The Scrolls of Skava

Return to the Emerald Oracle - Part 6

     Dennis shot the arrow, hitting a wolf high in the shoulder, the point emerging, dripping with blood, just above the spine. The wolf yelped in pain, rearing up and twisting its head around in an attempt to bite it out. Then it ran off into the forest, howling and whimpering in torment. The other wolves were visibly disturbed. Death in close combat was something they could handle, something they could understand, but this ability to inflict pain at a distance was something unknown. Something that frightened them. That’s it! thought the soldier excitedly. Don’t kill them, hurt them.

     He aimed another arrow at the rump of a butterfly wolf, therefore, sending it yelping in pain after the first, and he then put his third and final arrow to his bow. This is it! he thought. It’s this or nothing. He ran forward, therefore, brandishing his bow and arrow above his head to make sure their attention was fixed on it, and then aimed it at the nearest wolf, screaming in fury as he did so. The wolf didn’t wait for the arrow to fly but ran away with its tail between its legs, followed by the others. The pack came to a halt about fifty yards away, staring at them fearfully, and when Arroc shook his scimitar at them they backed away another few yards.

     “Come on.” said the trog, lifting Teasel down to the ground again. “This is our chance. Let’s get out of here.”

     “Don’t run!” warned Naomi, who’d changed back into her human form and put on her tiger skin while the others had been concentrating on the wolves. Damn! thought Dennis. Missed it again! “If we run we’ll trigger their chase reflex. Just walk away as calmly as possible.”

     They did so, Dennis picking up his arrows as they went, and they walked slowly and carefully towards the forest. As they went, the wolves moved in to the vicinity of the statue and began sniffing at their fallen comrades. They heard the sound of tearing flesh.

     “How do you feel?” Teasel asked Naomi.

     The black girl’s wounds had shrunk in proportion to the size of her body as she’d changed back to human form, but she was still badly injured. Blood ran down her legs, gluing fallen leaves onto her bare feet, and her normally dark chocolate coloured skin had turned an unhealthy shade of grey. “Weak,” she admitted. “A little dizzy. I’d like to rest for a while.”

     They looked back at the wolves, who were now feeding greedily on the bodies of their former comrades. They wouldn’t be bothering them any more. Teasel looked ahead and saw a fallen tree a little way inside the forest. “Can you make it that far?” she asked. Naomi nodded.

     Reaching the fallen tree, Naomi sat wearily on it and took off her tiger skin so Teasel could clean her wounds and dress them with strips of cloth torn from a sleeping blanket. Dennis and Arroc discretely averted their eyes and kept a look out for any other dangers that might emerge from the forest. After a while, they heard the black girl wincing with pain as the nome helped her get dressed again. “Okay, you can look now,” she said. She took a long drink from a water bottle. “Which way do we go now?”

     “We go nowhere until you’re rested a bit,” said Dennis. “You’re in no condition to travel at the moment. I say we make camp here, have a bite to eat. Then we look for somewhere safe where we can spend the night, go on tomorrow morning.”

     “No we’ve got to keep moving,” said Naomi, however. “Today’s the last day we’ve got the carpets. Dawn tomorrow morning, or whenever their power returns, they go back to Belthar and we’ll be stranded here. We’ve got to find the ruler of this place and get out of here before then.”

     “We can spare an hour or so,” insisted the soldier, though. “You wait here and rest for a bit. I’ll go have a look around. No way is this island more than a mile or so across! We’ve been going around in circles or something but I’m going to make bloody sure I keep to a dead straight line. I’ll get to the bottom of this bloody place!”