Nada's Escape: Fighters' lies

31.2 Protect

I push myself up into a plank, trying to get my bearings around the red spots peppering my vision. Finley lies two metres ahead, unmoving. The beast crows, dancing further back into the meadow. I scuttle forward and press my hand to Finley's back, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the griffon. He's breathing. I sigh with relief. Alive.

I cast around for a weapon, crouched over his body. Finley's second knife has vanished but my hand clanks against a different kind of metal. It's the bucket Finley had brought back from the well. I pick it up, stepping over Finley's body as the beast howls at the sky, scratching at its eye.

Not the ideal weapon. But I've fought with less. I will do again. At this rate there won't be a next time...

The creature creeps towards me. The crest fills my vision, blocking out the meadow behind it. I swing the bucket by the handle, pretending it's a sword. The griffin doesn't seem concerned. The bucket swishes through air, the griffon still two metres away. But not for long. I see its muscles tense in readiness and I struggle to turn the bucket in the air. It's far more awkward than a sword.

The bucket swings back just in time to clang uselessly against its beak. Its jaws open to swallow me. I shove the bucket there instead and it crumples. The great beak begins to open again, slivers of torn metal reflecting moonlight. It eclipses even the sky above me, breath reeking of rotten flesh.

A sword thwacks into its neck and it rears up away from me. I fall back under its flailing claws, gaping at the sight of Darcell, clinging to that sword hilt on the beasts back. He thrusts a bloody dagger into its skull, but it ricochets, carving a wound in the flesh.

He gapes at me in astonishment, "How the hell did you get here before me?"

I duck, swearing, as the beast tries to take another snap at my head.

"Less talking, more stabbing," I yell. Who would have thought I'd ever mean those words more?

He switches for a gun and takes two quick shots in the back of the head.

"Bloody thick skull." He mutters.

The beast rears, throwing Darcell to the ground and its claws finally knock me over too. A hot slash shocks though my side as I slam against the trellis gate. Red spots fly across my vision again and I blink at the tableau before me.

A mess of figures in the dark rush the creature. Mildrith, still tiara-ed swings her axe, cutting halfway into its foreleg. There's more Huntsmen behind the beast, but they're keeping their distance, arrows flying.

I drag myself up on the trellis, watching Mildrith shoulder Finley's unconscious body. Gosh she's strong. And Darcell crashes into my shoulder, stumbling through the trellis gate. I follow, escaping the meadow with arrows thumping down behind me.

We run through the main hedge paths to the next garden. There's a well in the centre. I know this, and so I stagger into it, though I can't see much between the shadowy hedges.

"Shit. You're bleeding." gasps Darcell, landing beside me.

I shrug off my shock, straightening. "Oh I know."

"No seriously," he pulls at my arm, wrapped around my abdomen. I blink down at my belly, at the dark liquid pooling on my palms. Oh. That.

I remember the griffons claws slashing through my side. I hadn't had time to think it through. It looks crazy bad. I sit back on the well lip.

Darcell crouches before me, hacking at my skirts with his knife.

"Sorry, but we've got to get something on that." I bend down to help, cracking my head against his as he rises.

"Ow," He laughs, holding his head. "Hold on to that."

He presses the gauze against my side. I squeeze my eyes shut against the wave of pain at the pressure as he circles my waist. I clutch my insides but it doesn't help, I can feel the return of the pain feyflies. I bite them back and rock forward to watch Darcell hack more fabric from my skirt. Good thing there's so much of it.

Thundering footfalls sending my pain fleeing again, mutating into icy fear. It's the creature. It's running towards us. I lunge to my feet as the thunder pounds through my heels, closer still.

"Run!" I scream. We split, sprinting around the sides of the well. The creature crests the top of the hedge like a rabid gymnast. I hold the makeshift bandage to my side, backing against the unbroken hedge wall. Beside me, Darcell wields a dagger and the useless gun.

"Is that really all the weapons you have left?" I ask, sarcasm spilling out in my panic.

"This was supposed to be easy." He chucks the dagger to me and uses his other arm to steady the gun. I catch the dagger in shaky hands and thrust it before me.

The beast jumps again, lion paws landing on the well. Its chest pushes over the ornate metalwork with a groan. Claws curl deep into the stone.

Darcell shoots two shots into its chest with no discernible effect.

"See! This is why we don't use these stupid things." He still clutches it like a lifeline though, aiming whatever's left at its forehead. Finley's dagger is still protruding from it gruesomely, a mess of black blood and grey goo.

"Aim for the eyes!" I cry as it stutters over the last of the metalwork.

"Thanks Captain Obvious." He snarks, backing up further so we're shoulder to shoulder against the hedge.

The beast rushes forward, flashing beak and claws, no weak spot left to be cleverly exploited. The gun barks deafening beside me and I flinch back into the hedge, trying to push through. I hold my fists in front of my face, dagger face up in the hopes that it will skewer the beast before it gets me.

I feel the wind of its claw as I drop to the ground and roll backwards, praying for a break in the onslaught. The hedge is firm here though, a thicket that won't let me through. I roll into a crouch, launching sideways again on instinct. The stench of rotting meat invades my senses.

I turn to see the creature's beak full of green gauze. It makes a confused flick of the head. Beyond it Darcell waves at me frantically.

"Spread out!" He yells. I scuttle around, still feeling for a way through the hedge. The gun barks again and the creature is distracted. A wall of grey wing stretches above me as it turns to Darcell.

"Your move!" He cries as the beast leans back into its haunches. I tighten my grip on the dagger and leap onto its back. I dash between its hobbled wings, heart thundering in my chest. The creature's curves unravel before me, shoulders to neck to skull and behind that ear... I can't see it, have to hope I can reach it as I sense its muscles rippling. I leap, dagger extended in both hands.

Squoooosh! I plunge the dagger into its eye. The jelly-feel tells me I struck true even as my torso slams into the back of its head. My lungs collapse and a chorus of red turns to blinding white pain. The wind whirls past me in a blur of vertigo and I'm engulfed in a crackling crunching embrace, cushioning my fall.

I fetch up against another human and blink in astonishment. Darcell stares right back, framed by the foliage of the hedge paths. We clutch each other in the cacophony made by the injured beast. A crazy, inspired elation fills me in the realisation that we're still alive.