A Wild Ride Through The Night by Walter Moers

Author:Walter Moers
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448138197
Publisher: Vintage

‘This is a stone desert,’ the horse remarked. ‘You won’t find any cakes here.’

‘ To tell the truth,’ sighed Gustave, ‘I’d counted on spending the evening over a good dinner in the semi-civilised company of some lords and ladies. Roast goose and all the trimmings—something of that kind. Maybe a little background music for strings as well.’

‘I don’t go in for meat-eating, nor for decadent aristocrats, nor for the noises produced by horsehair scraping catgut,’ Pancho retorted. ‘Mind you, a nosebag of oats wouldn’t come amiss.’

They rode doggedly on, and Gustave noticed after they had gone a little way that the rocks were emitting a strange light. They glittered like certain crystals or metals, and the entire plain looked as if it had been dusted with silver. Before Gustave could broach the subject to Pancho, however, a rumbling sound filled the air. The huge boulders started to move and the hard ground trembled underfoot as it might have done in a moderate earthquake. Rolling around and piling up in defiance of every law of nature, the rocks formed themselves into sculptures resembling gigantic snowmen. Then they seemed to soften, liquefy like lava, and take on human form.

Faces appeared in the liquid rock; hands, legs and arms took shape; eyes protruded and teeth were bared; shaggy hair sprouted, thick and stiff as wire. Within moments, six huge figures were standing there. Uncouth, muscular giants, each of whom must have been three times the height of a man, they had wild, unkempt beards and were carrying axes and clubs in their mighty fists.

Gustave and Pancho froze. Of course! the barren plateau they were crossing could only be the Plain of the Terrible Titans!

‘I am Giant Emashtimact!’ boomed one of them, barring Pancho’s path.

‘I am Giant Ogliboy!’ called another.

‘I am Giant Hyposhilop!’

‘I am Giant Somytrona!’

‘I am Giant Scisyhp!’

‘And I am Giant Elyogog!’

The giants had surrounded Gustave and Pancho while introducing themselves.

It suddenly occurred to Gustave that he had to guess their names. ‘I’d completely forgotten,’ he thought. ‘Of course, it’s Task Number Three!’

The giants drew nearer, brandishing their weapons.

‘What do you want with us?’ Gustave asked, all innocent, while feverishly wondering how to get the better of these unmistakably stronger opponents.

‘You must guess our names!’ the giants called in unison.

‘That’s easy,’ Gustave replied. ‘Emashtimact, Ogliboy, Hyposhilop, Somytrona, Scisyhp, and Elyogog. You introduced yourselves just now.’

‘Damnation!’ swore Elyogog.

‘Hell!’ grumbled Emashtimact.

The six giants stood there for a moment, looking foolish and exchanging helpless glances. Then they put their heads together, muttering. At length they all shouted ‘Of course!’ and turned back to Gustave. Ogliboy elbowed his way to the fore.

‘Those, er, weren’t our real names,’ he announced. ‘They were, er, anagrams.’

‘Quite so, they were only anagrams,’ Emashtimact chimed in. ‘Not our real names.’

‘Our real names are quite different.’

All the giants nodded eagerly.

‘Anagrams?’ asked Gustave. He’d heard the word before, but he couldn’t immediately place it.

‘Anagrams are words in which the original letters have been rearranged,’ Pancho whispered. ‘These giants are intellectuals, I’m afraid.’

‘We certainly are,’ Ogliboy confirmed.

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