"A bellow erupted
from the forest ahead. The sturdy forest horses froze in their tracks, and Hess
took a firmer hold on the reins, expecting anything.
But Kai knew
what was happening. He flapped his legs against his mount’s sides with no
effect, so immediately afterward he bailed off and hit the ground running,
every leap emanating fierce protectiveness.
Snapp and Snurr
burst from the curve ahead at a dead gallop, and then Hess heard the snarl as a
furry gray beast took the curve right on their tails. The canine’s body leaned
nearly sideways for the turn, the flying paws digging deep in the snow and
litter of the past year.
The reindeer
bellowed half in anger, half in fear, and Kai let loose with a bellow of his
own to warn any and all predators… that these two herbivores belonged strictly
to him.
The reindeer
bolted past Kai, then swung their heavy antlers in a sharp turn to circle up at
their master’s back.
The pursuing
pack let loose a cacophony of yips and swarmed down upon the beleaguered
woodsman and his team. [...]
Kai swung his
staff and connected solidly with a head, then reversed the blow to thump
another set of ribs. [...]
The pack
retreated, slinking backwards into a sullen ring of watchers, cautiously
circling the travelers. They definitely wanted those reindeer.
Several leaned
back on their haunches and howled, a long chilling wail that wavered and ached
across the mountains. [...]
The creatures
went into another round of howling, and then one of the big ones tried to rush
in and sink its teeth into a reindeer flank.
Kai was faster,
and the opportunist met the flat power of the oak staff, chock against the base
of the neck, breaking the spine.
The hunter
didn’t even yelp. It just crumpled forward into a pile, plowing up the skiff of
snow with its remaining momentum.
“NO!!!” the
shout reverberated off the mountainsides and shook the snow out from the pines.
Hess and Tompte
raised their heads to see a figure cloaked in hides barreling down the slope.
The newcomer was clearly bipedal, but that was about all that could be told at
first glance, with the very furry outerwear, it could have easily passed for a
forest animal.
With an
unnerving yell the apparition charged at them, straight through the pack of
dogs, and lit into Kai with its own stout quarter staff, which had clearly come
from these same, rough, mountains."
I think we can all agree there's going to need to be lots of conflict resolution before these two are friends again!!!
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