Notes from "Nightly Sweep, n. 483" - c.Aug 3088

"It's a cold night in August, don't cha think, Teffin?", asked a brooding figure, standing in the dark, holding a lance. The fog was heavy this evening. Another brooding figure, presumably named Teffin, responded: "Forecasts said it might be this way. Brought me a coat, just in case. Did you not look at the forecasts, Rok?"

Rok grumbled in discontentment, and continued walking through the fog. They had been at the base there on Earth for three months. "One would've thought they would get used to checking the weather before leaving the base for their nightly sweeps by this point.", Rok thought to himself, feeling angry but not really sure who to direct it towards.

After a few more hours of walking, they finally reached their destination. A gargantuan pile of scrap metal and garbage stood before them. The beastmen themselves were quite large, yet stood dwarfed at the sheer size of the mountain. A drizzle started, giving off whiffs of iron and decaying life.

The two beastmen were there for a singular purpose: to find and bring back any valuable metals that the town could use for building and energy. Times were tough, and not exactly spectacular, but this job was highly useful these days, in the times of growth before the long winter.

They took their lances and began sorting through the rubble, filling their packs with the remains of metals needed back at the base. Rok seemed quite pleased at some of his finds, while Teffin wasn't having the best luck today. Several hours passed, as well as the rain and the smells. The fog was continuous, as it always was this time of the year.

Eventually, the two tired out, and needed a break. They walked out of their new mountainous, yet ordered piles and set up camp with a fire nearby.

It was Rok's turn to cook the squaff; a relative, if very very very distant, cousin of the common lentil bean. As Rok cooked, Teffin sat nearby, keeping himself company with some music device he found earlier in the day. Teffin loved these quieter moments, where he was able to relax a bit and get a better view of the world around him, and the music device was so nifty! Far behind the times compared to what they had back home, but convenient and nice, nonetheless.

While looking around and listening to the music, a gleam appeared, far off in the distance, but did not go unnoticed by Teffin. He stood up and walked over toward it, rather quietly so as not to disturb it. He almost lost sight of it a few times, given how small it was, but he finally found his way to it.

Upon picking it up, Teffin had no idea what the thing was, although he could tell that it was shiny at some point. The top was bulbous with two round peaks, but the two merged downward to a single point. Teffin had never seen a shape like this before in his life, and was fascinated by the object.

He brought it back to the camp, just as Rok was finishing up the squaff and preparing their eating place. "ROK, ROK, Come here, you have to see what I found!", Teffin yelled. He ran over and presented the shiny yellow metal bulbous-y thing to Rok. "Something about this just called out to me, do you know what this is?" Rok, took the metal thing and examined it. After a few minutes of deliberation, he looked up plainly, and said, "I've seen something like this before, I remember it being called....a...""hort""? I'm not sure what it is, but I was told that the ancestors each had one of these inside them, so it looks like you grabbed their inside parts, buddy." Rok chuckled, as he found a cloth of his to wipe the metal thing. As he was wiping the thing, he moved his finger across the side.I wonder if I can pry it open..." As soon as the words left his mouth, the metal thing did open, revealing a paper picture inside.

Rok was instantly taken aback, his face showing immense disgust. "That thing is HIDEOUS. You can have this back, Teffin. I'm too grossed out to keep it". Teffin took back the thing and looked at the picture. It was of a female primitive, with a squishy pink face and bulging white eyes. Teffin had to admit that he too was pretty nauseous from looking at the creature.

"I thought this was gonna be a good find, but I'm not sure the town would even want something like this.", Teffin stated with an air of dismay in his voice. "Oh, don't worry, Tef", Rok started as he shoveled more squaff into his mouth. "At least we know that whatever the ancestors of this place were, they were probably better than we are." Teffin looked at Rok for a second, puzzled. "Why do you say that?", he asked. Rok responded in a joking tone, "Because only someone who was a good person could love something as ugly as that."

Teffin chortled a bit, then removed the paper picture and pocketed the metal bulbous thing. He then continued to eat his squaff with Rok, as the night pressed on, and the fog grew thicker.