Copyright © 2022 by Travis M. Riddle.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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  Cover design by Deranged Doctor Design

  Dirt King/Travis M. Riddle. —1st ed.

  Praise for

  HOUNDSTOOTH

  “…fresh, exciting, heartwarming, thrilling, unpredictable, and all-around an outstanding fantasy read.”

  Forever Lost in Literature

  “Travis Riddle (fresh off his SPFBO semi finalist status) has once again come up with something quite unique … great character driven fun in a very different world.”

  D.P. Woolliscroft, author of Kingshold

  “Riddle has always had a knack for deep, authentic characters, and Flesh Eater lives up to what I’ve come to expect from him in that regard … strong characters coupled with deep world building and unique fantasy races.”

  Calvin Park, Fantasy Book Review

  “Flesh Eater is an excellent start to a new adventure fantasy with lovable characters, exceptional world-building, and wonderful storytelling.”

  Natasha, Booknest.eu

  “…one of the weirdest and most entertaining books I've read all year.”

  John Bierce, author of Mage Errant

  For 2020

  CONTENTS

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  38

  39

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  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  Previously, in

  MOTHER PIG

  Coal Ereness is having even less of a good time.

  After shockingly winning the third annual Soponunga Spiderback Showdown and subsequently having his whole world turned upside down by news about magic and the Houndstooth, he sets off for the town of Sadatso with a raccoon named Noswen and a bat named Yurzu. On their way there, they are attacked by Marl, the wolverine Coal previously worked with for Garna Nomak, who is there on orders to obtain the diamond anteater claw in Coal’s possession. With the help of Yurzu’s sleeping powder, they thwart Marl with ease and continue on their way.

  In Sadatso, Coal meets the rest of the group. There was the orangutan Lop, who previously worked as a Palace guard; the boar Biror; and the saola Jatiri, who worked as a doctor. There is also Zsoz, the slime who was tasked with safely storing the six artifacts within its jelly. The meeting does not go fantastically, when word is spilled that Coal is a Flesh Eater. Lop, ever the dutiful Palace protector, immediately distrusts Coal due to this and begins treating him harshly. Biror treats him somewhat harshly too, but that is just his personality. Jatiri is the only real new friend Coal makes in this group that calls themselves the Blighted.

  Soon the group takes off for the city of Nitulo, where they are to find the next artifact: a crystal tiger fang in possession of the mayor, Ghoresn Danaarb. When they arrive, however, they learn that Ghoresn has been missing for months and the city has been overtaken by a religious cult called the Calitarash. The creepy leader of the cult informs them that Ghoresn is actually not missing, but is in fact being held in a dungeon underneath the mountain. She has succumbed to an unknown illness, and the Blighted are told that if they can help her, they may have the fang.

  When they go to see Ghoresn, they find that she has been transformed into an enormous, hulking beast by the dark magic leaking from the Houndstooth. They try to help her, but their efforts fail spectacularly and the group has to face off against the monster. Unfortunately, this results in Ghoresn’s death, but the Blighted obtain the tiger fang and are one step closer to sealing off the Houndstooth.

  Seeing how deeply Ghoresn was affected by the Houndstooth’s magic, the group realizes that they need to pick up the pace if they want to save the kingdom. There are two artifacts remaining, so they decide that it would be efficient to split the group in half, each going for a different artifact then meeting up in Yurzu’s hometown of Toothshadow, only an hour away from the Palace. The first group consists of Noswen, Yurzu, and Lop, who will be traveling to the bird city of Moonoshk to find the obsidian beak; the second consists of Coal, Jatiri, and Biror, who will be going to Biror’s home territory of the Mudlands to find the jade boar hoof in the city of Vuntagonyeo.

  Coal and his group set out on a riverboat called the Sister’s Diatribe that should take them pretty close to the Mudlands. Everything is going great on the big, fancy boat. Coal and Biror are having a great time bonding over the buffet, while Jatiri is getting a lot of relaxation. But the vacation doesn’t last long when a giant river monster attacks the boat, shipwrecking it and separating the group.

  When Coal recovers, he’s alone in a forest. He stumbles upon a seemingly abandoned house and decides to stay the night there, but he quickly finds that the house is not uninhabited. A machine man named Horace returns home. He is a machine unlike any Coal has ever seen, acting as a fully sentient being rather than just a tool. Something is clearly wrong with his head, though, as his memory and speech seem to be faulty. In the middle of the night, Horace attacks Coal, claiming that he has touched something and he wants Coal to give it to him. Coal narrowly escapes into the night, leaving Horace behind, unable to follow him in the rain.

  Meanwhile, things are going much more swimmingly for the other group. They are traveling across an enormous structure called the Houndspine, a giant bridge crossing over the wild forest of Ruska called the Innards. The Houndspine has developed into a city of its own, its entire span filled with shops and entertainment and neighborhoods.

