Howlergoon Book 6: Tales of Tossledowns

By Laurence Knighton

When cold wind blows out of Narmly Woods on its way to meet the muddy waters of eerie Perchmire Swamp, don’t go near Bloodbridge, sunup or sundown. That’s when unearthly screams of red-faced howlergoons turn dark hair snowy white.
“They haunt, they hunt, they’ll steal your soul!”
Gwendyl has heard all the worrisome tales, but never imagined she would come face to face with her worst fears.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laurence Knighton
• Release date: Mar 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452463193

Laurence Knighton

Born in the Rocky Mountains under a loaf of wry bread, Laurence (Larsky) Knighton is a graphic designer and illustrator by trade, having written and illustrated Disney's 'Donald Duck' syndicated daily comic strip for years before its cancelation in the American market. Still illustrating and writing fun, entertaining stories, he resides in Boise, Idaho with his handsome plush-stuffed black Lab 'Buck' who never sheds, barks, or runs away.

Book preview

Tales of Tossledowns – Book 6

HOWLERGOON

by

Laurence Knighton

Smashwords Edition

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PUBLISHED BY:

Laurence Knighton on Smashwords

Howlergoon – Book 6 Tales of Tossledowns

Copyright © 2011 by Laurence Knighton

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Prologue

Atop Karnberry Hill, a touch of wind found an opening in the crumbling foundation beneath the old abandoned house. The remnant of a passing storm storm, it wasn’t much, but it fluttered lazily through the crawlspace and startled a busy yellow spinspider. Dozens of delicate webs moved and her sensitive talents put her spidery ways on alert.

But before she danced a stealthy maneuver across the sticky snare to investigate, a dozen tiny eyes watched intently to catch sight of a struggle. She saw nothing. When all the webs rose and fell around her with the antics of the errant breeze, she realized it was a false alarm and turned back to her work.

There was much to do.

The storm was long since gone, but before it moved on, a heavy shower of rain worked its way into the crawlspace and brought chaos into her otherwise pleasant spider world. There was lots of rain, enough that the weight of so much water clung to nearly every sticky snare and threatened to undo all her efforts to create a perfect home.

With all the moisture came a spider-chilling cold. It really wasn’t that bad, considering how frigid winters were far worse. Still, the spinspider hated the cold, but not nearly as much as she hated getting wet. Of course, she wasn’t about to complain. After all, she was a spider and spiders do their best to hide emotions.

But worse than the cold and the notion of getting wet, she feared drowning because it seemed there could be nothing more horrible. That’s why it took so long for her to get to her damaged snares.

So, hiding in the upper reaches of the crawlspace where it was impossible to drown, she shivered from the chill and waited until the storm passed before she got to work.

First, the spinspider saved those webs with the least damage. Producing strands of sticky silky thread, she laced them back together, added additional strength to the weakest of them all and moved on to see what she could do to salvage those that appeared hopelessly ruined.

Needless to say, for a spider that usually led a pretty dull but safe life under the old abandoned house, it had been a most unusual day, most unusual, indeed.

It started right off that morning before the storm arrived. One of her sticky traps had snared a swarm of scatterbugs that filled her belly quite well and she was seriously considering a nap when she felt a huge tug on the web. When she hurried to see what might have been captured, to her surprise, a rare tomebeetle had made the mistake of walking into one of her snares. He was huge and she envisioned dozens of meals once she had him properly wrapped and hung to cure with others she already had stored.

Only, it didn’t turn out that way.

While in the midst of wrapping the beetle, a chore that spiders do so very well, she noticed a book he carried in a tattered pack. Called ‘Tales of