Author's Note: not much of a title, I know, but I'm not a whiz at titles or anything. I haven't put up a story here for a long time but mainly because I've been busy with 'The Seeker's Path". I decided to take a break from that, temporarily and put up a short story. This story features the battle against a pike in Cluny's youth where Cluny lost an eye and the pike lost a life. Well, that's all for now, enjoy the story.
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"Cluny," Redtooth gasped, while racking his ribs for more air, "Skullface foun' a river half a league away."
Cluny snarled at the sword rat. "Oh wow, 'Cluny, I found a river; Cluny, I found a river'," he mocked in a high-pitched voice, "are you scum so brainless you can't decide on anything?"
"I thoug't you ought too know," muttered Redtooth beneath his breath. Unfortunately, Cluny caught the words and whacked him over the face dragging his claws over the stained black fur.
"Go tell the soldiers, set the pace to a double trot, pick out a few rats and send them with you to start making camp on the riverbank. Oh, and while you're at it, spare me the misfortune of looking at your face so put a bag over your head." Cluny sniggered insanely while Redtooth stomped away.
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The fishing lines were hardly miracles of engineering, just some sturdy branches or poles with rusty hooks fitted over them. On the hook were fitted some rotten apples and then lowered into the river. Some rats were successful and others hardly so. Soon there were campfires blazing and fish-from big graylings to small 3-cm long Adonises-roasting on the orange-tinged flames.
Cluny contented himself with mainly feasting his mouth and contenting his belly on other rats' fish but afterwards decided that it might help his image if he seemed to contribute to the work. He fixed up a fishing pole under his foot, too lazy to handle it more effectively, and lay back gazing at the star-filled night sky.
After a few minutes he felt a twitch under his paw. Then another one a little stronger. The third one almost loosened his pole from underneath his foot. He leaned forward and grabbed the pole and tugged. Wouldn't it be just great if he caught this whooping great fish in front of his army?
But it looked as if the fish had a stronger grip than him. He began to slide forward in the dirt and he began to tug harder. His muscles bulged and his fur started taking on a red tinge. His progress towards the river stopped. Now every rat was gazing at him, watching their mighty warlord struggling against a fish. Cluny seemed to feel that he was pulling the big fish closer to him, so he unsheathed a cutlass to cut the fish up when he dragged him on shore. The great rat grinned feral-like. He had the fish now.
But the sudden movement in drawing his blade out gave his quarry the time to pull forwards and the rat's foot slipped. He tumbled into the river with a great splash that soaked just about every rat standing around.
The world changed around him in a second. Before crackling fires and roasting fish in the semi-dark atmosphere had surrounded him. Now an aqua light shone through he water around him and bubbles popped out of his pores and made their way to the surface.
A slender body topped with small scales ending in a long head whipped past him and Cluny immediately understood his predicament-he was facing a pike in his natural habitat. A shovel-like snout smashed into the left side of his face and strong teeth ripped at the flesh and skin. His left eye went black and with his right eye he saw the blue-green water change to red. Bolts of pain charged through his nerve system and he felt hapless.
But he didn't give up. With a boost from his leg grating against the side of the riverbed he floated up to the surface and grabbed for the bank as the pike, fins flattened, charged for him again. This time he hit him in the ribs with a satisfying crack and then he unleashed his teeth to the flesh underneath his ribs. But before he could bite Cluny acted.
Now that they were on the surface of the river, Cluny could swing his cutlass with full speed. And he did just that, the cutting blade of steel was swung at the pike's large mouth halfway cutting off his jaws and making most of the pike's teeth useless with a satisfying swish and thump. Blood gushed in a miniature fountain.
But the battle was not over yet. The pike hugged Cluny's foot with his body and pulled downwards. Roaring like an insane beast (which he sort of was) Cluny went underwater again.
Cluny dropped his sword and wrapped both muscled arms around the pike's neck, his hands covering the fins. He squeezed tight with all his strength. But the pike was not going down, not just yet. His long and thick tail moved like a lightning bolt and he smashed the big rat against the riverbed side.
Cluny felt weak and tired as the most of the rest of his ribs broke on contact. He avoided another charge by the pike and felt even weaker. His lungs felt like someone was torturing them with a red-hot knife. He couldn't keep this up anymore. His vision was starting to swim and corners of his sight were starting to go black.
With the last of his strength he pulled himself out for a second and gulped a mouthful of clean fresh air. But then the pike charged him again bringing him down in his underwater realm. Cluny gambled on his last chance, his secret weapon. His long and powerful tail came whipping around just as fast as the pike's tail had and he struck the pike's neck tendons. There was a satisfying crack and the pike's head lolled to one side. He was dead-Cluny had broken his neck. Cluny had won!
Fatigue almost overwhelming him, Cluny heaved himself out of the river and collapsed on the bank. There was a gasp of astonishment and the crowds of rats drew back. Ribs were sticking out of Cluny's skin and chunks of flesh were missing. Blood swathed his chest and stomach making his black fur a deep scarlet color. His face had a long vertical chunk of flesh missing from it, and that trench was flooded by blood. His eyeball was hanging to his socket only by a flap of skin and tendons and blood covered his pupil so he couldn't see.
He gazed at his assembled soldiers and Cheesethief quickly scurried off with half a dozen other rats, shouting over his shoulder, "We'll get you a healer, boss, don't you worry!"
The last words Cluny uttered before he passed out from exhaustion, pain, and loss of blood were:
"Screw them pikes."
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Kayla Silvercat: Stupider is a word; I looked it up at Well yeah "Snowflake" is more advanced technologically and in all those other ways than the environment that Brian Jacques uses in his series. And actually "Snowflake" is the first of a trilogy of short stories; only I'm working on the second one so I don't know if you'll see that soon.
Grubswiper: Yeah this was a little depressing but who doesn't give for a healthy portion of angst? See ya around!
Avelblue: Well, yeah this was actually a prologue for a longer fic. The reason the first paragraph was so scientific and stuff was…I don't know! Really, I have no idea why I made it that way, I just did cause it felt cool and all. Yeah thanks for the criticism-I mean I appreciate a lot how you take the time to point out like all my faults in my writing and stuff like that.
Narfgirl: Hey, thanks for putting me on my favorite list and thanks for all your wonderful compliments. If I can I will get the time to review your story too (It'll be this summer I promise, I just need to get a few things settled down).
Agent D: yeah it is a journal and it does sort of sound like some of Jacques's books where a character is telling the story to another character.