Now, in a matter of minutes, the skeleton was visible, picked almost clean, the bones gleaming except where small lizards skittered about on them, seeking a last particle of flesh. As the water lizards had fed, the carcass, lightened, had shifted position, rolling in the water. Idly, with repulsion, I watched the body of the tharlarion in the swamp. Accordingly, carrying the sword in my hand, I waded back to the foot of the swamp tree and climbed the small, dry knoll at its base. I bent down and washed the blade of my sword as well as I could in the green water, but my tunic was so splattered and soaked that I had no way to dry the blade. About its flanks, as it settled into the mud, there was a stirring in the water, and I realized the small water lizards of the swamp forest were engaged in their grisly work. More of the colorless exudate was seeping from its throat. The tharlarion sunk a bit lower in the marsh, half closing its eyes. "May the Priest-Kings blast your bones," I shouted, as cheerfully as I could, adding, for good measure, "and may you thrive upon the excrement of tharlarions!" The latter recommendation, with its allusion to the loathed riding lizards used by many of the primitive clans of Gor, seemed to please him. The tarn is one of the two most common mounts of a Gorean warrior the other is the high tharlarion, a species of saddle-lizard, used mostly by clans who have never mastered tarns. I make no pronouncements on these matters, but report them as I find them. Here are relevant references from the Books where reptiles are mentioned.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |