Rat Poison Or The Scent of a Skaven (Al Pacino would make a great troglodon!) He was spawned near the tainted pools. His entire purpose in life was to exterminate the vermin. His spawning were seemingly immune to the wretched diseases and plagues that these rats brought. Others would vomit, wither and die, but his spawning never contracted these plagues. He was shorter than any other saurus he had met, but he was faster and brutally strong. He had survived many battles. He had led many hosts and patrols into battle. Most of them against the vile rat things. His scales had grown lighter and harder with each battle. His light scales were marred by a dark patch caused by one of the rat beasts green lightning bolts, and three claw marks down the front of his torso and a matching three on his back. Today more rat blood would flow. This mission was of the utmost importance. He was built for this. The temple was in sight now. The rain was heavy, beating down on the treetops. As always, he wore his belt adorned with grey seer horns. Of all the smells the foul ratmen produced, fear was the only tolerable one. They feared their horned ones, and when they saw how many of their horns the Saurus had slain, the stench of their fear intensified. The rat creatures each had their own unique stench, and he knew what type of monstrosity or weapon he would be facing by the stink. The ones that reek of sick (pestilenz), the ones that stink of machines (skryre), the rats that oozed out an odor of open wounds (moulder), the near odorless ones (eschin), which were the hardest to track, and the bastards with that nose burning stench of green stone (Grey Seers). They all stunk of green stone (warpstone), but the horned ones absolutely reeked of it, mixed with something else. That smell drove him into a frenzy. He couldn't have stopped himself if he had wanted to. He had to kill it. That stink was in the air. He couldn't pinpoint it though. He started barking orders, units broke off to secure the perimeter while others marched along behind him. They marched until they reached the temple. Though they reached the temple before the rats, the smell was present nevertheless. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell where they were coming from. It didn't matter. They were at the temple. They were charged with waking and retrieving a Slann. His own Slann awoke suddenly and gave the order to march. He had dreamed something, Why this Slann didn't see the same thing couldn't be known. Anticipation for the upcoming battle hung heavy in the air. The temple guard marched up the stairs to the door waiting dutifully for their charge. The skink oracle dismounted his troglodon, followed by several priests, chiefs, and chameleons. The troglodon didn't move. It always amazed him how much control they had over these beasts. He had ridden a Carnosaur on several occasions, and while he was able to make it work for him he had never had this kind of complete control. The skinks entered, it was dark inside. No burning torches. No light came from the ancient temple. They closed the doors behind them. The temple guard stood by, ready to defend those doors to their last breath. He started thinking of the battle that had earned him the honour of scar veteran status. That night he was fighting the thing that even abominations called "abomination". It had a metal claw that had pierced his scales leaving three large scars across his chest. The beast was hideous, a patchwork of rat creatures, multiple heads and limbs and sacks of hanging flesh. the battle was fierce, the abomination had annihilated the other saurus who fought along side him. He was faster than the others, and with one well aimed strike, split the head of the abomination in two. Brain matter and blood started pouring out, and the creature slumped over dead. He surveyed the battle field for his next target when it happened; one of the horned ones ate it's green stone, and the vile creatures powers swelled to nearly match that of a Slann's. He felt guilty just thinking that. Panic and confusion came from a mixed unit of skinks and kroxigor. The little ones started deforming, hair started sprouting from between their scales, before screeching and convulsing before mercifully dying. He was glad that they died, for living with the foul transformations was surely a fate worse than the most painful death. He watched the horned rat start to spasm and twitch and heard it's high pitched giggle. They all did that after eating the green stone. The kroxigor just stood there. He shouted at them to advance. They started poking their brothers, telling them to wake up, but they just dropped their weapons. He shouted again, he couldn't understand what they were doing. They started picking up their brothers and started shaking them, roaring at them and demanding they wake up. Then they each picked up a malformed skink corpse and just sat down and started pleading with them to wake up. He went to shout at them again when the metal claw gave him a matching scar to his back. The damned thing got up. Impossible. How was it still alive? He reeled around cleaving at it with