The Chronicles of Quat Short Story:
A Night at the Pools of Ar'Dynn
by Bryen O'Riley
Tad peered through the thickening fog, he couldn't see anyone. It had rolled in so quickly, taking the midnight trespassers by surprise.
“Etan?” Chet?” he called out to the others, his 12 year old voice cracking as ever, but his words were muffled by the fog that hid even the light of the full moon.
Tad held his lantern closer to his face, seeking the comfort of the small flicker as his mind inevitably considered the impossible legend of the Mists of Ar'Dynn.
The story was a favourite of the older people in Idynn, especially at the harvest festival when they liked to scare the children.
Tad forced his feet to move, he hoped, toward home. He warily watched the fog that was now swirling oddly around him. He'd never seen mist move like that before— it seemed almost alive.
No, he couldn't think like that. He knew that mist couldn't devour a person's soul— yet in that dark, solitary moment Tad believed it and even if it wasn't true he wasn't willing to risk it.
Besides, what's a soul? He thought wryly. He remembered when Vetton had asked that during the fall celebration last year. The old people didn't respond, they'd only complained that 12 year olds should be hauling wood for the bonfire not listening to children's stories.
Later Vetton had confidently assure both he and Chet that such a response proved the adults didn't know what a soul was either. Tad reminded him such a hypothesis was hardly verified. While Chet argued that it just meant it was too scary to explain, even to 12 year olds.
A scream pierced the fog, and his thoughts. Tad nearly dropped his lantern in surprise but it was only a split second before he was running at full speed toward the sound. He and Chet had finally been invited to join Etan and his friends for one of their nighttime adventures, proving they were finally growing up, but Tad hadn't seen or heard any of the others since the mist had rolled in.
As Tad ran through it, the Mists of Ar'Dynn swirled and seemed to reach for him. He was frightened by the unnatural fog and just behind that thought was the knowledge that all of their parents had warned them to leave the Pools of Ar'Dynn alone. Had they known the fog was like this? Did their warnings prove it was more than his imagination? Was it really real?
The scream came again, followed by a low moan of anguish. From his proximity, Tad knew he was close— he barrelled straight for the noise. His eyes barely distinguished branches and bushes in the dim lantern light before he needed to avoid them.
With his eyes constantly forward as he crashed through the woods, Tad did not see the ground drop away before him. His lantern dropped, the candle flame extinguished as it fell. He slid down an embankment toward what could only be one of the pools below.
