Occurance at Fort Sumpter

[Una]

It was a cool night. Men were moving about their duties, gathering in the mess for their meals and in general begining to settle down for the approaching night.

The first thing anyone noticed was the smell in the air. It even managed to permeate the food odors in the mess. It was like there had been a massive lightning strike and no one had seen it. Heads were lifted from their meals, conversations trailed off, and at this point people noticed that the smell wasn't the only strange thing happening. Hair slowly lifted away from shoulders, clothing became bouyant, as if indiduals were floating in water with a gentle current.

Not everyone was affected, but those who were had a moment to take in the sensation before the noise exploded across the fort. A tremendos roar assaulted everyone's ears, like a ancient dragon were about to attack and was announcing its presence. Accompanying the sound, though, instead of dragon's fire, were shafts of blue light. Indeed it seemed that the sound was caused by the light and it fluxuated in intensity and pitch as energy swarmed around the glowing shafts, sound throbing with the pulse of the light.

And then it stopped.

The silence was nearly worse afterwards. Horses screamed in the stables, a few having broken free, others slamming their hooves against boards. Those that were out were bolting, though their handlers were too stunned to do anything about it. And as people slowly recovered, that was when they realized some of their fellows were missing. Each person who was affected by the strange floating was gone, as was a smooth area of the ground they were standing on, perfectly concave, as were any buildings or treelimbs or walls that were between them and the source of the light.

And about then was when mass confusion broke out.