“Stay back!” I told him as I threw my butt up on the saddle. I had nothing to fear on the back of this animal, something I could trust to keep me safer than my classmates fleeing the chaos of the pasture. Show me what’s wrong.
With a sturdy grip, I held on to the reins as the horse reared back on its hind legs and then dashed back to where it came from. My teeth clamped shut at the violent power in its move and I kept my mouth closed, breathing as fast as I could through my nose.
“Flynn! Otis?” I yelled out as we charged into the darkened mass. A swirling cloud of brown obstructed my view as horses ran every which way. Into each other, rearing back and bucking furiously tensed legs. It was a tornado of scared horses.
“Get back!”
Otis again. Was he telling the students? The horses? I gulped around the lump in my throat and ignored the racing tempo of my heart. Squinting, I lowered my hold on the horse I’d jumped on, nearly hugging its thick, straining neck as I fought to see…anything.
Nothing but horses running through and away from the cloud of dust.
Why the hell was it so damn hard to see? It wasn’t aridly dry here like a desert. The horse slammed its hooves to a stop and I lurched forward, almost flying off. Then it bent its forelimbs, nearly kneeling.
A gale-force gust of wind soared over my head like a plane had flown too low. Just over us. Wings. I caught the rhythm of flapping wings over the roar of Otis’s yells, horses’ neighs, and students’ hollers for help. Whatever was flying overhead had to be causing the dust cloud.
What’s up there?
The horse beneath me trembled and I hugged my arms around its neck tighter. With great heaving rises of his chest, it panted and stood. Trusting its instinct, I held on and let it feel out the situation. Slowly, it backed up a couple of steps. Then ducked again.
He slanted to the side with a painful whinny. I held on to its hot, sweaty coat as tightly as I could. If I was tossed off, I’d be toast in this chaos of hooves.
Again, a burst of air overhead. This time, a low growl accompanied the rush of air.
What in the hell is up there?
My longma? It could fly and growl. But it’d never cause chaos like this. I knew nothing about the ancient species, but I knew my buddy would never hurt me.
“Stop!” I yelled to the darkness blanketing us.
“Layla?” I jerked up a little more at Flynn’s voice. He was still out here with the running horses. My heart raced faster. I had no way to know if he was in harm’s way.
“Take me to him,” I whispered to the horse. It turned ninety degrees and ran forward.
“Flynn!” I called out for him despite the horse seemingly knowing the way to go.
“You need to stop them!” he called out. The horses? All of them?
“Where are you?” I fisted the reins with one hand and risked wiping at the debris on my face to see. “Where is Otis?” I yelled.
Marcy had introduced him as the man who knew everything there was to know about horses. Well, I had a new one for him. What could cause a herd of domesticated horses to simultaneously enter pandemonium?
“Layla!”
I whipped my head to the right, following Flynn’s call. It sounded lower. Like—
He’s on the ground in the middle of this! Is he insane?
Another gust of wind flew over me and my horse lowered in a crouch again. “Stop!” I called up to whatever was harassing the horses.
“Over here,” Flynn called out. Yeah, he was on the ground. His strong hand landed on my knee, and in the hazy sunlight, I could see the rest of him. Dirt-caked and frowning, but alive and unharmed. Somehow.
“What’s the matter with you?”
He patted the horse and held out an arm to help me down. “Go,” he told the horse. “Come on,” he told me.
“You have no business staying out here! You’ll get trampled—”
“Because they don’t listen to me?” he shot back. He grabbed my hand and hurried me into the center of the pen. Horses dodged us, like an invisible wall protected us humans in this storm of huge, frightened animals.
“But—”
He held out his hand to ward off a quickly approaching stallion. “Slow!”
It did.
“Never mind.”
I don’t know why I’d forgotten animals—real ones—obeyed his command. Whatever spooked the horses happened so fast I hardly could think at all.
“I need your help.” He lowered as another gust of growling wind circled overhead. “Otis was knocked down. We need to calm them. I can’t see good enough and they keep running wild every time that thing flies over.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me next to him as he led me further from the exit. I squeezed his hand harder, fearing what could happen if we separated in the middle of this insanity.
