Starborn

Chapter 6 (Part 1)

Duncan and I carefully make our way down through the quarry. Duncan lent Alistair his Echo Stone, while he used Charlotte's stone. We sneak past the sleeping Stoneseekers, while I mentally mock the stones strapped to their backs like traveling gear. Some are speaking in their native tongue, sounding like they are gargling in their throats. Duncan and I hide behind a boulder just as three of them start to argue and smack each other around while standing before a rather jagged-looking stone. They get so rough, one of them resorts to biting another's ear, which earns him the victory as the others run away.

When the path is clear, Duncan peers around a corner to see the pond nearby. He carefully pops the cork, but the sound is followed by a confused growl. One of the Stoneseekers starts to approach us cautiously. That large boulder on his back looks far too heavy for his tiny legs. Duncan, getting an idea, reaches down and picks up a smaller stone. As soon as the Stoneseeker comes around the corner, Duncan tosses the rock towards the cretin's leg. The Stoneseeker gives a slight yelp when the rock bounces off his knee, but as soon as he takes the weight off his foot, the massive boulder on his back becomes too heavy, and with a sickening crunch, he is flattened.

The squishing sound catches the attention of his comrades, so Duncan carefully uses his foot to push the boulder away. With the dead Stoneseeker plastered on the rock, the other cretins sniff the body and examine the stone, and without thought, they remove his corpse and toss him aside. The stone is then rolled over to a pile of other boulders where some of the rock-less Stoneseekers cheer in joy.

Duncan, amid the distraction, finally reaches the edge of the pond. With the bottle in his hand, and him precariously looking over his shoulder, he empties the serum into the water. It makes the water slightly darker, but the color fades away rather quickly. Duncan carefully makes his way back to me and wipes the sweat off his brow.

"We've contaminated the pond. Ready when you are," he whispers into his Echo Stone.

"Well done!" Alistar's voice rings from the stone. "Now prepare yourself. This will be loud."

We keep our heads behind the boulders as I see Alistar creeping up to the edge of the quarry and readying his bow. He equips a special arrow he pulls under his poncho- a soft ball takes the place of the arrowhead. The evening sun shows an ignited fuse on the ball, and when Alistar shoots the arrow into the sky, the ball bursts with a blinding white light and a deafening boom. Every Stoneseeker growls and looks up at the sky, where speckles started falling down around them. The cretins look around, confused and hoisting up their weapons as they sniff the air loudly. Some of them start opening their mouths wide to catch the specks with their tongues.

But just as soon as they start sniffing the air, some of the Stoneseekers start to cough violently. Some cough so harshly, they start to vomit. Eventually, the group of Stoneseekers scuttle over to the pond, bumping into each other along the way. Some of them are so determined to reach the water first, they stab their own comrades and leave them as bloody corpses.

"Genius," Duncan says as he lifts up some of the specks on his finger. "It's salt!"

"Salt?"

"The air's become so salty, their throats must be dryer than hay bales! That guy knows what he's doing. Look! They're drinking it!"

The Stoneseekers dunk their heads inside the pond. Some scoop the water out with their hands, and others just dive into the water. Then, as if on cue, they start screaming and grabbing their throats. Some of them vomit once again, but now they are heaving gobs of blood. The little cretins start to drop lifeless, and some even float in the pond. More and more of them die, until soon, every Stoneseeker is motionless and piled around the vat of poison.