Heads or Snails

Glad you could join us for the next healing episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

The Knights of Service worked together in silence tending to the injured, removing the fallen, gathering the weapons left behind. Someone had taken the initiative to mount the heads of the vanquished Marauders on pikes and stab them into the ground as a crude fence of morbid monuments facing outward along the border.

Let them feel their triumph with their grief, King Arnie thought. Soon the day will come when we feel sufficiently secure and ashamed enough to take it down. Today was not that day.

Turning from the heartbreaking pantomime of the battle’s aftermath, King Arnie bent to retrieve the pieces of a shattered spear. He handed them to his lieutenant. Today was the day to show strength. Today was the day to squelch threats.

“Find Duggla the Crone and bring her to me.”

~~~

“I swear,” Connie fretted as she zipped over the tangled throng of Marauders slinking their way into the Kingdom of Bog, “if I don’t get home before they find my babies, I will set the place on fire myself!”

Crossing the river, she turned west, watching the ground for Barry’s friends. Aside from a few foraging field mice who must have escaped the enemies’ attention, the land was curiously empty. The only snails she saw were headed east.

She flew on until her fear of losing her children grew greater than her loyalty to the King. Circling back, as she overtook the snails, her conscience compelled her to make the effort to pass Barry’s message on to anyone who might carry it to the Queen of Fen.

Alighting on a slender mushroom, she called out, “Excuse me! Could I ask something of you?”

To be continued…

Previously, on Elliot’s Adventures ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Next time . . .

Author: Sue Ranscht

Having survived valve repair surgery and an experimental cardiac bypass at age 5, three years before it was an accepted medical procedure, Susan grew into the size of her overworked and enlarged heart. Maybe she thought she had enough to give it away -- twice. Both times, she had to retrieve the shattered pieces and puzzle them back together. She thanks her Dad for the only advice of his she ever followed to the letter: "Never get married. Learn to take care of yourself." So of course she is a writer. Susan has co-written a YA SciFi novel, and has three more novels in various stages of evolution. She's had several short stories published in other people's anthologies, some of which were contest-related. Let her tell you a story... View all posts by Sue Ranscht