This is my newest attempt at a fanfic so please feel free to criticize and comment on my work. Due to the dark theme throughout I wouldn't recommend this to anyone under 13.
Ten years after the events of Munch's Oddysee...
Chapter I - Signs
The sky was foggy, the ground was soft and damp, and the figures which surrounded Sulch were cloudy and blurred, their faces masked by darkness. They slowly walked around him in a circle, their feet pressing into the earth. They whispered and muttered amongst themselves, hideous grins, and the occasional cackle. Sulch blinked several times, and glanced around nervously. The shapes around him were slowly coming closer and closer, the circle around him gradually becoming tighter. He began to panic, and desperately searched for a break in the circle, but the figures were now no more than 10 centimeters apart, and they seemed to be getting taller, their heads rising further into the sky, seven feet, eight feet, their legs stretched and soon Sulch barely came up to their stomachs. Now he could see that they were Mudokons, their ponytails vaguely outlined against the dark sky, their lean and lanky frames visible against the grey clouds behind them. But they were so tall, and their voices so deep and cruel, how could they be the same as Sulch when they were so very different? Sulch suddenly realised he didn't know where he was, who these people were, or what he was doing. He scratched his arms and began to breathe heavily, becoming more and more worried. The low whispers became louder and louder, and soon Sulch could nearly hear what they were saying. "Doom...Death...Forever..." They murmured. Their eyes became visible, big and round, yellow and bloodshot, tired and angry. Their faces were twisted with rage, their hands coiled into tight fists, and Sulch saw thin streaks of blood gliding from their palms, their knuckles, and their scalps more than anywhere else. Their breathing became heavier, and so did Sulch's. Their breath drifted across Sulch's face, and his eyes almost clouded over. He blinked several times but his eyes remained foggy.
A bloodied hand reached out towards him and he gasped, the air in his lungs stopping at the back of his throat. It clasped around his head and now they were practically screaming words of death and misery at him. The figure lifted him clean off the ground, leaving his legs dangling in mid air. The Mudokon who was clutching him used his other had to strangle Sulch, cutting off air leaving him jackknifing, desperate for air. The hand let him go, and the other figures began claw and lash out at him. One particular blow sent him flying into another, only to be then kicked back into the center of this circle of death.
He was now deaf, beaten, and alone, crying for help, praying someone would hear him, when suddenly the figures around him scattered, fleeing into the foggy darkness which surrounded him, leaving Sulch standing on his own. He quickly realised he was in a huge open field, with a forest about one mile away, and everywhere else was as bleak and open as a desert. Perhaps this
was a desert. Sulch warily crept forward, looking around for signs of life. The huge Mudokons were nowhere to be seen, their footprints on the soft floor the only things which remained. Sulch stepped onto the footprint and compared. The mark was at least half as big again as Sulch's foot, and about three inches wider on either side. Who were they and what did they want? Sulch stepped back from the foot print and looked up and to his surprise found that the forest had disappeared and in its place was a huge mountain, the peak topped with a thick layer snow. Sulch wondered how cold it was up there, how scary and alone it must be. Sulch looked down and found that the snow was up to his waist, nearly touching the bottom of his ribcage, and with a tremendous wave of shock, he realised he was stood on top of the mountain, snow drifting down, softly landing on his skin, chilling him to the bone. He looked around worriedly - how on Odd had he got up here? He looked around, and saw the sky was becoming lighter, the snow melting in a matter of seconds. He looked down from the mountain to the desert below and saw Lesham, his town, his home. He smiled and started down the mountain when without waring there was a tremendous crash, and from the heavens fell an object so large that it easily covered the entire town. It hit it full on, obliterating the entire area in a millisecond. A huge wave of dirt and dust blasted across the floor, pieces of rock six feet wide crashing down next to Sulch. He screamed, and then lurched upwards suddenly from his bed.
He breathed heavily and loudly, his lungs pumping in and out. He blinked several times, and tilted his head back. The room was dark, and silent. He took a deep breath, and then fell backwards onto his soft fine thatched mattress. He shut his eyes tight, making attempts to think of something other than his dream, but it was no use. If he did manage to drift back to sleep, more nightmares would follow, each one being worse than the one before. He cracked his knuckles and tilted his head to look across the room to the doorway, but it was far too dark. The room was completely devoid of light, not even the merest flicker of moonlight visible. He lent over the side of his bed and fumbled around for a splint match. He found one tucked under the mattress, and rapidly ran it across the bedpost. It suddenly lit up, providing a small yet powerful torch, which helped Sulch see his immediate surroundings. But it wasn't quite enough, so he held it up to a fine strand of rope hanging from the ceiling. This piece of string had been powdered with ground spooce root, making it shine like a star. The room became light, and around him he saw his bedroom, which was quite large considering the size of the rest of the house. His room was safe, away from the ghouls and demons of his hellish dream. He stood up and stretched out his arms briefly, before quickly walking towards the door. When Sulch couldn’t sleep he usually went outside for a short walk, to look at the shining beauty of the stars and the moons in the skies above him, and to get his mind away from the things that are troubling him. He walked out of his room and down the corridor across the side of his house, past Phid's room, and down the stairs to the doorway. The door was closed, a metal post clamping it shut from the inside - Sulch was very wary of thieves and robbers, especially so close to the end of the year. It was a perfect time for them to steal and claim things for themselves from innocent Mudokons. Lesham wasn't a particularly rough city, but with a population of nearly 50,000 from the great migration which left four cities derelict, with all the citizens moving to Lesham, there were people from all across the land, many of whom were not trusted. It was for this reason that Sulch locked the door so tight every night.
