The following excerpt is from All We Leave Behind: Transits of Three, which was released on December 20, 2022.
Chapter One (continued)
The rychat fell from the tree, a bolt stuck between its eyes. He’d hit the exact spot his cousin Aaron had once claimed was best to shoot anything. Tobias quickly moved to reload.
To his right, Bethany pulled on her string to cock her crossbow and fit a second bolt. It was her shot that landed the lucky and fatal blow to the animal, although she had aimed for the one to the right. She glanced at Tobias.
Tobias pulled on his string. “You ever hit what you’re aiming at?” He shook his head as he cocked the string of his own crossbow.
“You taught me.”
Tobias looked to his left. The rychat Moran had aimed for was on the ground, writhing in pain. It was not dead, and once on its six feet, the pissed off animal would be back in action, tail swinging. Foregoing the crossbow, Moran swung his lance into position and pointed it, ready to defend his position.
A growl vibrated through the forest floor. Tobias felt it first in his feet, then up his legs as the larger animal—Bethany’s actual target—advanced down the trunk of the tree, sharp claws holding it in place. A second growl joined the first, but it was weaker, less powerful. For an instant before he notched his next bolt, Tobias wondered if that growl came from a juvenile mimicking a parent. Juveniles were easier to take down, but an attack on one of them riled the parents immensely. Better to focus on the biggest threats first.
He raised his crossbow and took aim at the large one. Bethany had done the same, and both of their bolts landed with a thud into the back of the animal. It wavered a bit and fell to the forest floor, still alive but injured. Bethany quickly swung her lance around, pointed it at the beast on the ground, and charged. With a grunt, the pointed end of the lance skewered the animal as it writhed in pain.
“Defend with the lance,” Tobias said. He pulled back on the string again. “Attack with the bolt.”
Bethany pulled the lance from the now lifeless body of the larger rychat and ran backward to resume her position next to Tobias. “I’m better up close.”
“And more exposed. Reload.”
Bethany did as she was told. Two down, six to go. With the immediate threat of the larger two creatures eliminated and a third on the ground in front of Moran, three more adult rychat growled. The combined effect reverberated through Tobias as his body become heavy. The growl was a uniquely effective method of paralyzing prey, one that had been difficult to counter without a force of will. The stronger second- and third-generation adults could fight it off easier, but it was still difficult.
The animal in front of Moran finally rolled over and returned to its feet. The tail swung madly back and forth, rose to a striking position as the body crouched, ready to pounce. Moran raised the tip of his lance, repositioned his feet to counter the attack, and yelled. “Come on! Come at me!”
With his bolt now loaded, Tobias turned to a fourth rychat quickly descending the trees. It pushed off with powerful hind legs, the tail positioned to strike, front claws out, middle legs spread like wings. Tobias raised his crossbow, aimed, and fired.
The bolt hit the rychat in the midsection, below the right middle leg. The attack growl turned to a squeal, but the momentum of the animal did not stop. Its trajectory through the air carried it to a landing spot only a few yards from Moran. Moran was quick with the lance and pushed it into the squirming body on the ground. With a quick pull back, he readied himself once again for an attack from the animal he’d first shot.
Before Tobias could come to his aid, Bethany screamed. He swung around, letting his own crossbow fall to his side as he grabbed his lance. A smaller but still large rychat had jumped on top of Bethany, its venomous tail stabbing the ground on either side of her head. Bethany fought to get the animal off her, but the weight made it difficult. Even the juveniles were heavy. She dodged each strike of the tail and pushed with all her might.
Tobias lowered the point of his lance and charged. If he could at least get the animal off her, she could back up enough to grab another weapon and return to her feet. With a growl of his own, he plunged the point of the lance into the chest of the animal and pushed forcefully. The animal squealed, squirmed and wriggled off Bethany, the lance still embedded in its side. As Bethany scooted backward and righted herself, Tobias continued to push the lance farther into the animal.
A new growl rose out of the forest, unlike any of the rychat, unlike anything they had heard before. Rather than a low vibration, this growl was louder and higher pitched.
Releasing his grip on the lance and backpedaling away from the now injured but incapacitated animal he had attacked, Tobias reached down and picked up his crossbow. Bethany was already on her feet, her lance useless on the ground between her and the animal. Rather than pull her own weapon back up to cock it and fit another bolt, she unsheathed a large knife from around her waist.
A crash of leaves and branches shattered the surrounding air. The five remaining rychat all turned from their human prey and looked toward the sound. Between the trees, about three hundred feet away, Tobias saw a shape emerge from the darkness. Continuing to back up, and now joined on either side by Bethany and Moran, the three scouts watched as another animal, larger than anything they had seen before, appeared, poking a long snout with two sharp horns on each side through the foliage. About four feet longer than the largest rychat previously observed, it stood on two powerful legs, thick and not at all proportional to the rest of it. Its body, dark gray and furless, displayed rippled muscles that worked six smaller legs—or were they arms?—jutting out of its chest. Attached to the two uppermost arms, a translucent but thick membrane stretched down the side of its body, almost like wings. Each of the other four arms reached out independently toward the rychat as they scurried to find a defensible position. In a flash that couldn’t have been more than a fraction of a second, one arm shot forward, grabbed a younger rychat from a tree and, with a crunch, squeezed the life out of it.
“What—?” Bethany’s question was cut off as the new animal roared again and brought its prey to the side of its mouth where one of the sharp horns ripped through the animal’s belly, exposing innards which fell away with a sickening splat. A massive jaw opened to reveal rows of sharp teeth. It clamped down around the rychat’s neck and shook its head back and forth.
Without the confusion the humans felt, the other rychat attacked at once and in unison. They were not going down without a fight. They leapt from their positions on the forest floor and in the trees and converged on the new beast, tails stabbing, teeth snapping down, claws tearing into flesh. The bigger beast screamed and roared and shook the animals off one by one. They each fell to the forest floor, righted themselves, and attacked again and again, the venom in their tails seemingly having no effect.
Tobias was stunned. This was new. This was huge, and this was going to make the rest of their journey to their new home an absolute nightmare. Why they had not come across this animal in the forest before was beyond Tobias. Did they only live on the edges nearer to the canyon or had they not wanted to be found?
Moran put a hand on Tobias’s shoulder and pulled him back. “Time to go.”
“What—?” Again, another roar cut off Bethany’s question.
“Don’t care. We need to go.”
“That thing is huge,” Tobias said, more to himself than anyone around. The obvious statement hung in the air for a moment as the three humans watched the fight.
Moran pulled on Tobias’s shoulder again. “Come on. We have to warn the others.”
With mouth still slightly open, Tobias took a last look at the enormous beast as it fought off the rychat.
How were they going to defend themselves against that?
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All text copyright 2022, Benjamin X. Wretlind