On the ground, I could make out a lump. A long, huge blob covered in ripped old denim and a stained, once-white shirt. Wiry, graying hair lay limp, dangling over his head to the earth.
“Otis!”
We ran toward him, bending at the waist, staying close to the ground. I skidded to my knees and crawled the rest of the way to him. Flynn was at my side, behind me a little as I pulled our teacher over to his back.
“Otis!”
His eyes were closed but I felt him breathing as I kept my hand on his chest.
I slapped at his cheeks. “Ot—”
“Layla.” Flynn’s grip on my shoulder silenced me. Too strong of a grip. Now what? His fingers curled into my flesh and I looked up.
Pacing on the ground, just a yard away, a predator licked its jowls. Saliva dripped from its mouth as it narrowed dark, almost black eyes on us. Each forceful step of its wide, meaty paws brought it closer, tawny smooth fur rippling as its muscles flexed. A low growl vibrated through the air and into my shaking soul as the winged lion stepped nearer.
Flynn’s fingers tightened on my arm again. “Help.”
Chapter Eight
“Oh, my God.”
My lower lip trembled as I gaped at the monster before me. A lion? A dragon-ish panther-horse was no big. But a freaking lion?
“Oh. My. G—”
It lunged forward, taking two fast, dashing steps of its beefy legs.
“Stop!” I screamed at it and held both of my hands up, like that’d really protect me. My hands wouldn’t help. But my command did.
It stumbled to a stop, glaring at me as it straightened to stand.
“Make it go away,” Flynn whispered next to me.
I swallowed hard. And blinked to see clearer. Sweat edged over my brow and I had to wipe away the blurriness. “Sure.” Because overnight I’m some kind of Siegfried and Roy protégé—
It roared and lowered to pounce forward.
“Stop!”
It slinked down to lie on the earth.
Dammit, Layla. Focus! If it could obey my thoughts, I couldn’t get distracted or so scared I couldn’t think straight. There was plenty of time for sarcasm later.
Horses still ran wild around us and a few scrambled closer. The tips of brown wings dipped through the swirling dust. A second flying beast chased a couple of brown and white horses that clumsily fell and regained their footing in escape. A snout opened and sharp teeth snapped shut on air instead of the horse’s flesh.
“Stop!”
The lion thing growled, as though to say I did!
“You…” Flynn inhaled sharply next to me. “You stop those things. I’ll stop the horses.” He crouched over me as one ran close to us, nearly stomping on Otis’s outstretched leg as he lay prone and unresponsive on the dirt.
“Stop,” Flynn called out to the horse nearest him. It whinnied and shook its mane, its fearful stare on the winged lion lying down. “Stop,” he ordered again to another of the herd.
“Sure.” Teamwork. We could do this. I glanced down at Otis, scared to leave him, and started to stand. As I did, the lion rose too, baring its teeth.
Dammit. It was
déjà vu, like when I’d accidentally intimidated the longma before it trusted me. I didn’t want this lion to trust me. I wanted its obedience. I drew in a deep breath and sputtered, coughing out the lungful of dirt I’d inhaled. Still, I kept my gaze on the lion. I splayed my hands out in the universal sign of take it easy.
“Down.”
It stood and flicked its head side to side, tossing its glossy mane of thick bronze fur.
“I said down.”
Ever so slowly, it lowered. Next to me, Flynn held his hands out in the same manner and instructed the horses to stop running as they came near us.
Another sweep of air came close and horses scrambled away, despite Flynn’s attempt to calm them.
“Stop!” I called it out to the horses that rushed too close to Otis. The lion rose while the horses retreated.
Dammit. One step forward, two back. I couldn’t command all of them at the same time. Even with Flynn ordering the real animals, and me focusing on the ancient ones, we were spread too thin.
“Come down here,” I called out. Nothing appeared.
Come to me, now. I didn’t know what to call them, but if I could see how many of those things were about, I could try to make eye contact at least.
