Monday 5 September 2022

Metal-Shod Toes

"Hunters of the Sky Cave," X.

"Feet resounded on the walk. They did not have a human rhythm. And they did not smack the ground first with a boot-heel, but clicked metal-shod toes along the pavement. A flashbeam bobbed, slashing darkness with a light too blue and sharp for human comfort." (p. 222)

This happens on a blacked-out street at night so there is not much to see except that uncomfortable blue light. If this scene is to be filmed, then clearly actors cannot just tramp down the street as if they were human soldiers. That sound of metal-shod clicking toes has to be reproduced and it must be threatening, not comical. Or, if our initial response is that it sounds cartoonish, then we must soon be disabused. Flandry's companion shows fear as he mouths, "Wolves!" (ibid.)

The action has jumped forward from the cab of a truck to the resistance movement in Garth. A wolf officer is about to be captured.

1 comment:

S.M. Stirling said...

Not all humans walk heel-first; that's highly variable. Some touch the ball of the foot first.