The Claws of the N'longu, Ch. 5
A Night of Fire and Pitch
The demon howled its shrill and terrible cry, and all around it the gray skinned pygmies cheered. Their hoots and hollers echoed into the night, and they waved their weapons and their fetishes overhead in darksome celebration! From his place on the path the diminutive beasts had opened, Blackpaw watched with his jaw grimly set, his scarred hand clutching the metal shaft of the thunder club with white-knuckled tightness. Soon the pygmies would turn from their revelry to descend on him and the small humans. If they were to act, then it must be now!
Spinning on his heels, Blackpaw tossed the mighty weapon to the once-blue man! Powerful as it might be, without knowing how to make its magic work it was effectively no better than a mundane club in his own hands. Fortunately the smaller man was quick to react. He caught the weapon against his chest, and when Blackpaw pointed up to where his brother hung, he nodded with understanding and carefully aimed the weapon with both hands.
“Captain, watch out!” the beautiful yellow-haired woman cried!
The man looked back over his shoulder. “Damn!” he hissed through clenched teeth! The pygmies were nearly upon him!
He started to round, ready to use the spell upon them instead of White-eye’s bindings, but Blackpaw moved faster! With a roar he hurled himself into the pygmy hoard. He beat them with his heavy fists, trampled them beneath his large feet, and swatted the diminutive fiends away with wide swipes of his muscle corded arms! Where he could he would grab them, using their bodies as makeshift clubs and projectiles alike to keep the swarming horde at bay! But it wasn’t without cost. Their sharp spears stuck in his flesh, jutting from chest, back, and arms. Sharp stone knives gashed at his legs and before long trickles of blood became open flows.
Behind him, the smaller humans discussed something in their strange speech and the woman fled into the caves under the stone overhang! Was she trying to escape? If so, that might be for the better. She had no weapons, nor did she show any ability to fight up to now. Fleeing might just leave her out of harm’s way, meaning Blackpaw wouldn’t have to worry about being careful not to get her caught up in his own rampage. The horde was growing more violent, descending upon him with more and more bodies! He gasped in alarm as he was pushed back, then over as he slipped on the blood and broken bodies of those he’d already slain! His large frame hit the dirt with a thud and the pygmies swarmed over him!
Thunder boomed and fire flashed its hot orange glow. The little gray monsters shrieked in shock and fear, and then those that swarmed Blackpaw were suddenly thrown from his body, but not by him. Meaty paws and hairy arms bashed and battered into the fiends, dashing them against the rocks, the trees, and each other. Then they hoisted Blackpaw to his feet, where he was met with the bloodied and bearded face of his brother. Looking upon each other for the briefest of moments, they nodded, then each dashed past the other to fight off the swarm!
As they fought, the small man backed away toward the rocky overhang. “Captain!” called the woman from inside! Sparing a glance, Blackpaw saw that she was returning with their strange garments bundled in her arms. The man hurried to meet her, but a dark shape moving in Blackpaw’s periphery stole his attention back.
His eyes went wide. Long and snake-like, a fleshy tendril slammed down into the frantic horde of pygmies near to him. Bones and bloodied limbs alike jutted out from inside and beneath it, all whilst the black ooze seeped out to cover those caught in its serpentine grasp. Chittering with clacking teeth, the demonic N’longu pulled this oozing limb back into its chest, and with it the screaming forms of the pygmies were absorbed into its still changing body.
The little fiends stared in disbelief. Those that had been fighting them grew still. Their sickly yellow eyes focused on their demon god, widening as its body bulged anew. Little feet shuffled against the dirt as the fearful savages slowly backed away, then broke into a full run into the jungle as the N’longu threw back its head and bellowed! Panicked hoots turned into terrified screams as tendril after bony tendril burst from the demon’s chest and back! They slammed and swiped at its diminutive worshippers, leaving their bodies crushed or impaling them on the massive claws that tipped the spindly fingers which sprouted from the ends of those writhing limbs. Each time the bodies were claimed, absorbed by the viscous blackness to feed the demon’s ever growing body.
