Draw a Scuttler Contest and win a signed copy of The Tether & Accept One
They are ugly, they are smelly, they are the Crabs from Hell, and the first other worldly creatures Sarah encounters as the Keeper of the Tether.
They also seem to have a lasting effect on readers of The Tether Saga. I get emails all the time from readers who say the Scuttlers pop up in their dreams!
To help you rid yourself of your nightmares (or perhaps to give you more) I am pleased to announce our first Draw a Scuttler Competition.
The Competition rules are simply, submit your interpretation of a Scuttler via email to savant@custodiet.com by March 31st 2011 and you can win a signed copy of The Tether, and Book 2 of the Tether Saga Accept One.
The Scuttler (or Scuttlers) must be drawn in black and white and be no bigger than 8×11. All entries will be displayed in our special Scuttler gallery that will appear March 15th 2011 for your viewing pleasure.
To help you in this task, after the jump I've included the description of the Scuttlers first ever appearance in The Tether.
"Sarah caught a sudden small movement out of the corner of her eyes, and she glimpsed something scuttling quickly across the floor. Instinctively she followed the movement back around the corner of the nurses' station, and saw something small and blue on the floor. Kneeling down she got a closer look at what looked like an unusually small crab. The strange looking creature stopped as if it was taking a good look at her. It was crab shaped with a dark blue coloring to it. The crab had one tiny pincer and one particularly large misshapen claw. Instead of a smooth shell that you would expect to see on most crabs, it shell was covered in small knots and what looked like barnacles. Sarah reached out to it; the crab-like creature scuttled back warding her off with its large claw.
"What are you?" Sarah asked.
The crab-like creature continued to scuttle away from her and disappeared around the corner into the opposite corridor. Fascinated Sarah began to follow it when a familiar musty, obnoxious egg smell hit her nostrils and stopping her in her tracks filling her with dread.
Where have I smelt that before?" said Sarah.
She sniffed again the smell was even stronger, and she could hear a faint scuttling noise. Following the noise and the tracks of the retreating crab creature she turned around the corner and stopped short, her mouth and eyes went wide at the sight waiting for her.
The entire corridor was filled with hundreds of the scuttling crab like creature she saw in the nurses' station. They flowed around the frozen hospital staff like water and all seemed to be moving around aimlessly. Then as one the crab like creatures stopped and Sarah could feel a thousand beady little eyes staring at her. Feeling uneasy she took a step back bouncing off one of the inanimate staff members and lost her footing on the frozen floor and fell heavily on her bottom. The fall sent a sharp pain through her belly, making her groan. The scuttling crab creatures watched her intently and the nearest one started to move towards Sarah. She kicked it away instinctively with her foot, and scuttled herself back on her hands. The creature skidded into its fellow before turning to look at her. For a moment there was total silence and then it was broken by the menacing sound of hundreds of pincers clicking. A hissing sound started to rise from the mass of crab creatures. Not wanting to see what would happen next Sarah's slipped feet slid on the floor as she tried to back away from the creatures. Finally finding her feet, Sarah turned and started to run back down the corridor, she heard, rather than saw the malevolent tide of crab creatures start to scuttle after her."
