"Kon! Kon!"
The screeching Tengu surround us, stabbing at us from every side with their razorlike claws!
"Kon! Kon!"
Crazed, the Tengu come at us from every angle. But the Amarok pour on the speed, squeaking out between two Tengu that snap at them. The cercle may have cut us off from Kon's kitsunebi, but not the teeth and the claws coming at us!
"Kon! Kon!"
I press my face against the wolf's coarse fur, grabbing on as tight as I can.
"Kon! Kon!"
As the rain beats down on me, I press my head between Kirby-wolf's shoulder blades. When did it start to rain? Before I wanted a saddle, now, I'd settle for a seat belt, or just a rope that I can hang onto.
Think about holding on ... tight ... like ... what holds on tight? Like a tick on a dog. That's an image ...
Fistfuls of fur ... tight ... tight ... tight ...
Like a python's coils ... tighter and tighter and tighter ...
Or a spring ... winding tighter ... Think about sitting in the beach house with Kon ... listening to the waves. Ebb and flow.
We dart to the right and then the left! The Amarok launch into the air, roaring through the woods, dodging Mirabelle's monsters!
Think of soft bed sheets ... and the sound of waves against the beach ... not the claws that swish by my face! With another leap, we leave the creatures behind us ...
HANG ON! TIGHTER! TIGHTER! TIGHTER!
Think of playing the violin while Kon sings ... When I hit the ground ...
Ground?!?
The Amarok don't realize that I'm gone! They keep going!
"Kon! Kon!" The words are shrieks in my ear. Next thing I know, I'm staring into a Tengu's blazing eyes. Before the thing can shred me with its feet, Wrinkles-wolf sails over me, breaking the Amarok's circle. She knocks the thing back, but not before it rakes its talons across her side.
All the Amarok, with Kon in their center, have turned and dashed forward, uniting with Wrinkles-wolf and me.
A second Tengu explodes out of the underbrush to slash at Luc-wolf. He bats the thing to the ground. It shrieks as his powerful jaws clamp around it, ripping through it in a spray of green ooze.
"Kon! Kon!"
The wolves almost break the circle. Instead they charge forward, lashing through everything in their way. We punch forward, shredding six Tengu.
But they're coming from all around us! There are five! Then six! Now SEVEN!!!
As we run forward, I hear a CRAAAACK! as the ground beneath us splits open. That's when I realize that we're on a lake that's frozen over! We're on thin ice ... LITERALLY!!! All around us, the ice disintegrates and we sink into freezing water. The wolves barrel forward, dolphin-hopping as ice and water shoot up into the air around us! The Tengu are following us too close to get away as more of the ice buckles, dumping them into the water! They buck and squawk before sinking like stones!
We have more of a head start now as we dash ahead into the shelter of the waiting forest.
Behind us we hear "Kon! Kon!" as even more Tengu explode out of the woods.
YOU ARE READING
A TAIL OF NINE
FantasyKitsune have more names than there are stars in the sky, but I only have one--Jack Jericho. Call Kon of the Many Tails whatever you want-fox-spirit, monster, kitsune, myth-to me, she's one thing-mom. But everybody's got a past, and hers is about to...
