31 Days of Halloween #16

The Goosemother Scroll - Episode 8 Text below.

Leap lifted his head to the moon and howled. It curdled Pyg’s blood to hear it, and yet there was something almost regal about the sound. It was the sound of ages past. The sound of mystery. And, most certainly, of death.

Pyg saw the ghosts, blood-hungry even in their dead forms, pause at Leap’s voice. Then, all at once, they made horrible faces of rage and ravenousness, and they rushed for the young wolf. Pyg couldn’t watch anymore. This is the end, she thought, weeping into her hooves. And it’s all been for nothing!

She heard Leap yelp, then heard his claws scrape the deck as he ran back from the advancing specters. He howled again, louder and longer. This time was different.

Pyg peeked through her hooves, and was astonished to see the ghosts hovering in place, still, almost contemplative. Then they turned away and faded into the mist, leaving the wolf unharmed. Soon after, the ship began to turn, though there was no one at the helm.

It can’t be, thought Pyg, but the ship’s compass would confirm what she already knew. The vessel had changed course for the Elephant Lands.

“It’s all right now,” said Leap in an old wolf’s voice. Then he laughed and said, “That was a close one!”

He grinned, finally returning to his usual self, but Pyg could see he was troubled.

“I don’t understand anything,” she said.

“Father Longtail says the dead men are servants of the Shadow Bringer,” Leap explained. “If the Master is the Shadow Bringer, and he has a bunch of wolfkind serving him, then that must mean the man ghosts will listen to wolves, too. I hoped it did, anyway. So, I used the old tongue. All wolves know it. It’s how we speak to each other when we don’t want others to understand.”

“What did you say to them?” asked Pyg.

At this, Leap’s ears fell back. “I... I said I was the servant of the Master, and you were my prisoner,” he answered shyly. He walked over to her and whispered. “I didn’t want to, but it was the only way. I told them not to harm us and to take us to the Elephant Lands.”

“I can’t believe it was that easy,” Pyg replied. She wondered if it truly was so simple. After all, it was the wolves of the Master’s Legion who murdered her brothers, and even they were afraid of the Ghosts.

“Yeah! Pretty lucky, huh?” Leap laughed a little too loudly. Pyg suspected there was more he wasn’t telling her, but after the past few days, she didn’t care to ask. She just wanted to reach their destination alive. The eldermouse had said the Elephant Lands were safe, and the Rhinoceros King was a friend. She dreamed of them when at last she gave in to sleep. Her dreams were simple and happy.

But safety was not the picture that greeted her when the sun rose the next morning to reveal the elephant coast ahead. Instead she saw an imposing carpet of tall, dark trees. Before the trees was a narrow sandy beach. And on the beach stood rows upon rows of tall wooden poles bearing the bodies of a hundred dead beasts.

31 Days of Halloween #14

The Goosemother Scroll - Episode 7 Text below!

The dark ship drove hard and fast, driven by hellwinds to crush the little sailboat into flotsam.

“What will we do?” Pyg despaired. There was no hope of maneuvering out of the way, and Pyg had never learned to swim.

“We have to jump!” Leap answered. “Climb onto my back, and I’ll carry you!”

There was no time think beyond those precious seconds. The pair dove into the inky black sea with naught but a prayer as the demon vessel obliterated their pitiful craft. But where would they go now? They could not swim forever, both of them knew. Their food was gone, and without a boat, they were destined to drown.

By miracle or design, Pyg noticed a rope trailing in the water from the side of the ship. Without another thought, she grabbed it as it passed and hoisted herself up.

“What are you doing?” Leap shouted. “Don’t you know what’s up there?”

“Maybe we’ll die if we go up there,” Pyg called back, “but we definitely will if we don’t! Come on!”

Up they climbed, brutalized by sudden winds, the freezing sea spray lashing their faces. At long last, they reached the top, threw themselves over the side of the ship and fell, exhausted, onto the sodden deck.

At first, there was no sign of anything living or dead. For a moment, Pyg and Leap held hope that their eyes had deceived them in the mist. Here, the weather was calm. Dark, yes, but quiet. The ship’s bell clanged solemnly with the motion of the sea. Its wasted sails idly flapped. Taut ropes groaned. Wet wood creaked. And Pyg thought, this is the sound of aloneness.

