[Mkguild] MK: A Pack of Secrets (12/13)

[Hallan Mirayas]

   "Okay, Drift said, pausing his pacing around the campsite, "that's impressive."  The storm-brought wind and snow swept down from the mountains around them… and parted around Xavier's wards like… well, like magic.  The metal rods marked the base of a protective bubble, a perfect hemisphere of absolute calm beyond which the trees swayed and the snow swirled, but within which not even a hint of a breeze stirred.  Even Cloud Walker lifted his head to look, wagging his tail in hearty approval.

   Tired as he was from the long day of travel, lying on the ground half-buried under blankets and a dire wolf for warmth, Xavier still had the energy to sound smug.  "I tethered a miniature rainstorm to you and Wolfram," he said, pausing to cough and to pull his blanket tighter around him, "and you think a little wind is beyond me?  You damn me with faint praise."

   "I praise you with faint damns," Drift countered, stretching his right hand out beyond the ward's limits to marvel at the sharp line between where the wind whipped his fur and where the calm laid it flat, pulling his hand back and then stretching it out again just to marvel at it.  "As in 'that's damn impressive'."

   Mollified by the compliment, Xavier changed tacks.  "You should stop pacing and get some sleep, Drift.  You look terrible."

   "I /feel/ terrible, Xavier.  My shoulder hurts so much that it's pace or scream, and I prefer to pace."

   "You're making me dizzy."

   "Then stop watching.  What would your girlfriend think if she heard you'd been staring at my butt all day?"

   The cat didn't miss a beat.  "My girlfriend would laugh and ask if the view got monotonous.  /Your/ girlfriend, on the other hand, would sit down, smile, and-"

   "And want to hear all the details," Drift finished for him.  "I know.  Though it's fiancée, not girlfriend."

   "Of course.  My mistake."

   Something in the tone of Xavier's voice made the samoyed pause.  It almost sounded like… disapproval.  But hadn't he been pleased back at the Harvest Festival?  Before Drift could comment on it, though, Xavier's wands sparked to life with a crackling hum.  "What-"

   "Drift!  Get back!" Xavier yelled, but it was already too late.  The wards fired, linking together with a chain of lightning before lashing out.  Every hair on Drift's body stood out straight as the ward nearest him fired almost directly upward.  The bolt smashed into a falling tree limb the size of the taur's upper bicep, shattering it into pieces before it could breach the ward circle.  It then arced away to blow another limb off a nearby pine tree before blasting away an inch-wide strip of bark all the way back down to the ground.

   Blinded and deafened, his nose full of the sharp reek of ozone and the smell of smoldering pine pitch, Drift staggered back from the wards and sat down with a thump until his head cleared.  Over the ringing in his ears, he could dimly hear Xavier asking him if he was all right.  Rubbing at his eyes with the back of his wrist, he replied, "Congratulations, Xavier.  Those evil trees will never threaten anyone again."

   The leopard snorted and rolled his eyes.  "You're fine."

   Unfortunately, that was the last of the humor for the night as they all settled down as best they could.  Xavier finally yanked his legs out from under Cloud Walker and spent the night with his back against the young wolf, his shivering and coughing getting worse as the night progressed.  Drift spent the night pacing and occasionally chewing on a thin tree branch, which seemed to help a little.  Maybe.  Of the three of them, only Cloud Walker managed any meaningful sleep, half-curled around Xavier to keep him as warm as possible, and even he was often jarred awake by the leopard's coughing fits.  In short, it was a very long and uncomfortable night.

   The next day dawned cold and clear, and this time Drift didn't waste time watching the sun come up.  The moment he thought it light enough to see, he bundled Xavier onto the travois, where the leopard promptly curled up and tried to go back to sleep.  Next, the samoyed taur got Cloud Walker to help him tie the rope harness in place, the wolf's teeth standing in for his useless left arm.  All he had to do was follow the river upstream to the lake until the Longs found them.  He was sure of it.  "All right, Walker," he said once they were finally ready to go.  Xavier was in no shape for another night like the last, Drift thought grimly, so anything in his way was just going to have to be out of luck.  "Come on, Walker," he said as he set out for the last time, tousling the wolf's headfur.  "We're getting out of here."  

