These are the chapters that have gone before...
Part 1: Bath Kids Lit Fest Blog
Part 2: The Etherington Brothers
Part 4: Paul Stewart / Chris Riddell
Part 5: Hannah Shaw
6: Writing from the Tub
Part 7: Lauren Kate
Part 8: Marcus Sedgwick
Part 9: Alan Gibbons
Part 10: John Boyne
Part 11: Catherine Bruton
Part 12: Achockablog
Part 13: Samantha Mackintosh
Part 14: Awfully Big Blog Adventure
Part 15: Kate Maryon
Part 16: Barry Hutchison
And now our turn...(to be read in the dark, with a torch)
 |
| Kraken |
***
Catch's eyes boggled. If they could stand out on stalks in order to boggle, they would have. Instead they just boggled inside his head. His jaw dropped and he blinked stupidly for a few moments.
"You?" he pointed a knobbly finger. "You were inside of poor Scribble all along? You fiend!"
The dark figure that was Minnaloushe For Now nodded solemnly. It's eyes were big and dark in its pale face.
"T'was I all along." Its voice was deep and sonorous. What had been before had now been warped by dark magic and jealousy. The creature that stood before Catch looked not unlike a young sea nymph but she exuded such dark power. Also, she had weird tattoos all up and down her arm into her neck. She looked....rougher than a barnacle that clung to the bottom of a boat. Er, ship. "Well, no. T'was not I all along. Only for a little while. Poor Scribbler, he was so easy to overpower with my wily ways."
Outside the submarine's window, the tentacle of some ancient unspoken thing from the world's ancient flicked past. Catch didn't see it, but Minnaloushe did and her gaze sharpened. She surged forward, shoving Catch out of the way.
She plastered her face against the porthole and tapped the glass.
"Here, fishy fishy," she crooned in a voice dripping with menace. She smiled when she caught Catch's gaze. "Now for the rest of my plan, little mortal. Are you afraid yet?"
Catch swallowed loudly in the quiet of the clanking submarine and cast his glance about the cabin, wondering what he can use as weapon. Minnaloushe has now completely turned her broad scaled back on him and was peering into the inky blackness beyond the portal.
As Catch watched, he saw the tattoo curl up her arm and around her neck, only to disappear up into her hair. He shuddered. What kind of freak was she? And was Scribbler really dead?
He looked over at the mass of muck on the floor and prodded it with a toe. Yep, he was dead. Unless!
Catch gnawed on one of his gnarled fingers, found some old fish scales and spat them out noisily. Of course, if he could get to Scotland...he would be able to perform the ancient ritual of Loch Ness under the full moon and fireworks, perhaps, if the Monsters of the Deep were feeling particularly benevolent, they might be able to help Scribbler! Oh, and the moon of course.
All he has to do was get rid off Minnaloushe. But the dark being that was now the Minnaloushe was ignoring him completely, transfixed by the giant kraken doing a weird mating dance outside the submarine.
Catch picked up his courage, bolted on his honour, closed his eyes and dove at the slippery creature, with his new war cry: "For Scribbler and the Moon and beyond!"
Be sure to follow the story over at Jo Nadin's blog!
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