And then the fog rolled in again. Between every wispy tendril of mist, shapes formed and faded and formed anew. Shapes like the creatures Pyg had once seen in a dream. The hairless creatures. The true masters of this ship. No longer could Pyg doubt the existence of the Ghosts of Men. They stood before her, looking at her without eyes, threatening without tongues. And there were hundreds of them.

“I think I made a mistake,” Pyg whispered.

“Probably not as bad as the one I’m about to make,” said Leap.

Then he stood up, and after a moment’s hesitation, walked directly to the dead men.

“Leap!” Pyg cried. “No!”

31 Days of Halloween #12

The Goosemother Scroll - Episode 6 Text below for the readers.

A wolf. Here in this so-called safehaven. A wolf walking through the curtain at that very moment! And no one screamed or ran. Father Longtail was saying something to Pyg, but she couldn’t make sense of his words at first. All she could think was run. She must have been a frightening sight to behold, for the wolf’s ears fell back, and his tail ducked between his legs.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’ll...  I’ll come back another time.”

Somehow Pyg got her legs working again, and she scrambled to the only place she could think to. Under the bed.

“Oh my,” said Father Longtail. “Perhaps you’re right, my boy. Let us give her a bit more time.”

It was only when Father Longtail returned hours later, promising her the wolf was gone, that Pyg came out to curl up wearily in the chair.

“I am sorry for the shock,” said the eldermouse. “Leap has been with us for long enough that I sometimes forget he is wolfkind at all.”

“You mean, he lives here?” Pyg asked in horror.

Father Longtail smiled. “Not every wolf is bad, my dear,” he said. “Some are, yes, but just as many are not. You lost much of your family to the very bad ones, I know. You may be surprised to learn that Leap did as well.”

Pyg remained silent, but she was listening.

“In fact,” Longtail continued, “he was brought to us near death in much the same way you were. Terrified. Alone. Having watched his parents die by the tooth and claw of the Legion. And like you, he is still a child! Even so, he has recovered remarkably well! He is too young to become a brother, but he helps us track the Legion and find survivors in their wake. That is how we came by you, my dear.”

Pyg felt very ashamed and agreed, after being assured of no ill feelings, to meet the young wolf again.

“It’s all right,” Leap assured her, tail ever so slightly wagging. “I’m sorry for scaring you. I just heard that you wanted to go home, and I thought... Well, I thought maybe I could help! I can run pretty fast and Brother Jackalbeard says my teeth are as strong as any he’s ever seen. He’s seen all kinds of teeth!”

He grinned, showing ferocious fangs. Pyg gulped and smiled nervously in return.

“That is very kind of you, Leap,” said Father Longtail, “but I’m afraid no good will be served by sending either of you back that treacherous way. I certainly cannot stop you, but if you must leave the abbey at all, I would much rather you go another way. It will not take you to your mother, little pigling, but you will be much more helpful to her and to all beastkind if you will hear what I have to say.”

The eldermouse invited the wolf and pig to sit, and when they did, he began to explain. The Shadow Bringer’s forces grew greater by the day, he told them. His soldiers left a trail of blood wherever they went, and soon the world would drown in it. A few kings had tried to rise against him, but they had been defeated, and now many had given up their authority to join with him. But far across the Wide Sea lay the Elephant Lands where the mightiest of beastkind lived. It seemed they had not yet been touched by the evil of the Master. Longtail and the other elders wondered if they knew of the strife in their lands at all.

“The Rhinoceros King has always been a friend to the order,” said Longtail. “If we could only reach him, his army and those of his allies might stand a chance against the evildoer. But we cannot trust the gulls to carry our messages anymore. Too many of them have betrayed us.”

Pyg swallowed hard. “You want us to deliver a message,” she said.

Longtail shrugged. “We need someone to. Only... no one has been brave enough.”

Pyg looked to Leap. “If it would mean the end of the killing...” she said.

“I’ll protect you no matter which way you choose to go,” offered Leap.