   With the rocky canyon floor giving way to smoother soil, they couldn't avoid the forest any longer.   It closed in on both sides, bringing with it dense underbrush that Cloud Walker tried to scout for paths.  Drift, however, had been awake for two days straight and was working on his third, and he was in no mood to wait.  He plowed through the brush as inexorably as he had pushed through the snow the day before, bulling his own path and snapping off or stomping down anything he didn't absolutely need to go around.  It actually brought a small smile to his face; the driving power of the taur form.  Sure, the branches tore up his clothes and tugged at his fur, but they were small annoyances compared to what he had endured already and were easily ignored.  Drift's friends were his family.  He would not lose his family again, whatever the cost.

   By the time an hour had passed according to his internal clock, he had decided that, however many worried glances Cloud Walker sent his way, the noise his passage made was a good thing.  The forest was quiet except for the cracking and crunching he caused, which suggested to him that any forest animals had taken warning and cleared out of the way.  This suited him just fine.  If he was lucky, the noise might even draw the Longs if they were- What was this?

   Despite his confident thoughts, Drift was exhausted.  That's why it took him just a moment too long to recognize the red-flagged danger signals in what he had just stumbled upon: a half-eaten moose carcass in an area of already-trampled-down brush, freshly killed and lightly covered in snow.  His gut tightened in alarm, but it wasn't until Cloud Walker's shrill yelp of terror and a crash in the brush that the answer clicked in his mind.  By then it was too late.  A living mountain of shaggy gray fur and long black claws slammed into him from behind and to the right, smashing the canine down in the snow.  He heard Xavier yell in pain when the travois flipped, and then Drift's world exploded into agony as his weight and the bear's landed squarely on his bad shoulder.

   For a moment, all he could do was try desperately not to pass out.  Clawed blows rained down on him like an unrelenting summer hailstorm, and his throat went instantly raw from screaming.  Thick fur was only a marginal defense against strength like that, and putting his one good arm up to shield his head got his forearm bitten down to the bone.  Dimly, Drift could feel Xavier still struggling to get free of the overturned travois through the ropes tangled around his back legs, and that was enough to jar him out of his shock.  If the bear killed him, it would go after Xavier next… and he would not allow that.  He would not let anyone take his family away again.  Not ever.

   /If your teeth are in my arm, you ugly bastard, then your paws aren't in a spot to block this/!  The insight burst upon him in a flash of icy fury and, by the time it was finished, Drift's fangs were slashing across the bear's nose.  The bear bawled and let go, wheeling to swat at Cloud Walker directly behind it.  At the same time as Drift had bloodied its face, the young dire wolf had leaped in and bitten it hard on the flank.  He now backed hastily away, turning to run while the bear gave chase.

   Drift finally got a good look at his attacker.  "Where in the hells does a bear get bone armor?!" he protested to the world at large.  Ridges and plates of bone protruded through the fur on the bear's face, shoulders, flanks, and spine, formidable natural armor on a beast that outmassed Drift and was nearly double Cloud Walker's size in all dimensions.  /Never mind where it got it/, he thought, snatching for his dagger, /just kill it/!

   Ignoring the blood running freely down his arm Drift sawed frantically at the rope tying him to the travois.  There was no time to undo the knots, and he swore afresh over not having had Xavier resharpen the blade after he'd used it to cut the limbs for the travois.  It was badly dulled, and he wasted precious seconds gouging it through the rope while Cloud Walker desperately dodged and weaved around the infuriated bear.  The moment the rope parted enough for him to get loose, he flung the dagger at the bear to get its attention away from the overmatched Cloud Walker, and then grabbed for Whirlwind.  The dagger bounced ineffectively off a bony plate, but it distracted the bear long enough for the young wolf to dodge into a clump of trees too closely spaced for the bear to easily follow.

   "Hey, ugly!"  Drift rolled to his feet and broke out in a tooth-baring grin as his battlestaff snapped into form.  Biting down on the center, he twisted it to deploy the javelin spikes from either end and raised it like a spear aimed directly at the beast's heart.   "I'm not through with you yet!"  He charged.  

   The bear turned to face the new threat, but the taur was faster.  Sheering away to the right to counter the bear's turn, he stabbed Whirlwind into its side.  "Bite me, will you?" he snarled.  "I've got sharper teeth!"

