“Nasties on the horizon, sarge.”
“Where?”
“There, by the pool.”
I squinted my eyes trying to see what the hell private was ramblin’ on about. Basking in the afternoon sun, there were a buncha alligators; they hadn’t moved for the whole hour.
“That thing couldn’t outrun me grandma in a foot-race, boy.”
“Hell sarge, I’d think that too, if I dint saw em chew down one of them monster hunters just now. That one.” He pointed his finger towards a short stubby alligator, its fat bulging out by its sides. “We’ve named it Ucimices, ‘Namedglistened’.”
I stared at it for a full minute. Ucimices flopped lazily on its side.
“Idiot got what’s comin’ for him. Who the ‘ell goes around hammerin’ crocs with their crossbow?”
Late that day, I was hangin’ round by the trade depot when I heard a scribblin’ around the dirt. That, and the sick sound of teeth crunching into bone.
My bone.“Ah fu-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGRGGGGLGRlll.”
Gotta say, rolling around in the dirt like that, gettin’ thrown around like a rag doll, really puts yer life into perspective. Worse of all them goddamn kiddos would get their grubby hands over my socks, my precious fine silken socks. They don’t deserve it, none of them will. Man, I was so sure I’d wussa dead dwarf by then. It was draggin’ me down to them muddy pools when I heard another sound coming from under the ground.
Click-clack-click-click-clackclickclacliclaAnd there, lo! T’was a sight to behold as the cave mouth bloody well exploded with a torrent of giant cave spiders. They scarpered down the slope like a goddamn nightmare. But nay, these were no demons of the night - these were my guardian angels! They set upon Ucimices like a swarm o’ bees, clawed him, tore into him, and beat the craft bugger back down the murky depths he came from.
One hundred giant cave spiders against one alligator. Ye do the math. What do ya think happened?
Well, 'e got away. Trapped himself down a hole where even the spiders couldn’t get him. Told ye he was fast. As I write this down, the lads are boarding up the beast. He’ll sit down there, where he belongs. Still, if it weren’t for em spiders, I’d be croc bait by now. Fer that, they have my gratitude.
Bless their spidery souls.
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Topic: A succession world (Read 8614 times)