And that was how wolf and piglet came to find themselves together on a tiny sailboat in the dark of night. With only a lantern, some fresh water, and some turnips to live on, they sailed alone for the Elephant Lands. They knew not what they would find, but hope for what lay ahead was far better than the dread of what lay behind.

Until a dark, hulking figure appeared through the mists on the moonlit horizon. It was massive. A behemoth of rotten wood and rags. Despite a gaping wound in her starboard side, she raced, tall and threatening, toward them. Ragged sails hung lifeless from skeletal masts, but the ship was alive. Alive with the Ghosts of Men.

31 Days of Halloween #10

Some slight relief from all the tragedy. ;-) The Goosemother Scroll - Episode 5

Text below.

Pyg fainted and dreamed terrors. Nightmares of strange symbols spelled out in her brothers’ blood. Of tall, hairless creatures with large, rat-like claws. Of shadows that sucked her in like quicksand.

But it was a prickly, tickly feeling that finally woke her. It felt like a dozen tiny hairs were brushing just-so against her cheek. Pyg opened her eyes to a dim orange light and saw, perched upon her nose, a mouse in a long gray robe.

“Ah! Awake at last. Good, good!” the mouse said pleasantly. His whiskers twitched as he smiled. “I was beginning to worry!”

The mouse felt around her snout with his paws as if unsure and then hopped down beside her upon the bed. How Pyg wound up in a bed, she didn’t know, but she hadn’t the will to ask any questions now. She saw that her bed was in a humble, cavelike room lighted by candles. Instead of walls, there were dull brown curtains, and she suspected by the sounds outside that her little curtained room was one of many.

“Brother Redfern!” the mouse called to someone out of sight. “I have good news! Our patient has woken up. She’ll be needing some hot dandelion tea, I should think. And bring that, uh, scrap of cloth, if you will.”

The mouse turned back to her. “Now, let’s see here. I am Father Longtail. Do you know where you are?” he asked gently and then, chuckling to himself, answered his own question. “No, no, of course you wouldn’t. You, my dear, are in the hospital of the Southtunnel Abbey.”

Pyg finally found her voice. “Are you an eldermouse?” she asked in amazement, but then a small white fox with ears like wings came through the curtain, carrying a cup of steaming tea, which he placed on the table beside her bed. Next to the tea, he slipped a torn piece of white fabric. Pyg noticed a spot of what looked like blood on it. The fox’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Father Longtail is not simply an eldermouse,” he told her. “He’s one of the Blind Brothers! The Goosemother herself took their sight to keep them from evil and in exchange granted them extraordinary wisdom!”

“Thank you, Brother Redfern, that will be all,” said the eldermouse. To Pyg he shook his head.  “Bless them! The stories they tell themselves! My sight was taken by a brain fever when I was still a pup. What else is a blind mouse to do but join the safety of the abbey? The Goosemother didn’t make me a fool. Such is the life for most of us down here. We cannot, for one reason or another, serve the world above, and so we go below.”

“Oh,” said Pyg, still thinking about the cloth. But then Longtail became very serious, and Pyg feared what he had to say.

“You’re a very lucky pigling, you are,” said the mouse. “We found you on cursed ground where the Ghosts of Men are known to rise. With so much blood spilled, it’s a wonder they didn’t find you before we did. I am sorry about your brothers. They were your brothers, were they not? We have buried their remains.”

It pained Pyg to think of her brothers, but she had no tears left to cry. “I didn’t think the Ghosts of Men were real,” she said quietly.

“They are very real, and very dangerous!” said Longtail. “More dangerous than the wolves who attacked you. Their fear of the Ghosts is likely why they did not stay to kill you.”

“How did you know it was wolves?” asked Pyg.

“There is no mistaking their work, pigling,” Longtail told her. “But there was also this bit of cloth left behind. The one I asked Brother Redfern to bring. Take it, please, and tell me what you see.”

Pyg took the cloth with the blood spot and examined it up close. Embroidered on one corner was a strange insigne showing a black claw with its reverse in gray below it like a shadow.

“The symbol of the Master’s Legion,” Longtail explained, “a vast army of wicked beasts spreading across the world like a plague. They follow the orders of a king they call Master. We do not know him, but it is at his command they kill and torture and destroy. From the stories I hear, his power is increasing. Do you know the Scroll, child?”