   The samoyed may have had 'sharper teeth', but the bear had better armor.  The javelin point skipped off a broad rib and gouged a long, bloody furrow down the bear's side rather than spearing the beast's heart as intended.  Roaring in pain, the bear whirled, and Whirlwind tangled in its shaggy fur.  His hand slick with his own blood, Drift lost his grip as he galloped past, and the bear twisted to pull the staff loose with its jaws and trample it into the snow.

   Drift nearly panicked, but immediately shoved the loss out of his mind.  Work now, panic later!  Turning just a bit further, he skidded to a stop, braced, and lashed out backward with both hind feet.  The impact of both on its jaw rocked the bear back on its heels.  It sat heavily, shaking its head back and forth and squalling unhappily.

   Cloud Walker, seizing the opportunity, leaped in to try another bite at its flanks.  He barely avoided having his skull crushed by a backhand swat and leaped out again without biting, tail tucked and wary.  Drift took advantage of the respite to turn and face the recovering bear. Hoping to keep its attention on him and not on Cloud Walker or Xavier under the travois, he beckoned it with both hands and taunted, "Come on, you fat fleabag!  I haven't got all day!"

   The bear finally shook off the double back kick and rose onto its hind legs, winding up to slap Drift's head from his shoulders.  The taur reared up to match it.  "I can do that too, you ugly bastard," he snarled, trying to put every ounce of intimidation into it as he could.  He was out of options, and if he couldn't get it to run...  Actually taller than the beast when reared up full, he lunged forward, forefeet lashing out at the bear's plated chest, his good arm up to ward against the bear's teeth.  If he could just push it back enough to grab Whirlwind-

   The moment his forepaws made contact, Drift felt his fur rise on end.  /Not again!/  He shut his eyes and flattened his ears just before the flash and concussion hit.  It wasn't the most powerful bolt Xavier had ever conjured, but it was enough.  Lancing into the bear's right hip, it collapsed both back legs.  The beast toppled forward with a bellow of pain and fear… right onto Drift's injured arm.  Not onto the one that it had bitten, but onto the one in a sling against his belly, painfully dislocated at the shoulder for nearly three days.  Drift's vision went black-rimmed with agony and the last vestiges of his control shattered like a thin sheet of ice dropped on a cold stone floor.  Fear, frustration, exhaustion, and pain all swirled together in an instant and exploded into a firestorm of rage.

   Drift's savage snarl widened Xavier's eyes, flattened Cloud Walker's ears back, and sent the bear scrambling into retreat on still-numbed legs, for it made a promise every creature there could understand: brutal, bloody, implacable death.  With a furious roar, Drift lunged forward to close the distance and hammered the side of the beast's muzzle with fist and elbow in a single rapid motion.  Broken teeth gouged furrows in his flesh, but Drift was beyond caring.  Uncoiling from the waist, he whipped his fist back through the bear's muzzle from the other side, and more teeth flew.  The beast reeled, staggered into a turn, and tried to flee.

   Before it had taken three steps, Drift's arm snaked around its neck, choking and hauling upward.  "That hurt, you son of a bitch!"  The bear tried to twist out of the taur's grip, but this was Drift's smithing arm, buttressed by rage and taurform power and as much leverage as he could muster.  "Break!" he growled through gritted teeth, feet working fast to keep up with the bear's thrashing and flailing.  "BREAK, DAMN YOU!!"

   It wasn't enough.  If he'd had both arms to use, or even one that wasn't torn and bloodied, it might have worked.  Instead, he was outmatched:  the bear started to break loose.  Its neck bones had popped, but they hadn't cracked, and blood loss was starting to weaken Drift's grip.

   He found a better one with his teeth… and then pulled.

   Blood splashed hot crimson on his muzzle and chest when he ripped its throat open.  The bear screamed and writhed out of his chokehold, bolting for the trees, but it didn't get far.  With a drunken stagger, its hind legs buckled again and it collapsed into the reddening snow, its forelegs feebly twitching as if still trying to crawl away.

   Spitting out the ragged, dripping chunk of flesh and fur and fat, Drift wiped his muzzle with his already bloodied arm and snatched a quick moment to catch his breath.  "Oh, no… you don't get away," he panted, and went hunting for his staff.  Where had he dropped it?  Oh, there it was.  When he found it, he spun it once to clear it of snow, and Whirlwind's pierced ends sang for him, a mournful death-song.  He relished it.  "You don't get away," he repeated and advanced on his prey with a snarl.  "You're mine."

