Outcast: Book 1 by Coldhollow aka Wayne Thomas Batson

Author:Coldhollow aka Wayne Thomas Batson [Batson, Coldhollow aka Wayne Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unexpected Publishing LLC
Published: 2024-10-23T00:00:00+00:00

Nightmares

“Do you smell that?” I asked, audibly sniffing the air. We’d been riding tandem on Gam-Gam with Gail behind me due to her wings.

“Not falling for that one,” Gail muttered. “You probably let fly a staggeringly pungent fart. ‘Do you smell that?’ you ask innocently. Then I take a deep breath and, stunned by the odor, I fall off the turtle.”

“No, no,” I assured. “I mean, that’s a clever technique that I’ll need to remember, but no, I’m not kidding. There’s an odd scent here.”

We’d traversed some heavily forested, wildly uneven terrain for several hours. Just recently, we entered a vast shadowy glade, carpeted with moss and interspersed by a combination of bone-white sycamore, blackened oaks, and . . . a peculiar smell.

Beneath us, Gam-Gam rumbled a Burrooorek?

“Smells a little like vinegar,” I said.

“Vinegar?” Gail echoed. I felt her body stiffen behind me, and her crossbow instantly appeared in my periphery.

“What’s wrong?”

“I smell it too,” she said. “Sour vinegar, and that could mean trouble.”

“What kind—OOF!” One of the narrow black trunks lifted out of the moss and struck me in the chest like a battering ram. Seeing stars and watching my interface blink red, I careened off of Gam-Gam and fell.

I must have lost consciousness for a second when I hit the ground, because my vision blurred out and my ears rang. Awareness came back in a rush. I used my arms to prop myself up out of the ankle-deep moss and came face-to-face with the thing of nightmares.

Not a thing of nightmares. THE thing of nightmares.

A spider-like mouth full of bristling fangs and finger-sized probing appendages gnashed just inches from my face.

Such a ghastly, shocking sight is the kind of thing that could cause involuntary bodily functions, just saying.

The monstrosity was most like a house spider, and by house spider, I mean a wicked, creepy spindle-legged creature the size of a house.

I gaped to scream, but a blast of stinging liquid spattered my face, forcing me to clamp shut my mouth. It reeked of vinegar but burned like acid, especially in my eyes.

Spitting and spluttering, I slammed a healing pot, and that kept me from being blinded. Not that I wanted to see what was about to happen.

As I tried to backward-elbow-crawl away from the nasty maw, the beastie unhinged a pair of massive lobster-mantid forelimbs, clutched my shoulders, and began to pull me toward those horrid oscillating mandibles.

Searing pain lanced down my arms, and stark red blood spurted from the wounds where the monster gripped my shoulders. But that was nothing compared to the first fang piercing my booted foot.

The Star-Spangled-Banner of pain erupted up my leg, and I yelp-screamed some kind of agony-laden unmanly howl.

I managed to hand-cast Thrombosilade, but it was weakened without the scepter I hadn’t had the fortitude to summon first. The force vapor blasted the beastie in the face with enough strength to cause it to withdraw the fang from my foot and recoil.

With that awful spider movement, it sprang forward and, taking

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.