The Kindreds, Volume 1

The Seventeenth, Pt. 4

This time, it was not a roar or a yowl, but something low and dark, so deep it was felt more than heard. Sada cringed against the sound; it vibrated in her eardrums and her skull, making her jaw tickle and ache. The deer was even worse for wear than Sada was. At the sound of the leoteryx's growl and the sight of it crouching almost leisurely, tail lazily flicking back and forth in the air, the deer head jerked backward. In an attempt to flee the predator, it swung into the cat head and Elven head. The tree cat turned and snapped at the deer, drawing blood from its cheek, and the deer squealed. It was panting wildly now, and making pitiful bleating noises. Sada doubted it could see at all with the way its eyes were constantly rolling, more white than brown showing.

Then Dedrei took a single, stalking step forward. The deer, it seemed, had had enough. With a final scream it began to jerk away from the leoteryx, so violently that Sada heard tendons cracking and air bubbles in its spinal fluid popping. It rammed into the tree cat head again and its feline counterpart snapped at its neck and jaw. Its flailing movement tore the wounds open wide, skin pulling apart, blood gushing and squirting out, muscle stretching. The tree cat's biting in combination with the deer's frantic jerking was a truly deadly combination. Dedrei growled again and with one final jerk, the deer head ripped itself away from the chimydra body. The head separated halfway from the neck-torso with a sickening popping and ripping noise like that of a shirt tearing. It died before it could completely free itself, and, tongue lolling, its head slowly sunk forward so that it was hanging down over the chimydra's scaly chest.

The chimydra hardly seemed to notice its head was dead. It only reached up and batted at it with a scaly paw. The tree cat did its best to lean down and sniff at the exposed and bloody flesh, but its torso was too thick to be flexible and it could only get close enough to flick its tongue out for a taste.

Sada stared, eyebrows raised and mouth open, at the chimydra and the red blood dripping off the deer's ears. She turned to Dedrei and barely noted that her friend had shifted. She shook one paw until it turned into a hand, and then she was fully in her Spiritkin form again.

"Did you see that?" Sada asked, gesturing to the chimydra.

Dedrei didn't answer her. "Come. Bring the water. This is not over."

Sada did as she was asked, still staring in amazement at the dangling head. Sarana stepped up beside her, and Sada shared a wide-eyed glance with the filly, who regarded the Beast with a cocked head and perked ears. The chimydra seemed distracted by its dead head, and Dedrei whistled to get its attention.

As soon as it turned, it lunged, though by this point the chimydra was tired and its attack was half-hearted. Even in her Spiritkin form, Dedrei's agility was evident, and she easily side-stepped to avoid the reaching claws and snapping jaws. It leapt and she dodged again, and the chimydra ended up facing Sada. Without thinking, she moved in front of Sarana, closer to the Beast's claws. When it swiped, she had to dodge its foot to avoid being clawed. She hopped away, and for some reason a giggle escaped her, almost delirious in nature. The monster growled and batted at her again, but Sada dodged once more, spinning away this time, still grinning and squealing when the claws came close enough to rip through her dress.

She knew that she faced true danger, and yet she could not help but feel that it was all some game. This felt nothing like her battle with the fox, where she'd feared for her life so greatly she had almost wanted to die just so the worry of it would be over. Dodging the chimydra's attacks wasn't exactly fun, but still, she laughed and squealed and grinned. Dedrei was whistling and yelling to get the Beast's attention, but it was either more entertained or more irritated with Sada as an opponent than it was with Dedrei, for it ignored the Druid. It crouched, preparing to swing a paw out again, and Sada made to dodge once more. But Sarana hopped out in front of her, stamping down her front hooves and squealing. Then she opened her wings and angled them so that they reflected the sunlight into the tree cat and Elven girl's eyes. As the chimydra winced, its entire large body recoiling, Dedrei tossed the water into the feline head's face.