  They cross the Houndspine without incident, and on the other end they must travel through the Lakilu Forest to reach Moonoshk. There is something wrong with the forest, though. All the bark on the trees has melted off, creating puddles of black sludge throughout the forest. The only plant they find growing in the forest is a strange little glowing thing, and when Noswen approaches it, it suddenly imbues her with…something. They do not know what, but Yurzu can sense within her a new magical power in addition to the healing magic she already possessed. There isn’t time to unpack this, though, because gunfire starts ringing out through the forest. They flee from their unseen assailants and successfully get away.

  On the other side of the country, Coal has reunited with Biror and Jatiri, and Biror decides they should follow the snails’ migratory tracks through the Mudlands in order to reach Vuntagonyeo. They find a pack of snails and lethargically follow them for many days, until one day they come upon a massive, blighted snail that has been killing other snails. To protect the pack they’re following, Biror claims they must kill this transformed snail. The battle is tough, and Biror succeeds in killing the monster, but not before it bites off Coal’s foot. Jatiri, with her medical expertise, does her best to help Coal out, but there is not much she can do in the middle of the muddy wilderness. They trudge onward to Vuntagonyeo, hoping that Coal can better recover there.

  Once they arrive, Biror brings Coal to a claymaker, insisting that the best prosthetics in Ruska come from Mudlands claymakers. The woman makes him a clay foot, which is not the most comfortable thing to walk on, but it’s the best he can do for now. Jatiri continually insists that he take it easy and not overexert himself, but Coal is desperate to get back to normal. Afterwards, Biror arranges a meeting with Mother Pig, the matriarch of the boars, who should be able to provide them with the jade hoof that they seek. The night before their meeting, though, Coal is assailed by yet another Palace Stinger, but this one has orders to kill him. With Biror’s help, they vanquish the Stinger. Coal suspects the man was sent after him by Lop, who has ties to the Palace and has never trusted him.

  When the other group finally reaches Moonoshk, they are just in time to join a battle. The city is under attack by blightbeasts, and the group does not hesitate jumping into the fray. After a long, hard fight, the city is safe again and as thanks for the group’s heroics, they are offered free rooms at the Fingrass Hotel for as long as they want to stay.

  A few days later, once the city has recovered somewhat, they set up a meeting with the Moonoshk city council. At this meeting, they learn that the council member who previously owned the obsidian beak recently passed away, and the beak was put in her funerary urn before being cast over the side of the Yuluj Mountains. It’s uncomfortable, but the group decides that their only option is to go up to the cemetery in the mountains and retrieve the beak.

  Over in Vuntagonyeo, Coal and the others finally have their meeting with Mother Pig. The woman hands over the hoof without question, but she also says that certain instructions have been passed down from Mother Pig to Mother Pig for generations: whenever a group finally comes asking for the hoof, they are to be asked what their powers are. The group is stunned that Mother Pig even knows about their powers, but they answer her, and she is immediately interested in Coal’s ability to speak to the dead.

  She brings him to a special chamber by himself, where she presents him with the ancient, preserved arm of a Mother Pig from centuries earlier. Her instructions were to wait for someone who can speak to spirits to arrive and give them this arm. She leaves the room, and Coal reluctantly begins to eat. He is greeted by the spirit of this ancient Mother Pig, though her ghostly form is black and malformed, not the same smooth blue as his father’s spirit.

  What she tells him further complicates his already extremely complicated life. Mother Pig says that she and hundreds of other spirits are trapped in the Houndstooth, and that the Dirt King has been lying to people for countless years. The Houndstooth isn’t sealing dark magic; it’s sealing the lifeforce of the entire kingdom. That is why the plants and animals of Ruska are dying off, because this energy is being stored within the Houndstooth, siphoned away by the Dirt King in order to keep him alive and powerful. The six artifacts are actually the essences of the six previous Blighted who were tasked with this, and Coal and the others will suffer the same fate if they don’t do something. She has been waiting years and years to tell someone this. Mother Pig tells Coal that it is up to him and the other Blighted to stop the Dirt King from continuing this cycle, or else Ruska will eventually completely die out.

  Up in the mountains outside Moonoshk, Yurzu navigates the group to the cemetery, where he flies down over the side of the mountain and retrieves the obsidian beak from the ash-covered crags. Pleased with their success, they begin traveling back down the mountain to the city, but Yurzu is suddenly killed by a gunshot.

  Noswen flies into a fury and unlocks her new magical ability. She bursts into flames that engulf her entire body, and she begins pelting their assailants with fireballs. As it turns out, they have been followed across the kingdom by the wolverine Marl, who is still trying to steal the anteater claw on behalf of Garna Nomak. Noswen and Lop do not hesitate to kill Marl and his associate.

  While they are grieving the loss of Yurzu, another person approaches them on the mountain path. A woodpecker is frantically running toward them, distraught about being too late to save someone.

  1

  EVERYTHING WAS QUIET IN the Palace. It was always quiet in the Palace; that was what the Dirt King preferred. He needed his rest, and to get his rest, he needed quiet. Guards patrolled the halls while trained ants walked the outside perimeter. And the Dirt King rested.

