Installment 2-2

   

Og sniffed the wind and glanced up at the sky.  He could see faint moonlight glowing above the rooftops ahead of him.  He scanned the alley.  The way stretched on for some distance in both directions, but he thought he saw an intersection a hundred feet to his right.  He knew where he was.  He could smell it in the air; the strong odor of fish, stale urine, and death.  He was in the Dregs, the seediest quadrant of Oard.  Streets here were crooked and old.  Buildings were ramshackle affairs, built with little attention to aesthetics.  Pubs stood next to dairy stalls.  Sheep milled through the streets.  Garbage piled up, festered, and became residences for alarming and disgusting life forms.  It was the quadrant of boozers, brawlers, and thugs.  Even if someone weren’t out to get him, he would have to be on his guard.

Og wrinkled his nose.  He had no desire to stick around.  It was late.  He was tired and wanted to go home.  He turned right and padded quietly down the alley.  As he proceeded, he studied windows and shadows, wary of threats.  He shied away from piles of boxes and trash.  His hackles raised as a dog jumped up and ran away from him.  

When he came to the first intersection, he turned right and continued on.  Somewhere, a shutter creaked open.  Og just caught the sound of some soupy substance being hurled out a window.  The liquid splattered on the ground.  A metal pot clanged.  The shutter slammed closed again.  Footsteps echoed.  

Og froze.  

His ears twitched.  

Footsteps?  

Sensing the sound had come from behind him, he turned and listened.  At first, he heard nothing.  Then he caught it again—

pat—pat—pat—pat—pat—pat—

Whatever it was, it was small and approaching quickly.  He hastened back to the first alley, crouched down, and peered around the corner.  The way was darker now.  Clouds had drifted in front of the moon.  Despite this, he spied the location where he had first appeared.  Beyond that everything was dark.

Og stepped around the corner then inched his way back down the alley.  He did not stop to reflect on why he was doing it.  He only felt that on a night full of magic, explosions, and violence he could not afford to turn his back on whatever it was.  

He arrived at his starting point, paused for only a moment to listen, and then continued on.  The footsteps—which were now ahead of him—grew louder.  

Thickening clouds moved in and blotted out the moon entirely.  The alley became engulfed in darkness.  Og could barely see his own paw in front of his face.  He moved slowly toward the right hand wall.  When his paw came up against the weathered brick surface, he used it to steady himself then continued on.

There was a crash, like falling wooden boxes, followed immediately by someone’s startled cry.  

Og stopped.  His hackles raised.  His ears twitched.  

The footsteps drew closer—within twenty to thirty feet, he guessed.  He could make them out clearly now.  Someone—or something—was running at break-neck speed.  He pushed away from the wall.  Instinctively he hunched low.

The clouds broke momentarily above the alley, and in that brief instant Og saw a flash of gold, then—

A girl burst out of the darkness just ahead of him.  Her face was alight with terror.  She glanced back over her shoulder then hurtled through the alley like a comet.  It was clear that she did not see Og, for she ran straight at him.  He tried to say something, but it was too late.  The girl crashed into his hulking frame then bounced off him like a child’s ball.  She fell backward then flounced to the ground, her legs askew, her arms splayed out.

Og stared down at her, dumbfounded.  The girl stared back at him, terrified, but she did not stare at him long.  Her eyes darted from side to side like those of a trapped animal.  She pushed backward with her feet then quickly glanced at the gloom behind her.  Seeing nothing but blackness, she turned back to Og.  

Og glanced past her into the darkness.  He realized that the girl was not just running.  She was running away from something.  And now she was faced with a frightful dilemma.  Did she face the monster in front of her or the horrors behind her?

(13) Areas of Oard tended to move in two distinct ways; the macro and the micro.  The macro changes appeared in the form of quadrants or zones shifting and switching places.  Within these zones, streets altered course and buildings moved.  Thus, buildings within the Dregs would stay mostly within the Dregs, though their relation to other quadrants would change along with their location within the Dregs.