Dark They Came, And Long Their Shadow

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Little Lichton was a quiet, out of the way hamlet. Perhaps that is why it began there.

No one saw the very beginning. For all people knew, the Whitfeld Downland below the village was only empty grazing fields Then the local pub, The King's Head, was full of the talk of the great mass of darkness that had - grown - out of the grass and now dominated the space like a strange, bell-shaped building. Only it wasn't a building. It was a mass of twisting shapes, vaguely akin to thick and bent tree stumps or an insane fungus, all blended together into a confusing, hideous mass.

Each morning the horrified villagers awoke and turned their eyes to the south west to see that the repulsive mass had grown in size. The talk turned to how big it would grow. When would it stop? Who could do something about it?

And then the morning came when, with a great resounding thud that set the whole village trembling, the entire mass began to move....