User:DoctorWho42/Sundown

"Sundown" is a short story by English author David Redd. It was first published in the December 1967 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Background
"Sundown" is Redd's first story for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Plot
Centuries ago humans from the south colonised the north. An imprisoned troll is brought with a circus. A poet visits it. They debate on whose world they live in. The dryad, the White Lady, watches the snow fall from fur-sprites excavating. She slows time to watch. Underneath was a human village. It was inhabited pre-sundown. The fur-sprites find metal from a public transport vehicle. They give thanks to the North Star. The greater wind greets them. The winds carry thoughts and emotions from where the lands they pass through. A human is close. Josef Somes seeks the living-rock. The dryad and the fur-sprites go to Homeground. Homeground is a forested area in the North Polar Continent where there is a permanent snow-repellent spell. The dryad and fur-sprites arrive at the Meeting Plain. They deliberate on how to kill it. They decide to set traps for it. The dryad offers to probe its mind for weaknesses. An oreade (a mountain spirit), two fur-sprites Jaerem and Moera, and a gnome join. They wait for it on a snowy hill. They use camouflage spells to hide. Josef Somes wears an atmosphere suit and a lantern on its head. The dryad finds no defences in its mind as there is nothing to defend. The fur-sprites distract Somes as it nears the dryad. It shoots both. It decides to keep the fur-sprite bodies for food. The dryad blames herself. The gnome and oreade calm her. The dryad tells Homeground to prepare. As the human begins cooking, they try for the fur-sprite bodies. The dryad distracts him as the gnome takes them. Somes continues angrily to the living-rock. They sense a troll and learn it also wants to kill it. An avalanche engulfs the human. It melts the ice with a gun but the water breaks the gun. Somes reaches the living-rock. The troll confronts it. It sees the dryad, gnome, oreade, and troll. They blind the human. The gnome swings an axe into the head lantern. The light goes out. The troll holds the human down. The gnome swings an axe at the face-plate. It shatters the glass but only injures it. The dryad takes the chisel and stabs it in the human's left eye-socket. She brings the hammer down killing Somes. The dryad feels pity but they console her. They meet the community at Homeground.

Reception
In 1967, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction editor Edward L. Ferman called it a "superior and involving fantasy."