100 Words a Day 1063

“The hardest one is the eyes,” the old man said, extending his proboscis and taking a long drag from his mug.

“Yep,” another fleshwarper agreed. She was drinking her ale through a series of short digits where her fingers had once been.

“Heh. I remember the first time I changed my eyes. I didn’t think things through and tried to do both at once.”

Everyone laughed, imagining the beaked woman fumbling about.

A man with six different eyes in a ring around his head spoke next, “I took both my eyes out, then dropped them on the floor.”

More laughter.

100 Words a Day 1062

The rest of the empire referred to the final battle of the civil war as The Battle of the Blue Lake. The lake had previously been famous for its deep sapphire water. Since the battle though, the people living around the lake had taken to calling it Sick Lake. The battle had taken place five years ago but people would still occasionally become ill after swimming or drinking from the lake, doing the latter with only great reluctance. The shores around the lake were littered with the bones of animals who drank from the tainted waters shortly after the battle.

100 Words a Day 1061

The sign on the inn was hanging over the door by a single nail. Only one glass pane survived intact, doing an insufficient job of containing the horrible odor and crude sounds issuing from the jagged remnants of the others.

“We’re going to find the greatest kung fu master in the province here?” Jin asked, eyes wide with disbelief when Gao opened the door.

“He’ll be here.”

Jin followed Gao towards the back of the grimy room, shoes sticking to the floor. They headed towards a large table surrounded by several rough characters. They were playing a popular dice game.