Dimwater's Demons Read Online Free PDF

work over here and see if we can’t make a proper outlet for the water. It will probably take it the better part of a week to fill up at this rate,” she looked behind her at the water which was trickling down what was left of the little waterfall, “but then we will need a place for the extra water to go.” She waded through the water to the far end of the pool and showed Leatherback where she thought they should focus their work. When she was satisfied that the water would be able to escape in a controlled manner after filling the pool, she tapped on Leatherback’s leg. He lowered his head to her and allowed her to climb on up behind the crown of horns that grew from the base of his skull.
    “I’m frozen, let’s head back to the aspen wood so I can dry out!”
     
     
     
     

Chapter 3
     
     
    In a dark hovel, a young girl sat at the edge of her mother’s bed. Torn blankets covered the doorway and the dirt floor was littered with the stalks and husks of various plants that had been recommended for a healing poultice that had ultimately proved to be ineffective. Eleanor now cursed the time she had spent gathering the herbs and flowers instead of tending to her mother, and watched as she coughed into a stained, brown rag again and again.
    “It’s all right mother, the physician is coming,” Eleanor said. Her thin hand reached out and stroked her mother’s leg over the thickest, best blanket they owned. Her mother was barely lucid. Sweat dripped down her forehead, and her hands shook even when she wasn’t coughing. Small circles of blood soaked into the rag she held in her hand.
    Eleanor had gone hours ago for the physician. He said he would be there soon, but no one had come. The young girl of fourteen watched as her mother slipped back into a fitful sleep. Once she was sure the coughing fit had ended, Eleanor stood up and crossed the room in four steps, nearly tripping over the chamber pot as she went to the doorway. She pulled back the blankets and poked her head outside. It was still raining. Gray and black clouds filled the sky above, and mud ran through the streets below.
    Across the street, a young boy played in the mud, shaping clumps into balls and stacking them together. Down to the right, a pair of young girls splashed in the puddles along with their dog, a mangy, wire-haired mutt. Up to the left, the street was empty, save for the rainwater rushing down the sides of the street and threatening to overflow into the houses. No matter which way she looked, there was no physician.
    “I paid you already,” Eleanor mumbled under her breath as she continued to look up and down the street. Indeed, she had given the man four coppers, the last bit of money she knew of.
    He kept it and never arrived.
    Eleanor left the doorway when the last bit of light left the sky. There were no lamps in this part of the town. As the shadows crept through the street, so too did the mice and the stray cats, among other things that were much worse. The young girl went back inside and grabbed the rough cloth in her right hand, stretching it back across the doorway and hooking it over a large nail that acted as an anchor for the covering. Then she turned and grabbed the large, hollow crate and pulled it into the doorway behind the blanket. It wasn’t a complete door, but it helped keep some of the animals out.
    The burglars and miscreants wouldn’t come into the shelter, so there was no fear from them. They would set in the shadows outside, waiting to pounce upon any fortunate enough to be returning from a day’s labor in the fields or the mines to the east. It wasn’t uncommon for such muggings to end with a body in the street the next day either, and the blankets over the doorway did little to keep her sheltered from the screams in the night.
    Still, none of that worried her tonight.
    Eleanor looked back to her mother’s pale face, matted with hair stuck to her scalp with sweat. Even in the most peaceful times of sleep