“Oh you’re full of it Gom they don’t exist, e’reone knows it!”
“I saws it I did, clear as day. You doubt me now, but I’s not even finished me tale.”
“Shut it Jadan, he has proof, he showed me last night. You doubt him now but not once you see what he’s got.”
“Well go on then, let’s see it.”
“Me throat is parched boys, perhaps another round will help me finish an I can show ya what I got!”
“Aright, aright, barkeep get this man another drink.”
“Ah, thank ye boys, now to me tale. So there I was in the woods. I had found me a nice camp for the evening.”
“I thought you said it was day?”
“Shut it Forvan, he already said it was night when he saw the darkling!”
“Aye, as I says before, it was night. I had set me tent and I decided to cut me a log or two for a nice fire. I walked over to a tree and I got this eerie feelin. All me hairs stood up, an not a cricket was to be heard. It felt as if the dark were as thick as the water. Naturally, hav’in heard tales meself of such things I backed meself away from the tree to me tent. I was knowin what was about. I cast me eyes about look’in for what I knew was there, an sure enough if I had me fire goin it would be black! … I looked to where I had been to chop wood an in the darkness I saw two eyes peering back me. I gripped me axe tightly for I surely knew it was comin fer me.”
“Really Gom, two eyes in the woods that scared you stiff? That’s your Darkling, I’m taking that drink back!”
SLAM!
“That’s me proof boys! You e’re seen something the likes oh that before?”
…
…
“That is the strangest paw I have ever seen. Is it leaking darkness?”
“Aye that it is friend, that it is, and the creature that this came from – it was as if it was made o’ the darkness itself. Blacker than the night itself. Darker than e’en the darkness that it was hidin in. I readied me axe for I surely knew that it was tha only way I was to survive the night. Like livin smoke, it came at me. I swung me ax an by the grace o’Razia herself I struck it tha middle. It made a writhing screech! I swung again, an again, an again. It garbled, an I swears if the darkness could make a noise this woulda been it. I cast my gaze down and tha corpse seemed ta be bleeding darkness an was slowly dispaten. I picked up this piece here and I set myself to return straightway. I knew I was lucky, an I didn’t wanna press that lucky any ferther!”
“It seems to be shrinking… leaking?”
“Aye it is, the corpse oh the thing was doing that as well. I put this in me bag an it seemed ta slow it down. Though surely it will be gone in a fivday.”
“Wow Gom… I can’t believe we doubted.”
“I can’t believe the stories are true.”
“This means there are dark days ahead of us friends.”
Gom walked out of the tavern. He had told a great story and had many a drink because of it. Though he didn’t tell the whole story. He hadn’t told them it bit him first. His leg ached fiercely, though somehow he also felt better, stronger. Stronger than he had in his younger days. Perhaps the encounter hadn’t really ended so bad after all. He would receive drinks for months from this story!