KMS S&S 0.0.1
[580 words. this is terrible draft; I'm only posting it to keep a promise I made to myself several years ago. no content to advise on that I can think of. edit: this was written September 2013; I'm just clearing backlog.]
The town looked dismal at Kermit's approach. Surrounded by strange activity which resolved as she drew nearer into urgent construction of a half-finished wall around the town.
This encouraged her, as did entreaties for her to stop and help when she neared a gate that would not be ready to close that evening. So she stopped and set aside her pack, helping on condition of recommendation of where to pass the night.
There were no tools spare, but Kermit got by with her own, so that was no trouble. All this rush of building was due, so her neighbours on the wall said, to vicious attacks that had begun just a few nights ago, with monsters lurching out of the darkness to attack the townsfolk each night.
"No, no, no," said one. "It was a week ago, when folk started going missing. Jim and the others."
Which prompted an argument about whether a couple of missing people counted as the beginning of this town's troubles, and concluding that of course not, they probably just ran off to avoid debts or similar.
Kermit was inclined to agree. A missing person was not a monster attack, and these monsters seemed notably bloodthirsty, attacking whoever they first encountered and everyone after that, until at some signal the townsfolk couldn't fathom they would disappear back into the night. Not the sort of creatures to stop at quietly vanishing one or two people.
What sort of creatures were they? All sorts. They came on four legs and two. Furry, scaly, shambly, they were twisted out of all alignment with nature and stronger than they had any right to be. Only a couple of times had the town militia succeeded in bringing any of them down, and then immediately upon being slain the creatures turned to ash. Or rotted away, or turned to smoke and mist, or they couldn't be killed and anyone who said otherwise was a liar. One thing everyone Kermit spoke to agreed on: these creatures and the town were bound together, and this wall was their best hope of breaking that bond.
Why is this town so suddenly beset by monsters? It was that witch passed through half a year ago, laid a curse on the town, clearly. Don't be silly, everyone knows to treat a witch with respect, and anyway why wait so long? Maybe someone was discourteous on the sly, and they had their time to make amends and didn't, dooming all the town. It's the spirits of the forest, who promised us a hundred years of prosperity and now time is up. It's an omen of war, coming back to these parts, the early tide of fate awaiting all who do not flee.
Kermit nodded to each of these explanations and others, in no position to judge one as more plausible than others. All the while she worked steadily on the stretch of wall and gate by her entrance, passing what bit of dwarven skill she could muster to strengthen it beyond the ability of human hands. She doubted that would make much immediate difference.
As evening fell so too did the number of townsfolk working at their new wall. Few it seemed found the collective defence of their home more urgent than their need to not be among the most inviting targets. When it became clear work was done for the night Kermit reclaimed her pack and set off for the inn most-mentioned by her neighbours.
