Weaving - End Times

“I saw it with me own eyes! There he was, standin’ atop Belzan Tower. All dark and silhouette-like with the sun behind him.” Goose adamantly jabbed his finger against the tabletop, “Colin Coinge!”

“Weren’t it just after 18th bell? How was he shadowed by the sun if i’ was in front of em?” Ansen scratched at his beard, confused.

“Shut it! As I was sayin’ there I was, lookin’ up at the crazed wizard. The look in his eyes,” Goose let a pregnant pause fill the old barn, as his attentive audience of five leaned in. “I could tell, he’d been possessed!”

“Possessed?” Deputy Keeper asked, clearly holding far less skepticism than the rest of this evening’s company.

“Aye! And with a wave of his hand, machines came up from the ground. They attacked square as the wicked Coinge chanted a spell that ripped the tower from the very cliff upon which it stood!”

“Spell? Wait, what happened to the Bomb?” Ansen shook his head as if to clear the fog of his drink.

“Bomb? Oh! Right— The Bomb! Yes, the evil Master Cogine, atop the great tower, produced a bomb unlike anything I’d ever seen!”

“But the bottom of the tower was what blew up, how’d he—”

“Gods dammnit, Ansen! I’m trying to tell a story! Would ya’ just—” 

“Hey, they’re back!” Cory stood from his shoddy chair and strode over to the window. In the distance, 6 individuals walked with a cart in tow.

“That them?” Goose joined the young deputy peering through the dirty glass with aged eyes.

“Sure enough.”

“They pullin’ that cart with no horse”

“Sure enough.” This time it was Ansen who answered. The tall shepherd looking over their heads.

“Huh… He’s a big fucker.” Goose said with a mix of contempt and admiration.

“Wait till you get an up-close look. They’re all freaks.” Deputy Keeper tried to speak with an air of authoritative contempt, but his posture and history caused the remark to sound more nervous than anything else.

The trio watched in a long drawn-out silence until the squatters eventually disappeared ‘round the bend.

“What’d ye make of it?” Ansen asked to no one in particular.

“Guild folk? In the outer villages? A sign of the end times. That’s for sure.” Goose said with surety as he walked back towards their seats. “Now, where was I? Ah yes— Colin Coinge!”