A forlorn frustration fell across him as the last embers of hope made him examine the standing sets of armor. It normally didn’t take him long to count to 50, but this night wasn’t normal and it felt more like he was counting to 5,000. He reached ten and still only saw empty sets of armor. The same thing could’ve been said when he reached twenty, then thirty. His eyes closed again only briefly, as he begged his mind to give up on the count, no one had come to keep this place safe. Such a fact didn’t change when he counted 40 suits. His mind felt like a mudslide was shifting upon it, as he continued the count, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45. He silently scolded himself, for not using the time it took to create the armor suits to instead place the scales like a second skin all upon the Huuf, the fact there wasn’t enough material to make such a thing no longer mattered, it would have been a better use of his efforts than creating armor sets no one was wearing.
46, 47, 48, 49. It took him a moment to fathom why he hadn’t counted to 50, even though the answer should have been obvious. Still, that didn’t stop him from starting the count again, this time it was far faster. As was the third count and then the fourth, every time he counted to 49. It was then and only then that he noticed there indeed remained a 50th stand, but no set of armor sat upon it.
He had seen dresses before, many times in fact, but this didn’t appear so as he glanced upon the green garment, its material excellent, elegant and emerald. As far as Goiss knew his eyes had never lied to him before, still that didn’t stop him from walking out of the entrance, his hand held towards the dress, needing to touch it, needing to know it was real. Before he could begin fondling its form a sight entered the corner of his eye, a small special shape that glowed the same green as what called the domed roof of the Huuf home.
Someone had come after all.
Read the full story, along with eight others, in Realms Beyond.
A holy man, who may or may not be a goat, anxiously waits for help to arrive, which it does, in the form of a woman, who isn’t wearing a dress for a very important reason.
Find Shane Porteous’s latest works here.