Part 17 - Terror of the Trdlo - Hymns Above the Battle's Din

Frenzied trdlo launches itself to attack Silvernose from a twitching pile of its dead and living siblings

“They are getting CLOSER!” Silvernose yelled up from his perch on Ludmilla's bed-shelf atop the massive oven - a whitewashed clay island in a rising, roiling sea of blood- and musk-soaked frenzied trdla. “Your aid would be VERY appreciated!”  

Zdenka poked her head down the trapdoor opening.  The musk had become even more rank.  A swaying mountain of dead and half-dead trdla bodies was piling up to the level of the bed-shelf. 

Silvernose had a sword in each hand.  He impaled a leaping trdlo through the center of its tooth-ringed gaping mouth.  It gurgled and spat as he shook the sword to fling it off.  With his other sword, he swiped at dozens of other snarling monstrosities.  His booted legs kicked at the heap of carcasses forming against one side of the oven.  His boots were slick with trdlo blood and musk oil.  Trdla kept leaping forward to replace the dead ones.  Trying to fasten the muscular bands of their o-shaped lips on Silvernose and bite him, the aggressive tubes of flesh and hair looked like they were trying to kiss his boots.

Zdenka hopped down quickly but carefully onto the narrow bed-shelf next to her friend.  She reached into the compartments of her leather armor and drew forth dagger after dagger, which she flung into the howling trdla which had been about to overwhelm her friend.  She retained two as hand daggers, and struck with both of them at any trdlo which came too close.  Beata had climbed down the trapdoor now, too, to kneel on the crowded perch. She was busy shooting the abundant trdla which sprung at Silvernose.

Silvernose’s friends had saved his life, and had helped him make substantial headway in impeding the progress of the corpse-ramp’s mindless construction.

But now the pile of carcasses on the other side of the oven was beginning to catch up with the one which had caused Silvernose such trouble.  Beata had shot all the bolts in her repeating crossbow.  Zdenka was becoming exhausted, spinning from side to side to stab or swipe at the trdla launching themselves from the relentlessly growing body-piles.  Streaks of trdlo oil and blood marred her leather pants, cuirass and boots.

Ludmilla leaned down through the trapdoor, brandishing a tinderbox which Beata had tucked into her belt hours ago.  “I’m going to set my hermitage on fire.  We will die taking trdla with us!” 

Beata began to sing the ancient hymns of Church tradition, singing of the power of God, of unshakeable faith in the face of all despair and overwhelming opposition. Her voice resounded with a bell-like clarity, a supernatural volume beyond what a normal person could achieve.  The glorious sound cut through and rose above the cacophonous panting, squealing, gurgling, and howling. 

Zdenka’s chest swelled with love.  Beata’s voice elevated her for a heartbeat beyond the stink and the violence and the hopelessness of the battle.  

One of the most beautiful things about Beata is her singing, thought Zdenka.  If the roof collapses in flames and I die under a pile of trdlo, at least I will die hearing my lady’s song.

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Are our heroes destined to die gnawed by trdlo teeth?

Find out tomorrow!  Part 18 will post on April 30, 2020.


The story so far...
The Terror of the Trdlo, Serialized:

Part I - The Adventure Begins (But Not Really the Terror, Yet)
Part II - Zdenka vs. The Green-Eyed Monster (Jealousy - That Is)
Part III - Nun: The Wiser
Part IV - The Hermitess
Part V - Silvernose Arrives Minus His Weird Girlfriend
Part VI - She's Gone Feral
Part VII - A Little Traveling Music
Part VIII - Horror at the Hermitage
Part IX - The Rutting Moon
Part X - Herbal Interlude
Part XI - "It's Blood"
Part XII - Empty, Disturbed, Dead
Part 13 - Hut Stinking of Musk
Part 14 - The Howling, Squealing Horde
Part 15 - Something Wicked This Way Comes...UP
Part 16 - A Heaving Sea of Beasts