Shady patches beneath the burgundy and green canopy gave them a nice cool down from time to time, where others the red stone would radiate heat up at them where it was exposed to the sun. Darla couldn’t help but think that if not for their circumstances, this would be a rather beautiful walk.

Heydar was not one for sightseeing, maintaining a steady course, scanning their surroundings as he moved, alert and ready, like a hunter. Like a predator. Even from a distance Darla was taken with the way he carried himself. Confident and in control. Ready for anything.

Darla felt the growing desire to show him she wasn’t just some helpless waif riding his coattails. She wanted to prove herself. It wasn’t as if she had a praise fetish or anything, but the thought of winning his approval brought a little smile to her lips.

I’ll fill this thing up in no time, she thought, veering off the direct line Heydar was following and into a thicket where she could see some dense clusters of berries growing. Why he bypassed them she had no idea. Probably, he was too focused on tracking game to worry about more berries.

But Darla? She wasn’t about to pass up such a dense patch. As she moved closer, weaving around some low bushes blocking her way, she realized this one detour might even fill her little pouch close to halfway. Not bad in her opinion.

She began picking quickly, adding the ripe ones to her pouch, skipping the questionable ones. Her fingers were getting quickly coated in astringent juice, but she ignored the tightening of the skin on her fingertips and kept working, moving around the low shrubs, following the trail of berries.

A few minutes had passed before she realized she had wandered a bit too far from the path for comfort. Heydar was moving quickly, and if she didn’t get back on his tail she might lose him entirely.

A crack made her jump. Another followed, along with the sound of rustling leaves. Footsteps, and more than one set. Someone was coming, and they were not alone. She quickly turned and began retracing her steps, hurrying back to the open area they’d been trekking through when a low-pitched, rumbling shriek pierced the air just to her side.

Without another moment’s warning a pair of creatures leapt through the foliage right at her. Darla dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of the hairy beasts. They were the size of a large dog, but their builds were more like miniature bison, with massive shoulders and narrow waists. They also had horns, not just sprouting from the top of their head, but also a ridge of smaller spiky bits running the length of their spines.

Darla scrambled backward, her hands grabbing for anything she could use as a weapon. Her fingers jammed into something solid and she yanked hard, pulling free a softball sized rock. She refrained from throwing it though. It was her only weapon and there was no telling if she could find another before the creatures made it to her.

The two beasts crouched, teeth bared and snarling, spreading out and trying to flank her. The wiry hair on their necks was standing up straight, running to their foreheads in a rigid wave of agitated mane. The goat-like eyes were just icing on the terrifying cake. If she’d had to come up with a spooky-ass creature in her nightmares, Darla would have been hard pressed to top this one.

“Come on you fuckers!” she yelled, hoping a little show of bravado might make them think twice about their would-be meal. “I haven’t got all day!”

The beasts were clearly not impressed, made apparent by the low, throaty growls they each let out, creeping closer, their hackles raised. Darla lifted the rock higher, ready to strike at whichever attacked first.

A third growl from behind her made her body flood with every last drop of adrenaline she possessed.

Darla spun as the stealthy beast that had snuck up on her charged and leapt high and fast, its gaping maw aimed directly at her head. She raised her arm in hopes of diverting the deadly teeth at least a little but the impact never came. Instead, a sharp yelp of pain rang out as the animal was violently flung into a tree, dark foam dripping from its mouth.

Heydar stood crouched and ready, both of his blades in his hands, one of them already green with the animal’s blood.

Green blood, Darla’s shocked mind marveled even as the two other beasts rushed toward her.

Heydar was in motion in the blink of an eye, putting himself between her and the attacking creatures. His blades slashed and stabbed with speed she would never have expected from so large a man, their bright lengths driving home with every blow.

There were more growls and yelps, accompanied by a splash of hot green blood, as he battled the two assailants, keeping them at bay while they lost energy as they bled out. The third, however, was shaking off the shock of its impact with the tree and moving quickly to rejoin the fight while the tall man was occupied.

Darla let out a yell and charged it before it could fully regain its senses. She swung the rock hard. Far harder than she realized she could, the strength enhancing rune on her shoulder making her muscles tingle with a strange warmth as it poured additional power into her limb.

The beast’s skull let out a sickening crack from the impact and fell to the ground. It would not be getting up ever again.

Heydar spared but a cursory glance before dispatching the two animals at hand in a violent, bloody fashion. He bent over their motionless carcasses and wiped his knives clean before sheathing them.

“I told you to stay close,” he said matter-of-factly.

“I was. I mean, I just stepped off to get some berries,” she said, noticing the pouch and its spilled contents, most of which had been trampled in the fight.

He shook his head, a slight look of disappointment on his face. “You move like a child. No caution. No awareness. You must pay attention. These are merely wild Tsinoki. Dangerous, yes, but there are much worse things out there.”

Darla nodded. He was right, of course. She was on an utterly alien world and taking chances like that when she didn’t know the first thing about this place was foolish.

“Thank you for coming back for me,” she said.

Heydar lifted up the closest of the animals and pulled free a knife once more, slicing it open in a single stroke, dumping its entrails in a steaming pile.

“I was tracking prey,” he said. “That they came for you was a fortunate coincidence, though I would only have taken one of them given my choice. In any case, we will not want for food.”

He then moved on to the other two, cleaning them quickly before butchering them and wrapping their meat in their own hides, tying them into tight bundles.

“We must continue,” he said. “There is still much ground to cover, but at least we will no longer need to slow our pace to hunt.”

With that he turned and headed back to their original path. Darla flexed her arm. It felt normal now, and her adrenaline was returning to normal levels. But somehow, she’d tapped into the strange, powered runes, though she had no idea what she’d done to do so, or how to recreate the event.

I’m so much stronger, somehow, she marveled as she trotted off after her savior. But hot damn, hopefully, I won’t wind up needing to do that again.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“How much farther are we going to hike?” Darla asked as they crested yet another rocky hill.

They had been walking all day, stopping only to rinse off the blood of the animals they had fought and Heydar subsequently butchered, and then once more for an afternoon snack of wild greens and a few pieces of dried meat from their packs.

As for water, Darla had been worried about drinking directly from the small stream they had washed up in, no matter how clear the water seemed. But Heydar informed her that the pigment she now bore in her skin would negate any digestive issues from mildly contaminated water.