The sprite stopped and slowly raised its head. I couldn’t find its eyes, but I’d no doubt it was staring right at me.
“I’m right here! Come and get me!”
My voice cracked in fear as the korgan made a noise like falling rocks.
Gods. It was laughing. That couldn’t be good.
I almost pissed myself as it lumbered toward my tree. Could it climb? Surely not. It reached the base, pulled back its grotesque fist, and boom!
A second before its punch connected with the bark, my arms wrapped around the bough beneath me. I narrowly avoided impaling myself on the arrows in my hand.
The whole tree shook as it took another pounding.
Suddenly, the sticks in my hand looked useless.
Climb down, Auntie shrieked at me.
“What?”
My mind blanked, disoriented and stunned by the pounding it was getting inside my skull.
Get down there and stab it in the ear!
I groaned as the next tremor hit the trunk.
It would soon splinter in two; I was going to die in a tree, hiding like a coward.
Not if you climb down! Auntie screamed.
My attention went to the branch below mine. Too far down. It wouldn’t be a simple drop. I’d have to fall.
Better to fall a few feet than thirty, Auntie said in a rush.
I held out for the next blow.
Boom! A second lost, waiting for the worst vibrations to fade. I lifted my leg up and over. My body dangled for one precarious heartbeat. I looked down, aimed, and dropped. I landed heavily and threw my weight forward; both arrows snapped like twigs. I tried not to die inside at the sight of the shortened sticks, and kept ahold of the arrowheads while letting the fletchings fall.
The korgan’s fist pounded into the trunk again. I could hear the splintering of wood. It wouldn’t be long now.
The next branch down was too far to the right. My body froze, locking to the bough beneath me. I looked down to see the sprite had begun to push, shoulder-first, into the bark. I closed my eyes and clung on with every bit of strength, waiting for the inevitable fall.
The next blow hit true, and when the splintering and breaking came, it rang in my ears. As if a sentient life was being lost; a creature screaming in pain.
The tree snapped at the bottom and tipped backward. My stomach dropped away, and my breath held fast as the pine tree collided with the earth behind me: splintering, cracking.
I’d escaped being flattened or impaled. Yet, my limbs remained frozen to the branch. Shock. That’s what this was.
Move!
Kinetic fire flooded my body. I slid off the massive trunk and scrambled away. Keeping low, hiding among the branches, clinging to the arrow heads, I crawled past the korgan until his back was to me. I looked down at the tiny pieces of metal.
I had a choice: attack the sprite or run over to Adrianna. The second option appealed the most. She had more arrows, and I might be able to wake her … if she wasn’t dead.
No. She’d be okay. She had to be. I batted away the parts of me that wanted to kneel, crying in the dirt.
What should I do? Auntie?
Listen to your instincts.
What instincts?
Silence.
Damn it. Think.
I couldn’t see her body from this position. That alone almost made me sprint over. But some wild impulse urged me to abandon the easier path and look instead to the impossible one.
I spun on my knees and inched forward. Ragged stones and riven branches pierced and scraped the skin on my hands and legs. Biting back a curse, I stopped and chanced a look over the trunk.
There, the korgan; bending down, tearing apart the tree, sniffing. A shiver electrified my spine. It was searching, and when it found me, I’d be just another pile of organs for his heap.
I didn’t have to attack. I could stay still and hope. That thing had terrible eyesight. It might lose interest. But what would it do to Adrianna once it got bored? I peered over my shoulder. I saw nothing but mangled animals and splintered boughs. Nothing but dead things. No sign of my friend.
I sucked in a deep breath and turned back around. Now or never. Adrenaline splintered my heart and flooded veins. I hurtled over the trunk and ran for five heartbeats.
Adrianna dropped from the sky, straight onto the sprite’s shoulders, roaring a challenge. It barely had time to buck and rear before she was twisting, contorting her body, avoiding those massive stone fists.
Labored humming from wings, ragged breaths, and roars pitched the air.
I was still running, holding up the arrowheads, aiming.
Adrianna corkscrewed in mid-air and landed in front of the korgan. In a perfect stop-thrust, she plunged two arrows into its puny, moss-colored eyes. With a bone-shaking bellow, it fell to its knees. I skidded to a halt as the forest floor quaked.
Adrianna backed away quickly. The korgan raised a hand to its pierced eye sockets, but it didn’t get halfway before pitching sideways into dirt.
I let the last shudder sing through the earth, then I moved to flank my friend.
Her face was sweaty and screwed up in pain; her hand cradled her left side.
Fine. I’d wait to shout at her for leaving me in that tree.
I stared down at the creature that had nearly killed us both. Taking in his heavy hide, I said, “Any ideas for how we get that back to camp?”
Adrianna sunk to her knees. I kneeled next to her.
She slipped her rucksack off with a wince. “You’ll have to bandage my ribs. There’s some gauze in there.”
Opening her bag and rifling through, I asked, “What happened to your quiver and bow?”
“In pieces,” she rasped out. “Colt’s going to bite me.”
Not a joke. “If he does, I’ll set our pack on him. Cai’d be there in a heartbeat. Anything to defend your honor.”
She cocked an eyebrow and regarded me in cool amusement. I’d injected it with humor, but she’d obviously heard the questioning tone.
Surprisingly, Adrianna said nothing and shucked off her cloak, jacket, and top to reveal—
“Rutting hell,” I gasped.
A blossoming reddish bruise covered her entire left side.
“Be quick.” She sounded breathless.
We lapsed into silence. I did my best to wrap the gauze around her ribs and over and under her shoulder. I tied the dressing, and Adrianna stayed still, staring down at the sprite for one long minute. Then she reached forward, grabbed the fletchings, and plucked out its eyes.
I suppressed a groan of disgust and was glad there hadn’t been a chance to look away. I didn’t want another reason for her to think she needed to protect me.
Adrianna packed away the eyes inside her bag and stood, shouldering it. Hysteria beckoned as adrenaline crashed inside me. The whole thing had taken on a surreal feel, so when Adrianna suggested we move to get away from the stench, I followed blindly.
Despite her fae blood, I wondered how Adrianna was standing or walking, given her injury. As we moved, I piped up once or twice to suggest we stop. She refused until we’d gone far enough away that the korgan’s smell no longer infected the air. We took a break and ate and drank from our rations. It can’t have been more than an hour or two before her breathing evened and no longer sounded like a death rattle.
Adrianna soon grew impatient. She wanted to try flying. When I objected, she said, “It’s afternoon light already. I want to put some miles between us and the spiders, and the kill sight.”
The stormy gray sky didn’t appeal to me and neither did hurting Adrianna, but she insisted.
My heart sputtered as she grimaced upon lifting me, but we got airborne. I didn’t know whether we stayed aloft because of her training or just plain stubbornness, but either way, she didn’t falter. Bursting through the treetops, my eyes traveled down, watching the canopy melt away.
We’d survived, but it didn’t feel like a release. Part of me remained in the hollow; fear still coated my tongue.