Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers

Author:Jonathan Rogers
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult, Childrens, Adventure
ISBN: 9780805431315
Publisher: B&H Fiction
Published: 2004-09-01T10:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Another Feast

The feasters marveled at Aidan’s catfish, and they all congratulated him for his skill and bravery. The cooks, who were beginning to doubt they would have enough fish for a proper feast, were especially grateful to have such a large quantity added to their store.

Unlike the treaty feast at Tambluff Castle, there was very little pomp and ceremony at the feechie feast. The feechies wore the same clothes they had worn earlier in the day. They sat where they pleased, or stood, if that’s what pleased them, for there were no tables anyway. There was no trumpeting or standing up or sitting down when Chief Gergo showed up. And whereas only the great nobles of Corenwald had been invited to Darrow’s treaty feast, the feechie feast was for the whole band, right down to the littlest wee-feechies.

There were no entertainers at the banquet. The feechies entertained themselves with games and frolics of various sorts—tree-climbing contests, fire-jumping contests, a spitting contest (which Mrs. Turtlebane won), vine-swinging exhibitions, and the most ferocious wrestling matches Aidan had ever seen. Also, a few good-natured fistfights broke out, which was the custom at all feechie celebrations.

Just as the games and contests seemed to be winding down, Aidan heard whooping and yodeling out in the swamp. Then the feechie feasters began a rhythmic chant:

Alligator, grabble-gator

Welcome to the feast.

Catch a gator, snatch a gator,

Scaly, scary beast.

Rassle gator, hassle gator

Boss of all the swamp.

Tug a gator, hug a gator,

Stomp and romp and chomp.

Tussle gator, russle gator,

Welcome to the feast.

Grip a gator, flip a gator,

Scaly, scary beast.

The feechies had whipped themselves into a frenzy with their chanting when an eleven-foot alligator charged into the crowd, pursued by five or six feechie boys waving pine-knot torches. The alligator feared nothing besides fire, and now that he had the campfire in front of him and the torch fires behind him, he had nowhere left to run. He hissed and growled, lunged and snapped at the feechies who encircled him.

The “gator grabble” was the highlight of the evening’s entertainment. It was a simple enough game. Odo Watersnake had made a “grabbling vine”—a loop woven from forest vines. Using a branch that was long enough to keep him out of the alligator’s reach, Odo looped the grabbling vine over the alligator’s head so that he wore it like a necklace. The object of the game was simply to remove the grabbling vine from the alligator’s head, using one’s bare hands.

Everyone seemed to have his or her own technique for getting at the grabbling vine. Most involved sneaking up behind the alligator. But an alligator’s bulging eyes see behind as well as they see in front, and every time someone came at him from behind, the alligator whipped around and sent the contestant scrambling long before he got close enough to snatch the vine. Some contestants worked in pairs, one distracting the alligator, the other reaching in for the grabbling vine. But even in that case, the alligator had little trouble putting both feechies to flight.

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