by Mark Wandrey
They broke up into teams to tackle the project. Aaron with his muscles took command of the hatchet and he began to shape logs, cutting them to length and trimming branches. Cherise helped him move them into place while Minu and Pip designed and began to assemble their makeshift raft. The work went quicker than Minu expected after surveying the towering pile of log snags. Using the razor sharp dualloy ax Aaron was able to make short work of logs as large as his thigh. She took a break at one point to watch him work. His shirt off, muscles bunched on his powerful arms and back as he swung over and over. Some deep recess of her mind purred like a kitten.
Night fell and they kept working. The canyon angle allowed Romulus to shine fully down when it rose on them, plus Aaron lit a huge bonfire from the dry trimmings off the logs. When Aaron spotted the glow from a pair of eyes in the underbrush his well honed throwing arm added a rabbit to the fire and some much needed protein into their stomachs. Cherise insisted on saving a haunch for Gregg when he returned.
The work continued at a pace, hastened onward by the intermittent howls of the distant kloth as it grew closer. There was no longer any doubt in their minds that the beast was headed their way. Whatever Gregg's intentions or fate he appeared to have failed. As Remus set, the lizard sounded so close that they all expected it to round the bend behind them any moment. While the other three finished tying some of their precious rope around a makeshift tiller, Aaron used the ax to sharpen a half dozen poles to a deadly point.
"But we have knives," Pip pointed out when he saw what the other boy was doing.
"You don't fight a kloth with a knife," Cherise told him somberly.
"Not a good idea," Aaron agreed. "From what I hear you'd be better served to keep the knife in your sheath. That way when the monster eats you whole you can use the knife to cut your way out of its stomach." Everyone laughed, a cold mirthless laugh. With another leaf shaking roar, the kloth rounded the bend in the river a hundred meters away.
"Oh my God," Minu said as the beast chugged into view. At least ten meters long it weighed an easy two tons. All six of its squat legs propelled it along the ground as its snout swung from side to side to give the creatures six eyes a better view of the terrain in front of it while its mouth gaped open to taste the air.
"Get the raft in the water!" Minu grabbed a spear from Aaron who looked from her to the raft then to the spear, obviously conflicted.
"Let me hold it off," he said and grabbed a spear as well.
"And how am I supposed to get the raft in the water?" she demanded. "Think, damn it, you and Pip are the stronger. Give the spears to Cherise and I and we'll keep the beast at bay."
"But you’re-"
"What, girls? Do you think breasts keep us from fighting? Use your head. You've been taking my orders for more than a week now, trusting your life to this girl. So do what I say and put those muscles to the best use!" She snatched the spear from his hand and tossed it to Cherise who caught it with a practiced ease. The kloth came around the bend and was now picking up speed in the straightaway. "Do it!"
"Come on, Aaron!" Pip practically begged, "Do you want to die here?"
"The four of us can't kill a male that size," Cherise told him, "but Minu and I can hold it off for a minute while you get the raft in the water."
"Shit!" Aaron snapped and with obvious reluctance he ran to help Pip. Minu took a deep breath and turned to meet her fate.
The kloth reached the pool two dozen meters away and skidded to a stop. It considered the obstacle, turning first one way then the other. The canyon wall was to one side while the roaring river to the other.
"They can't swim," Cherise told her as they tested the grip of their spears and watched with apprehension, "it might turn around if it doesn't realize the water is shallow.” And as they watched it tried to do just that. The shore was only a few meters wide there and as the beast tried to turn its inflexible body it came face to face with the river once more. With a deafening roar of frustration, it launched itself toward them.
Minu's mouth dropped open as the seemingly sluggish reptile cleared most of the pool with one incredible leap, all six legs sending rocks and water flying as they churned on impact. The ground reverberated with a shuddering crash. As soon as it was down it began to race toward them with ever increasing speed, like a boulder rolling down a hill.
"How fast can they go?" Minu asked her.
"Too fast," Cherise said and threw her first spear as hard as she could.
