The Improbable Adventures of Scar and Potbelly: Ice Terraces of Crystal Crag Read Online Free PDF Page B

the sucking sounded more intensely.
    Scar flew past the set of rungs leading up to the street. The light from the candle revealed them as Potbelly approached. “Scar!” he hollered, coming to a stop.
    Etched in the stone next to them was depicted a horse.
    “The rungs!” he yelled as he gripped them and climbed.
    He was already several feet up when Scar returned.
    “Climb, man,” Scar hollered.
    Potbelly flew up the rungs and had reached the metal hatch leading to the surface when from below he heard Scar yell, “By the gods!” Looking down he froze in amazement as a massive set of chitinous scales went by just feet below where he stood on the rungs.
    The creature was enormous; two-thirds the height of the sewer passage and almost that wide, it took a full three heartbeats before its body had completely passed by underneath. It tapered at the tail like a worm. Scar was gone.
    “Scar!” he yelled.
    From farther down the tunnel, his friend replied, “Get out of here!”
    Potbelly looked at his pitiful candle and for a moment thought about helping Scar. But then reconsidered and instead threw the latch on the hatch and used his shoulder to throw it open.
    Boxes tumbled from where they had been stacked upon it and scattered about the alleyway. A beggar lying beneath a ratty blanket turned mead-soaked eyes upon him as Potbelly climbed free.
    The whinny of a horse drew his attention to the end of the alley. There it opened onto a stable situated just within the walls. The building was dark and the horses a little restless, most likely due to his sudden appearance.
    Potbelly wasted no time. He raced to the stable’s main office and kicked in the door. On a hook by the door he found a lantern which he quickly lit with his candle. About to return to the sewer, he saw a trio of small casks against the wall. He grabbed them and with the lantern, raced back to the hatch.
    The casks he threw down first; the sound of them shattering below rose from the shadows. Then with lantern in hand, he shinnied down the rungs. From far down the sewer passage came the sound of Scar cursing.
    Potbelly went beyond the area where the casks lay broken, then turned around and threw the lantern back amongst them. When it shattered and the flame hit the three casks worth of lamp oil, it erupted in a mighty conflagration.
    “Here!” he shouted.
    Fifty feet down the most monstrous sight he had ever seen twisted to face his direction. A massive wormlike creature with a row of eyes above a gaping, tooth-filled maw paused a moment to take in this new invader to its territory.
    “Scar!” he hollered. “Are you okay?”
    “Its scales are impervious to our blades,” came the reply.
    The creature shot forward toward Potbelly.
    “The beast is faster than it looks, too,” Scar warned.
    Potbelly drew his dagger and sword as he navigated around the burning conflagration.
    No legs, it pushed itself along with ridge-like areas than ran the length of its underbelly. Five of six eyes were fixated upon Potbelly; the sixth oozed a brownish liquid from a recent injury. The creature curved around the fire quite nimbly for its size and with mouth gaping wide, lunged for Potbelly.
    Potbelly barely avoided being impaled by the beast’s teeth by leaping the stagnant channel of filth.
    Having missed its target, the beast whipped its lower half forward, rolled its body in a complete revolution across the central channel, and ended right side up facing Potbelly on the other side.
    “Damn, this thing’s fast!”
    “Blind it!” Scar yelled. “Only way we’re going to beat this thing.”
    Its maw closed and then upon opening produced the sucking noise they had heard before.
    Potbelly darted forward, thrusting with his sword.
    The beast made a sickening sound as the tip of his sword penetrated one of its central eyes. It then recoiled several feet and twisted violently.
    “Not sure how we’re going to kill it,” Scar said, coming up behind him.
    “Then let’s