“Shit!”
His knee buckles with the red feathered arrow sticking straight out of his thigh. He looks at me with wide confused eyes. “My gorgeous mate,” he says as he fights with Creepe. “Please shoot Creepe, not your Cookie Monster.”
“I know that!” I scream in frustration as I fumble for another arrow. “I was trying!”
Pink blood leaks down his leg as Creepe starts to get the upper hand. This time I can’t fuck up.
I put the arrow in place and raise it, aiming it at Creepe properly this time.
Pontuck falls to a knee, the failed arrow doing more damage than good, and Creepe lunges on him with a new vigor now that his opponent is wounded. He’s going in for the kill.
Not if I can help it.
I take a deep breath and hold it as I make double sure that the arrow will hit my target. This one is for you, Pontuck.
I let it fly and gasp when it curves and sinks into Pontuck’s shoulder.
“Krakalore!” he screams out, wincing in pain.
“Oops!” I say, my hand flying to my mouth.
“What are you doing?” he asks, looking at me in stunned disbelief.
“I’m sorry!” I say, my chest tightening. “I only fired one fucking arrow before!”
He’s about to respond when Creepe slips on the wet rock and Pontuck takes advantage of it, lunging at him. The two enormous aliens tumble into the water and sink below the surface, fighting and clawing at each other. A cloud of pink blood erupts around them and I can no longer see what’s happening.
“Pontuck!” I scream at the water. It’s eerily silent. “You idiot!” I curse at myself. “How could you hit him twice?”
Creepe is surely going to win.
Or maybe they’ll both lose.
I gulp as all of the energy drains from my body. A tall yellow fin is approaching their location. It’s tearing through the calm water from upstream, gaining on them fast.
It stops in front of them and pops out of the water with waves rushing off it like an emerging submarine. It’s huge. The thing of nightmares.
The yellow fin that was so terrifying before looks like a joke now compared to the size of its head. Hard thick spikes line the top of its truck-sized skull and its two white eyes look dull and dead. But he’s very much alive. Its cavernous mouth that’s opening with the long deadly teeth is proof of that.
Pontuck’s got his hands full under the water and if he somehow manages to survive Creepe’s dagger, then this monster will surely finish him off.
I can’t let that happen.
He begins to drop back down in the water so I quickly grab an arrow, slap it on the bow, and let it fly without thinking too much and letting my thoughts get in the way of my aim.
Half a second later, it sinks into his head between two thick horns, making the beast thrash around in the water. I shoot another one, this time aiming for his satellite dish-sized eye. It lands with a smack, right in the middle and the monster lets out a high-pitched scream that makes my skin crawl.
It turns in desperation and hurries away in the direction that it came, leaving nothing but a wave as it departs with its tail between its legs.
“I hit it!” I gasp.
Well, it was the size of a truck. Still, I wish Pontuck had seen it.
My eyes dart back to the pink cloudy water and I gasp when a blue head pops out of the surface. Tears well up in my eyes when I see long blue hair.
It’s Pontuck. He’s alive.
He swims to the river bank in front of me taking the cloud of pink along with him. I cringe and look away when I see Creepe’s dead body laying on the bottom of the river with his own bone dagger plunged into the back of his head.
Pontuck grimaces and groans in pain as he tries to pull himself out of the water and onto the rock where I’m standing. I rush over and help him up. He’s so heavy and I’m pulling with all of my might but I don’t think it’s doing much.
He manages to pull himself up and he flops down onto the rock like a wet, exhausted fish. The two arrows are still sticking out of his flesh like flags of betrayal.
“I’m sorry,” I say as fresh blood leaks out of the wound in his thigh. “I was aiming for him. Tell me what to do.”
His eyes widen as he turns his head towards me. “Freopuile saka qukie mahar?” he asks.
“Quit playing around, Pontuck,” I say with a shaky voice. “Say it in English.”
“Juhyaw kilet?” he asks, looking more confused than me. He reaches behind his ear and sighs when he touches his skin.
“Oh no,” I gasp, turning his head to see for myself. The little black freckle that seemed to do all of the translating between us is gone. Just beautiful blue skin in its place.
I jump to my feet and look down into the clear river. It’s gone. For good.
It’s only when I turn back to him that I see a new wound. A knife wound. In his stomach.
He desperately needs my help but I don’t know what to do.
His hand covers the wound but the pink blood just leaks through his fingers.