  While he rested, it was the King’s Mouth who ensured everything ran smoothly (and quietly) at the Palace. Currently, he was outside the Palace walls, inspecting an ant that one of the trainers said was growing ill.

  It was becoming more and more of a frequent occurrence, unfortunately. This was the third ant the King’s Mouth had to give a look-over in the past two months. The others had not pushed through and were put down when their signs of infection worsened.

  Of course, the King’s Mouth knew what was the cause of their symptoms. But that was not information to be divulged to lowly ant trainers.

  The King’s Mouth approached the ant and its trainer, a rotund little hedgehog he knew to be named Bolliver. The man had been working at the Palace for over a decade, specializing in training giant insects. It was a job the King’s Mouth did not envy.

  He looked the ant up and down, towering almost twice as tall as himself. It was hideous. Reddish-brown body standing on six spindly legs, shifting nervously in place. Its black, orb-like eyes sitting on a bulbous head with sharp mandibles clacking. The sound made the King’s Mouth’s skin crawl. He hated bugs. The big ones were proportionately worse.

  “Good morning, sir,” said Bolliver with a deep bow.

  The King’s Mouth returned his greeting with a nod, but the hedgehog did not see it. He was still doubled-over in an attempt to show the utmost respect to the man before him.

  At times like these, when the King’s Mouth simply wanted to swoop in, get a job done, and duck out, displays such as this were grating. Given that he was the sole person in the Palace who directly interacted with the Dirt King, everyone wanted to treat him with as much respect as they would the actual King. He was the proxy. Whatever he said could be taken as words from the Dirt King himself.

  “You may rise,” said the King’s Mouth. His mouth was dry this morning. He could distinctly feel the roughness of his tongue.

  Bolliver stood up straight and offered a weak smile. “Thank you for seeing me this morning.”

  The small man looked ridiculous standing next to the enormous ant. It was difficult to imagine how he could even effectively train such a beast, or why he had gone into that line of work in the first place. The ant was nearly double the King’s Mouth’s height, and the King’s Mouth was nearly double Bolliver’s. Not that the King’s Mouth was especially tall, but rather Bolliver was especially short, even for a hedgehog.

  At the present, the King’s Mouth bore the appearance of a moose. In this iteration of himself, he wanted something that was imposing, intimidating, yet still dignified. Not something brutish like a boar or bear. Before this latest transformation, he had been a sloth. All the dignity, but none of the intimidation.

  He had been living as a moose for a few decades now, and he had to admit it was far better than his time as a sloth. The King’s Mouth was one of the Dirt King’s first successful creations—after several years of failed attempts—and so the King’s Mouth had been alive nearly as long as the King. It was necessary to refresh his appearance every four or five decades, so that people would not grow suspicious of him. As far as they knew, the sloth who previously held the title of King’s Mouth had retired and been replaced by this moose.

  The King’s Mouth took a step toward the ant, which backed away in kind. He glanced at Bolliver, who apologized.

  “She gets anxious around newcomers,” he explained.

  “That is understandable,” said the King’s Mouth. “May I ask what the problem is?”

  Bolliver nodded hurriedly. He was worried about wasting such an important person’s time, though it was mandated that any symptoms of this specific infection be brought to the attention of the King’s Mouth and nobody else.

  The hedgehog motioned to follow him around to the back of the ant. He came to a halt beside its abdomen. Bolliver pointed at a spot near the underside of the abdomen, a sort of green, wet sheen. With his other hand, he stroked one of the ant’s legs to soothe it.

  “Is it safe to approach?” the King’s Mouth asked. Bolliver affirmed, so he took a few cautious steps forward and ducked down to take a closer look at the problem area.

  His antlers lightly grazed the insect, which caused it to jitter and snap its mandibles. Bolliver continued rubbing its leg and gently cooing.

  The King’s Mouth placed a black-furred fingertip on the spot and came away with a glob of pus dribbling down his finger. He clucked his tongue and shook his head.

  “It’s good you alerted me,” he told Bolliver. “This is most assuredly early symptoms of bajwana.”

  Bolliver’s face sunk at the word. It was the man’s greatest fear.

  It was a nonsense word, one that the King’s Mouth made up without even getting input from the Dirt King. Bajwana was the name he put to the Houndstooth’s infection when it showed up in animals or people around the Palace. Although it was referred to as septstitch when a person was infected, it was all the same thing.

  Without a name, the illness would be a mystery. And a mystery was frightening. Something to panic over. Panic was just another word for disquiet. The Dirt King did not want that in the Palace, nor anywhere else in his kingdom.

  Giving it a name lent some sense of understanding to the sickness, and with understanding came a cure. A solution. If an animal or person was diagnosed with bajwana or septstitch, they could be ushered deep into the Palace for treatment—which the King’s Mouth said could sometimes take many months. And no, they could not have any visitors, for fear of spreading the disease.

 

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