Pyg nodded.

“Then you know whom we fear has come.”

“You mean the Shadow Bringer, don’t you?” asked Pyg. She felt the hairs of her chin stand up.

“We see no other possibility,” said Longtail.

Pyg immediately threw the blankets off and sprang from the bed. She found her cloak across a chair and put it on at once.

“Where are you going, pigling?” asked Longtail.

“I have to get back home,” Pyg answered. “My mother is all alone!”

“And you think you can defend her against the Shadow Bringer yourself?” asked Longtail. “No, little pigling. You must not go home now. The way back is crawling with evil, and though you may be brave, you are but one, and you have no weapons. Not even claws.”

“But I can’t just leave her there!” Pyg protested. “I have to try!”

“Listen to me, Child,” said Longtail. “It was no accident that you survived. You were meant to come to us. Perhaps not to overthrow the Shadow Bringer yourself, but each of us plays his part.”

“My part is played at home now,” Pyg insisted. “Thank you for taking care of me, but I have to go.”

Pyg marched toward the curtain but didn’t make it far before a blood-curdling sight stopped her in her tracks. Showing through the curtain fabric was a silhouette she feared above all others. Had her throat not been choked by mortal dread, she would have screamed.

31 Days of Halloween #8

The Goosemother Scroll Episode 4Text below for those who'd like to read along.

There were only seconds to make a decision, but three decisions were made, and only one was wise.

Pyg looked behind her and saw a brick stove in the corner. “This way!” she mouthed to her brothers and ran to it, climbing up inside the chimney just far enough to stay out of sight.

Strongheart followed her until he spied some forgotten kindling off to the side. He grabbed a stick from it and broke it over his knee, making a crude spear. Then he crouched in the shadow of the stove and waited.

Meekfoot panicked. He spun this way and that way until he found a pile of straw much closer to himself than the stove and dove underneath it just as the creatures from the attic arrived.

What are they doing? Pyg wondered of her brothers, but she was afraid to look lest she attract attention, and the creatures were much too close. She could hear them. There were so many! The floorboards creaked from their weight, and they had claws that tapped upon the wood as they moved. They panted like dogs, and she could hear the wet sound of tongues as they licked their chops. Wolves. They had to be!

“My, oh, my!” said one of them. His voice was rough and deep. “I am so very hungry. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we had ourselves some fat little piggies right about now?”

The others laughed in their snarling way.

“Yes, indeed!” the first continued. “And wouldn’t it be even lovelier if there were a plump little piggy just waiting for us...”

He moved past the stove.

“Right...”

He was at the straw pile.

“HERE!”

Pyg heard Meekfoot squeal in terror as he was dragged out from his hiding place. Then there was a horrible sound like a snapping of twigs, and Meek squealed no more. Pyg wanted to cry, but she couldn’t even breathe. At times she thought she’d lose her grip and fall right out of the chimney.

“This one’s for you boys,” said the first wolf. “I believe I spotted at least two more with him. Find them. Why, I’m so hungry I could eat an entire family of fat little piggies!”

“Yes, sir, Captain, sir,” said one of the other wolves. Pyg could hear their noses working at the air, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before they found her out.

But Strongheart had other plans. He jumped out from his hiding place, brandishing his pathetic spear.

“Think you can gobble me up? You’ve got another thing coming!” he threatened to much laughter. He fought bravely for being so defenseless, but his bravery merely delayed his inevitable and gruesome end.

Pyg felt the world spin around her. She could barely hear a sound beyond her heart pounding in her ears, but she thought she heard one of the wolves say, “There’s too much blood, sir. We shouldn’t stay in this place.”

“Yes, I think you’re right,” agreed the one they called Captain. “Boys! Time to move out!”

There was snarling and howling and other frightful noises, and then those sounds grew further away until there was nothing. Not a whisper. Not even the gossip of crickets.

31 Days of Halloween #6

The Goosemother Scroll Episode 3 Text below for those who'd like to read along.

In spite of the tragedy that marked the three little pigs’ birthdays, their childhoods were as happy as any pig’s could be. And though they lived in desperate poverty, their home was always rich with love.