The spears were far from perfect, her throw on the other hand, was. The spear landed just behind the monsters head and buried a good half a meter into the muscles there. It ran on for a heart stopping second before the pain registered. It stopped, shook its head, and roared.
The kloth was close enough that the roar felt like a physical assault on their bodies. Minu saw every one of its serrated teeth and just how wide its gullet was. The joke about being swallowed whole wasn't just a legend. Kloth didn't chew their food, they just tore off chunks or swallowed it whole.
The grunts, yells and sounds of gravel shifting told Minu that the boys were wrestling the raft into the water. The kloth seemed to notice them for the first time and it turned left then right, giving both sets of eyes a good look. Blood was running from the wound on its back in a small stream now but it seemed not to be concerned as it took a step toward them. Cherise, now with a fresh spear, lunged at the beast. With lighting fast reflexes it snapped down on the spear tip and with one mighty flick of its head catapulted her into the raging river.
"Get her!" Minu screamed to the boys.
"But what about you?" Aaron cried back.
"I can swim, damn it. She might well drown, so get to it!"
Now with only one adversary, the kloth was less hesitant. Perhaps sensing a ready meal it lowered it's head and charged. The mouth was open slightly like a snow plow, ready to sweep her into its massive unforgiving jaws. It wasn't until that moment that she truly realized the mortal danger she'd been in from the moment they began the Trials. She could die here, a quick meal for a two ton lizard. No matter how quickly a Chosen swept in on his Broomstick, she'd be a partially masticated meal in seconds.
"You'll not have me," she snarled and dodged. The jaws snapped closed on air and Minu stabbed with all her might at one of the three eyes on that side of the head. The fire hardened spear tip skittered along the lizard's armored hide, just missing an eye but finally gouging deep into a less protected fold behind the eyes. It shook its head and that widened the wound as still more red blood pumped . The kloth shook it's head so furiously that Minu almost joined her friend in the water, only just managing to hang onto the spear. Then the spear broke with a loud pop, leaving a meter of its length dangling from the beasts head.
Momentarily confused by the stick waggling in front of one set of eyes, the kloth shook its head again and even raised a front leg to claw at the offending thing. Minu used the moment to snatch up the fourth and last spear then turn her head to verify that they'd launched the raft to rescue Cherise. She confirmed that there was no sign of the raft, and almost lost her life.
The kloth clawed the spear loose from its head and charged her full force. She screamed and dodged left while swinging the spear, baseball bat style, with all her might. For all the good it did, she might as well have been swinging a rope. It rebounded off the kloth's head as it turned and bit down on her right arm.
Pain like a blinding white explosion made her scream as she felt the teeth penetrate her skin. One of the bones in her forearm snapped with a crunching sound. Something kept it from biting down with its full bone crushing force. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized it was the spear. Part of it was wedged in the corner of the kloth's mouth and keeping it from closing on her arm fully. Without that bit of wood, likely her arm would have been off.
It shook its head, trying to get the spear away and tear Minu’s arm off at the same time. With another agonizing jolt of pain, she was flung away from the monster to land in a he
ap several meters away. She felt the rocky ground smash into her as she landed; the pain from her arm was too much to fully realize the extent of any further wounds. In a second the kloth was on her, trying to finish the job. She did the only thing she could. She curled up in a ball with her hands over her head.
The kloth bowled into her, just failing to get its jaws around her body. Minu felt the razor sharp teeth cut more flesh on her arms and back of her shoulders. Instead of scooping her up it just shoved her along like a dog chasing a bone. With a crash they collided with the massive pile of snags in the river. She was momentarily confused, what just happened? The kloth was quiet for a second as they both tried to understand the situation.
Minu was pinned under it's jaws and just behind the snout. For some reason it wasn't backing up. It just stood there, shaking its head from side to side and trying to tip far enough to get a bite on her. Just as they'd said, it had almost no flexibility of its head. The beast couldn't get at her. Of course having a ton of smelly lizard slowly crush you into a rocky riverbank was no picnic, but it was better than being eaten.
