Contents
6. Well Buggered, down a Ditch
Overview
The narrator and Galva survive a fall into a crevasse, with the narrator using his Catfall ring despite a head injury. Stranded under watching owl-things and a gutted donkey, the narrator coerces the sentient Book to help. Using a glue-trap ruse, they drag the owls to their deaths, but the Book betrays them by cutting the donkey’s straps, sending their supplies into the abyss and worsening their plight.
Summary
The narrator awakens clinging to branches on a tree seesawing over a crevasse, with Galva braced near the roots. Realizing his weight is tipping the tree, he lets go, hoping to stabilize it and save Galva. He falls but survives via his Catfall ring, landing lightly despite a head injury.
They regroup on a rocky ridge below the gutted, hanging donkey while giant owl-things watch and hoot from above. With his bow lost and options scarce, the narrator endures Galva’s warning not to sleep after a concussion and considers their limited gear and the peril of climbing out under the birds’ gaze.
Needing an edge, the narrator threatens and bargains with the chained Book of the Full Shadow, forcing it to speak Holtish. The Book reveals an Istrean Greenwolf glue technique; following its instructions, the pair coat a long branch with sticky sap and donkey meat, tying on a rope.
Galva hurls the baited branch above the lip. The owls seize it, become glued, and as the pair lever the balanced tree over, the rope drags the screeching, stuck birds past them into the depths, clearing the immediate threat.
Victory turns when the donkey’s strap suddenly snaps and their saddlebags tumble into the abyss. The narrator spots an inky tendril retracting into the Book—wielding a blade from an illustration—revealing the Book’s calculated betrayal. Their predators gone but provisions lost, the pair are left more imperiled than before.
Who Appears
- Kinch Na ShannackNarrator-thief; sacrifices his hold, survives via Catfall ring, coerces the Book, devises glue-trap plan; suffers concussion.
- GalvaWarrior Spanth; steadies the seesawing tree, checks Kinch’s injury, throws the baited branch, partners in the owl trap.
- Book of the Full ShadowSentient, treacherous grimoire; speaks, provides glue method, then cuts the donkey’s straps to doom their supplies.
- Owl-thingsPredatory cliff-dwellers; menace from above, are glued to bait and dragged into the depths.
- DonkeyPack animal gutted on a rock; its hanging body and gear become central to survival and ultimate loss.