Fire and Cheese

Nick Pierce's greatest work, nicknamed "white platinum" by its stunned audience.

Charred bones

skeletal trees

scorched ground

all crying to heaven.

The horror has only begun

the mountain is stained crimson

with its own boiling blood

lava and fire.

The soot-stained doors

lay on their hinges

torn from the inside.

Screams of terror

stench of death

spews forth from the open maw

while elephants cry

from across the river.

No turning back.

The entrance hall

is littered with refuse and skeletons

but the carvings

speak of a time when

the ale flowed

and there was syrup roast for everyone.

The stockpiles are untouched

looters fear even the name of this place.

Koganusan, or Boatmurdered.

The halls are long

and dark

the carvings trail on

now speaking of times

when goblins and elephants fought the brave dwarves here.

Inside one of the many rooms lining the halls

a strange sight

a shrine

to some sort of cheese god.

An inky river

flowing silently

a crumbling stone bridge

gravel banks

littered with the remains of many beings.

The carvings grow terrifying

in them many races suffer the same terrible fate

death by fire.

A different stench

now assaults my nostrils

the stench of burnt flesh

accompanied by a deep groan.

I pass into a large cavern

held up by buckling stone supports

carved with homages to cheese.

I hear the

pop

and sizzle

of the fabled lava tunnel.

There

a strange beast kneels

a creature burned

beyond recognition.

It turns

its eyes burn my soul

down to the core.

It pounces

my breath has left me

my eyes begin to shut

for the last time

and I notice

what it clutches.

A piece of cheese. It depicts and image of a dwarf. It depicts and image of an elephant. The dwarf is crying. The elephant is laughing at the dwarf. The elephant is on fire.