After two days of walking South – as far from Drassington that she could get, Ellie had come to a realization in the face of the dusty road, the cold nights, and her own rumbling stomach.
Traveling sucked.
The first day was muted by her own shock, everything appearing to Ellie as something distant. Like how she would peer through the windows of her parent's cabin during a thunderstorm, or like when she watched that traveling artist sketch charcoal portrait after portrait of her neighbors. Hunger pangs, the skinned knees she had gotten when big brother Tanlin had pushed her, the itchy flaking coating of slime, blood, sweat, and dust on her skin, even the carpets of twitching rats filling the gutters all felt like they were happening on another world. In a way that made it easier to press on. She walked until she could walk no more, when she collapsed in a heap next to the dusty road.
It was no better when she woke up. She picked herself off the dry ground, brushed the squeaking pile of rats from the spot they had claimed on top of her, stepped over a few fragments of damp bones, and continued to follow the road. Had a day passed? She squinted dispiritedly up at the sun. It didn't seem to have moved. She looked back to the dusty ground. Each step felt like she had finished running in one of those races her mother used to do. She had tried it once, and after her mother had finished the race and picked up the puddle of exhaustion Ellie had become around the halfway mark, Ellie had sworn them off forever.
Still, she pressed on with the voice of big brother Tanlin still echoing in her ears. She had heard it again, sometime during the previous night. She had to go to the village. The only problem is, Ellie sighed to herself as she mulled over it for the umpteenth time, is that I don't know why. Or where the village is. Or what I'm supposed to do in the village. Or what it is called. She hoped there would be food there. She felt like it had been ages since she had eaten. Or drank. Her sunken eyes tracked the dry grass by the side of the road as she passed it. If only she had thought to pocket something.
Ellie smacked herself in the head to rid herself of that train of thought. Come 'on Ellie, big brother Bill always said 'there ain't no use in thinkin' about food if ya' ain't got none'. With the skin on her head still smarting, Ellie continued to plod down the road, with no one in sight besides a handful of morbidly obese rats gnawing on some fingers in the ditches.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ellie stepped around the sign on the ground covered with tiny bite marks as she stepped into the silent town. All around her the buildings loomed, great slumbering behemoths of wood and stone, without a single person in sight. Yet, she could feel things from the windows watching her. Staring at her with unblinking eyes, not because it cared that she had come here, but because that is what it did.
She cast her vision around, looking for anything – any sort of clue that would tell her why big brother Tanlin would lead her here. Nothing quite stood out, so she shrugged her shoulders with a sigh and headed towards the closest building. The door opened with a creak, revealing an assortment of people sitting at tables, people that moved not a single inch. Her footsteps tapped out an unsteady beat against the suffocating silence as she headed further into the room, moving from table to table as she tugged on the tattered clothing of each person she passed.
The first man paid her no heed as he stared so intently at the table it was as if he was trying to burn a hole into the dark wood with his mind. Ellie shrugged as she walked towards the orc at the next table. This time she knocked on the orc's broad shoulder, but just as the first man received no other response as the orc scraped at his own fingernails, wiggling them out of their places on his fingers with soft sucking noises. He set each one he freed in a small but neat pile in front of him.
Ellie sighed and moved on towards a gnome who was rocking back and forth in his seat. She really didn't understand some people, Ellie thought to herself as she gave the gnome a good poke in his side. A few seconds passed with nothing happening, but as Ellie was about to move onto the last man in the room, the gnome's head swiveled to face her, exposing his ruined eye sockets.
"Hmmmm." The gnome muttered as he moved the rest of his body to face her blindly. "You. Do I know you? It tells me I know you."
Ellie put her hand up to her chin in thought. The gnome looked familiar as well, but she couldn't quite place it. However, her next thoughts were wiped away as she heard the gnome exclaim in happiness.
"Poncho! Lil' Poncho! It's you, isn't it?"
Ellie's shoulders quivered on hearing the nickname some of her new big brothers had given her. Back when she thought everything was going to be okay again. Back when Mr. Bert would let her hang off of his beard and swing her up and down while roaring with laughter.
The gnome shouted with joy, rushing to give her a hug with strength that seemed unlikely for his height. "Yes, it really is you! It tells me that you are here in the flesh, kiddo! It's me, Galler, your big brother Galler!"
In a flash Ellie remembered and allowed herself to be swept up in the gangster's arms. "I knew it! This town was truly the place I needed to be! It told me this was it, It told me!" Galler shouted at the top of his lungs. Eventually Ellie began to tap on his broad shoulders as his hug became tighter and tighter, until Galler let her down with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry Poncho, got a bit too excited there. I… I honestly thought I was the only one who made it out of there. With how it all looked when I returned, everything… everything was gone. All ash." His voice quieted with every word, until he finally took a seat with visible exhaustion in his frame.
Ellie crawled onto the chair next to him and nodded sadly in response while several questions raced through her head. She patted the gnome on the shoulder. Galler's head perked up and nodded in understanding. "Yeah. I got pretty lucky. Well, up until now I didn't consider it luck, but now it is. It must have known this," He chuckled drily, his laugher halting abruptly when Ellie gestured to the ruined remains of his eyes in concern.
"A small price to pay. I… I don't know how much you know about that night, when the boss's plan went down, but I saw it all from my hidey-hole in the ruins of the slums." Galler's face lost color with every word, until it was as pale as snow. "I-I-I saw It. What came out of the crack. The c-crack in the s-s-sky."
Galler leaned his head forwards, his scarred and empty eye sockets feeling like eyes themselves, eyes that peered into the depths of Ellie's.
"I-I saw It arrive. A-and. And." His breath came out in ragged gasps.
"It saw me."
Galler raised his callused, trembling hands towards his eye sockets, his fingers making rasping noises as they scraped away at the scabs where his eyes used to be.
"I, I just couldn't bear the sight. Of seeing It. I had to do it. I had to." Galler slumped backwards in his chair in exhaustion, filling the quiet room with those words as the other people, once unresponsive, rocked in their chairs while repeating his words.
"I had to."