Goblins on the Prowl by Bruce Coville

Author:Bruce Coville
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

Entering the earth is both fascinating and frightening. I like being in a place that so few people have seen. I like the coolness. I like the moist-rock scent of the air. I like the way the walls of the tunnels are sometimes smooth, sometimes rough and jagged, sometimes slick with dripping water.

What I don’t like is coming to places where a tunnel opens to become a cavern so enormous that the light of a torch can’t reach the far side, or even the roof above you. Those spots are even worse when you reach a split in the cavern floor and have to cross it on a narrow stone bridge. Usually you can’t see how deep the gap is, or how sturdy the bridge might be. The only good thing about the big caverns was that the smoke from our torches could float away. In the low, narrow tunnels it was trapped and made us cough.

I don’t know how long we had been traveling when Bwoonhiwda’s torch sputtered and went out.

Igor handed me a fresh torch. I lit it from mine and passed it to Bwoonhiwda.

We walked on.

About five minutes later my own torch went out.

I lit a new one from Bwoonhiwda’s.

Occasionally I would check my watch, which I had decided was more useful than I had first expected.

Each torch was lasting about half an hour. When we were down to our last four, Bwoonhiwda said, “Wet’s onwy use one now.”

“But you said we’d be in trouble if it goes out,” I objected.

“Twue. But even biggeh twubble if we use them up befoah we weach the gwowing fungus!”

That was true enough.

“All right,” I agreed. “One torch.”

Now that Bwoonhiwda had put the worry in my mind, I began to fret that the last torch would go to ash too soon and leave us in the dark.

On the surface world I don’t mind darkness that much. Up there you know that sooner or later the sun will rise. Underground, darkness is forever. And being caught in that total darkness was starting to seem more likely—and more terrifying.

I glanced at the others. Igor and Bwoonhiwda looked as grim as I felt. The only one who didn’t seem concerned was Herky, who kept bounding ahead, then scampering back. The fourth or fifth time he did this, he scurried to me and clambered into my arms. “Herky scared!” he whispered.

“Because of the dark?” I asked.

He shook his head, causing his ears to flap against my face. “Not the dark. The noises!”

“What kind of noises?”

“All ssssss, ssssss, ssssss!”

I didn’t like the sound of that.

“Is there any other way to Nilbog from here?” I asked.

He shook his head again and pressed his face to my neck.

Tightening her grip on her spear, Bwoonhiwda whispered, “Move quietwy and be weady for anything!”

I knew that whatever was ahead, Bwoonhiwda would be the first to face it. I knew Igor would fight like a madman to protect us. However, I also knew that we were deep underground, in a narrow tunnel, with only a single torch for light.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.