Scarab the Fierce

Chapter Three

"What do you want?" Scarab hissed. She whipped her head around at Qibli. "And why are you following me?"

"Arid," Thorn said slowly, almost cautiously, "where do you live?"

Scarab glared at her. "Nosy much? I'm just passing through so back off!"

But Thorn didn't seem like she was going to do anything of the sort. She lashed her tail. "Do you know Saguaro?" Her voice lowered to a dangerous tone.

"Never heard of him." Scarab lied. Qibli scrunched his eyebrows at her.

Thorn seemed to relax a tad but still looked dead serious. "Arid, how old are you?"

Scarab looked at her hard for a moment before answering. She didn't want to tell her anything. "I'm eight." Not true. "And what business is it of yours?"

Thorn and Qibli shared an infuriating knowing glance. "You have the option to cooperate, Arid. Make this easier on all of us." Thorn flicked her tail and two other Outclaws blocked Scarab's escape routes. She turned and hissed at them.

"That's her alright." An Outclaw said. He had a deep voice and chunks of his SandWing frill were missing. "Has been seen stealing all kinds of goods from merchant stalls and citizens. And that's only what we've seen."

Scarab's eyes narrowed. She widened her stance and lifted her wings enough to make her look bigger, just as Saguaro had taught her.

She could hear Thorn's voice behind her. "Arid, we don't want to fight, we just need to talk-"

Scarab darted forward and quickly upward and over the Outclaw in front of her, flaring her cloak in his face and landing on his back. He yelped and spun quickly to throw her off but she grabbed his wing and twisted it painfully behind him. He gasped in pain and fell to the ground.

Scarab looked up in time to see the other Outclaw reaching towards her. She whipped a knife out of her pouch in a second and lashed at his talons, stinging them with scarring cuts. As he stumbled backward, Scarab lunged past him to try to run away. It wasn't far to the city, one short sprint...

She felt a weight fall onto her back, knocking the wind out of her. She twisted her shoulders to see Qibli trying to pin her. She hissed and threw him off of her, then immediately swiped at his tail with her knife. When she got close to the barb Qibli instantly pulled it away, safe behind his wing.

He won't use his venom on me...

This thought was interrupted by Qibli flashing forward again, ducking underneath her talons and jerking up, knocking Scarab off balance and throwing her onto the sand, knocking the knife out of her talon. He was on her in an instant, pinning her to the ground and holding his tail over his head dangerously, although Scarab knew by then that his tail was an empty threat.

He was breathing hard. "How'd you learn to fight like that?"

Scarab twisted under his weight and cursed her useless tail. Qibli had it pinned to the sand under his foot as if it were dangerous.

Thorn ran up to them with the two limping Outclaws behind her. Scarab couldn't help but smirk at the sight of their injuries. She was incredibly frustrated and a tad impressed that she had found a worthy opponent in Qibli.

Thorn looked down at Scarab with little emotion on her face besides mild surprise and seriousness. She looked back at the two Outclaws. "Are you guys alright?"

The first one, the one Scarab attacked first, nodded and winced. "Yeah, it's just sprained."

The other held up his claws delicately. "The bleeding's almost stopped." He said simply.