Bad Loon Rising by Andy Clark

Author:Andy Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Dark fantasy.
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2023-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Gobfang Gorge

Closer now they sink their talons into the yielding flesh of the overripe world and feel its tainted juices spurt across their neverthere bodies as they drag themselves hungry eager wanting hating tasting between and through and around the shadows of the trees that wither at their touch and rot and fall to ruin in their wake and they are growing closer…

‘I seez a dust cloud,’ said Nuffgunk, squinting north over the plains. The daylight was a piebald fluttering of light and shade thrown by the ever-changing clouds, but it was glaring by Moonclan standards. Zograt and his enlarged war council had hidden themselves amidst the shadows of a rocky outcropping atop the slopes of Gobfang Gorge. From here they had a good view of proceedings but were partially sheltered from the terrors of the open sky. Zograt’s horde skulked in hiding places amid the jagged rocks and cracks lining the deep valley.

‘Ploddit’s lot are coming,’ said Zograt. He pulled his hood further down over his face and squirmed back into the shadows. ‘’Bout zoggin’ time.’

‘Everyfing’s ready, her majesty done her bit,’ said Wabber proudly. Bigg Leggzgit rattled the bones and feathers in his cape and ground his mandibles together. This, Zograt had learned, was a sign of the shaman’s annoyance. Leggzgit was a disturbing sight, boasting extra arachnid eyes, vestigial spider limbs, and a malformed mess of mand­ibles growing inside his mouth. These rendered his speech into a mess of wet clicks with words mangled between them.

‘Sh’kk’ee izz kk’not maaji’kk’sty, izz kk’Arghabigskuttla!’

‘She’s a zoggin’ big spider, and she makes zoggin’ big webz,’ Zograt interjected before Leggzgit and Wabber could get into another row. ‘Dat’s wot I care about right now. Gunna ’elp us clobber Ploddit’s lot.’

‘I sed we should clobber Ploddit’s lot,’ muttered Driggz, who had slunk in Zograt’s wake in the days since Funnelsnare Pit. Zograt supposed this was because Driggz no longer had any ladz to be the boss of, but he didn’t have time to worry about it. If the spiders had spun their webs thick enough and his plan worked out, his horde was about to grow again. Zograt couldn’t afford distractions.

‘Right, Driggzy, an’ now we’z gunna,’ he said distractedly.

‘Yoo sed I was stoopid,’ said Driggz. Zograt shot him a glare.

‘Yeah well, yoo is stoopid, but dat woz Naffs sed dat, not me.’ Zograt was surprised at the glimmer of rebellion from his scrawny lieutenant. Driggz was growing a spine at last, he thought.

‘I can see Big Limpy,’ called Nuffgunk. ‘Boss, he’s zoggin’ hooge. Makes Skrog look like a runt!’

Skrog had squatted down in the lee of the largest rocks and was shielding his collection of bugs from the daylight. He gave a growl that sounded like two slime-coated boulders grating together.

‘Sorry, big lad, no offence,’ said Nuffgunk.

‘I see ’im too, ’e really is a biggun,’ said Stragwit. The Brewgit distractedly fumbled at a spigot on his still, holding up a battered tin beaker to the resultant dribble then swigging while never taking his eyes from the approaching colossus.

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