Sunday, 3 November 2024

Negative Sensations

"The Acolytes."

When the belling tinklers lead Pete into the forest at night, all his sensations go into reverse:

damp ground
shadows
mist
swamp
sunset
darkness
sullen ember
a blood-like lake
scummy water
muck
dank smell
rot
swirling, thickening fog
phosphorescent blue-glowing fungi
murky twilight
dreary mudbanks
harsher belling
crimson water
a looming, dark, misshapen bulk
something cold, hard and rubbery around his ankle
a tentacle pulling him through the mud towards a snapping beak
pulling him under rotten water that fills his lungs...

OK. Tobut pulls Pete out, then Tobur and the monster kill each other. That dark, dismal description descended all the way into Pete's apparent death although, despite this, he lives into a rare sequel. 

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I was reminded of how Frodo Baggins was also nearly dragged to his doom by a similarly tentacled creature in the pond just outside the west gate of Moria in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING.

Ad astra! Sean