Minu was reaching out with her left arm trying to find something to hurt the kloth with; her right was unresponsive and numb. She found and tried a stick then a rock, but the monsters hide was far too thick for it to even notice her futile attacks. Then she felt something hot. It was the remainder of their fire, now nothing more than a few smoldering embers. She turned her head to look and saw one large branch was still burning visibly, and it was close.
Twice she tried to reach it and both times the kloth almost had her. On the third try her hand closed around the branch. The kloth tipped its head to try and bite her and she obliged it by ramming the branch up and into its gaping maw as hard and far as she could.
The kloth made a hideous high pitched and un-lizard-like scream and began to thrash around. For a second Minu was afraid she was going to be crushed to death then there, when she felt a loud splintering crack and the kloth rolled away. Minu crawled out of the snag pile fast and came up onto her shaky feet. She risked a quick look at her right arm, hanging limp at her side and almost retched. It was torn to bloody shreds and the sickening white gleam of bone protruded in more than one place. There was enough blood soaking the already rain drenched riverbank to make it look like the floor of a slaughter house.
She tried not to scream or cry. Looking at the horrible wound she felt dizzy with fear for the pains return. With a ground shaking rumble the kloth regained its feet and turned to face her. It seemed to be slowing some. Was it finally tiring of the battle? Then when it turned toward her she saw the reason. The kloth was impaled on a jagged tree trunk while above her. The broken remnants stuck from its right side near its front limbs. Only her burning branch to the mouth gave it the incentive it needed to break free and get loose. Blood poured from the gaping wound like a fountain, which accounted for all the blood on the ground.
Despite the horrendous wound and blood loss, it wasn't giving her up. Or it was simply too stupid to know how badly it was injured. It no longer had the strength to get its belly off the ground and run, but regardless the six powerful legs still began to move the hulking body toward her, just dragging itself through the mud and rocks. Minu backed up two steps before coming up against the canyon wall. There was nowhere left to go. As if it sensed victory at last, the kloth opened wide and set to charge.
Instead of charging it screamed again and spun around. And there was Gregg, a burning spear held high as he nimbly jumped clear of the deadly sweeping tail and stabbed at the lightly armored rear once more.
"Run for the water while I deal with this bitch," he yelled to her. The kloth was only scant meters away but showed no interest in her as she staggered toward the water. Over and over again Gregg jumped in and stabbed at the kloth, continuing to circle and keep it off guard. The technique, developed over centuries of fighting the scaly monsters, worked both their aversion to pain and natural instinct to attach anything that moved. It was not very limber in any one direction and by forcing it to continually turn he was neutralizing its deadly charge attack. All he had to do was wait for it to succumb to blood loss.
Minu hadn't been paying attention to her footing and she tripped over a loose branch, sprawling partly in the water and landing on her mangled arm. She let out a strangled scream as the pain returned with a vengeance. Dimly she heard the sound of battle change and without having to look she knew the kloth was coming for her again.
Minu craned her neck to see how long she had to live and saw it was only a few meters away. Gregg was trying desperately to stab its behind again to distract. The kloth was not deterred this time. Blood dripping, mouth gapping, lower jaw scraping the gravel covered ground, it prepared to scoop Minu up.
Ignoring the pain and mustering the last of her strength, she rolled to her right. The kloth snapped at her head and just missed, skidding in the loose gravel and sliding into the water head first. It roared in protest and tried to turn around. The water buoyed it up enough that its front pair of legs found no traction. Instead the current began to pull it away from the shore.
Minu struggled to her feet and watched the monster begin to drift away. She turned to Gregg, her savior, and despite the pain she smiled. He smiled back and just as suddenly his face turned to horror. The kloth's massive tail swung out and hit her. The blow landed full force on her chest, just above her breasts. She felt a bone snap as she was lofted through the air, spinning into the water half way across the river. Instantly the powerful current swept her away.
