Admiral:
Written by: Admiral
Illustrated by: t5p1ny
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[align=center]The Camel-Squig Rider and the Manling, by Zhargonidus[/align]
Once upon a time, there was a Hobgoblin who excelled at taming and riding the deadly Camel-Squigs. Yet his skill in the saddle-seat was not at all matched by his handling of arms, for he fumbled with his bowshots and did not strike true with spears, and his knives did not stab effortlessly through flesh, but glanced off the bones of ribcages and broke inside his victims. Every weapon he tried his hand at, proved beyond him to master. And so he contented himself with whip and javelins, and put instead all his efforts into riding his feared Camel-Squig, for he claimed that the beast alone would suffice for his armament, swung by his reins. One day, the Hobgoblin’s tribe happened upon a Manling caravan bound for the East. They set an ambush and assailed the enemy, and all the Hobgoblins were exhilarated by their success.
“Bring your most skilled warrior to me, for my mount deserves the best of meat, for he can lay low the best of you,” declared the Camel-Squig Rider.
Somehow, his challenge was answered by a tall Manling wielding a greatsword, and for a while this foreign Manling darted to and fro on foot, slashing and thrusting at the Camel-Squig’s thick coat of fur with his long blade, and evading all its lunges and frothing bites. Truly, the Hobgoblin had found the best of the Manlings.
After a while, the Camel-Squig grew rabid at its prey, and its rider grew vexed at the Manling’s defiance, and so he swung his whip in fury and lashed out blunderingly at his foe from a low angle. Yet the skillful Manling managed to both throw himself aside from the lunging beast, and present his blade for the Hobgoblin’s whip. He held firm as the whip whirled around the greatsword, and pulled with might and main, thereby throwing the Camel-Squig Rider from his saddle-seat, flat onto the ground.
The Hobgoblin shrieked and ordered his beast to recognize its master and let him live, yet the frenzied Camel-Squig proceeded to gulp down both its former rider and its Manling prey in a red fury. For such is the fate of those who could only master part of their craft, and not the whole.
- The Camel-Squig Rider and the Manling, by Despot Zhargonidus Doombeard, the renowned Chaos Dwarf author of fable stories, of our present time
