Page 41 of Infala: The Alien's Bond
Darla scrambled backward, her hands grabbing for anything she could use as a weapon. Her fingers jammed into something solid and she yanked hard, pulling free a softball sized rock. She refrained from throwing it though. It was her only weapon and there was no telling if she could find another before the creatures made it to her.
The two beasts crouched, teeth bared and snarling, spreading out and trying to flank her. The wiry hair on their necks was standing up straight, running to their foreheads in a rigid wave of agitated mane. The goat-like eyes were just icing on the terrifying cake. If she’d had to come up with a spooky-ass creature in her nightmares, Darla would have been hard pressed to top this one.
“Come on you fuckers!” she yelled, hoping a little show of bravado might make them think twice about their would-be meal. “I haven’t got all day!”
The beasts were clearly not impressed, made apparent by the low, throaty growls they each let out, creeping closer, their hackles raised. Darla lifted the rock higher, ready to strike at whichever attacked first.
A third growl from behind her made her body flood with every last drop of adrenaline she possessed.
Darla spun as the stealthy beast that had snuck up on her charged and leapt high and fast, its gaping maw aimed directly at her head. She raised her arm in hopes of diverting the deadly teeth at least a little but the impact never came. Instead, a sharp yelp of pain rang out as the animal was violently flung into a tree, dark foam dripping from its mouth.
Heydar stood crouched and ready, both of his blades in his hands, one of them already green with the animal’s blood.
Green blood, Darla’s shocked mind marveled even as the two other beasts rushed toward her.
Heydar was in motion in the blink of an eye, putting himself between her and the attacking creatures. His blades slashed and stabbed with speed she would never have expected from so large a man, their bright lengths driving home with every blow.
There were more growls and yelps, accompanied by a splash of hot green blood, as he battled the two assailants, keeping them at bay while they lost energy as they bled out. The third, however, was shaking off the shock of its impact with the tree and moving quickly to rejoin the fight while the tall man was occupied.
Darla let out a yell and charged it before it could fully regain its senses. She swung the rock hard. Far harder than she realized she could, the strength enhancing rune on her shoulder making her muscles tingle with a strange warmth as it poured additional power into her limb.
The beast’s skull let out a sickening crack from the impact and fell to the ground. It would not be getting up ever again.
Heydar spared but a cursory glance before dispatching the two animals at hand in a violent, bloody fashion. He bent over their motionless carcasses and wiped his knives clean before sheathing them.
“I told you to stay close,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I was. I mean, I just stepped off to get some berries,” she said, noticing the pouch and its spilled contents, most of which had been trampled in the fight.
He shook his head, a slight look of disappointment on his face. “You move like a child. No caution. No awareness. You must pay attention. These are merely wild Tsinoki. Dangerous, yes, but there are much worse things out there.”
Darla nodded. He was right, of course. She was on an utterly alien world and taking chances like that when she didn’t know the first thing about this place was foolish.
“Thank you for coming back for me,” she said.
Heydar lifted up the closest of the animals and pulled free a knife once more, slicing it open in a single stroke, dumping its entrails in a steaming pile.
“I was tracking prey,” he said. “That they came for you was a fortunate coincidence, though I would only have taken one of them given my choice. In any case, we will not want for food.”
He then moved on to the other two, cleaning them quickly before butchering them and wrapping their meat in their own hides, tying them into tight bundles.
“We must continue,” he said. “There is still much ground to cover, but at least we will no longer need to slow our pace to hunt.”
With that he turned and headed back to their original path. Darla flexed her arm. It felt normal now, and her adrenaline was returning to normal levels. But somehow, she’d tapped into the strange, powered runes, though she had no idea what she’d done to do so, or how to recreate the event.
I’m so much stronger, somehow, she marveled as she trotted off after her savior.But hot damn, hopefully, I won’t wind up needing to do that again.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
“How much farther are we going to hike?” Darla asked as they crested yet another rocky hill.
They had been walking all day, stopping only to rinse off the blood of the animals they had fought and Heydar subsequently butchered, and then once more for an afternoon snack of wild greens and a few pieces of dried meat from their packs.
As for water, Darla had been worried about drinking directly from the small stream they had washed up in, no matter how clear the water seemed. But Heydar informed her that the pigment she now bore in her skin would negate any digestive issues from mildly contaminated water.
The nearly white ink in particular was supposed to be extremely powerful. That the Oraku had supplied him with any at all for a newcomer’s designs was almost unheard of. But Darla had the pale ink interwoven all over the runes on her body, accenting them and increasing their power.
At least, that was what it was supposed to do in theory. In practice on a new species, there really was no telling exactly what the end result would be.
