| Dark Machinations; TMS, TV, Part V | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 15th May 2007 - 12:07 AM (205 Views) | |
| Morkskittar | 15th May 2007 - 12:07 AM Post #1 |
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The Tunnel's Resident Rodent Ecologist
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Dark Machinations The Morkreekian Saga The Voyage Part V Pawblight held up a hand for silence. The rats trailing him instantly fell silent, their chittering cut off as if by a knife. After several moments of utter silence in the dense jungle, three thunderclaps with accompanying flashes of light shook the island to its roots. Blinking the lightning's after-image out of his eyes, Pawblight turned around to face his bedraggled crew. After the ships had crashed on the Isle of Daasnacht, he had spent several days hunting down and finding the last survivors of his crew. After having found them, he and the survivors had settle into a dark gloom which had threatened to consume them all. Pawblight had been to the Island before, and the exit he had used to escape the eye of the Daemon was sealed off by Gaia's cruelty. It was this lack of escape routes which plagued the survivors so; those who had been on the Isle before especially. They knew what was coming for them. But a purpose soon drove some of the fear from their minds: lightning had been striking an unusually tall tree in the distance. It struck once in the middle of the night, and then twice an hour later, and now, an hour later, three times. It was almost like a clock... Pawblight had used this lightning as an excue to raise himself and his compatriots out of the black despair they had sunk into. The weary Skaven needed to excuse to believe that their might be hope; they clung to their leader's words like a moth to a flame. And they had followed him out into the eerily silent jungle, their pawsteps the only sound on the whole island besides the waves crashing to shore, yet even those had seemed muted. "The lightning strikes not the tree, but something beneath it. I saw it extend down to the ground. We will continue in that direction." Pawblight pointed to his left and set off immediately. As soon as he stopped moving and started thinking about the sheer stupidity of what he was doing, he would never reach their only possible hope. *** The ground turned from dry, packed earth to mossy mud after several minutes of walking towards th source of the lightning, and the rate of travel was slowed significantly as the Skaven struggled through the oppressive mud. After ten minutes of walking, the rat third behind Pawblight stopped. "I've had-had enough of this, Slavelord. You don't know where we're going, do-do you? This might get us killed! Why are we going towards the lightning?" Pawblight had whirled around the instant he heard the raised voice, ready to kill any rat who ruined their chances of surprising anything near the lightning-strike place. "Shut your vile mouth!" Pawblight whispered angrily, with a dark glint in his eye. "I'll shut my mouth once you explain what we're doing here!" The rat retorted, raising his voice to a greater volume. Quick as a striking adder, Pawblight whipped his metal claws out at the dissenter, desperate to prevent his own doubts, voiced by this young Skaven, into the minds of the others. Unfortunately, an adder would bot have been fast enough to get the glory for the death of this rat. A vine, as if possessed, came out of nowehere and slammed the loud Skaven into the mud. The rat flew forward at least a meter before landing face down. Pawblight's strike slashed through the area where the Skaven's head had been miliseconds earlier. The downed rat struggled to raise his head from the mud to breathe, but could not do so. Muffled gasps, then hacking coughs came from the rat. Then a deep laugh filled the air around the ragtag group, and the mud sucked the struggling Skaven down into the earth headfirst. Everyrat stared at the spot where he had disappeared. Then suddenly, Pawblight shouted a warning and ducked as the possessed vine slashed over the Slavelord's head. He turned and grabbed hold of a root, pulling himself out of the mud and getting onto the tree. To his horror, the root lifted out of the mud and tossed him into the branches of another tree, where they wrapped the leader of what remained of Clan Morkreek in a tight coccoon. No sound came from it. Ratikkaal the Explorator swore and tried to find an island of dry land, but he wasn't fast enough. A blade of marsh grass grew at an astonishing rate and twined itself around Ratikkaal's leg. It yanked on the leg, tripping the Explorator. The grass behing to suck itself into the ground... along with Ratikkaal, who vanished without a sound. Two more rats suddenly found themselves being absorbed by the earth, and their screams could be heard for several seconds after they vanished beneath the earth. Three more Skaven found themselves pulled into a hole in a tree by several thick roots. The hole closed with an audible crunch, and the screams were cut short. The remaining Skaven ran for it. Four found themselves tripping in the suddenly sticky mud, and dying much as the first rat had. Skrit-Quoll, the tiny Skaven (or overgrown rat) almost skipped across the mud, his lack of weight not allowing the mud to get a purchase on him. Five other Skaven, including Chittersnatch and Bellower, managed to run forward by leaping from root to root before it could throw them off. The evil laugh rang through the air again, and the earth shook. The vegetation stood still and the unearthly silence returned. The branches of a nearby tree, wrapped in the shape of a coccoon, began falling off as a bladed claw slashed through them and an armoured form fell out onto the ground, hacking and coughing. Pawblight stood shakily, and the surviving Skaven were pale and terrified. The Slavelord shook his head and barked out a command. "Follow me! Quick-quick!" Everyrat scrambled to follow Pawblight's flight. Lightning struck the ground four times only meters away. Pawblight and the following rats tumbled out of the forest into a clearing. In the center of the clearing was a massive metal machine, and standing next to the object, looking oddly at the Skaven who just dashed into the clearing, were Keevik and Kraskritch. Complete Works of Morkskittar |
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The Eldritch Wastes: A Post-Lovecraftian Online Serial Novel (Author Website) Pub Fight Deaths: 334. Pillz and Pyllz are © by Morkskittar. ![]() Complete Works of Morkskittar / You Have Just Lost the Game 'zodi | |
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