The Last Clock

George peered around the corner. He was watching an old man with a large potbelly in vibrant orange robes sitting cross-legged in front of a temple. He was chanting something under his breath, something about forgiveness and evil men. A group of men dressed in red and black armor walked up to the temple. All of them were clutching knives in one hand. One walked up to the fat man and jabbed him in the belly. “You know you’re not supposed to worship your stupid gods, filthy heathen!” he turned to his cronies. “Burn it down!” He shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. The other men each lit a match, and tossed them on the temple. As it burned, the first man grabbed the fat man under the arm and began dragging him away. “You’re coming with me, fool.” He snarled. George gasped. It was bad enough that he was burning the temple, but now he was going to kill or maim or torture the fat man! The first man and his friends dragged the fat man a ways out of town, with George following them the whole way. They eventually reached a large hole in the ground, with timbers on all sides and earthen steps descending into the underground darkness. The first man roughly shoved the fat man down the stairs, laughing as the sounds of the fat man tripping and falling down those black dirt steps. “You’ll work until you die down there. In these mines, it’s work and die, or just die. We prefer you do the first so we get some of those diamond that fund our glorious emperor’s empire.” ‘Diamonds?!’ George gasped. ‘That’s a diamond mine,’ George mused, ‘so that’s the secret of Emperor Chin’s great wealth!’ George ran away from the laughing man, his cronies, and the diamond mine, back to the town.