The Marble Town – Broken Mirrors

This is supposed to be an alternative start to my rather clunky attempt to write the stories of the adventurers , outcasts , heroes , murderers , monsters and humans which have walked upon the soil of this World.

I – PROLOGUE

“Do you hear everything?” the Moth asked in a bored matter. The way he wrapped his wings around him made him look rather voluptuous. His expression was hidden by the tips of the wings , which formed a mask in front of his face. The odd , face-shaped pattern intensively stared at the person , which still seemed to be within the half-conscious state of dreaming.
“Fine. Take your time.”


I

It was dawn. Morning. Cold. Grey.
The silent cracking of healing rock , like a waterfall of tiny stones.

The Hyena sat in the middle of the plaza , exhausted , terrified.
The walls around her were scratched , had chunks ripped out of them. They were festering like a wound , a gray muddy substance as pus , and slowly growing back into what they were before.
Quadratic chunks of rock looking as if they were crudely beaten into one single mountain , nothing else was to be seen. A village of quadratic or polygonal , crude , solid and gray stone houses.

Taking her improvisatory "mace" leaning on a "bench" made out of miniatures of these very same houses , the Hyena followed what she hit earlier before , carefully.
It took something she needed , and letting it get away today would be a certain loss.
She followed the little punctures on the stony ground , the Golem or whatever it is called around here couldn't get far , the numerous little shards and the dust of black quartz indicated a serious hit. Hopefully.
The irregular beating of stone against stone told the Hyena that the crystalline thief was nearby , hiding in one of these cube-windowed rocks.
To the right. Getting on higher ground.

The hunter effortless slipped through the window since there was nothing resembling a door.
The Interior had a single staircase on the left , with an angular , black and shiny humanoid silhouette trying to climb upwards. It was made out of diamond-shaped black and slim crystals , which didn’t only hold together in a movable structure , but seemed to shift into one another as if it had no mass. Instead of hands and feet , there were only the pointy ends of its arms and legs.
The shards around the left hip were shattered , dusted , losing material whenever they were moved around.
This time there was no screeching , only trying to climb up the stairs onto the roof. It didn’t seem to be in panic or pain , just doing the regular routine the Hyena observed: Roaming , scratching the walls , and looking for things that look as if they didn’t belong to this place.
Just like the satchel hooked up on a protruding crystal on its back.
Only slower now.

One powerful swing. The iron pipe with the clunky , cylindrical end-piece smashed onto the head , or the body part that most closely resembled a head. The crude and already blunt spikes welded onto the mace connected with the head and dealt some material abrasion , the Golem managed to dodge the attack well enough to let it glance off without further damage. A pointed , sharp forearm thrusted into the Hyena's side.
The point didn’t penetrate the skin , but the impact caused her to lose her breath for half a second. She barely dodged the next attack directed at her head and stepped back a few times , building up distance to her crippled enemy. The grip had the length of her leg ; she put her hand on the lowest part of the grip while her target was running at her like an angry old man. Feigning a step forwards and immediately retreating , she tricked the Golem to swing at her in a full body motion. A long , one-handed strike with the mace first broke off the right arm and destroyed its balance , the two-handed follow-up smashed the head like a fishbowl.
The parts that were shifted into one another instantly became rigid , making the structure fall down like a solid sculpture , the mid shattering in half on impact.

The Hyena leaned against the wall. She took in a few deep breaths to calm herself down , and only now felt the pain of the hit. The strike just felt like a hard punch , but now the swelling of her right loin became noticeable. The skin looked unharmed , but the focused impact could have very well ripped through her muscle , at least that's what it felt like.
Her arms shivered from the amount of energy put in the last strike.

I need to calm down. Ignore the pain. No big deal.

She sat down against the wall for a few minutes , it took a bit until she could breath normally again. It still hurt like a nasty bruise , but the internal wound seemed to be growing back together already.
After a few moments , she stiffly walked towards her opponent, leaning on her weapon, retrieved the satchel from the pile of broken obsidian , and confirmed if anything was missing.

The tiny copper coins , the powder that is supposed to help clotting bleeding wounds , the red soapstone , her lunch , a pleated piece of parchment and the roll of bandages.
Everything there.
She went up and got going - in the hope that this incident did not steal too much time.

Climbing out of the shallow window ,walking back the path she came from , orienting herself at the crimson marking the soapstone left on the wall, everything looked the same.
Odd and familiar , lifeless and living, dream-like and maybe a bit nightmarish. Rectangular shapes , beaten into a single stone. More like boxes with windows , and a rare triangular roof here and there. Interiors either making no sense at all or completely empty rooms. It looked like someone who had no idea of houses tried to beat them into stone. Merely emulating a concept that had no relevance to them.
The windows were silent observers , sitting together in exactly one window-width from one
another. Despite the rough craftsmanship , everything was in a consistent geometry - even the crudeness of the walls almost seemed like a repeating sequence , but changed back to chaos whenever one would concentrate on it.

The Hyena fixed her hair , putting the black , greasy , long strands back into an untidy braid and adjusted her bandana. It was better to keep going now. During noon , it would be too dangerous to walk around in the open , the illusions would become too intense to safely navigate , let alone try to fend off another attack.
The braid was draped loosely around her neck and shoulders , and tucked under her cloak. It had the same color scheme as her surroundings , even imitating the shadows on the crude stone with its pattern , and was long enough to completely hide underneath it.

During the middle of the day , the Hyena had to stop inside one of the nearby buildings. The approach of the treacherous time of the day was indicated by the sudden perceivable twisting of the objects nearby. The illusions turned the surroundings into twisted and twirling images within the outer corners of one's field of view , getting closer to the center of sight as noon approached.
It was making her sick to look at the scenery , it tricked her orientation , sense of balance and made her head hurt. She retreated into a building and simply stared into the sky through the missing ceiling. It relaxed her stomach far enough to be able to eat something for now. She took out a few strips of dried meat together with a chunk of bread out of her bag , but noticed that the thick leather belt was badly damaged. It took a deep cut due to being slung around the sharp crystal.
The belt was swiftly ripped apart at the cut , and tied back into a knot to prevent it from ripping open during the travel.

After finishing her lunch and washing it down with a mouthful of water from the tiny barrel at her Belt , after the sun passed over to the west , the Hyena moved on to finally leave the structure known as the Marble Town.


I

A place big enough to fill out many Kingdoms , a whole continent maybe.
Gray. Silent. Lifeless.
Claiming whoever , and whatever ventures too deep as its own.
thats it for now , i'll follow the thread from here on if it manages to catch someones interrest

>>7816136
>The way he wrapped his wings around him made him look rather voluptuous.

kek

I'm assuming English isn't your first language?

>>7816159
yeah , germanfag here

but the programm i used suggested me to use this word

i meant something like he looks fat

>>7816162
Voluptuous has sexual connotations.

Stick to writing in German.

>>7816178
somehow , i have more control of my thoughts if i write in english. even if the vocabulary still needs some improvement , i should prepare myself since we are going to live in ENGLAND soon

OP's gonna be sleeping now
i wont mind being called a faggot as long as there is some productive critique on whats good or bad
'night

hope it still lives by tomorrow