Had he been in a newmanbody he would probably have been incredibly sick at that moment,but as a Logicon the smell was not so much nauseating as even alittle appetising, suggesting that Logicons not only liked horriblesmelly excreta but may have also eaten partially decomposed bodiesin their past. He continued the ghastly labour almost as if he wereconducting music. The shovel rhythmically flew through the air,scooped up a body, flew back and dumped it onto the heap.
Sometimes they slid offthe shovelhead in a fluid motion making almost no sound, and atother times they thumped and splashed slimy black ichor all overthe nearby ground. The process continued for more than an hour,when suddenly he lost shape, reforming as a Logicon and flowingdown the side of the box he was standing on forming a pool at itsbase. The chaos matter shovel fell to the ground with a loudmetallic crunch and lost its shape, reforming as a ball ofclay-like dirt on the ground near one of the bodies.
‘Damn! My source hasalmost run out,’ he said to himself.
Miranda noticed that hehad lost shape and said through the mind link:
‘Have youfinished?’
‘No. My source isalmost depleted I just have enough to keep the mindlink open.That’s about all. I’ve got most of the bodies moved. There areperhaps a dozen left. I’ll move back into my body shell and dragthe rest onto the pile, then you can do your bit. Miranda, there isa newman body in here as well, and it’s wearing druid styleclothing. I’ve left it separate.’
‘Damn. Not a druid aswell. Wait until the Council hears about this - they’ll be bayinglike hounds for blood, and I don’t blame them.’
Aquitain slithered outof the shrine holding Alpha up in the air like a periscope, andheaded for his body shell parked in the centre of the grassyclearing. Alpha noticed a movement on the edge of the clearing nearthe track and alerted Aquitain. It was a cat crouching and slowlycreeping towards them. He quickly alerted Miranda. When she lookedin its direction that cat with another leapt up and sped straightat her.
Miranda moved fasterthan anyone he had ever seen. She instantly sprinted into the caveand around behind the huge pile of corpses. The two cats reachedthe edge of the cave and stopped. He lowered Alpha down slowly andblended into the ground. He felt through the ground the vibrationsof more feline footsteps approaching.
‘I’m in the cave andsafe since the cats wouldn’t come in, but I’ll have to come out.The air’s terrible in here. I don’t know how you could work inhere. I’m sorry you had to do it,’ she said.
‘You’d better fly out,but be careful - I think another cat or two might have joined thefirst two,’ said Aquitain. ‘I’m a little reluctant to move - Idon’t want to attract their attention.’ But he did think ofsomething he could do. He mentally searched around amongst thepowerstones that he had swallowed and found the one he was after.It allowed him to use a power that would harden his skin so that itwas as tough as chain mail armour. At least if the cats found himhe would have some resistance.
Miranda also toughenedher skin using a druid prayer that gave her a hide like bark; shethen shape changed to her eagle form and took off, circling oncearound the inside of the shrine before shooting out of the cavelike an arrow. One of the cats reflexively leapt at her, butfortunately missed. She sped across and parallel to the groundabout six paces high until she reached Aquitain’s body shell, thenflapping wildly, and greedily gulping in fresh air climbed up intothe sky and circled around for a view below.
There were six blackjungle cats in all, five of them were near the cave entrance, butone had discovered something on the ground midway between the caveand the body shell. She couldn’t see what it was because it wascamouflaged to fit into the ground colours, but she knew that ithad to be Aquitain.
‘A cat’s found meMiranda. I’ve got some protection on, but it will wear off if theyall have a go at me,’ Aquitain said urgently.
‘I know, I know,’ shesaid and urgently tried to think of a way to help him. Shecertainly couldn’t land and take them all on. That would mean deathfor them both. She soared around the open area again and landed ona protruding rock several paces above the cave entrance, andreturned to her newman form. By this time the other cats had goneover to see what the lone cat had found. They weren’t quite surewhat it was, or whether it was dangerous or not. So they circledaround it, darting in and poking at it tentatively with theirclaws.
Miranda had acommanding view of the whole area and was safe from attack herself- perfect for using a little druid magic. She stood upright, raisedher arms and chanted a prayer, then at the last moment pointed towhere the centre of its effect was to be. In half a second magicalvines had shot out of the ground over the entire area for twentypaces around Aquitain and started whipping around looking forsomething to grip onto. All six cats were entangled in no time.They hissed and howled, rolled and struggled to get out of thevines, but to no avail - the vines held tight.
‘If you’re slipperyenough you should be able to slide out of the area of entanglingvines, wizard. Head for the cave. You should be safe there.’
Aquitain secreted moreslime onto his skin and slithered off towards the cave. The catscould see what was happening and hissed their anger, but theycouldn’t move to stop him; they were too tightly bound. He wasslick and slippery and although the vines thrashed against him theycouldn’t get a hold, so he was able to slither to safety, reachingthe cave
