Thank you. Underwood and flinch, a novel, written and performed for podcast by Mike Bennett.

Episode 34.

This podcast is intended for an adult audience.

Hello, listeners, and welcome back to Underwood and Flinch.

Previously, in Lord Underwood's account of how he came to be what he is, we learned that back at the turn of the 18th century, Underwood was originally called John William Brooks and that his fiancee Martha had been sentenced to 14 years of penal servitude in the British colony at Richmond, Virginia.

Brooks set out to rescue her, but his ship was attacked by pirates

and then by Henry V. Lane, and Brooks, being a carpenter, was pressed into joining them.

It was aboard the pirate ship, the Fortuna,

that Brooks met young Matthias Flinch

who had also been pressed. Later, during the heat and smoke of an attack on a Dutch ship,

Brooks Matthias and another pressed man named Cullen made their escape by jumping overboard and swimming for a nearby island.

The pirates, led by an unpleasant fellow named Raj, were soon in pursuit. They chased them across the island and after a fight, recaptured them.

On bringing Brooks and Matthias back to face Pirate Justice, Rudge and his man-made camp.

During the night, they were attacked by an unseen predator.

Brooks and Matthias explained that Cullen had been taken the previous night in similar circumstances.

Raj untied Brooks and Mathias and they joined him and another pirate called Dodd in forming a defensive ring against the predator.

But it is only when Dodd is snatched from among them and carried off into the sky above, that they realize they are facing something beyond their understanding.

Whatever the creature is, it's drawn by the scent of fresh blood.

So keep an eye on the sky listeners,

because the next 60 minutes are awash with it.

I stammered out the obvious question.

What happened to Dodd? Raj looked at me then.

...