me where Blume was, because she needed her for cutting wood, and I told her that she had been injured during the fight, which wasn’t true and I don’t think she believed me any way.

And then I noticed a shiny thing on the floor. It looked a bit odd, so I examined it. It was a six-inch metal rod, with a leather thong attached to it, so it looked like it might be a necklace. And it had a strange, symmetrical cross-section of a five-pointed star. I decided that whoever had been wearing it probably didn’t want it anymore, so I kept it.

But as I went down the steps on my way back to the boat, as I passed the old smooth-walled part of the tower, part of that wall just slid sideways, revealing the inside of tower. This was exciting, but it was also where the ghoul lived, so it was very scary.

The door revealed a short corridor with a door at the end and one on each side. And the walls and floor and ceiling were covered with strange carvings which I had no clue about and hadn’t seen anything like them before. But it wasn’t normal writing because I’m watching Willow write this now, so I know what normal writing looks like (I am writing this now – Willow) (And this – Willow). And everything was covered in dust like no one had been there for a very long time but there was also an eerie chill in the air.

I know everyone laughed at me because I only spent a few minutes in my job as a watchman in Boegenhafen, and I only spent a few minutes inside the Steinhaeger offices, and I only spent a few minutes pretending to be a table in the Merchants’ Guild, so I’m not very good at sticking with stuff, but this was properly scary, so I think I have a decent excuse for leaving.

So I just backed away slowly and when I had backed away to about a yard beyond the wall, the door slid closed again. So it was like I was causing it to open and close, and I guessed that it must be the necklace I had just found that was making it happen. And I ran back to Das Moot as quickly as I could to tell everyone.

And when I told them and showed them the rod, which was like a magic wand, they said I must be a wizard or something (You’re a wizard, Harry – Willow), but I know there aren’t any halfling wizards. It’s part of what gives us our charm and trustworthiness.

Anyway, we all decided to go up to the tower straight away, and so Dreamy strung his bow and Blume loaded her blunderbuss and we made our way up there. When we got to the wall  I waved my magic wand and said some magical words (which probably weren’t really magical) and walked towards the wall, and sure enough, it slid open again and we all walked into the corridor.

And from what I could tell, later, both Blume and Guido heard a strange voice whispering in their ear telling them to ‘go back, go back,’ but none of us halflings heard it, so it might just be a big thing. But I expect, if you did hear it, it would be very frightening.

I promise I will write again soon to tell you what we found inside the tower. But know that although I was quite badly hurt by the ghoul, I am alright now (I patched him up very well – Willow) so you don’t have to worry about me, at all, mum, unless something bad happens inside the tower, in which case, you do.