White-eye and Blackpaw didn’t wait to see what would come next. They turned as the pygmies fled, hurried to join the smaller humans beneath the overhang. As they approached, Blackpaw saw the man stuffing another white leaf into the thunder club! He grinned. If anything could slay this demon, it would be that mighty weapon!
His quiet jubilation was short-lived. Once again, Blackpaw saw movement out of the corner of his eye! He turned, ready to dive aside, but too late. With its three-fingered hand open wide, one of the tendrils lunged for him! He closed his eyes tight, felt the breath knocked out of him as it slammed into his body, only to realize he was falling. He struck the ground on his side with a grunt, and when he opened his eyes, his heart sank. White-eye! His arm was caught in the demon’s grasp!
Blackpaw scrambled to his feet as White-eye’s own skidded against the dirt! He watched as White-eye grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut! He gripped a handhold in a large boulder with his free hand, pulling as hard as he could to stop the demon from taking him! His muscles bulged and strained. Veins fattened in his arms and hand and the thick sinews in his neck stood out as his face turned red!
Frantic, Blackpaw looked around for a weapon. Something, anything at all would do! Lying on the ground nearby, he spotted a pair of the pygmy clubs embedded with teeth. They were small, but with one in each hand he might just be able to tear the demon’s grip away from his brother! He charged, each hand clenched tight around the small clubs, then drove them both into the monster’s oozing flesh.
Blackpaw blinked in wide-eyed astonishment. They were stuck! He twisted and pulled as hard as he could, but no matter how much force he applied he couldn’t wrench the clubs free of the tarry substance that flowed from the demon’s body! A substance that now crept onto his own hands, burning them like liquid fire! Screaming, Blackpaw tried vainly to wrench himself free!
Thunder! Fire! A demon’s howl!
Blackpaw stumbled and fell, landing hard on his back! Looking up, he saw his brother leaning against the boulder he’d been grasping so desperately, his chest heaving with his panting breaths. Standing beside him was the smaller man. The thunder club was in his hands and smoke curled from the hollow tube that spit its spell. Near to them the demon’s snake-like limb thrashed against the ground, its three-fingered hand engulfed in intense flames.
Something small was pulling at Blackpaw’s shoulders. A flash of lustrous yellow appeared in his vision. It was the woman. “Come on, get up!” she was saying, her voice strained as she wrapped her hands around Blackpaw’s arm and tried to pull him to his feet. He nodded, then locked eyes with his brother as they rose. That glance was all they needed to understand each other.
Large pyres had been set up by the now annihilated pygmy tribe all around the clearing in preparation for their ritual. Many of them were now snuffed out, the heaped wood either scattered in broken pieces by pygmy bodies that the demon flung into them or smothered by numerous gray corpses that lay in partly charred heaps. But the demon hadn’t managed to extinguish all of them, particularly those that sat on the far side of the clearing from it. That very same far side was where Blackpaw and White-eye now stood with sharpened and vine-wrapped chumpa branches in hand.
They dipped the sharp ends of their branches into the fire, igniting the bundles of vines tied beneath the tips of their new makeshift spears. Then they approached the beast with their flaming weapons gripped in both hands, as if closing in on a tusked gray thumper. The demon stood about as large as one of those mighty animals now, the once sleek body of the terror soarer all but unrecognizable in its near shapeless form. Only the wings and long beak remained, a beak which opened wide as it roared at the approaching brothers.
Four new limbs sprouted from the undulating mass of bone and flesh and ooze that comprised its body, two for each of the brothers. They watched closely as they writhed and twisted, waiting for the moment they’d strike. When they did, each brother deftly sidestepped one limb while they drove their flaming spear tips into the other. As with the one shot up close by the thunder club, these also burst into flame.