Make them come to you. I bored my stare into the big boy in front of me and he grunted. Then he roared into the sky. Horses reacted to the noise and Flynn stepped away from me, still soothing and instructing them to stand back.
One by one, three more lions came to land behind the male already before me. A trio of females. Slimmer, shorter, and smaller, they made up a fiercely strong posse of hunters. Their wings fluttered and bent as they set their paws to the dirt. Two growled, pacing a few feet behind their leader, and one sat down to lick her front paw.
“Okay then.” I fought a shudder at facing such danger mere feet away. I got them to land. Or Flying Mufasa here did.
One step forward…and I refused to retreat again. I steadied my gaze on the beasts.
“Down,” I tried again.
Instead of obedience, two of the lionesses bounded to run back and forth. Horses that Flynn had calmed now neighed and darted again.
“Calm down!” Flynn’s voice was strong but firm.
I couldn’t blame them for freaking every time the lions gave chase. I wouldn’t want to be anybody’s dinner trapped in a box either.
Trapped.
If we got the horses away, maybe it’d be easier to control the lions. Dust began to settle as the lions no longer flapped their wide wings. Like settling mist, the tan sky cleared.
“Lorcan!” I called out, facing the lions.
“He ran to get help at the greenhouse!” came in reply.
Sabine? I nearly doubled back to look. She hadn’t run for safety yet? Was she that stupid?
“Sabine?”
“We’re back here,” she called. “Paige is calling for help and Lorcan ran toward the greenhouse.”
At least they had some common sense.
“Keep everyone back,” I shouted.
“No shit, Layla!”
I glowered at her sass and the male lion stood.
Focus, Layla! I couldn’t let my annoyance with my twin break the control I had over Flying Mufasa.
I pointed the down command at the lion. “I said down!”
He lowered and two females did as well. The third girl tested her steps and approached Otis, her fuzzy nose sniffing the air, a long tongue sliding out to wet her lethal incisors.
“Back!”
She yowled at me but didn’t come closer. Flynn had calmed the horses to stand back then. We were surrounded in the shape of a capital I. A row of lions ready to tackle prey before us. Otis, Flynn, and I huddled in a little center, and a line of terrified horses behind us.
“Sabine!” I yelled back but kept my attention on the big cats.
“What the hell is going on?” she called.
In short, I was trying to minimize bloodshed. I swallowed and cleared my irritated throat. Sucking in dirt was never fun. “Open the pen doors.”
A moment later, she called out, “How?”
“For God’s sake, Sabine!” I almost growled that time.
“Seriously!” Sabine retorted. “I already tried. It’s a weird locking thing.”
“Come on, I’ll help,” Paige said. Their voices faded as they walked away but I still overheard Paige and Sabine arguing how to undo the locks on the gate. Which pins and levers should be lifted. It wasn’t a simple sliding bolt, but still—
“Just open the door!” I yelled out. Sabine…she was clueless. Paige wasn’t a ditz though.
“He locked it,” Paige finally announced.
“With a key,” Sabine said.
The more I paid attention to the girls behind us, the lions tried to break from my instructions. I wouldn’t have a chance to find a key on Otis and get it to my sisters.
“I said down!” I said when a female gave chase to a horse that was nearest to the predators. Flynn immediately ordered the horse back as I doubled down on telling the lion to stand down.
“Jump it,” Flynn ordered. “Jump it.” He directed his finger to the fence that blocked the horses from the stables. “Go. Jump the fence and get to the stables.”
It spun around and charged for the fence.
I watched long enough for the horse to leap and clear the fence.
Well, hello, option number two. Who needs a key, anyway?
“All of you. Let’s go. Back to your stalls. Go. Go!” Flynn clapped and guided the horses to return to the stables without the pen door opened.
As the horses filed out, many of them charging away in a crowd, the lions rose and began to give chase. With my commands to cease and stand back, I put myself between the fleeing horses and the predators. In doing so, I walked away from Otis lying on the ground. I fended off the large male and two of the lionesses from Flynn and the horses, but the third girl slunk over to the unconscious man.
