On the morning after the first day at his new posting, Grunth awoke with a familiar smell

in his nostrils. “Ah, nufin’ like the smell of horse shit in da mornin’” he grumbled to

himself. The day before, he and his three squad members had surveyed the out-skirts of

their area of responsibility. Apart from a Church of the Order of the Eight Demons in

one small village to the north, the nearby villages pretty much all looked alike with dinky

little hamlets dotted all over the countryside.

Grunth thought he was having a tough time adjusting to living in the farm belt again, but

poor old Sylud had never been out of Coranan for any length of time and he was starting

to look a little lost.

Then there was Nico, who had grown-up around places like this, but he had found a

fondness for ale, and was now wishing he had been posted to a larger town, Sitarny had

no Inn. Grunth had concerns about both men, but he knew they would conquer their

misgivings.

As for Lothar, he was the accomplished Legionnaire. If he wasn’t cleaning his

equipment or proudly standing on duty, he was learning to read & write (and helping

Grunth from time to time) or perfecting his fighting skills.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sometime around lunch, a man from one of the neighboring hamlets came running down

the road trying to catch the gate guard’s attention. Between ragged breaths, the man

relayed to sergeant Kethad why he was in such a panic. Grunth could only make out

something about ‘broken eggs’ and ‘running across roof tops’ the rest was mumbling and

raving. The sergeant looked around the small compound, then spotted Grunth and his

squadmates, pointed and yelled “Oi, you lot, front and center!”. “Seems like there’s

sumfing going on in dis farmers hamlet, find out wot it is and take care of it, do ya fink ya

can handle dat?” he bawled. “Yes sir” they yelled in sequence.

After collecting their equipment, the squad headed out with the worried farmer in tow.

As they marched, they tried to piece together exactly what had happened. Apparently

some weird things had started a couple of days before and were happening more

frequently as the days passed, the villagers were beginning to get frightened. Once they

had arrived at the hamlet, the squad broke up and decided to investigate each and every

story, no matter how insignificant. After they had heard the testimonies of each villager

they regrouped and tried to figure out what was happening in the hamlet.

“It’s just kids playing around, that’s all” Nico stated. “But that doesn’t explain the

running atop of roofs in the middle of the night” Lothar argued, “And there were no

tracks to be found anywhere, at any of dem” Grunth chimed in. “It’s Boggles I tells ya,

BOGGLES!” Sylud blared, “I’ve ‘erd people talking about em, bad stories about em,

they’re ghosts, spirits, they come round at night and steal childr. . . ”, “There’s no such

thing as a ‘boggle’” Lothar retorted “We’ll find it, what ever it is”.

With that now settled, the squad hatched a plan for the coming night. Both Grunth and

Sylud would sleep inside farmhouses each with a separate family (Grunth noticed Sylud

went for the one with the prettiest daughter), whilst Lothar and Nico would stand guard

outside watching over the perimeter of the hamlet.

A few hours into his sleep Grunth was awoken by a loud knock at the door. Springing

from his bed he grabbed his short sword as he leapt to open the front door, only to find

Nico lumbering towards him. “What?” Grunth asked Nico, “Did you hear that

knocking?” Nico asked, “Wasn’t it you?” Grunth queried, “No!” Nico replied. By now

the whole household had started to rise, worried about what was going on. Grunth

reassured them that it was just the other guard checking in. Feeling reassured, they all

decided to go back to sleep except for Grunth who sat up and wondered who could have

been knocking on the door.

When morning arrived life carried on around the squad of young legionnaires, the

villagers once again feeling safe knowing that they had four of Tharda’s best to watch

over them. However, over the next two nights the incidents resumed, increasing in

seriousness. Stones were thrown from the darkness at the legionnaires on guard, and then

one night several chickens were plucked bald by the unknown assailant whilst they

roosted in the fields beyond the light of the sentry fires, their mournful clucking

indicating their distress.

The next morning a new plan was put into place. Lothar decided that he and Sylud sould

sneak out into the fields just before dark and lay in wait for the culprit, while Grunth and

Nico would patrol around the hamlet during the night as if nothing had changed.

That night, Grunth was bored, wondering whether the delinquent would ever show

himself, when all of a sudden two javelins came hurtling over the thatch roof of a nearby

house, embedding themselves in the earth just a few feet in front of him. Signaling to

Nico, Grunth prepared himself for whatever onslaught was coming his way.

Waiting at the end of the house, Grunth could hear snarling, grunting and rustling coming

from above. Stepping back a few paces he could see that Lothar had climbed on top of

the roof and was looking around for something. The next thing he knew there was

screaming, yelling and animals making a hell of a noise from inside the farmhouse.

Rushing to the door, Grunth cautiously opened it and peered inside. It was pitch black

and nothing could be seen. “Nico you guard da door, while I look inside, OK?” Grunth

said to Nico as he arrived.

Stepping into the darkness, lessened only by a hole in the roof through which a small

amount of starlight shone, Grunth felt his way just a few feet inside the front door. The

noise inside was deafening, cries of alarm from the occupants, the noises of the farm

animals in the barn, all served to deafen Grunth to the location of the intruder. Suddenly

Grunth felt something graze his back, so he swung around with a closed fist at what ever

it was that passed by him. Turning to catch the intruder, Grunth nearly fell over Nico

lying in the doorway. Picking up his comrade, Grunth once again gave chase while Nico

followed. “Ugly little fucker…all mouth and fur…quick too” Nico panted, hard on

Grunth’s heels.

Rounding the corner of the house, Grunth saw Lothar leap from the rooftop to chase the

creature with Sylud already on the ground close behind. Reaching the far end of the

house, Grunth saw that Lothar and Sylud had changed direction and were now heading

back towards the other houses in pursuit of what Grunth could only describe as a fast

moving bush with legs.

Following Lothar and Sylud around another corner, Grunth arrived in time to see both of

them standing, looking around intently, scanning for the slightest movement. “Where’d

he go?” Grunth inquired. “Damned if I know” Lothar said. “Damned if I know?”

thought Grunth to himself, what was it? a mutated rat?, an angry bush?, or maybe Sylud

had been right, maybe it was…a BOGGLE!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Written By: Gerrard Saunders (a.k.a Grunth of Callon)