“Reech Borlee. And, no, Borlee’s a good man. Loyal. Trustworthy. But he doesn’t have what it takes to run a compound as big as Vega City. Our last census showed we were nearing five thousand inhabitants.”
“Wow.”
“Borlee follows orders to a T. He’s the perfect ‘get it done’ man. He just doesn’t have the common sense God gave a duck to initiate any ideas of his own.”
“So why does your father keep Borlee around?”
She smiled and swiped away a length of hair dangling in her face with the back of her wrist. “He and Dad grew up together. They’re as close as brothers. I often look upon him as an uncle of sorts. Dad was an only child, same as me.”
“And your mother?”
“Died of the wasting disease when I was twelve. Daddy loved her so much, he never remarried. Never had a mistress, either.”
Holding down the stripped carcass with her anchored arm, she sliced the paws off the animal. “I guess that’s it. It’s ready to be skewered.”
“Did you save the nuts? There’s nothing like roasted prairie dog nuts.”
Caralas blinked. “No, I didn’t. Are you for real? Its nuts?”
Mattox let out a bark of laughter. “I’m teasing you. Prairie dog nuts taste like shit. And, yes, to answer your question, I did try them. Once. But if you’re hungry enough, you’ll hold your nose and eat anything.” He was still chuckling when he held out a stick to her. “Here. Skewer it with this, and let me tell you how. There’s a trick to it. You—” His face suddenly went stark white, and he whipped his head around to look behind them.
“Wha—”
He threw up his other hand for silence. When he finally looked back at her, his eyes were cherry red. Laying the stick down, he placed a finger to his lips. She caught him staring at her waist. Glancing down, she noticed her hands and arms were covered in blood, and she realized the blood could be attracting whatever had alerted him.
He placed his hands on the ground and began washing them in the dirt in a silent order for her to do the same. She understood, and started scrubbing the gore from her skin.
Using the sheath to help steady himself, Mattox rose into a hunched-over position then withdrew his sword. He flexed his fingers before taking the hilt in both hands and lifting it over his shoulder.
Caralas gave a little squeak of terror as the creature rose up on its two hind legs. It was massive, nearly twice as tall as Mattox, who was a big man himself.
What terrified her more was the thing’s appearance. Grossly misshapen, its head was wide, with a snout that protruded outward nearly three feet. Rows of jagged, spiked teeth overlapped each other, until it opened its mouth and let out a roar, revealing a second, smaller row in both the upper and lower jaws.
The body bore thick, dark tufts of hair, but those were overshadowed by wet, pus-filled boils covering nearly every surface inch of its skin. The paws were bigger than a man’s head, with claws that extended nearly six more inches in length.
It glared at the man standing in front of it, challenging it. Its tiny eyes glanced over at her, and Caralas saw its thick nose twitch in her direction. Letting out another bellowing roar, it started in her direction.
Mattox yelled at the thing and swung his sword. The blade slashed the creature’s belly. Blackish blood poured out of the long wound, and the animal snarled as it tried to swipe at its adversary.
“Here, you son of a bitch! Come at me! Come atme!”
Mattox heaved his sword again, and managed to slice a finger off the monstrosity’s paw. The creature screamed in pain, dropped on all fours, and charged after him.
She knew Mattox wouldn’t be able to outrun it. She dove for her own weapon, pulled it out, and raced toward the animal. Double gripping it, she brought the blade down as hard as she could, slicing into the thing’s thigh and nearly separating the leg from the body.
The animal whirled around, whipping its claws in her direction. Spittle flew in every direction as it shook its head against the pain. Caralas felt something tug at her pants leg. The next moment, there was a shredding sound, followed by hot agony. She tried to step back to put some distance between herself and the animal, but her right leg wouldn’t obey. Instead, it crumpled underneath her, and she found herself dropping to the ground.
There was a shout of anger, and she saw Mattox launch himself onto the thing’s back. The animal reached behind it, but it couldn’t get to him as he leaned forward and plunged his sword deep into the creature’s neck and into the spine. Putting his weight on it, he buried it up to the guard.
The thing knew it had been bested, but it refused to give up. Letting go with a blood-curdling shriek, it threw itself at Caralas. Since it couldn’t reach the man on its back, it chose to go after the woman who smelled of blood.
Somehow, Caralas managed to point her sword up and away from her body as the animal came for her. Unable to get out of its way, she prayed it would impale itself on her blade. Either way, she waited for the thing to either disembowel her, or crush her with its weight, when the monster seemed to shudder in mid-air. It gave a slight grunt, as if in surprise, then slowly began toppling sideways. Instinctively, she rolled to the right. A heavy paw landed on her back, almost knocking the breath from her, and she cried out, when she realized there was no accompanying swipe. Caralas kept rolling until she was several feet away before pausing to turn and stare at the fallen animal.
Mattox gazed at her in shock. Then, together, they gaped in surprise at the arrow sticking out of the thing’s eye. It was embedded so deeply, only a couple of inches and the feathered fletching remained visible.
Mattox pulled himself upward, his face still pale. Caralas noticed his eyes, now a light pink, stared at something behind her. She was able to roll over and look for herself.
Several people on horseback galloped toward them. The woman with the blue hair dropped out of her saddle before her mount came to a halt and ran over to Mattox, throwing her arms around him. Two more people, whom Caralas recognized as his brother and sister, went to join them.
