Brixton
I throw the bottle, it flies through the air before hitting a tree and shattering. As the bottle breaks a thick green smoke rises around the tree, I watch in anticipation as it disappears revealing the tree… unaffected, another failed attempt. I take out my note block and start writing, “Batch 3, Bottle 1, Green smoke but otherwise harmless”. I take out the next bottle and continue with the testing. “Batch 3, Bottle 6, An odour accompanies the smoke, otherwise no change” I'm just about to throw the last bottle when I'm stopped by a ringing sound, guess dinners ready. I put the bottle back and start heading towards the workshop. No one is sure how old the workshop is, my grandfather's grandfather lived here, back then it was only two stories tall but the house is much older than that, for all, we know we have lived here for hundreds of generations. Nowadays the workshop is three stories tall with a smaller building next to it, and two cellars, although the lower one is a storage area, where piles of old or failed inventions that were started hundreds of years ago are still growing. There are enough things there to make a dragon jealous, and half of it will explode if you touch it in the wrong way so it's safe to say that it's gonna stay there. I eat my food while sitting on the edge of the cliff, the workshop sits right next to a giant crack in the landscape, 1907 feet long, 21.4 feet across and deep enough for the exact number to not matter. Eventually, I head to sleep for the day, in one of several beds on the first floor. I slowly fall asleep listening to the rhythmic sounds of the several contraptions covering every inch of the workshop. I wake up to a loud ringing sound, there's smoke everywhere and screaming can be heard all around, the normal smell of chemicals and burning is accompanied by a strong smell of blood. I run out of the room and into the main hall, its chaos, humans and kobolds are fighting everywhere, at least two fires have already started. For a second I'm paralysed looking at the scene, a kobold gets stabbed and falls unconscious, I can’t see who it is, a human is hit by a sphere of fire, another tries to get the one who threw it but before he can the floor opens up beneath him and he falls into a seemingly bottomless hole. I start running for the door but it's blocked off by another human soldier lying on the floor, a shelf full of potions has fallen on top of them and their body is constantly morphing, affected by all of the substances at once it is continuously growing as screams can be heard from its three and a half mouths. I start running for the stairs instead as one of the humans starts chasing after me. I make it to the second floor and start running for one of the side rooms, the soldier is catching up to me. I throw open the door and flick a switch next to a window looking out over the ravine, a sheet of metal starts closing over the door, the soldier looks disappointed as he realizes that he won’t make it. Then the sheet stops moving, it's jammed, the soldier's look of disappointment disappears as he realizes what that means. I'm frantically looking through my bag for anything as the soldier approaches, I look desperately at the cliff on the other side of the ravine. My hand closes around the last one of the flasks from yesterday, it's still intact and it's better than nothing. The soldier sees me about to throw it and jumps the gap between us, tackling me in the process, the flask slips from my grip and falls to the ground. I see the soldier raise his sword as the sound of shattering glass fills the room, then a thick green smoke rises around me. The hardwood floor disappears beneath me and for a second I'm floating in mid-air with smoke surrounding me, then the smoke disappears and I can once again feel the ground under me, but this time it's mossy stone instead of the hardened wood floor inside of the workshop. In Front of me is the forest, illuminated by the red glow of a fire. I turn around and I see the workshop in flames, there are kobolds and humans frantically fighting all around it. The soldier is looking down at me from a window on the second floor, as surprised as I am. I stand there watching the chaos for a bit, there's nothing but a twenty feet gap between it and me but it feels like looking into another world.
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