Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 7: The Roundabout
Scene 17: Premonitions
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Premonitions
The Golden Darkness Comes!!!
The eadh prophesy had swept throughout the Oulheadhry in a day. In two days, it was on the lips and minds of everyone in Roundabout Station. More than a million spacebound people of five different species, all gripped with this single idea.
A darkness that was more than the absence of light. It was like a racing black smoke that light could not pass through. No amount of light could pierce it, only shine on its black, roiling borders, occasionally catching the glint of gold within. And the voices in the darkness, menacing, but indistinct. Curses mumbled in a mystical language, sending a chill of pure terror - a darkness of the soul to match the darkness of the eye.
A darkness that moved like a living thing. Or more like a collection of living things… A thousand swirling pieces of darkness advanced, united, and the darkness swept forward. Not extinguishing light, the lights still glowed. Glowed, but illuminated nothing. Feeble lamps glowing uselessly, forlorn, unable to illuminate the mumbling darkness.
Ty Yul dropped down out of his bed onto the floor. He struggled to overcome sleep paralysis. The terror of being awake but unable to move. Unable to focus. The mumbling darkness of his dream was slow to release his eyes so that he could see. His mind so that he could think. His body so that he could move.
Terror, unthinking, formless terror, was entirely new to the massive oule. He was a champion. The greatest champion in living memory. He was not supposed to be afraid of the darkness… The darkness had always been afraid of him!
Oules tended to live very solitary lives. There were not more than a few dozen oules living on Roundabout and they were so widely scattered, their pursuits and purposes so various, that they rarely encountered one another. All the other people of the Oulheadhry made way in deference to the oules. Gave them whatever they asked for. Meekly accepted whatever the giant oules gave them in return.
Oules were not so large as the orseld, but far stronger and more vigorous. All furry muscle and aggression. Able to lift even the armored orseld and squeeze the life out of them. And Ty Yul was one of the largest, strongest, and most aggressive. A natural champion, he was undefeated by oule or anything else. But as he made his way through the corridors of the inmost Roundabout, sometimes having to squeeze through narrow corridors on his way to the Sacred Ring, he saw terror on the faces of the other people. They had always been terrified of him, as well they should be. But now their terror for him was an afterthought. They were already terrified before they had even become aware of him.
And around every corner, he could hear the mumbled, terrified words: The Golden Darkness… The Golden Darkness Comes…
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