Ending

Dol Amroth FA 73

The child hesitated, his hand on the library door. Papa had said not to believe Great-grandfather Amrothos, that he was always telling stories and to take no notice. But Great-grandfather had sworn the frightening tale to be true.

Deciding to take no chances, the child turned the knob and pushed open the heavy door. Olthor, the librarian, looked up as soon as he entered.

“Good day, young lord. I don’t often see you in here. I thought you preferred the stables.”

“I do,” the child answered. “But tomorrow Papa is taking me to the island for a picnic, and Great- grandfather warned me to watch out for the Giant Squid. Papa says he’s funning, but….” He dropped his voice, “I don’t even like small squid.”

“No, I agree, they are not very pretty.” Olthor answered with a sympathetic smile. “And what makes your Great-grandfather think you might meet a giant one?”

“Because he says he did. Years and years ago when he was young. Younger than my Papa. Great-grandfather told me to come to the library and I would find out.”

Olthor’s lips twitched. “Oh, I see. And when was this famous event supposed to have taken place?”

“Great-grandfather says it was the year the old King of Rohan married his sister.”

“Ah, that must have been at the end of the Third Age. Then let me look.” Olthor went to a shelf behind him and lifted down a heavy tome. “This is the place it would be – The Chronicle of Strange Happenings.”   He started to leaf through the stiff pages, muttering to himself as he scanned the entries.

“It would be just after the Ring-war. There was lots of weird goings on around that time. There’s an entry here about a talking eagle. It flew over the walls telling everybody about the end of the war.”

“Everyone knows about the eagle,” the child scoffed, “but is there anything about a huge squid?”

“Um…  ah, here we are. This must be it.” Olthor started to read from the book. “The putrefied remains of a huge sea creature were discovered washed up on the beach by a group of fishermen. The monster was thought to be the Giant Squid of legend.  The body had been torn and partially eaten by shore crabs, but eight of its tentacles remained intact. However, the two front feeding tentacles were ragged stumps, so its length could only be estimated at around forty- three feet.”

Fini

Lialathuveril has a thing about squids. Check out her great little humorous piece – Revenge is a dish best served cold. LBJ