Only the deep rumble of something large and heavy, constantly on the move remained the same through the night, and had done so for a very long time.
The deep black of night gave way to greyness, and then as dawn broke, Moss gently woke Kel saying in a hushed voice,
‘I think there’s something out there, and it might be looking for the first meal of the day.’
They strapped on their carry belts, picked up the bladed staves and cautiously crept around the massive tree trunk to see what lay beyond.
The mists had thinned a little, but not enough to see very far into the greenery between them and the great stone cliff.
And then they saw it. A dirty grey coloured worm like creature of gargantuan proportions was slowly humping its way along a branch towards them, two pitch black slit eyes glaring out malevolently at them above a salivating wrinkled mouth which slowly opened and closed.
‘Quick, this way!’ yelled Moss, jumping across a small gap between two branches, ‘it can’t follow us along here.’
With Kel in hot pursuit, Moss raced along one of the thinner branches which they wouldn’t normally have used, to reach the rising trunk of the next nearest tree.
‘Now where?’ from a shaking Kel.
‘Just keep still and watch.’ replied Moss.
‘Where do we go from here?’ asked Kel, looking around anxiously for some means of escape.
‘We stay put, look at the branch just down there. It’s had a side shoot at some time which has died and rotted out, this should have weakened the main branch, and with a bit of luck, it won’t take the creature’s weight.’
The monstrosity in dirty grey gradually came closer, slowing down as it reached the thinner portion of the branch, having difficulty in keeping its balance.
Much to their dismay, most of it’s long body had passed the weakened section of the main branch when Moss yelled out, ‘Quick, grab that bough and hold onto my hand, whatever happens don’t let go.’ and with that he leaped forward and jumped up and down on the branch just in front of the approaching nightmare.
There was a loud crack, the branch behind the giant worm no longer able to sustain the weight of the huge creature plus the extra stress generated by Moss, finally gave way with a ripping sound, and began its journey downwards.
The creature was holding on with only two of its many gripping appendages and Moss jumped back, looking for his bladed stave.
With a couple of quick thrusts he severed one of the creature’s grippers, and it swung over to one side, emitting a terrible howling sound as it sensed it’s end was near.
One more thrust from his stave on the remaining gripper, and it was on its way down to the forest floor.
Bouncing off several branches below and complaining loudly as it did so, the creature hit the ground below with a dull slushy thump, and split open.
They both looked at each other, still shaking slightly after their narrow escape, and then sat down in silence for a few moments to regain their composure.
But Moss wasn’t idle for long.
‘Look at that, the floor of the forest isn’t so far down as we thought, we could easily get down there, and see what it’s like.’
‘What about all the terrible creatures that are supposed to be there?’ Kel wasn’t too sure he wanted to go down.
‘If we watch to see what happens to that creature which just landed, we should have a pretty good idea.’ replied Moss, an answer always handy.
They sat on the edge of the branch and waited to see what, if anything, would turn up for a feast on the remains of the worm creature, but nothing did.
‘I think it’s safe enough to go down there now, we have our staves and could soon get up here again if we have to.’ Moss was determined if nothing else.
‘All right, but let’s be very careful, there may be things under the leaf litter we don’t know about.’
Slowly they made their way down to ground level, the last part of the journey was made easy for them due to a series of gently sloping branches which took them to the forest floor.
‘I want to see what that creature’s like now that it’s safe.’ said Moss and set off in the direction he thought it should.
It didn’t take them long to find the monster, the smell gave it away.
‘I’ve never smelt anything like that before, and don’t want to again. was Kel’s comment as they approached the slowly disintegrating hulk.
‘It shouldn’t be decomposing already, so what’s going on?’ Moss wondered aloud.
There was no doubt about it, the creature was turning into a thick stinking liquid which was dribbling out of the split carcass and soaking away into the ground.
As they got closer they could see that the hulk was undulating in a most unnatural fashion, rippling movements under the skin giving it a semblance of life.
Moss picked up a stick and gave the open split a poke and immediately the end of the stick was covered in a countless myriad of tiny wriggling worms.
‘Where have they come from?’ exclaimed Kel, peering closer at the writhing mass clinging to the end of it.
‘Must be from the ground.’ they both looked at each other, turned as one and ran flat out for the branch they had come down on.
Having gained what they assumed was a safe height, the pair paused for a while to get their breath back and consider just what they had seen.
‘That was awful.’ exclaimed Kel, examining his feet.
‘I don’t think you have to worry about them, the worms must have sensed that the creature was dead, otherwise nothing else would be able to live on the forest floor.’
‘Well, we haven’t seen anything else so far,’ Kel replied, ‘so maybe that’s why.’
‘I don’t think I want to go down there again,
