In one fluid motion Laiva pulled her dagger from its sheath and spun
around her axis, pushing the blade as far from her body as her arm
allowed. The metal described a wide arc, indiscriminately cutting
through air and flesh. Almost dancing Laiva sidestepped, letting the
massive body of the wolf crash into the ground some feet from her.
The maneuver caught the wolves completely by surprise.
Dumbstruck they stared at their leader until the stench of blood
reached their nostrils, filling their hearts with rage, minds with
fury and eyes with madness. As one they turned to throw themselves at
the girl - but the girl was gone.
Laiva hadn't waited for the wolves to come to their senses. Without
transition she went from tumbling to running, not wasting any time on
coming to a halt first. Within a blink of the eyes she had left the
wolves behind and darted through the trees, no longer caring about the
road or even where she was going.
It wasn't until she heard the angry howl, before Laiva
realized running away wasn't much of a solution. She skidded to a halt
and threw her back against a particularly large tree, the trunk wide
enough to cover her back as well as a wall would have. Unfortunately
that left her complete front open for attack. On the tree she would
have been out of reach, but none of the trees had low enough branches
to climb them in a hurry. If she only had anything to defend her. They
dagger was far too short to induce fear... Fire! She needed fire!
She started reciting the spell, careful not to confuse any
syllables. Messing the spell up was unlikely to do anything at all,
much less to harm her, but she doubted that there would be the time
for second try; she could already hear the wolves drawing closer.
The spell was easy enough, though; she had mastered it years
ago. Laiva lively remembered how proud she had been when she had
finally got it working. Her mother on the other hand hadn't been too
happy, not after she had accidentally set the table on fire anyway.
Laiva focused on a dry branch lying before her and the orange
and violet sparks that had so far played around her fingers flew
towards it. The wood started to smoke and small flames erupted from
its surface; a moment later the branch was ablaze.
It hadn't been a moment too early either. The wolves had just
caught up on her and were about to throw themselves at Laiva when the
fire came into life. A wave of primordial fear run along their spines
and made the hair on their backs stand up. Slowly they backed off.
Laiva sighed. Safe - for the moment. She pushed some twigs and
leaves into the fire and leaned back, letting her back slide down the
tree trunk. She hugged her shins and let her head sink onto her knees.
It wouldn't be too hard to keep the fire going for some time, a couple
of hours at least, but after that... She didn't allow herself to
finish the thought. She didn't want to. For now the wolves kept well
away from the fire, even if they were still there. Waiting. Watching.
The glow of their cold yellow eyes gave them away.
A thought struck her; the fire kept her out of the reach of
the wolves, but that didn't mean the wolves were out of her reach as
well, did it? Slowly she took out her bow and slipped the sinew into
place. The wolves didn't move. She selected an arrow and put it on.
The wolves still didn't move. Laiva raised the bow, yanked the arrow
back and released it. A high pitched yelp was the answer and a pair of
eyes had gone. To her horror, however, they quickly reappeared,
accompanied by a low, very definite growl. The bow dropped from
Laiva's hand. She was sure she had hit; the arrow had gone straight
for the spot between the eyes. The very eyes that were just coming
closer. She shuffled to her feet just in time to see the creature
stepping into the light of the fire.
Laiva gulped. She recognized the creature, but it couldn't be.
It mustn't! She had killed it back on the road! It had been dead! A
single word escaped her lips as she made the connection. It was hardly
a whisper, not audible by anyone but herself, but it said more than a
thousand others could have.
'Werewolves.'
Laiva glanced down. Her bow was still lying on the ground. Not
that it mattered. Cold fear filled every part of her body. Laiva
trembled. She closed the eyes and waited for the end.
--
emmel <the_emmel*you-know-what-that's-for*@gmx.net>
(Don't forget to remove the ** bit)
Official AGC feedback maniac
"God is playing creatures - and we're the norns."
"A hundred dead are a tragedy - a hundred thousand are statistics."
"I guess you can call yourself lucky." -
"I could, but Linda suits me a little better...
Things called lucky tend to get hit by trucks."
Hi, I'm a .sig virus. Just copy me to your .signature. And don't worry.
FAQ
Search
Profile
Private Messages
Log in/Register/Password
