By the Lake (Brave New World Book 3)

Chapter 5

My idiotic night vision registered the trespassers as nothing but large humanoid shadows in the distance. I could rule out the moon-cursed, because they wouldn't attack us in bipedal form. As well as pixies, since they were a finger-size flying menace. That still left many other shadow kinds capable of moving fast enough to make a proper shot in the dark impossible.

Double curses! I would have to get closer before I could be of any help to Ris.

I quickly freed my hands of the bow and began moving from tree to tree towards the lake, trying not to lose the trespassers from sight in the process. I was usually super fast when jumping from branch to branch across trees, but again my half-human genes were sabotaging me in the dark. If I moved too fast without getting a clear view of what obstacles came next, I risked falling and breaking my neck.

My slower-than-usual progress gave me time to consider calling for help. Several elements of a robin's song were my personal signal and once issued, it would let every elf in the forest know I needed backup. However, the signal required the use of hands, so I would have to stop for a moment.

I stopped, but by then I had reached a good shooting position. And when I did, I forgot entirely about the backup call.

Ris had not only intercepted the enemy already: he was fully engaged in battle.

They were blood-cursed. They were too many, and he was going to get surrounded, and they were going to rip him to shreds with their talons and sink their shark-like teeth in him, and drink him dry–

Over my lifeless hair! My arrows started flying one after the other, no time and good eyesight for proper aiming. I targeted the creatures that weren't upon Ris yet, afraid I might accidentally hit him. The blood-cursed thought they could go around my tiger and attack him from behind while he was facing the rest of their kind? Like sunny surface hell they would!

I shot down three out of what appeared to be eight blood-cursed, but they probably weren't permanently out. I doubted I had hit a head or a heart under the robes that the trespassers were dressed in. Before I could target another, my peripheral vision caught a shadow moving in the tree next to mine.

I jumped to another branch right before a pair of talons sank into my previous location. Knowing how these creatures usually attacked, I was taking out an arrow and prepping my bow while I was still in the air en route to another branch. The moment my feet touched the hard surface, I turned and shot the arrow at a 45-degree upward angle.

The blood-cursed were ugly by any standard. Freaky red eyes. Chalk-white skin revealing the blackish veins underneath. Two rows of tiny extra-sharp teeth made for tearing whole pieces of flesh over one's arteries... If there was anything that could improve the looks of a blood-cursed, it was an arrow right in the center of the face. A dose of silver delivered straight to the brain.

In short, I had just made my attacker look acceptably ugly before he could land on top of me. By the time his lifeless body hit the ground under the tree, I had already assumed a more stable position on the branch and prepped an arrow.

From here I had a relatively clear view at Ris' opponents. He had already beheaded two creatures, but another two were moving fast to avoid his sword swings. They were basically keeping him occupied until the remaining three blood-cursed could get my arrows out of their bodies. Then there would be nothing preventing them from regenerating and attacking Ris from behind. Intelligent and sneaky as the blood-cursed were, they would go for his vulnerable, slow-to-regenerate wings.

His beautiful wings...

They would not have my tiger! And if I had to go down there to deliver some permanent deaths without risking a stray arrow hitting Ris, then so be it.