“Hmmm, I wonder what it’s doing down here way under this tree?” he pondered, out loud, as he now watched the flat, armadillo-like creature scuttle away into the darkness. “Oh, yes,” he exclaimed, answering his own question. “I suppose it’s just like with the ordinary Isopods; They prefer moist areas, living under damp rocks or tree roots too. But how come these are so huge? We’ve seen Giant talking Owls, Giant glowing Erf-Worms and now whopping Giant Isopods! Just what on Erf’s going on here?”
But the torchlight and the skittering noise from the departing Isopod had disturbed all the other large, curled up balls. One by one, those still buried among the old tree roots started to uncurl themselves. Roger could see their shiny, black, chitinous scales, gleaming in his torchlight, as they slowly uncurled their round, segmented bodies. Their long, quivering antennae and seven pairs of wriggling legs soon fully exposed to the air.
There were about a dozen of them over there, lumbering among the roots, like mini tanks. Despite their large size they were nimble creatures and were adept at moving about in the pitch dark and at some speed, when they wanted to.
“Well, I just hope these Giant ‘Pill-bugs’ are as shy as the tiny ones I know on the surface. I don’t want trouble with any savage, man-eating woodlice, do I?” He chuckled to himself.
There wasn’t any real worry though, as they seemed harmless. They had now all settled down again once he’d directed his torchlight away from them. One by one, they curled themselves up and nestled back into their root-tangle nests, and just melted away into the inky-gloom of their damp and dark abodes.
“It looks like they’re more interested in having their snooze than they are in me! Ah well, I better press on, no matter what; I can’t keep Mary waiting, can I?” Roger thought to himself.
Roger had descended but a few yards further down the slope when he saw a little way below him, some large and shadowy shape appearing from out of the smoky darkness. He couldn’t make out what it was; He’d noticed fleeting, shadow-like things before up in the Bad Wood, and also up on Hooter’s Hill, but this darkness was somehow different. There was something about its shape, and just the looming presence of it, that made the hairs on his neck stand on end and sent a shiver down his spine.
As he cautiously slid his way down the dusty incline of the slope, he observed there was even more smoke billowing up the lower he went. He would have begun to seriously worry again about how he would breathe as he descended further. But now, his worry turned toward something far more threatening and alarming. The huge, shadowy shape was climbing steadily towards him, ever closer, slowly emerging from the clouds of smoke below.
He rubbed his eyes clear of soot and smoke yet again; And he saw it now, looming out of the inky black and lumbering towards him on all-fours, out of the fog bank and up the slope. It had slanted, evil-looking eyes that glowed in the dark, burning with fiery-red gleams that smoldered and flickered. Its head swaying from side to side under hunched shoulders.
Roger stopped petrified. He’d not seen anything like it before and it definitely wasn’t friendly!
It came nearer and nearer, pacing its way up the smoky slope. Roger could now see it for what it was; This creature was huge; It was gigantic. It was in fact, a Giant Black Rat!
“It’s of the same species as Rattus Rattus, the Black Rat!” he thought, his academic self once more getting the better of him. But this thing was like no rat he’d ever seen or heard of, on or under the Erf, ever before.
“Oh, my Bothersome Boyles!” he exclaimed, plumbing the depths of his store of curses. “What on Euclid’s Erf is that horrible monster doing down here? That’s more like a ‘Rattus Magnus’ than the ordinary Black Rat, the Rattus Rattus!”
He well knew what an Erf animal of the usual size for this species was called; And that was simply, a rat, but this was a monstrosity. It was the size of a large horse; But it wasn’t a horse, it was a Giant Rat… and it was coming for him, jaws wide and with razor fangs at the ready, and dripping a foam of poisonous, yellow saliva.
This creature was yet another of the oversized denizens of the Forest of Lundun and the Under-Erf. But this one was obviously extremely evil. It radiated hatred and malice and it was out hunting for its intended kill - and Roger was its definite and intended prey!
The Giant Rat padded onwards up the slope, now only a dozen feet from where Roger watched, hunched and transfixed. He couldn’t run; He couldn’t fight; He couldn’t argue with it either; This was obviously a mindless killing machine, fully intent on rending him limb from limb.
It had matted, black fur and a twitching black nose and long, wiry whiskers sprouting from its furry cheeks. Its feet had large pads, encasing very nasty-looking claws, and it had a long, sweeping rat tail. This swished along behind it, ever ready to lash out as a deadly whip.
As it approached, Roger could see it crouch down lower, its head almost down to the ground. It was coiling its muscles, getting ready to spring in attack. But Roger still couldn’t move, he felt paralyzed, just staring into those deadly, flickering, red eyes.
He could hear its growling now, and he could smell its rancid, ratty stench; it smelt of old, dead things and foul garbage; rotted vegetation and putrid flesh. Roger wrinkled his nose in disgust and waited helplessly for its sudden, murderous leap and its vile fangs slashing down upon him.
And then the Rat attacked. It sprang high into the air, its two front legs outstretched with their razor-sharp claws eager to rip into fresh meat. For Roger, there was no escape. The Rat knew it and Roger knew it.
Roger scrunched up his eyes tight and just prayed that it would all be over quickly.
He heard the roar of the Rat, and then… a thudding sound, and then another. A second passed. Nothing had happened! He cautiously opened one eye and then the other.
“This is impossible, that Rat couldn’t have missed me… could it?” he thought.
But then he saw it. The Rat was tumbling back down the slope, back from where it had just come. It was rolling over and over and it was being repeatedly battered, in the sides, in the face, and in its rear too, as it rolled and twisted and skidded downwards and out of control.
Roger gasped as he realized it was being hit by Giant Isopod, after Giant Isopod. They’d come tumbling at great speed, rolling relentlessly down the slope from behind Roger and so knocking the Giant Rat for six! For the Rat, it was just like facing a continual fusillade of cannon, firing broadside after broadside from some mighty fleet of War Galleons.
Scores of the seemingly sleepy and shy Pill-bugs had come to his rescue!
“Whew! Well at least somebody likes me down here!” he wryly thought, “I’m definitely getting the idea that there may be something down here that doesn’t actually want me to die.”
“But, then again,” he added as an afterthought, “there’s definitely something down here that does!”
The Giant Rat had now fallen a fair way and disappeared down into the bubbling smoke below, along with all the valiant Isopods that had so soundly defeated the verminous ratty brute.
Roger heard a distant thud and then a screeching howl; Then all was once again silent.
The attack of Rattus Magnus was over!
Roger turned his attention back to his mission. He cautiously continued on his way down; Pointing his torch ahead and getting ever closer to the swirling lake of grey smoke below.
He needed to make sure Mary knew he was still on the way, and that she could hear him, so he called out to her again.