Artist: :devthe3Ss: The war between humans and monsters has been raging for as long as Grillby can remember - which isn't saying much. He was summoned to fight in it after all. As crazy as war is however, it gets a little bit crazier when he meets a certain skeleton by the name of Gaster. There friendship is a spark in the dark of the war. But the human mages are getting stronger, and the war is looking grim. Genres: Fantasy, Action Warnings: [TEEN] Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Angst, Feels Status: In ProgressAlso by this Author: [Phantom Pains]

Casting Rain -- Ch 20 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 20

Casting Rain -- Ch 19 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 19

It took a moment for Grillby to fully process the question - and realize it was a serious one. Coming back to life? What? That wasn’t a thing, was it? Well, not a real thing at least. He’d heard smattered tales before about corpses coming back to life - but normally even humans talked about those things with some sort of disregard. Unless he was talking about ghosts or…? The elemental blinked at Gaster for a moment uncomprehendingly, “Uh… explain?” Gaster gave a sharp sigh, “Don’t judge me firefly.” The Grillby chuckled quietly to this, but when he realized Gaster was se

Casting Rain -- Ch 18 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 18

Evening brought them to the shadow of Adwick, and they pitched their tents and lit their fires in the shelter of its looming presence, just outside the furthest wall. Looking at it now, it was clear to Grillby that the fortress had once been a grand one - grand enough to use as a headquarters for the rest of the invasion the humans had planned, before the great battle that destroyed it was launched. It had two walls, one long and snaking about its base - the one they camped beside now. It crumbled in dozens of places, great gaps and cracks in its cobbled surface tearing it into segmented pieces, marking the improvised entrances the m

Casting Rain -- Ch 17 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 17

“Are we there yet?” Gaster whined, sarcasm and boredom dripping off every word, “I don’t want to walk anymore.” “We’ll get there when we get there, Gaster,” Amathea growled annoyedly. The skeleton grinned back at her. The company of monsters had already been plodding along steadily for days, meandering across what few roads and open ground could be afforded to them on the way to their destination. It was slow going. They were confined to the speed of the oxen that pulled their supply carts, the large animals managing half the speed of the average walking monster - and that was in g

Casting Rain -- Ch 16 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 16

The morning broke on them grim and early and cool. The clouds that had half-eaten the sky the night before had spread to consume the horizon as the day bloomed to life. It brought with it a mist and a muffled sort of cool that left the soul sluggish and tired. Along with this dreary morning however, came a guest. Grillby was awoken by the sound of voices: Gaster’s defensive and tired and the new-come monster’s frank and earnest. The elemental sat up tiredly just as Amathea stepped past him, grumbling quietly to herself about the earliness of the hour and who the hell would bother them at the crack of dawn. Grillby yawned an

Casting Rain -- Ch 15 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 15

Amathea allowed them to sit out what remained of their day in some remnant of peace, telling them to take advantage of the kindness now while she afforded it - there was going to be hell to pay come morning. Grillby was already shuddering at the thought of having to work even harder than he had been before. He wondered what in the world she might have planned as punishment for them in their training regimen. Though for as worried as he was about whatever was in store for them, it was nothing compared to the worry churning around in his core at the thought of Amathea getting into a duel. Grillby wasn’t the only one worried, if t

Casting Rain - 14 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain - 14

“For what it’s worth,” Gaster said with a miserable smile, “For your first fight it wasn’t all that bad. Ammy will probably be proud… you know… when she’s done being pissed.” Grillby and Gaster had been penned up in the stockade for the past two days, as was customary for any monsters caught in the middle of a fight. The other three monsters involved had been wisely moved to the medical tent first, then thrown in a makeshift stocks on the other side of the camp to serve out their time. Amathea had been the first one on the scene to break them up, followed quickly by Brigg and

Casting Rain -- Ch 13 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 13

There was a routine they settled into, a schedule for the days that helped spend their time productively - in preparation for whenever they weren’t in the safety of camp any longer and would have to pull their weight in the war effort. They started every morning with a run, Grillby grimacing and sighing the entire way as he attempted to hold himself together correctly. He hoped it would get a little easier as he got used to it, got into the motion of things and actually learned how to run properly, but for now it was just a nuisance trying to keep up. Then Amathea would drill them in those particular techniques of hers, Grillb

Casting Rain -- Ch 12 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 12

It took a bit of awkward scrambling and asking around, but eventually Grillby found what he needed for attempting to teach Gaster how to sword fight. It mostly consisted of finding some training blades and a dummy willing enough to let a novice smack at them for a few weeks. Grillby stood by and waited while Gaster went through every type of sword he’d brought, shaking his head at every single one and bemoaning how fruitless of an effort it was to try and teach him how to swordfight. He’d picked through his selection twice before finally shrugging uselessly. “This isn’t going to work, firefly,” he mutter

Casting Rain -- Ch 11 by the3Ss, literature

Literature

Casting Rain -- Ch 11

The next day dawned on them bright and ferocious and filled with the sound of Amathea’s voice. Her loud, shouting, insult-laden voice. She made good on the promise she’d made to Grillby on the first day they’d met and she started them running. Laps around the camp, down a handful of hunting paths in the woods, anywhere and everywhere she thought they could go before the sun got low enough for the mess tent to serve food. And the entire time, Grillby felt discouragingly outclassed. Of course, he’d figured Gaster would be a better runner than he was. From the way the monster dodged it was easy to tell he had agi

2 Next