Page 23 of Burn Bright
"I don't know!" I yelled. "It's supposed to be an old tale, nothingmore!"
"Fine." He drew his sword and turned to face the volgur grimly. "We've got to get it away from theprince."
"It didn't like Hussar'shorn."
"Start yellingthen."
"Hey!" I bellowed, waving my arms and trying to catch the creature's attention. "Hey bear-face!"
The volgur bellowed again, its head turning towardus.
"Keep yelling. The second it attacks, I'll lead it away," Casimir said grimly, pushing me into the safety of a small thicket, and darting forward, directly into the center of theclearing.
"Casimir!"
He stared up at the enormous volgur, his shoulders straightening. "Come on, you cursed bear. Come and catchme!"
"Cas, don't!" Evaron yelled, but I threw a rock at the beast for goodmeasure.
Its eyes flashed red as they locked on me. I'd seen that sort of look before, when a mercenary tried to grope me in the inn, and my father pushed to his feet across the room, his teeth baring. That was the equivalent of,'You. Me.Outside.'
Shit. I started scrambling through the undergrowth, thorns tearing my skin. My unstrung bow caught on a sapling, and I forced my way past, yanking the bow clear. "Cas!"
"Coming!" he yelled. "Don't you dare stop! It's locked on you for somereason!"
An enormous crashing sound loomed behindme.
"Not planning onit!"
I strung my bow, leaping up over a fallen tree trunk. Branches whipped past as I sprinted, the forest a blur of white, brown and the few flashes of evergreen trees... The volgur simply plowed through the trunk, sending shards of it ricocheting past me. Something stung my ear but I didn't dare stop.Too close.It was right on my heels. I could barely breathe, my lungs working furiously, and the hot rasp of its breath steaming across the back of my neck in a fog of stink that made my gutclench.
Grabbing an arrow, I nocked it in one smooth motion. Another fallen branch barred my way as I sprinted towardit.
"Neva!" Cas yelled somewhere behind me, and I knew I'd never makeit.
Launching sideways off the branch, I twisted in mid-air, catching a glimpse of those reddened eyes and enormous head turning toward me, even as the volgur's body slammed through the branch and crashed onward. Time seemed to slow. I could feel my heart skip a beat as I stared down the shaft of the arrow andloosed.
Steel flashed. The feathers waved at me as my arrow buried itself in the volgur's eye, its scream piercing my ears. Then its rump clipped my feet, and time smashed back into theworld.
I hithard.
A tree. The ground. The world blurring around me as I tumbled head over heels. There was a moment where I lay there breathlessly, trying to figure out which way wasup.
Then pain stabbed through my right shoulder. The scent of blood filled theair.
Casimir slid to his knees at my side, grabbing me by the left arm and hauling me up into a sittingposition.
"Ow!" I shoved at him instinctively. A tree branch had speared in me in theshoulder.
"It's getting up," he said, and hauled me to myfeet.
Gettingup? "What?" I'd shot it in theeye.
"I think you really pissed it off now, Neva." He shoved me in the back, and my thighs ached as I forced my tired legs into arun.
Grabbing my bow, I looked for the arrows that had spilled from my quiver, but they were all over the leaf litter on thefloor.
And the volgur bellowed behind us, its roar shaking the treesthemselves.
