Chapter 3 Part 2: That Be a Worrisome Possibility
Clandestine stared down the giant hole with her hands on her hips. The hole was probably about as long as she was if she lied down and stretched her arms over her head, and it didn't look like there was really any end to it, especially since it wasn't even like a pit that just went straight down. It went off to the side, and then who knew where.
She crouched down, looking a little closer.
"So this is the biggest hole around, you said, right?" She asked as she peeked her head in.
Kaleb nodded, watching from behind her. "That's right, Miss Clandestine."
"Well shoot," Clandestine mumbled, making a mental note to herself. "That means this is one big queen sand worm."
Kaleb leaned in closer to try and catch her mumblings. "Sand worms got queen worms?" He asked. "Like bees?"
Clandestine nodded. "Somethin' like that. 'Cept worms don't make honey or nothin', but maybe some slime?" She ran a finger across the inside of the worm tunnel. The dirt had a slightly slimy film over it that felt goopy. She winced and flicked it off. "Yeah, definitely slime. I would not eat that, though, if I were you," she laughed, looking up at Kaleb with a smile. He laughed with her.
Clandestine stood up, wiping her finger on her coat for extra measure.
"So!" she said. "They've been burrowing all these tunnels down below. Causing sink holes, and making big whole tunnels like this," she said with a gesture to the one beside them. "And that's ruining your crops and what else?"
Kaleb put a hand on his chin. "Well... one of my cows disappeared, which I thought was real strange. I never though thems worms were meat eaters. But it didn't look like it escaped or nothin' either."
Clandestine gave Kaleb a curious look. "Wait, what? Okay, what else has happened? Just the cow, or...?"
"Little things've gone missin' on the farm too. I reckon a few tools here n' there. Some wood planks out the side of the barn. Feels like the worms're slowly chippin' away at the place."
Clandestine frowned, looking down the hole one more time in thought. That wasn't what she expected. Worms weren't really smart enough or small enough to do some of those things, and they really weren't that carnivorous. They had sharp teeth, sure, but they would never eat a cow, right? She pondered on the thought for a moment before something peculiar caught her eye, and she leaned down closer to the hole again.
"That, and sometimes I been seeing strange prints round the barn. It's real worrisome. They're bigg'uns, and got two toes," Kaleb added.
"Wait, you mean..." Clandestine's eyes widened, and she looked up at Kaleb with her brows furrowed.
That didn't sound right. They were dealing with worms and worms didn't have feet. It almost sounded like Kaleb was describing...
"..Goblin footprints?"
--
Clandestine threw the front door open with more gusto than necessary, only to see Matt and Laura rapidly turn their heads to see her from the round wooden table they were sitting at in the corner of the farmhouse. The inside of the house had the same pale colors as the outside, somehow making it feel like she'd burst into a soft, calm moment in which she was out of place. She wiped her shoes on the mat by the door and stepped in timidly, the initial confidence of her entrance being sucked out of her entirely when she saw Laura's surprised expression.
"O-oh hey guys! So uh, Matt," she said, looking at his newly bandaged arm and his new, not bloody shirt. "Turns out there aren't just sand worms. Somehow goblins are involved too. Possibly. Maybe. Probably. I don't really know how yet, but I apparently Kaleb's been sein' some old two-toed footprints here and there and I'd recognize them anywhere if I saw 'em. I didn't today, but, wow! It's kind of odd that goblins would be out here! As long as I've known 'em they just stick to their land, and last I knew, it wasn't out here in the desert. So uh, I don't know what they'd be up to..."
Clandestine's sentence hung in the air as Laura's expression only got more wide-eyed. Then she felt Kaleb tap her shoulder, and she hopped out of the doorway so he could come in and close the door behind them. Laura looked over to her husband, clutching a fist to her chest.
"Goblins? Out here?" she asked.
"Seems so, dear," Kaleb said as he walked over to her. "Hopefully not too many of 'em. I dunno what I'd even do about that," he said as he took off his sunhat and put it on the table. "Fortunately Clandestine is a clever gal and had some ideas for how to start out," he went on, waving her over to join them at the table as he sat down beside his wife.
"Yeah! Yeah of course," Clandestine said with a smile as she hopped over and plopped down in a chair beside Matt.
"So what I was thinking we could do, just to get a better idea of what we've got goin' on, is since Kaleb said a lot of times, things go missing at night, we could try stakin' out on the porch, watch the fields and the barn and stuff. Keep an eye open and see if we hear or see anything. Just to confirm what I think we already know."
Laura looked to Kaleb, and the two nodded at each other, while Clandestine was watching Matt for his approval. Her eyes flickered to his arm. Matt looked like he was in thought for a second, before he looked over to her with a little smile.
"That sounds good to me," he said. "Takin' it slow while I still heal would probably be best anyway. Er - that is, I figure it'll only be slow if nothing happens."
Clandestine smiled back, and looked back to Mr. and Mrs.Saint.
"Which, we hope something does. Since that makes our job at least a little easier," she added.
let’s jump into this!
Points: 9676
Reviews: 166
Donate