   The bear's skull made a brutal crunch when he speared Whirlwind through it.  Repeatedly.  So did its ribs, shoulder, forelegs, and neck.  A red haze fell on his sight, and he stabbed… and stabbed… and ripped… and tore…

   Someone was yelling at him, and he heard something crashing in the underbrush.  Multiple things.  He didn't care.  Let them come.  Once he finished off the bear, he'd kill them, too.  Something grabbed at his arm, and he nearly took its head off with a backhand swing.  Teeth bared, he followed up instinctively with a foreleg swipe, and then brought his arm up to spear-

   "Drift!"

   Arla stood before him, hands raised, blocking a strike that would have pinned the rabbit Padraic to the ground.  "Drift!" she said.  "It's okay!  It's over!"

   For a moment, the red haze persisted.  He almost swung on her.  But then the moment passed.  She gently touched his nose, and the contact grounded him in reality again.  The Longs had arrived, as had the wolves, and he felt the shock behind every staring eye.  "I…"  The air around him felt cold again and he shivered… and then he saw the blood.  His right arm dripped with it, and Whirlwind shone red to the grips.  The spear-staff slipped from suddenly nerveless fingers, and his legs went wobbly and uncertain.  "I think I need to sit down," he said, and landed with a thump as his strength left him.

   It wasn't just his arm that was bloody.  His entire front was splattered with blood and gore and the bear, or what was left of it, stained the snow red for at least an arm's length in every direction.  His hands started shaking as the enormity of it sank in.  He couldn't have done that in just three strikes.  How long had he…?

   "Damn, Drift," Padraic said as he picked himself up off the ground, and his voice carried a note of admiration that made the samoyed's stomachs roll.  "When you kill something, you don't mess around!"

   Drift shut his eyes and tried not to throw up.  He put his hand to his nose to try to block out the coppery smell all around, a futile gesture that heaved his stomach and brought bile to his throat.  /Oh, Eli…/

   Her eyes soft with compassion, Arla took his hand and lowered it.  "Let's get you cleaned up," she said and beckoned him away for the bear's nearly obliterated carcass.  Supporting him while he got back to his feet, she led him away to clearer air and scooped up some clean white snow.  Gently scrubbing at his face and hands, she urged with a glance for Padraic to help him out of his bloodied, shredded vest.

   The rabbit carefully lifted Drift's dislocated arm out of its makeshift sling, and the pain of that motion was like a bucket of water in the samoyed's face.  Drift gasped.  "Xavier- is he all right?  He's-"

   "Ralls is seeing to him."

   "He hit his head and he's not seeing right and I think he's sick and-"

   Arla cupped the chin of the hysterical samoyed and gently drew it down to get his attention back on her.  "Drift, it's okay.  We'll take care of him.  Just relax."

   "But I have to-AAARRRGH!!"  Drift took a step forward just as Padraic twist-and-pulled his arm back into socket.  Pain flashed through him like Xavier's lightning, sharp as a knife for a moment but fading quickly into a numb, residual ache.  Darkness closed in around him, tried to pull him under, but he had to see...  "Have to see," he whispered to himself.  Ignoring their protests, he pulled free of Padraic and Arla, shouldered them aside, and staggered over to Ralls.  The medic had Xavier's head in his lap, carefully dabbing a salve on the cut across his patient's scalp.

   Xavier opened his eyes and smiled.  "Good job with the bear," he wheezed.

   Drift managed a weak wag of relief, exhaustion falling on him like a leaden cloak.  "Thanks."  His vision swam, and he had to put extra effort into his words to keep them intelligible.  "Ni… nice leg shot."

   True to form, Xavier turned grumpy again.  The leopard's ears flattened and he scowled.  "I was aiming for his head," he groused.

   Drift's mouth twitched in a hint of a smile, now certain that his friend would be okay.  "Make sure they're nice to Walker," he said.  "We'd have been dead without him."  Concentrating harder than he ever had in his life, he shifted back to his two-legged form, a moment of blissful relief after so long trapped on four feet.  The tradeoff in balance was worth it, he decided.  As the darkness closed in again, he politely added, "Don't let them take apart the travois.  They're going to need it…"

   Then the ground rushed up to meet him and he knew no more.


 		 	   		  
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