SNAP, SNAP,SNAP, SNAP!
The cut linesrecoiled into drifting, tangled bunches. Then, like a corpse from the grave,the vessel began to rise.
Rorroh wondered where first to begin her hunt for the alveling.The hune, she decided. That was their most logicaldestination. But even she, the Sea Zombie, had lost track of the giant turtle. Bothmy froskman have become traitors, she thought, bothI made too powerful for their own good.
She wonderedwhere Moro had taken the hune, and what the traitorplanned to do with it. It did not matter. Once again, she would find therenegade and make her pay. Then she would find Fibian,the blodbad, and the alveling,and exact her revenge. All who had crossed the mighty Vann Witch would sufferfor their insolence!
The sea grewbrighter. Rorroh was nearing the surface. She reachedinto her robes and withdrew her glowing green orb. Right on time, shethought, as she peered into the stone’s womb. She moved to the ship’s tiller.Above, she could see the gray of the sky. Many large forms blocked her view.The Angel Queen broke the chopping waves. The surrounding waters became a torrent.The boat twisted and moaned as the escaping sea attempted to drag Rorroh overboard. She held to the tiller with all hermight, using her newly attached left hand. The leeches bolstering the arm’s mendingsensed the strain. They twisted their barbed tendrils deeper into her flesh andbones, securing the limb.
The waterrushed over Rorroh, frothing and bubbling as itclawed at her rotting body and robes. The river became a stream. The Sea Zombieregained her footing.
The sound ofsquawking and shrieking came from above. Rorroh peeredup into the sky. The light hurt her eyes. She shaded them with her hand. It wasmid-day, but there was no sun. Even so, she had been in the dark for far toolong. Her ancient eyes needed time to adjust. Squinting, she could see hundredsof dark birds circling her ship. Further above them, the long, menacing form ofa single-headed dragon glided across the sky, guarding the heavens.
She made herway to the ship’s port side railing. She inspected the breach in the hull.Seawater rushed from the ship’s innards, spilling green toxins into the sea.
“My Queen,what are your orders?” a dry whisper of a voice asked.
A large, twin-mastship, slightly larger than Rorroh’s, entered the bayfrom the east. Ten oars on each side extended out of the hull, powering thevessel.
“Who goesthere?” Rorroh wheezed.
“Captain Greves, my lord,” the voice said.
Rorroh’s eyes began to adjust. At the bow of the longshipstood a tall creature, his long snout hidden behind a black, polished mask.
“How manyships have you brought me?”
“Eleven, myLord.”
Captain Greves’ mask was painted to look like a sneering beast, butwhat lurked beneath, Rorroh knew, was far morerepulsive. His black, rodent-like eyes stared at her unwavering. Rorroh could sense his loathing beneath the mask.
She peeredaround at the surrounding vessels. Like hers, the boats had dual masts, butonly two sails. At their bows, the keels extended out into a barbed point,perfect for piercing the hulls of enemy craft.
Rorroh looked beyond the bay, to the horizon. The sea was calm, but she couldsmell a storm on the rise.
“My ship needsrepairs,” she said.
“I will gathera work detail immediately,” Greves replied.
He tapped along-bladed staff on the deck. The ship’s oars retracted into the hull. Thenthe beat of marching footsteps came from within the ship. A shabby black hawklanded on Captain Greves’ leather-wrapped forearm.
“My Lord,” hesaid, “A fleet of ships advances from the south.”
“Land klops,” Rorroh said.
She grinnedbroadly, accentuating her torn cheek.
Greves’ cabin door crashed open. Twenty tall nagenemerged from the deck below. All were dressed in loose-fitting steel and silkwoven armor.
Rorroh nodded towards the black hawk.
“I want themsearching the sea for a giant shelled creature. The huneis the size of a small island and grows trees on its back. Tell them the onewho finds it will be dearly rewarded, all others punished. There is no time todelay.”
She lookeddown at her handless right arm.
“As long asthe alveling lives, none of us are safe.”
*
Greetings, adventure seeker, from thetreacherous, frozen north.
It’s your independent, underdog authorhere, Jeremy Mathiesen, hoping that you’ve enjoyed Cyrus LongBones and the YetiKingdom.
Reviews are how I get the word outand keep this old, dusty typewriter tapping. If you could click here and leave just a couple of words,I would be mightily grateful.
Cyrus LongBones and the Battle Hune
ByJeremy Mathiesen
Text copyright © 2019 Jeremy Mathiesen All Rights Reserved
Reproduction in whole or part of this publication withoutexpress written consent is strictly prohibited.
To Gi Giand Co Co
You monkeys make me a better person
Chapter 1
A PORT IN A STORM
IT WAS MIDDAY. The sky wasthick with dark, heavy clouds. On a thin,rocky peninsula, flanked by a jade sea,lay a meek, broken-down village of thatch roofedhuts. Snow layered the frozen earth. Driedcod hung from birch racks in many of the frigid hovels. White-furredape-people tended icy pens of fat, wooly boars. Alarge batalha-class klopswith a distended belly and wide, cannonballshoulders lumbered past a roaring bonfire.
“Move those beasts,” the bruteordered, scratching at the scar of hismissing left ear, “We need the northern wall sealedby nightfall.”
Several small ape-men guided four massive mammothsalong a snowy shore. A patrol of common-class klopstrailed the pack animals. The long-trunked hulks reeked of must and manure. The crooked klops stank far worse.
“Move, skog,” the one-eared batalha barked.
One of the kinder skog’s mammoths carried a large plate of armorin its powerful tusks. The batalha shoved hard on thebeast’s hind quarter.
“Don’t make me break out the whip,” he said, drinking deeply from awineskin.
The slave skog pulled hard on the animal’s harness. The creature’s course changedlittle. The large klops wiped infants’ blood from his blistered lips, thenpeered out over the snaking inlet.
A thrust ofmountain pressed out of the sea, defending the eastern portion of the bay.Across the water, to the south, stood another wall of mountainous white. To thewest, the fjord wound around dizzying cliffs of snow and ice, then ventured outto the ocean beyond.
Several of thebrown- and grey-furred mammoths stood on a stone jetty, loading dual-mast shipswith iron and steel. Past
