Adrenaline immediately coursed through my veins, and I was wide awake.
“Mmm… what?” Lelia asked groggily as she yawned beside me. Oona and Teeka stirred, too, just a few feet away.
It had been a busy evening.
“Skiris,” Fieria hissed, and then Lelia, Teeka, and Oona were wide awake, too. They sat up on their elbows, eyes wide.
“How many?” I whispered as I hurriedly pulled on my thermal underwear and outer clothes.
“Three.”
SHIT.
Not overwhelming odds, but a hell of a lot worse than me and Lelia against the single skiris we’d killed.
The only good thing was, they had no idea of our capabilities. This world had never seen bows and arrows, so they wouldn’t be expecting our attack.
“How close?”
“Very close. Not in camp yet, but they are coming.”
Shit, shit, shit –
“Lelia and Oona, grab your bows and arrows and put on your snowshoes as soon as you’re dressed,” I said as I slipped on my boots, which I’d conveniently left lashed to my snowshoes. “Be quiet when you come outside.”
Then I grabbed my own bow and a quiver and followed Fieria outside.
We moved as quickly as possible through the woods to the north side of camp where Hala and Mazaria were keeping watch.
Fieria pointed through the tree trunks.
There was a bit of moonlight coming through the treetops, dappling the snow in random patterns.
Suddenly, about 50 feet away, the patterns shifted – and an entire tree trunk in the darkness was blotted out by moving snow.
Except it wasn’t snow.
It was white fur – I would’ve bet the farm on it.
Fuck.
“Where are the other ones?” I whispered.
Hala pointed to the left and right.
I strained to see through the trees.
Sure enough, dappled moonlight shifted here and there, as though something was moving through it.
The skiris were advancing in a straight row.
That was interesting. I had sort of assumed they would move in a pack. I had no basis for assuming that, other than they seemed to be dumb, brute animals.
I mean, wolves were smart, and they moved in packs – but they also knew how to hunt.
Hunt –
Something about that thought made my stomach knot up.
“Are we sure there aren’t any behind us?” I whispered.
Almost on cue, as though it had heard me, a mighty roar erupted about 100 feet behind us – much closer to the cave.
My heart leapt into my throat as I heard a feminine scream.
LELIA!
It didn’t sound like her voice, but I didn’t care. All I knew was that I had to run to her.
As soon as the skiris behind us roared, the other three in front of us bellowed, too, and began crashing through the trees towards the camp.
Shit – it was some kind of sign – a coordinated attack!
“Handle them!” I hissed at Fieria as I pointed at the three skiris, then took off for the cave.
“Jack!” Fieria whispered, but I was already gone, moving as fast I could over the snow without toppling over.
I saw the fourth skiris in the light from the campfire’s embers: a huge shaggy beast advancing on the cave. Several arrows were already quivering in its chest.
Lelia crouched in the doorway of the snow-packed firs, firing as fast as she could. Oona and Teeka stood slightly behind her, firing at the same time over Lelia’s head – a variation on what we’d practiced.
The skiris lumbered towards the women. I knew that withdrawing into the cave wouldn’t help them at all – if the monster realized that the protecting walls were made of nothing but packed snow and flimsy tree branches, it would rip right through them.
My only chance was to distract it.
I fired once. I was off-target, and hit its shoulder.
It roared and glanced at its arm, but it kept on going towards Lelia and Oona.
I immediately nocked another arrow.
“HEY, MOTHERFUCKER!” I yelled as I let another arrow fly.
That one struck its face.
It howled in pain and turned towards me, enraged.
Lelia, Teeka, and Oona kept firing, turning its torso into a pin cushion.
Finally it realized it wasn’t going to win this bout, and turned and hobbled back into the forest.
I thought for a split second about following it to finish it off, but the screams from behind me immediately focused my attention.
“COME ON!” I yelled at Lelia, Teeka, and Oona as I headed back towards Fieria and the others.
I raced through the forest on my snowshoes. Well, ‘raced’ is the wrong word – but I moved as fast as I could.
The women hadn’t forgotten their training. They were keeping massive oaks and pines between them and the skiris, who were having trouble maneuvering through the trees.
The beasts on the left and right were the farthest away. The middle one was closest.
Unfortunately, the women were aiming at a skiris apiece, and weren’t dealing enough damage to take any single one of them down.
“The middle skiris!” I yelled. “TOGETHER!”
The women all swung their bows over to aim at the middle beast.
“NOW!”
With my shot added, five arrows thudded into the skiris’s chest and neck.
It roared in agony and stumbled face-first into the snow.
I checked quickly. The left monster was a good ten feet closer to us than his brother, but if the right bastard got too close before we could get the next shot off, we were toast.
“Left skiris, TOGETHER!” I yelled.
The women all nocked their next arrows, as did I.
“NOW!”
One arrow missed its mark, but four landed – two in the creature’s face. It screamed in agony and went down onto its knees.
The arrows were barely away before I yelled, “SCATTER!”
Every woman raced off in a different direction.
Again, ‘raced’ being a relative term.
But they were all wearing snowshoes, so they were able to move much faster than their pursuer.
Confused, the skiris looked all around it, trying to figure out who to go after –
Which is when I fired my next arrow.
THOCK!
Right in its throat.
Red gushed down the matted white fur of its chest.
The beast screamed, but it wasn’t down for the count. Instead, it hurled itself at me –
But I darted back behind two closely spaced trees.
Unable to
