Leatherwing... Chapter 4

4.

The next decision Vrik’s mother needed to make was perhaps the hardest she had ever made. Vrik was lost, hurt, and maybe worse, but she had no idea where to even begin looking. And others were missing as well; scattered and lost. Vrik had gone out this morning with four friends. She needed to get help if they were to be found.

And so, with a last look to the trees, she turned from the now darkening forest and took T’ra into her arms. The sooner she returned, the sooner she would find her son.

* * * *

Vrik’s mother was relieved to see her husband already organizing a group of hunters when she arrived home, apparently one of the other children had found his way back and alerted the village.

“Tyrana,” he called when he spotted her, but stopped when he saw the girl in her arms. She obviously knew what was going on. “Two of the boys returned. They have told us where to look.”

Tyrana dropped the girl to the ground and joined her husband. “I’m coming with you.”

Vrik’s father nodded and the hunters took to the trees. They stayed close as a group, moving fast. There was still one girl missing, as well as Vrik, but they knew the fastest way to find the children was to get to the attack site and spread out from there. They also knew that they would need every hunter if they were to kill the lizard quickly and start the search. From what the boys who had made it back to the village had said, it was large – an Onyta if their description was accurate, and that did not bode well for his son. Big and fast, an Onyta could kill with bite or claw, and worse still was the poisonous saliva it spit upon its prey. The poison did not often kill, but it caused incredible pain and left the victim’s body scarred as if burned.

Vrik’s father prayed he would find his son in time.

* * * *

As fast as the group moved, it seemed to Tyrana that it had been hours since she had first found T’ra. Kal’il had shouted to her where to boys had placed the attack, and she could see in her husband’s eyes that he was worried. She had called for him not to slow for her, she would follow.

And so, she moved through the trees as fast as she could, recklessly, as the hunters pulled farther and farther away from her. She knew her son would need her if he was alive. Kal’il and the hunters would kill the Onyta, but it was Tyrana’s healing magic that would save her son.

* * * *

Kal’il gripped his spear tightly as he crested the hill. This was the spot. His heart pounded, but he forced his breathing to slow. He was a hunter and as much as he feared the scene he was about to see, he also knew that he needed to deal with the Onyta first. And to do that he needed to focus. And so, Vrik’s father gritted his teeth and prepared himself for battle.

And then he stopped.

The other hunters froze along with him, as if hitting an unseen wall. What had stopped them was no wall though. It was the scene that lay before them.

They had found the attack site.

* * * *

Tyrana sped through the trees, hoping she had not lost the hunters. They had only been out of site for a few minutes, but she rarely came out this far and she did not know the area well. She breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted her husband and the hunters, but that relief was short lived as she realized they were not moving.

Why are they not moving! Please let Vrik be alive!

She got her answer only a moment later as she too crested the ridge and saw what lay below. The lizard was no less impressive than the children had described. Two feet long with inch long claws, it was a creature made for killing. But instead of finding it eating her son, it lay twisted and still, its back arched awkwardly over the roots of the tree it had obviously sprung from. It showed no sign of being hurt, but all two feet of it was unmoving. It was dead.

“Mother!”

The voice shocked Tyrana and pulled her attention away from the Onyta. There was her son, across the clearing. His face and hair were matted with blood, but he was alive; alive and waving to her. The next words out of his mouth though filled her with dread.

“Hurry, she’s hurt.”



To be continued...