Zippleback
Entry 1

I think we're going to die.

The Quill-Back says his flame is gone. Says he's tired and he needs to sleep.

He can say that. Good-for-nothing meat-sack. He could try butting the wall again.

Maybe he hurt his brain doing it that last time. Of course that's no big loss.

This is so stupid.

Stick-Foot let us out today. Just so his whelps could try and sharpen their teeth on our hide again. I know he just likes torturing us.

Not as much as I like torturing them.

We should have ripped them all apart...

That would have been nice. They'd have killed us for it, and we wouldn't have had to put up with their man-stench anymore.

But this is worse! Why would they do this to us?

We didn't hurt his brood! ...Much. All we did was lay a little smoke...

It confuses them. They're a bunch of scent-deaf idiots.

When the man-cage was shrouded we followed the wall past Stick-Foot's little morons and over to the second door. They'd made it even stronger and thicker than the last time we'd seen it. Those hairy phlegm-wads... Why can't mans just stay as stupid as they look? I wanted to try blasting it anyway.

But I'd already expended some gas to lay the smoke. I didn't know if the rest of it would be enough. I don't know if all of it would have been enough. It wasn't enough for the last door...

We should have tried.

But I thought it was better to be quiet. Mans still have ears. We clawed and chewed on it for a while instead.

Left some gouges.

Left some venom.

Not sure what good it'll do.

I think we weakened some of the upper parts.

Then we heard the man-whelps making their little squeaky-bird noises.

Thought they saw us.

They were moving toward the door.

So we slithered back into the smoke.

Better to be quiet, after all. Are we sick?

We enjoy it.

Playtime.

They're fun to watch from above. They never look up. Never known why that is.

Never cared either.

We saw the little yellow-head. The Quill-Back said to look out for that one. But he didn't look so tough to me.

They were playing their water-game again. Failing miserably as usual. The morons got it all over themselves.

The smoke... I think it does something to mans' minds. One of them clobbered another one with a man-thing to the face. He hit the ground.

I wanted to wait and watch them a little longer. The smoke was still thick. And sometimes they get really violent...

But that one just landed so perfectly close to me... I couldn't resist... I took him by the nape so quick his horns fell off! Shook him up and tossed him over...

Chewed on him for a while. Tossed him back...

Played tug-of-war!

He was kind of bony. His legs.

I've still got some of his fur in my teeth...

I like to hear them shriek...

It was kind of loud with his head in my mouth.

We spun him around and then shunted him off back to his brood.

I love how the rest go all stiff and shivery at that part... They look... crunchier when they do that.

Terribly tempting.

I wanted the fat one. Just a bite. We never get enough scraps from the food-hole in our cave. And his big forelegs looked so plump and succulent...

The smoke was thinning out. We had to show ourself anyway.

I always go first when it's the water-game.

Since I'm the Spark-Mouth and they always try to douse me.

How dumb do they think we are?

I twined out from the smoke.

It looked so scary...

I came close to the fat one and he skittered like a worm on hot stone.

He splashed my face... I gassed his. Oh he howled...

Ever seen a fat man-whelp run for his rotund little life?

That made Stick-Foot squeal.

Best part of our day.

The fat one ran off, but there was another one nearby. He was so puny I almost didn't see him at first.

He would've made a good toothpick. I still need one...

I told him he looked delicious.

I said, "Hey, up here!" and showed him my spark.

He must have been too stupid to be scared. He threw his water.

Missed me by a wingspan.

We twined back down when his man-thing was empty. I made sure he could see all my teeth.

I laughed in his face and sparked again. Oh I almost bit him—I almost bit him...

I don't want to think about that.

Sick...

He fell over, and his fur split from throat to belly. And we saw death.

Sick... SICK... Yellow, and black...

He stood up.

I don't remember anything. His growl was so puny...

We backed up. He stood up and we backed up. He kept coming toward us like nightmares and death...

It got dark...

He drove us into our cave. He reached inside his skin—he spread the wound with one paw and burrowed in with the other—he was sick, he was mad

Stop—

He pulled out an entire evil fish from—from—from where? Was it parasitic under his hide somewhere? It slid out like some unholy birth.

I want out...

He threw it in our cave.

The sound it made...

Slimy and slick and wet, juices from it or from the whelp I don't know—oh the stench... There is an evil fish—an EVIL—FISH. INOURCAVE. Why would they do this to us? Why?

This never happens...

He shut the door.

We were up against the wall.

We had to jump over it. It was dead, oh, thank all good things it was dead.

We made it to the other side. The safe side.

The smell was so evil...

We hissed for help.

We clawed. We shrieked.

The Flame-Skin heard us. But her cave was through the wall on the far side.

The side near the—near it.

The Quill-Back's cave was closer. It was just on the other side of the safe wall, where we were.

We cried. We pled.

The Quill-Back doesn't like us...

We don't like him either.

But it was in our cave...

No one deserves this. He tried to help.

We tried to break through.

We wanted to make a hole. He said if we could break through we could shelter in his cave.

He scratched and flamed.

He rammed the wall.

And we blasted from our side.

I spewed all my gas. More gas than I ever thought I could spew in my life.

But it wasn't enough.

Why couldn't it work? All the blast did was bring Stick-Foot running and yammering...

We had to be quiet until he left.

I wished he could have stayed. His rotten-gassy-sheep-carcass smell was almost enough to block out the evil stench...

The Quill-Back tried so hard.

It wasn't enough! He's a useless dung-heap!

His flame was so hot we could feel it through the stone.

But it didn't work. How can he give up?—That lazy, arrogant—

We scratched until our claws cracked and our paws bled.

We wanted out.

We want out now!

It's still there.

Oh the evil...

We're trying so hard.

But the stone won't give.

It's too thick.

We can't break through.

We're going to die in here.

We're going to die.

We're going to die.

I don't want to sleep.


Author's Note: Yeah, so, sorry for takin' so long with this one. I was kinda busy and rather sleep-deprived. Also, apologies to Bob and George.