“Stop! Get back!” I ran toward Otis, volleying my focus between Flynn encouraging the horses to escape and keeping the lions back, and to the remaining beast stalking toward Otis. It was too much to balance. Too many lives were depending on my teetering control. I couldn’t concentrate my thoughts to ward off different directions of attack.
The female sneaking toward Otis jumped and floated through the air to reach Otis faster. “Get back!” I ran underneath her path of flight and blocked Otis by leaning back and covering him with my body, facing the lioness in the air. She yowled at me, flapping her wings faster and stirring up another cloud of dust.
Behind me, Otis shifted. “Get…”
“Get back!” I called out to the lioness.
“Get…Wolf,” Otis barely eked out.
Wolf? The stranger in the cliff who’d stopped Flynn and me from trespassing and looking for the longma? What the heck would he do?
“Get—” I sucked in more air to obediently yell out the second half of the command to Flynn, to seek Wolf’s help—if help wasn’t already on the way.
Before I finished the holler, a thwap of a missile pierced the air, and just as suddenly, the lioness’s wings ceased beating. She twisted to the side from an airborne impact and fell to the ground. With a thud, she rolled to the packed earth.
I blinked hard and panted as the winged mammal stopped at my feet. My heart hammered as I watched her rest on her side, a stick of shiny metal glinting from her near her neck. An arrow. Right above her still heaving chest.
“Oh, my God…”
They…someone killed it? I scrambled to my hands and knees and crawled to it. Did it have to die, like that? Yeah, it was dangerous, but where was some speck of mercy?
“Layla!” Marcy yelled from the side. Pounding footsteps neared as well. With the roar of horses stampeding gone and the whirring rush of wings no longer so loud, the sounds of a human seemed so insignificant, so weak.
“Get back!” she yelled.
I huffed as I still crawled toward the liones
s. “Funny, that’s my line.” Injured or not, I didn’t fully trust the lioness was down for the count. Its chest rose and fell and at the absence of blood from the injury site, I assumed the arrow was a tranquilizer. Light-blue taped emblems on the shaft reminded me of some of the syringes I’d seen Susan use on dogs and cats at the animal shelter in Coltin. The fact the beast still breathed calmed me. No matter that it nearly ate Otis, or clearly planned to. I didn’t want to witness it shot to death like that. It had obeyed me when I could give it my full command. It wasn’t just a thing to dispense of. No living being was—ancient species or normal ones.
Marcy tried to order me again, her voice very near. “Layla, I said to get back.”
“Stay away from her!” a man’s accented voice declared.
I slumped to my butt, catching my breath. Who? Marcy get away from me? Or for me to get away from the lioness?
“What the hell is going on, huh?” Marcy demanded.
I shook my head and wiped the grime from my eyes again. Sitting up more, I watched a crowd close in on me and Otis. Marcy scowled at a man two heads taller than her. He seemed familiar, but I’d never actually seen his face before. “Maybe you can tell me,” he stated in a wry grumble.
That voice. Low, deep, almost mocking. Marcy had compared him to the Marlboro Man. By the looks of his long hair messily pulled into a small ponytail, he still needed that trim. Wolf, in the daylight. Over his toned arm, he rested a crossbow.
He’d shot the lioness. I studied him for a moment longer until two workers dressed in gray came into focus. Medics. And one pointed at me. Not again. I scooted back on my butt and rammed into Otis’s side.
He groaned and tried to sit up.
Right. He was hurt. They had to be coming for his first aid. Not mine.
“You okay, girlie?” Marcy asked as she rushed to her knees in front of me.
“Never been better.” Yet, as I sat up, I couldn’t help but wince at the scrape on my elbow. Must have hit the ground a little too hard when I’d covered Otis from the lioness.
“They can check her out,” the accented voice said. Behind Marcy and Wolf, a toweringly tall, gangly-thin man brought up the rear. He tilted his clean-shaven jaw toward a medic and the movement of his head sent his wire-rimmed glasses slipping down his beak of a nose. Immediately, a medic turned from going to Otis and hefted a first aid kit to his other hand. He approached me and I shook my head.
Discovery: Olde Earth Academy: Year Two Page 7
