So Bowl of Red (almost done, I swear. It would help if my body didn’t continue throwing curve balls at me, though to be honest it’s probably to be expected after last year.) is about Ragnarok, that is the “Twilight of Gods”, or at least one of them.
It’s very serious and the start of a really big plot arc that will extend over a few books, but—
But my mind just isn’t right. I mean, you guys know, right? My mind is possessed of…. well, a mind of its own.
So in the middle of all the super-serious stuff, I find myself dealing with segments like this:
The alligator snapped its teeth, and Kyrie had the impression it was grinning at her.
From behind the closed door came screams of…. Not terror. But also not pleased. Somewhere down a hallway came screams of very angry Vikings. Well, very angry men. Angry men who were shouting in the kind of language that has a lot of paffs and clangs. And there were sounds of swords too. Or at least heavy metallic sounds.
“Oh, shit,” Kyrie said.
And then she realized Bilbo the gator was doing a dance in front of her, and gesturing wildly with his head. If he were a dog, this would be the “Timmy is in the well” dance accompanied by clack clack of castanet teeth hitting together. The little gator eyes had a sense of urgency.
“Yeah, I think we should run,” she said. “Do you know the direction?”
Somewhere – she really had to stop doing random internet dives down strange rabbit holes – Kyrie had read that alligators could run sixty miles per hour for like six foot distances, but were relatively slow on land, otherwise, only running about 11 miles per hour.
The thing was, while she was sure he wasn’t running sixty miles per hour, eleven miles per hour was still faster than Kyrie could run, let alone with the kid kicking in rhythm as she ran. She was torn between the certainty she was going to pee herself, and the fear labor would start. Hadn’t they said that violent exercise could cause labor?
It didn’t matter, or not precisely, because the sound of angry guys were with swords running kept coming closer and closer.
Suddenly, inexplicably, there was a gator tail wrapped around her middle. It was a very large gator tail, and she was very out of breath. Before she could react, she found herself sitting astride a very large gator who was running hell for leather down one dark passage after another.
And all she could do was hold tight to scales – which were kind of slippery – and try not to scream.
LOVE it!!!
I Want To Know What Happens Next!!!!! [Very Big Grin]