The cool water helped clear her head, it also instantly told her of the extent of her injuries. Her mangled right arm was useless for swimming and every time she moved either arm a lance of agony shot through her shoulders. Add a broken collar bone to the list, she thought as she struggled to regain the surface using mostly kicks from her legs. She heard a gurgled roar somewhere not far away, but the fate of the kloth was no longer of any concern to her.
She was swept around the bend. Branches tore at her from the huge piles of snags she'd used as cover. She also heard Gregg yelling her name at least once. Then a rock came out of nowhere and smashed into her head, ending her struggles in a flash of light. Drowning isn't a bad way to die, she thought as she sank below the waves. Better than being eaten by a giant lizard.
Chapter 13
Julast 14th, 514 AE
Unknown River, Desert Tribe Territory
As Minu opened her eyes she tried to remember where she was. She was lying on something hard with the sun beating down on her face. Why don't I hurt? She tried to lift her right arm to shield her eyes from the sun and the pain returned like a lightning bolt. "Oh God," she moaned, which started a coughing fit so painful she nearly lost consciousness again. At least one rib was broken too.
"Be easy," the gentle voice of Cherise whispered in her ear, "we've got you now."
Minu opened her eyes again and saw the worried look on her friends face. They were floating on the improvised raft they'd built to escape the kloth. "Did you come back for me?"
"Once they fished me from the water, Pip used some rope and snared a rock," Cherise told her. She looked over at Pip who shrugged and smiled. "We drifted there and listened to you fighting the kloth. Why didn't you jump in the water?"
"It cornered me," she said and finally managed to sit up with some help from Cherise. "Are you okay?" she asked her friend. "What about Gregg?"
Cherise' eyes shined with tears as she gently touched Minu's face. "My dear friend, our boss. Listen to you, beat to a pulp and worried about us." The other two were shaking their heads as well. "Gregg is fine," she pointed and Minu turned her head to see him seemingly standing on the surface of the water floating along like some apparition.
"How?" she asked, then the river water shifted and she realized what was going on. He was riding on the back of the kloth's body, floating along in the current with them.
"The current is too dangerous to try and swim over so we're just waiting for a
more opportune time." Minu nodded and tried to wave her left hand. The grinding agony in her broken collar bone made her gasp in pain and surrender the effort. "Don't worry, he knows your fine."
"He saved my life, you know."
"I know," Cherise said, pride glowing in her eyes as she looked back at Gregg. "And you saved us. It was the most amazing display of courage I've ever seen."
"It's what friends do." Despite the pain, she gave them as best a hug as she could manage. Only wishing Gregg was there to hold as well. "So what now?"
"We float for a while," said Pip.
"At least until the canyon opens up and we have somewhere to land," Aaron added.
They worked together with their meager medical supplies and patched up Minu's arm and the other injuries as well as they could. A short time later the kloth corpse drifted close enough for Gregg to make the jump onto the raft with the rest of them. With all five on the raft it rocked precariously when he landed. Their combined weight made it ride so low in the water that one side or the other was constantly dipping below the waves.
As they drifted onward the current grew steadily calmer. Cherise and Gregg steered the raft with their improvised tiller and a pair of spears while Minu relaxed. Despite the pain, Minu drifted off to a fitful sleep.
When she awoke it was with a cool breeze blowing across her face. Regardless of the horrible wounds she felt refreshed. The raft left the white waters behind and was now floating in a considerably wider basin. In fact when she looked up she could see that the walls were only a few dozen meters high. They were coming to the end of the canyon network at last. A quick glance around showed that everyone was asleep. Pip snored quietly with a pack as a pillow. Aaron lay next to Minu where he'd obviously been watching her sleep before himself succumbing. On the other side of the raft Cherise slept with her head tucked into the crook of Gregg's arm. The raft was carefully balanced to keep it from tipping and she could see that the floating kloth corpse was tied to their raft with a length of rope. Her forward thinking friends had secured it as a future food source.
