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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4128440" data-attributes="member: 3285">Herald of the Yellow King - Part 4c: Returning to the CastleThe effect was instantaneous.  Ice exploded in a great geyser of black water, churning up a froth that caused a chain reaction across the ice. Spider web cracks appeared in a halo around the creature and then gave away completely, sheering a hunk of ice downwards into the rushing moat. The lobster-fish monstrosity slipped down one side and out of sight.“Thank Althares,” said Kham.  “We got—“The thing broke water at the far end of the chunk of ice, rising with a great whooshing noise.  It rose vertically, towering overhead, blocking out the sun.  The claws reached forward.  The beast, in all of its monstrous glory, fell onto the ice with a shattering crash, narrowly missing Kham.  It drove the far end of the ice underwater; the river sucked hungrily at it.  “Kham!’ shouted Ilmarė.  “Hold on!”“To what?” Kham shouted back.  The tentacles whipped from side to side.  Kham floundered backwards away from it.Kham clung to the top of the ice sheet for dear life, even as it began to tilt downwards. “Thoron, im toltho le!”The tentacles snapped irresistibly at everything: great chunks of ice fell into the insatiable maw, blindly churning away.Something tugged at the back of Kham’s jacket.  It was a golden eagle, its claws deep in his collar.  The creature’s great head weaved side to side. The ice was at a treacherous incline, slippery with water.  Below Kham on the ice, the thing lunged again, shifting weight so that the ice listed to the side.  Water from the moat splashed upwards, soaking Kham’s legs.Dril shook himself out of his stupor.  The paralysis had worn off.  He looked around for his rifle.The beast lunged again.  The tentacles licked at Kham’s heels. Dril seized his rifle.  He braced himself and aimed, taking a bead at an opening in-between the thing’s carapace when it bent over the ice. Kham clambered as far from the thing as he could. He was forced to climb higher and higher as the ice slowly sank beneath him.Dril fired. With a muffled boom, the lobster-like creature was suddenly blown apart in a geyser of green.  A gigantic convulsion slipped the thing’s mangled body into the river.  Relieved of its weight, the ice snapped back into a horizontal position, hurling Kham onto dry land. Vlad, Dril, and Ilmarė stood over him.  “He saved my life,” said Vlad.“And mine,” said Dril. Ilmarė shook her head in disbelief. “You have to be the stupidest human I have ever met.”He threw one arm over his face to shield his eyes from the falling snow.  “That’s because I’m not human,” gasped Kham.</blockquote>

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