WIP Wednesday - Clan Beginnings (Untitled, Clan Ospar)

              Barely five seconds after Dramok Ospar stepped away from the mine wall where he’d been admiring a thick vein of platinum, there was a bright flash. He turned in time to see that wall and the men standing next to it disappear in a thunderous blast.

              The young man had no time to register an explosion had occurred. Ospar had the strange sensation of an invisible force lifting him off his feet an instant before a giant warm hand shoved him towards the middle of the cavern he’d been touring with the mine supervisor, Dramok Misru. The stone walls, ceiling, and floor shook violently around him as he flew, sending rock pellets down on him in a stinging shower. He heard the booms of larger chunks pummeling down in the wake of the explosion’s boom.

              Ospar winced a second before he landed, sure he would be dashed to bits. He had the good fortune of not being thrown far, however, and found himself sliding ahead of the shockwave across the well-smoothed floor with its marbled finish. He instinctively curled into a ball, covering his head as best he could with his arms.

              For several seconds, all was chaos. The whole of the earth rumbled beneath and around him, as if rousing in poor temper from deep slumber. The bright work lights that had been installed in the cavern blinked on and off, making Ospar’s surroundings strobe. He peeked to see stone continuing to fall in a curious stop-motion manner. Then the lights strengthened again, coming back to dimmed power as the shudders eased and the grumbling giant quieted.

               Ospar remained curled and still for a few moments. He inventoried his body to make sure he could still feel everything, and that what he felt wasn’t pain. He noted stinging hurts on his face, forearms, and hands, the parts of him where the skin had been exposed to the shrapnel. Otherwise, he detected no severe agony and no numbness. The cave-in—he assumed it was a cave-in and not an explosion as it had first seemed—had done him no real harm.

              The first scream sounded and echoed off the cavern walls.

No release date set.