The demon screamed and reared back! The crack of bones and wet tearing of flesh echoed through the empty clearing as it retracted its arms and reshaped its body! Its wings shrank into its body as its neck grew longer. A new pair of arms emerged from its chest, followed by a second, then a third as it rose up onto its newly formed hindquarters. Leaning forward on its many limbs, toothy beak clacking as its head swayed from side to side, its long claws sank deep into the soil. The brothers braced as the N’longu prepared to charge them!
But the charge didn’t come. Instead it lowered its head, and with a single clack of its beak that long neck was sucked back into its body as a torrent of whipping tendrils erupted forth! Unprepared, the brothers scrambled to defend themselves, swinging their makeshift spears wildly in front of them! They beat back the tiny tendrils, each of which was tipped with a cutting claw! One by one they burst into flame and dissipated, but the skinny things were so insubstantial that the demon was easily able to replace them! Slowly, it started to push them back. Then it charged, its long claws digging deep furrows into the soil as it bowled the brothers aside and made for the overhang where the smaller humans waited.
Thunder cracked and the demon howled again as Blackpaw was knocked over, rolling onto all fours. He watched the thunder club’s magic strike the N’longu’s body. The black ichor undulated and a spray of it mixed with bone and blood as the spell blasted out its side, but even that wasn’t enough to slow the evil creature. Blackpaw’s heart raced and instinct took over. He could see only one option if he wanted to save those people, and though he heard his brother’s cries of protest behind him, his feet and knuckles pounded into the soil as he ran as fast as he could for the one thing that might stop the demon.
He crashed shoulder first into one of the pyres by the cave entrance, bringing up his arm at the last moment to protect his face. The blazing flames singed his long black mane, scoured the hair from his chest and arms, and seared his flesh, but the stack of burning wood toppled and flung with him as he smashed and fell through it. Embers, burning coals, and even branches broken and whole battered against the tarry monster’s flank. It ignited, the entirety of its evil form engulfed with flame in less than a second. Howling, screaming, it pitched sideways as it took its final steps and crashed into the cave wall beneath the overhang. Its semi-formless body thrashed once, and only once, before the flames overtook it and reduced it to naught but oily ashes and blackened bones.
White-eye dragged Blackpaw out of the fire as the demon burned. Frantic and desperate, he beat against the flames with his bare hands and was soon joined by the small man and woman, who each used their garments to douse the fire that licked at Blackpaw’s skin. The younger brother lay in the dirt, breathing heavily. His skin was red and raw in many places and his hair was singed, but for a miracle, he was alive. White-eye breathed a sigh of relief, as did their smaller companions, but when Blackpaw started to push himself to his feet the beautiful woman protested.
As before, he didn’t understand the complex sounds she made, but he read their intent. She was worried for him, concerned for his injuries. He placed his hand against her cheek, the one for which he earned his name, then swiftly pulled her close and kissed her. She beat against his chest hard with her small fists, the liveliest display she’d given since their meeting, and Blackpaw howled joyously when he let her go. She said something angry at him that made the small man, who was dressing in his blue garments again, give a hearty laugh.
For once, though, Blackpaw paid them no mind. Something had caught his eye, a dark glint of firelight amidst the demon’s scattered bones. He approached it, then scowled before he snatched it up in both hands and smote it against the very same boulder that saved White-eye’s life. The idol of the N’longu, that profaned carving of black glass, now lay shattered upon the floor of the pygmy caves, forever destroyed like the mad tribe that worshiped it.
Thank you all for reading the final chapter of The Claws of the N’longu, my entry for a writing challenged posed by
to write a 10,000-20,000 word Howardian pulp adventure as part of our weekly Sword and Saturday pulp fantasy share-fest. If you’d like to participate, the final submission date is Saturday, Feb. 17th and specific details are available in the linked post.Chapter Word Count: 2,324
Total Word Count: 12,412
There's got to be more. I want to see more interplay between White paw and the woman.
This needs to be a serial.
Really enjoyed this. Bravo! Pulp fiction of this caliber hasn't been written for seventy years at least!