Emily and Puppy-Pup in:
A Narrow Escape
A Puppy-Pup Flash Adventure
By Richard Cody
Puppy-Pup growled and grimaced, his lips pulling back to reveal fangs of surprising sharpness; especially surprising considering the bipedal pooch’s abundant and cartoony cuteness. Beside him, Emily gasped and stumbled back a step or two. Her reaction was due more to her canine companion’s unaccustomed ferocity than the strange terror which faced them.
It descended on a silver thread from the branches of a great and wooly barked tree, the top of which was lost in the swirling darkness of this fantastic world’s moonless night. The only thing Emily could think to compare it to was a spider. But what a spider! The size of a small car, the swollen segments of its ellipsoid body covered in spiky green hair. Two of its eight legs cradled what appeared to be a skull of some kind; vaguely white in color, it was about the size of an adult human skull, but the shape was wrong – too long and covered in bony protuberances. It was impossible to tell where the spider-thing was looking - its multiple eyes were opaque and black as the sky above them – but Emily had the impression that at least some of those lidless lenses were gazing into the empty sockets of the strange skull.
“Tassssssty morselssssss, yessssssss?”
The voice was low and sibilant and in their heads. Puppy-Pup growled again and maintained his snarl. Through the sharp and glinting curves of his teeth, he muttered, “Get back, Kiddo…”
Emily stepped behind Puppy-Pup, placed her hands on his shoulders and peered over his scruffy head. Suddenly, the immense spider-thing began to flicker – in and out of sight. Strangely, the slender silver thread from which it hung, and the odd skull clutched in its black claws, remained solid and visible. It occurred to Emily that the sharpness of Puppy-Pups teeth hardly mattered against something so ghostly. “What’s it doing?” she asked.
“Gettin’ ready to eat us, Darlin’!” Puppy-Pup’s long ears had risen, straight and erect, save for the tips which flopped over a bit, above his head. “But ‘ol ghastly there ain’t the only one who can pull a disappearin’ act!”
Emily felt the familiar tingle which signaled the beginning of her furry friend’s famous trans-dimensional jump. Puppy-Pup placed a paw on her hand, still on his shoulder. “Hold on, Kiddo!”
They disappeared in a colorful shimmer of light just as a mass of sticky silver web covered the spot they had so recently occupied. “Cursssessss,” came a disembodied voice. “I wasssss hungry.”
- - -
Richard Cody claims to write fiction. The truth is, he only writes what he sees.
A Narrow Escape
A Puppy-Pup Flash Adventure
By Richard Cody
Puppy-Pup growled and grimaced, his lips pulling back to reveal fangs of surprising sharpness; especially surprising considering the bipedal pooch’s abundant and cartoony cuteness. Beside him, Emily gasped and stumbled back a step or two. Her reaction was due more to her canine companion’s unaccustomed ferocity than the strange terror which faced them.
It descended on a silver thread from the branches of a great and wooly barked tree, the top of which was lost in the swirling darkness of this fantastic world’s moonless night. The only thing Emily could think to compare it to was a spider. But what a spider! The size of a small car, the swollen segments of its ellipsoid body covered in spiky green hair. Two of its eight legs cradled what appeared to be a skull of some kind; vaguely white in color, it was about the size of an adult human skull, but the shape was wrong – too long and covered in bony protuberances. It was impossible to tell where the spider-thing was looking - its multiple eyes were opaque and black as the sky above them – but Emily had the impression that at least some of those lidless lenses were gazing into the empty sockets of the strange skull.
“Tassssssty morselssssss, yessssssss?”
The voice was low and sibilant and in their heads. Puppy-Pup growled again and maintained his snarl. Through the sharp and glinting curves of his teeth, he muttered, “Get back, Kiddo…”
Emily stepped behind Puppy-Pup, placed her hands on his shoulders and peered over his scruffy head. Suddenly, the immense spider-thing began to flicker – in and out of sight. Strangely, the slender silver thread from which it hung, and the odd skull clutched in its black claws, remained solid and visible. It occurred to Emily that the sharpness of Puppy-Pups teeth hardly mattered against something so ghostly. “What’s it doing?” she asked.
“Gettin’ ready to eat us, Darlin’!” Puppy-Pup’s long ears had risen, straight and erect, save for the tips which flopped over a bit, above his head. “But ‘ol ghastly there ain’t the only one who can pull a disappearin’ act!”
Emily felt the familiar tingle which signaled the beginning of her furry friend’s famous trans-dimensional jump. Puppy-Pup placed a paw on her hand, still on his shoulder. “Hold on, Kiddo!”
They disappeared in a colorful shimmer of light just as a mass of sticky silver web covered the spot they had so recently occupied. “Cursssessss,” came a disembodied voice. “I wasssss hungry.”
- - -
Richard Cody claims to write fiction. The truth is, he only writes what he sees.
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