(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

Chapter 44
The empty abodes were dust-filled and dingy. Here and there doors were
half-open, some barely clinging to rusted hinges or locks. Some were barely
fit to stand in, others were in near-ruin. What huts and buildings that did
stand proud were sagging under the weight of years, held together with
nails and boards pounded in by a relentless servile hand.
I could hear the hammering from afar.
A dabus floated among the old houses hammering boards and patching in
holes its relentless duty. Just as I saw nothing remarkable about it (the
creature looked like any other dabus I'd ever seen) it saw nothing
remarkable in me, or any of us for that matter. Never did it once look up
from its work, even to glance at a stranger that had just wandered into its
barren domain. All it knew was its duty, which it performed with
metronomic grace.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
As we walked past the hammering grew most distant, and a chill wind blew
through the narrow street. As it whipped past the decaying buildings it
sounded to my ears much like a groan. The buildings creaked in response, as
if they ached for the agony and bliss of release.
One building, however, looked like it had stood the test of time.
What else could we do but enter to investigate?
While well-kept, this building was no more habitable than the rest. The floor
was damp and green with ancient mildew, and what furniture there was had
rotted away long ago that they should've fallen apart if not for the lingering
strength of the wood.
Dak'kon whispered something I couldn't make out, and Annah stood
stock-still, moving only to draw a circle over her heart when she recognized
what lay in the corner of the room.
It was the shriveled corpse of a dabus, flesh mottled and yellow with rot.
The stench of its decay was overpowering and, from the looks of its rigid,
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