That isn’t to say their lives were easy.

Strongheart was always getting himself into scraps with the boys from the village. He swore he always fought fair, but Mother wished he wouldn’t fight at all. “It’s just... the things they say about us, Mother!” Strong would insist. “Are only words,” Mother would finish. And Strong would feel awful for a day or two, but he would be back at it soon enough.

Meekfoot was a sweet boy, but the poor child was afraid of his own tail. He wouldn’t play with other children. He wouldn’t even go out into the garden by himself. “Ah, my dear Meek,” Mother would say to herself. “If only he were a little more like his brother, and his brother a little more like him.”

The daughter was nothing like either of her brothers. For one, she had never been given a proper name, for all her mother’s joy was gone by the time she remembered to name her. She was simply called Pyg.

Pyg did not mind her namelessness. She was no less loved by her mother and brothers. The only trouble about it was that having no name meant everyone else called her something different, and it was hard to keep it all straight. To the teacher who sometimes visited from the village, Pyg was Miss Snout-in-a-book, for she was nearly always reading. To the shopkeeper who bought her mother’s truffles from her, she was Old Sage Ears, for she seemed so much wiser than other children her age. To many others, she was Our Blessing. For everyone remembered the night she was nearly taken away, though no one liked to talk of the brother who was.

The little family in the cottage did the best they could, and they were very happy. But trouble was spreading all across the land. There was talk of wars in nearby kingdoms, and food became more expensive. The Hog King imposed new taxes, too, and soon no one could buy Mother’s truffles.

“I can no longer provide for you, my piglets,” Mother cried one day. “You will fair better out in the world where you may find some work to support yourselves. Promise me you’ll watch over each other, dear loves! My poor heart could not bear to lose you forever!”

Strongheart vowed no one would hurt his siblings without taking him out first. Meekfoot sobbed but swore he’d try to be brave. Pyg promised she’d keep her brothers out of trouble. And then the three set out upon the road, heavy-hearted but hopeful, to find their fortune.

A few miles from home, they found an abandoned farm on which to rest for the night.

“How lucky we are!” said Strongheart. “I thought we’d have to sleep in the grass.” “Perhaps we could stay here forever!” said Meekfoot though he knew that wasn’t possible.

Pyg was about to say something when a sound caught her attention. A creaking sound, coming from above them within the farmhouse.

“Somebody’s here!” Meekfoot whimpered.

Not just one somebody, but a dozen, and each with long claws that went click-click-click as they descended the stairs from the attic where they had been waiting for a meal to come wandering in.

31 Days of Halloween #4

The Goosemother Scroll Episode 2 (with music by Papalin)

Text below for those who'd like to read along.

But inside the humble little cottage there was only joy. Four piglets were soon born to boar and sow: three sons and one daughter. In the tradition of all swine, they named the firstborn Strongheart, for he was born squealing and kicking as if to fight. The secondborn they named Meekfoot, for he came into the world shivering and quiet. The third was so tiny and still they feared he had not lived, but when he lifted his head and loudly squeaked, they rejoiced and called him Dawnsong.

Before the fourth child could be named, however, a dreadful sound pierced through the night. A howl, long and cruel and close. I am here, this howl said. As mother and father pig looked at one another fearfully, that awful note was answered by other howls farther away. Yes, brother, they said. And we are here.

“Why?” asked Mother. “What could they want?”

In answer, the door burst open and then fell from its hinges, and in the doorway stooped a wolf as tall as the cottage itself. He wore a red hooded cloak that was much too small, and the grizzled snout protruding from it dripped with blood.

“What do you want, wolf?” Father asked in his bravest voice, stepping between his family and the intruder.

The wolf let his hood fall. His face was horrible to look upon. It was scarred and matted, with two yellow eyes that could turn the bowels to water. He pointed to the babe in Mother’s arms and snarled.

“That one.”

Mother gasped and clutched the girl child close, but the wolf only laughed.

“Either you give me one of your children, or I’ll take them all!” he threatened. “For tonight the wolves take our due.”

