In the Shadow: Day 15

Word Total: 90,055

Year to Date: 960,333

Summary of Events:

Because Osborne was wounded before he escaped the NWMP they enlisted the services of a local man's bloodhound and were able to track Osborne to a cave in the mountains; Parker participated in a shootout where the NWMP mostly fired shots to keep Osborne from trying to escape while they waited for him to use up all of his bullets so they could move in to arrest him; when they finally did they discovered that Parthenia hadn't realised her parents were dead, and had thought Osborne had just gotten them to go to town and then lit the house on fire.

Excerpt of the Day:

Rumbling, roaring, and shaking shocked Rowynna awake. She lay on the bed, clutching the frame, and listened.

The sound died away soon after rousing her, the occasional, quieter sound reaching her ears, sounding like a rock making its way down a rocky slope, and not really a small rock at that. Rowynna’s heart pounded in her chest as she heard a few more, but then nothing, just silence.

Slowly she sat up, grimacing at the cold being out from under her blankets. She lit the candle beside her bed and looked at the little clock sitting on the table with the candle, it was ten minutes past four in the morning. What had happened?

She blew out the candle so that she would be able to see outside easier and pulled back the curtains, closed to keep the warm air of the indoors from seeping outside, and vice-versa.

A pale smoke seemed to hang in the air, like that of the sanatorium, except much more, and much thicker, like a fog over the town, but yet there was something about it that made it not seem altogether fog-like.

Rowynna slipped out of her room and found that Tolbert was up with a candle, he looked at Rowynna.

“You heard it too?” Tolbert asked.

“I think anyone who didn’t would have to be deaf,” Rowynna replied.

Tolbert nodded. “It looked foggy outside, but I can’t find my glasses to tell for sure.”

“Did they shake off the side table?” Rowynna asked.

“Oh, maybe they did,” Tolbert said.

Rowynna crept across the floor carefully, even though she’d not seen any shattered glass in Tolbert’s candlelight.

Going to the kitchen window facing out the back of the store, Rowynna opened its curtains and saw a great plume of fog that seemed even thicker, which was strange, considering that the sanatorium lay in the other direction, and the fog seemed too pale, somehow.

Rowynna moved to look out the other window as Tolbert returned. “They did shake off, and one of the lenses is cracked, there’s something strange about that fog.”

“I know,” Rowynna replied, opening the curtains. She gasped at what she saw.

There was something wrong. Something terribly wrong.

Where once had been trees scattered over the slopes of Turtle Mountain, delineating ridges in some ways, following folds in others, clustered thick in one place, spread thin in another, not a tree stood.

Every single tree was gone, and there lay only a bare face of pale rock to be seen.

“Where are the trees?” Rowynna asked.

She felt Tolbert close to her shoulder, looking out with her. He said nothing.

“What happened to the trees?” Rowynna asked. “How did they all disappear?”

“It’s dust,” Tolbert whispered. “It’s not fog, it’s dust.”

“Dust?” Rowynna asked, turning to look at him. “The dust of what?”

“Rocks,” Tolbert replied. “Rocks have fallen down the mountain, and taken away all the trees.”

“But how?” Rowynna asked. “Why? Was anyone hurt?”

Tolbert shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

Next Post: 2 November