He pulled the bolt across and gave the door a firm shove which knocked it open, revealing a particularly dark night, with only a few brave stars in the sky who were not enveloped by the darkness of space. Sulch stepped out of the door and took a deep breath, taking in as much air as possible. The streets of Lesham were very quiet tonight, only a few made their away around the streets, most of whom were on their way home from The Farms after a late or very long shift. "The farms" was a huge complex around a mile away from Lesham, which was built by Markug, a vile, small, and cruel Glukkon who cared for profit even more so than his co-workers. He also liked to inflict pain personally on his workers who did so much as put a toe out of line.
The town of Lesham drew in many people after Glukkons demolished villages and built factories in their stead, making it a thriving community. But danger was never far away, and unsurprisingly the Glukkons made their iron grip on Mudokon people even tighter and clasped the largest Mudokon town in the area - Lesham, by building a huge smoke Belching factory where all the people were sent to work every day. The factory made food, drink, had a humongous Scrab pen section and another for Paramites, and a fleech breeding area. There was enough space to accommodate the entire working population of the village, and enough room for them to work, but there were too many people and too little time to eradicate the village or force everyone to move out, so they simply turned the town into a 24 hour guarded outpost of their empire, where the workers were forced to go to The Farms for 20 hours a day, and were then allowed 4 hours sleep before being pumped back into circulation. Sulch was lucky because the darkest hours were the hours which he was off work, so his sleep was usually undisturbed, aside his recent nightmares.
He walked unchallenged for a few minutes to a practically derelict corner of the town, where two Sligs stood chatting about their favorite pies. Sulch crept up behind an old crumbling wooden shed, then slipped inside, before silently closing the door behind himself. He then began to descend into a small hole which had been burrowed into the floor by Sulch a few years ago as a way to slip in and out of the town. There was no point trying to escape Lesham - they would eventually catch him so he just made this is way of creeping in and out undetected. He crawled along a makeshift tunnel for about thirty seconds before emerging behind a large rock about ten meters away from the boundary fence. From here he could see Quiet Hill where the town Shaman, Crudarch lived. Crudarch had been the Shaman for years until he was suspected of witchcraft by the Slig guards and driven away. He was about thirty meters clear of the gates before he was shot in the back, and was presumed dead, but managed to crawl into a nearby cave in the side of the Quiet hill, around a mile south of Lesham.
Sulch was the only person who knew of his existence, and was determined to keep it this way - if others knew he was still alive then the word would quickly be passed on to Slig guards in the area, and then he really would be killed. Sulch went to him for help regarding troubles and problems he had encountered. Crudarch was pretty much a father to him, because Sulch had never known his own, and because of his wisdom and experience, Crudarch could usually help. He spent most of his days reading the stars in attempt to learn secrets of the future, and as his predictions had usually come true in the past, Sulch asked Crudarch what was in store so he could warn others in town in case something bad was to happen, before it was too late.
It took Sulch around 20 minutes of careful walking and a spot of climbing to reach Crudarch's cave, and this made him wonder how the old Mudokon had ever managed to get up here in the first place with a bleeding back and broken legs. He took the last few steps up the side of the hill and came out just next to the large stone boulder on which Crudarch was usually sat. And he was, with a long pipe poking from his mouth, smoke pouring from his nostrils. He turned to Sulch and smiled.
"A late trip to come and see your old friend?" Sulch tried to return the smile but instead all that came out was a half-hearted frown. Crudarch looked away, "more nightmares?" Sulch nodded and slumped down on a rock.
"Yes, worse than usual," he replied. Crudarch looked up to the skies and sighed.
Sulch explained the entire dream in careful detail, each part making Crudarch look more and more worried. He stopped nodding and muttering "yes," and was now simply staring into space, as if trying to summon up the courage to answer. Finally, he spoke.
"You aren't the only thing which is giving us bad omens," he said in a worried tone, "I have seen more than enough tonight in these skies which tells me that our town is in danger. And with what you have told me about your dreams I fear that this is simply making things even worse." Sulch turned to him with wide, scared eyes.
"What do you predict, Crudarch?" he asked, half standing up.
"I don't know exactly what will happen," he began, "but there will be a series of disasters that I am afraid our people will not recover from." He sighed and took a long, thoughtful suck of his pipe. Sulch was breathing slowly, and tried to stay calm, but was finding it difficult to do this.
"Are we all going to... die?" he croaked suddenly. Crudarch shook his head and turned away.
"It is too soon to say, but I feel great tension in the air." he replied, slowly rubbing his arms.
"Is there nothing we can do?" Sulch said, praying for a yes, hoping that there was some way to remain safe but instead, he got a single, cold word.
"No."
Odd's End ~Part I~
