Tailchaser’s Song

As Scratchnail's procession reached the far side of the great cavern and was approaching the gaping maw of another tu

"What do you want of me?" Scratchnail snapped angrily. His voice held an odd intonation.

"Hissblood wants to sssee you, Sscratchnail," the thin voice said, sibilant and mocking. As the shape in the grotto spoke, Fritti could see the gleam of its teeth, but no reflected shine of its eyes.

"That's a laugh!" the chief snarled. "Why should I care anyway?"

In the dark grotto the teeth were bared again. "Hissblood wantss to know who your prissonerss are. There wasss to be no more taking of captivesss. That was the understanding, no?"

"My business is between the Fat One and myself, and there's no room for you crawlers to go sticking your hairless snouts into it. If Hissblood wants to have any dealings with me I'll be in the lower Catacombs later on." Scratchnail pivoted and walked away.

"He will meet you there," said the thin voice, and the sound of deathly merriment came from the shadowed cave.

Entering the huge tu

The chief turned on him with a growl. "You keep your muzzle shut!"

Longtooth asked no more questions, and they went some distance down the tu

"You and this dribbling me'mre," he barked, indicating Longtooth, "take these two down to the Middle Catacombs. They're not to go anywhere else until I say so. Me, no one else!" Bitefast nodded. "Good. I'm going to take the clever one here for a special audience. I think you-know-who will be interested in him. Now move!" With this he propelled Tailchaser up the tu

Tailchaser turned as he was pushed forward and called back over his shoulder: "I'll be back for you, Pounce, don't worry! Take care of him, Eatbugs!"

Scratchnail dealt him a stinging paw-blow to the side of the head that brought moisture to his eyes.

"Fool!" rasped the beast.

The winding way led farther down into the earth. The tu

Now the shaft pitched down steeply. The faint glow of the walls was interrupted by splashes of blue-and-purple light that seemed to be reflected from farther down the tu

The cavern was high-domed, the ceiling dark and distant. Around a central pit fissures in the ground spewed forth indigo light, stark beams glaring up through the mist of the cavern floor. The walls above were honeycombed with grottoes and tu

Fritti could see the plume of his breath in the icy air. Cold like this so far underground was terribly wrong-but what was not in this nightmare place?

Moving forward at Scratchnail's harsh insistence, he looked now to the pit, and the massive shape that rose from it, dominating the subterranean chamber. As he neared, wonder turned to horror.

Up from the dark mist-shrouded center of the pit rose a squirming mass, a heaving pile of small bodies that protruded above the edge of the huge hole in the cavern floor like a volcano rising in a deep canyon. The squirming mountain was a mass of animals- tortured, dying, many already dead. Cats and fla-fa'az, Squeakers, Praere, Growlers and Rikchikchik, the heap of writhing beasts gave forth a million ghost-faint sounds. Many of the creatures were maimed or dismembered; closer to the bottom, most were not even moving. The stench penetrated Tailchaser's nose, and he gagged. He slumped to the cold ground, the mist billowing up around him, hiding for a moment the terrible sight. Scratchnail leaned down and butted him with his wide, flat head.

"Step up, now, you simpering beetle. You're about to meet His Lordship."

Weak in the knees and stomach, Fritti was prodded and dragged forward to the edge of the pit. He wanted to close his eyes. Instead, repulsed yet fascinated, he stared out at the squirming mountain, at the thousands of blank eyes and mindlessly sagging mouths puffing little jets of vapor.

The Clawguard stepped up beside him. "Your Mightiness! Your humble servant has brought you something!" Scratchnail's voice grated and echoed from the towering walls.

"Oh. You have, have you…?" bubbled a grotesque, suety voice. "Throw it in with the rest… I'll eat it later." A gigantic, dark shape-heretofore invisible at the top of the pile of bodies-turned its head and opened vast, eggshell-white eyes. Blind eyes.

Tailchaser gave a bleat of fright and leaped backward against the stone-hard body of Scratchnail. Cowering between the Clawguard's legs, Fritti forgot for a moment even his fear and hatred of the chieftain-the thing atop the pit blew all else from his mind like a screeching wind.

It Has a cat. Twenty, fifty, a hundred times bigger than himsell. Tailchaser could not tell; its swollen body was so massive that its tiny legs could not reach past to lift it. It lay, bloated and supremely powerful, on the peak of the wriggling flesh-mound.

"No, Great One, it is not to eat… yet." Fritti heard Scratchnail's voice, distant, unimportant. "This is one of the ones you sensed, Great One. Do you remember?"

The hideous creature pivoted its neckless head until the blank, dead eyes were facing the shivering Tailchaser. The nostrils flared.

"Oh, yes…" said the voice slowly, a sound like mud splattering on stone. "We remember now. Did it have companions? Where are they?" The voice took a sharper tone.

"He had two, O Lord." Scratchnail sounded nervous. "A kitten, Lord, a little mewling kitten, and a crazed old torn, filthy as sun and flowers. But this one, this is the one you want. There's something to this one. I'm… I'm sure of it."

"Ahhh," burbled the giant, and rolled back slightly onto its side, as if to think. It poked its round head down toward the pile on which it lay, but could not overcome its own bulk. A look of a

As Tailchaser looked on helplessly, the beast swallowed, then turned its attention back toward him once more.

"Now," it dripped, "let us see what kind of Folk threaten our designs." There was a shocking jolt. Tailchaser felt for a moment as if a huge mouth had picked him up and shaken him. Then came a fiery pain, and something bored into his mind. Digging, burrowing, it tore through his thoughts, knocking them asunder-it waded through hopes and dreams and ideas; it carelessly crushed notions as it passed. An invisible force held Tailchaser to the spot. He contorted and howled as the mind of the beast invaded him.