his sword and bashing it with his shield. The beast seemed to strike harder, flailing it's limbs. He jammed his sword into the gut of the beast and started sawing at it, trying to cut it in half. His face got too close to one of the heads, and it sank its teeth into his snout. He pulled his sword out and sliced the head clean off. He then systematically cut off every head he could find and then brutally and mercilessly started hacking through the damned foul thing's torso until it split open and swarms of rats emerged. Most of which were stomped out of existence by some of the nearby cold ones. Chameleon Skinks expertly shot the remaining rats as they attempted to scurry away. He looked over at the Kroxigor, they were dead, still sitting in the same position. He had never understood it. Now was not the time for memories of old battles. He needed to be alert and ready for the present threat. The tension was thick, the rain came down heavy in the open ground, some picked up the forming mud and added it to their war paint, they were ready for war. He wished that the rats would show up already. The patrols in the jungle not reporting anything. The stink of rats prevalent, hung in the air like stale smoke, but there was still no sign of the damned things. He was about to give a signal to a group of skirmishers to dart into the jungle and report back, when he was interrupted by the troglodon roaring. The creature spit it's acid at the temple and ran off into the jungle. Something was not right. He raised his sword. Before he could open his mouth the temple doors burst open and a slann riding his palanquin came flying out. The great speed it was travelling at sent the temple guard near the door sprawling. He shouted for them to get up and get ready to move when the palanquin fell out of the sky and slammed into the ground. He ran over to help, how had this happened? He reached the Slann and watched the mage priest, sitting there, twitch and spasm. Then he noticed the stench. The Slann started giggling. That damned high pitch giggle. He saw the long worm like tail behind the slann. No. It can't be. This horned one burrowed into the sleeping slann and wore it like an ill fitting suit. For the first time in his life he had failed. For the first time in his life he vomited. A feeling of dread that he had never known engulfed him. He felt the sense of hopelessness that the kroxigor must have felt the night he became a scar vet. He looked back at the temple, hundreds of red eyes staring back with a menacing glee that did not belong to skinks. He started bashing the rat in the slann suit. Shouting that there was a rat inside, trying to explain what had happened. He knew it was no use as javelins and blow darts beat in on him as heavy as the rain. The temple guard on their feet swung their halberds, no questions asked. "He has a rat plague" one of them shouted. As the blades punctured through his scales he tried to warn them. It was too late. This horned one in the slann suit was dead, but the smell still lingered, he knew there was another. And as he lay there broken and dying, the rats emerged
The public is raving for this new short story! 4 stars - Nintendo Power Horratifying - Spawning of Bob Huh? - New York times I liked this a lot. - Scalenex
So with the contest done I have made a few tweaks to the story based on at least half of the critiques posted above. Italicized the flash back and dusted off my thesaurus for smelly words. All criticism welcome. Although I will have to get that copy of end times Thanquol to site the setting like @Oxytol did! Who also based his story from the same book!
I would advise against it. I bought all four of the End Times books. They were all overpriced and came with a bit of buyer's remorse, but I think Thanqol may be the weakest of the set. Don't stop writing though, I want to see more of your work. You are in the Lustriapedia now, top billing too (because it's alphabetical and we don't have any "A"s)
Haha! Oh I wouldn't pay for any more end times. I bought the spells, that was enough! My skaven obsessed friend bought Thanquol and I did find the Lustria based scenarios to be quite interesting! And got some use out of the red host!
Aslanputin? He is not a tame Slann.... 3 lines which just grabbed me. Well done, Bowser. Looking forward to the next instalment.
Both, I'd say. At the moment, thanks particularly to @Bowser , @Trociu , @Oxytol and Spooky (@Slanputin ) reading on L-O is like slowing down to look at a fatal car accident scene. I feel guilty but I can't keep my eyes away.
Since when have I been Spooky? I don't remember collecting Vampire Counts. Hmm. Car crash, you say? I'm currently reading Crash by J.G. Ballard. I wonder if I can merge its themes with Lizards (with at a more PG rating).
Maybe you should try Black Speech, Queekish, Saurian, or maybe Draconic You could try Rugby Player/Fan you might find something
Awesome story well done bowser I would also like to add that part 2 of the days of terror is coming out tonight! Enjoy
Inspirational Bowser. I cant believe ive neglected to read it the last 2 months. I definitely enjoyed the ending!