Father charged, prepared to defend his family with his life. And with his life he did, but it was the wolf who won. The ragged monster moved toward Mother but stopped short.

“Not you,” he growled. “You will tell the others. Tell them to fear.” Then he leaned down and plucked Dawnsong from his bedding before disappearing into the night, leaving Mother alone with three crying piglets to comfort and a husband to bury.

The stories say the screams that followed the wolves that night could be heard all the way to the abbeys below Mount Historius. That night, the stories say, the heart of hope itself was broken.

31 Days of Halloween #2

The Goosemother Scroll Episode 1 Text below for those who'd like to read along.

Once upon a time, many once-upon-a-times ago, the beasts of the earth spoke a common tongue and walked upright like men. Each of a kind followed the laws of his own ruler, and all beastkind followed the laws of the First. The First Beast, the Great Winged Watcher, the Goosemother, they called her. Legend told that the world had been created when she first unfurled her mighty wings, but grief over its future had turned her to the stone that made Historius, the Mountain At the Top of the World.

Her laws, written upon an ancient scroll and kept by the Eldermice deep below the mount were but three:

No beast chooses himself above his herd. No beast shall take more than he must to survive. No beast shall eat of his own kind.

But the scroll also contained a prophecy. A terrible day would come when the earth would be cloaked in the shadow of a profaner. This Shadow Bringer would break all three of The First Laws before crushing the world under his feet. The scroll spoke of countless agonies, of famine, of babes snatched while suckling. Peace would shatter, kings would be forced upon all fours, and the Ghosts of Men would awaken to serve the Shadow Bringer just as his ancestors served them when the world was Man’s. And his coming, it was said, would be announced by the howling of a thousand wolves.

Of a savior, the scroll said only this: If there be an end to this blight, the end will be small.

Over a thousand years, these ominous words had softened to little more than a tale to quiet restless children. “Sleep now, little ones, lest the Shadow Bringer hear you when he passes!” The Ghosts of Men were reduced to crude masks worn by revelers every year on Howler’s Day.

Only the wolves suffered from the prophecy in those years of calm. Reviled as the lowest of beastkind, they were cast out from every corner, forced always to wander. And yet, those who drove them away did not remember why they hated them. Only that everyone else did, and that was enough.

One could say this was how the prophecy began to fulfill itself, but those who would choose to forget their ancestors’ cruelty would say it began on a dark night in an isolated cottage where a young sow gave birth as her boar husband watched anxiously on.

Neither knew what evil crept outside their door nor the many days of torment that would soon follow for all beastkind.

Happy 31 Days Eve!

It's 31-Days-of-Halloween Eve! The fun starts tomorrow. Because I'm trying to juggle a schedule that includes two cartoons, a book, preparing to move a thousand miles away, and work, I'm going to make this one a little easier for myself. There will be sixteen illustrations alternating with sixteen audio episodes (the last one will be posted with its illustration the same day). Tomorrow's installment will be a "cover" illustration, and it will be up tomorrow night. First audio episode goes up on Tuesday! But tomorrow's when you'll find out the title and get to see a few of the characters.

There might be a chance for some audience participation before the very last episode, so make sure you follow along! Are you ready? I SAID! Are! You! Ready!

Okay, pep rally over. Time to get some sleep before the big month. Watch this space for more!

Once Upon A Time In The Pacific Northwest...

After ten years in Los Angeles, I'm leaving Hollyweird behind and moving on up to Portland, Oregon! I'll be hitting the road on December 1st. My mailing address will probably stay the same as it just forwards to wherever I am. Wish me luck! Or wish me something. Something nice, though. But not too nice. Can't lose my edge, you know. ;-)

New stuff and other stuff

The new Skary Shop is almost ready. It'll be opening some time in the next week. We're currently working out some kinks on that, but it'll be super nifty once it's up! Here's a glimpse: The new SkaryShop

The third and final installment of Death & Elsie will also be out soon, but I'm taking a break from that for a little while to go back to working on the next book. I promise you won't have to wait too long for D&E 3. I've just got some plate juggling to do. Not literally, though. I like my dishes too much to throw them around (they have octopuses on them!). Anyway. What was I saying? Oh, right. Busy! I am busy.