Part 9 is here.
It was much darker behind that door. Goldberg was glad he had brought the torch, or they probably wouldn't have seen the horrible slobbering monster right in front of them.
He was huge.
He was toothy.
He was, fortunately, chained to the wall.
But he still scared the bejesus out of everyone present. Cliffey was amazed at how accurate Goldberg's description had been: teeth like carving knives, eyes like cannonballs...
Ugh. Breath like the month-old eggs of the dead.
And he looked hungry. His angry, black stare was flitting ravenously between each of three goats, and Cliffey suddenly felt uncomfortably delicious.
Goldberg stepped forward. "Are you the one who turned Joel Fields into the nightmarish postcard from Hell it is today?"
The monster made no sound. He ignored Goldberg completely, and went right on eyeballing the goats. Sarah was concerned that he seemed a little more interested in her than in the other two. She hoped that, if he did eat her, he would swallow her whole. That way she wouldn't have to deal with those gargantuan teeth.
"I asked you a question," said Golberg firmly, pointing his flashlight directly into the monster's eyes. "Was it you? Did you eat all those innocent goats?"
The monster squealed and turned its head away so as to avoid the light.
Pete, who wasn't as scared as his friends but considering he'd already seen the monster was still pretty scared, wondered why the monster didn't say anything. He wondered how the monster was going to eat Sarah and Cliffey, what with being chained to the wall and everything.
And he wondered where the Human-ator was. This cave did look a little different to the one in his dream, and he was sure it was around here somewhere, but it didn't look like there were many places to hide something like that.
He was about to ask the monster where he kept it before he remembered that the others didn't know anything about their little agreement and, well, it was probably best to keep it that way.
"You are the worst thing in the world." Goldberg was addressing the monster again, still aiming the torch at him with one hand, pointing an accusing finger at him with the other. He spoke in a whisper, but it had all the fury of a scream. "I don't know how you got here, but I'm glad that whoever's responsible chained you up in a cave instead of killing you there and then. This way you suffer more."
The goats had never seen Goldberg this angry, and they might have been scared of him were it not for the gigantic goat-eating horror using up most of their fear at that point.
"I suppose you're hungry?" Goldberg continued, and on the word hungry he thrust the torch at the monster as if it were a sword. More agonised squealing. "I suppose you'd like to eat one of them?" He motioned towards the two goats with his pointing hand. "As if you haven't eaten enough goats already. Well these are my goats, and if you want them then you'll have to answer to me! Is that clear? You won't-"
Wait a minute.
Two goats?
Goldberg checked again.
Goldberg took a deep breath.
"Okay," said Goldberg. "Where's he gone now?"
* * *
"Right then. I call this two-thousand, nine-hundred and sixty-fourth monthly meeting of the Troll's League to order. Peikko will now take attendance, please answer your names."
"Thank you, Jo-Tunn. I shan't read your name out, we can all see that you're here."
"Thank you Peikko. Proceed."
"Righto. T'pon?"
"Present, Peikko."
"Thank you, T'pon. I'll just mark you down. Okay. There we are. Now, who's next? Umm...Lesni? Lesni, are you here?"
"Present, Peikko."
"Thank you, Lesni. Let me just put you down. Theeeere we go. Right. Peikko? Oh, silly me. Of course I'm here. Haha!"
The giant crow stood in the corner of the room watched this scene with disbelief.
"I'm sorry, perhaps I didn't make myself clear. One of your number has gone insane. He's a clear and present threat to himself and others. Mostly others. We need to get out and find him!"
"Well quite!" exclaimed Peikko enthusiastically. "Let me just finish the register, and then we'll get right down to business. Now, where were we? Ahm. Lesni?"
"You've already done me, Peikko."
"Oh. Oh! Have I? Well, what a scatterbrain I am. Um...Peikko?"
"Oh, for goodness' sake. Don't you care that one of your men is out there, ruining the good name the Troll's League has made for itself?"
"Indubitably," murmured Jo-Tunn. "But the Troll's League has taken record of attendance at every one of its monthly meetings since we were founded two hundred and forty-seven years ago. Besides, my dear fellow...how are we to know which of our number is missing if we don't take the register?"
"Just look! There's only one empty chair - who usually sits there?"
All the trolls turned to look at the sole unoccupied leather seat. There was a moment of silence before an excited chatter arose from those assembled. The crow couldn't quite hear what any one of them was saying, but he though he heard the name 'Karl' one more than one pair of lips.
Then, suddenly, there was silence again, and the trolls stood up from their chairs.
"Right then. It has been decided that immediate action must be taken. Peikko?"
"Yes, Jo-Tunn?"
"...Bring the register with you. We'll finish it on the way."
* * *
Cliffey and Sarah wandered back out into the passage to look for Pete while Goldberg told the monster off some more. They agreed that they had each done far more looking for Pete today than they had intended to do in their lives, and decided that next time, it was Pete's turn to look for Pete.
It didn't take long to find him - there weren't many hiding places down here, and Pete would have had trouble climbing back to the surface on his own.
But neither of them were sure why, now of all moments, he had decided to take a nap.
TO BE CONTINUED
No comments:
Post a Comment