I didn’t know how they’d gotten her.She should have been safe on the roof, but it didn’t matter now.I charged them, head lowered, and hurled myself at the group.My weight hit two of them and I grabbed anything I could get my hands on.
Startled shouts met my attack and the sytos stopped running and turned their shock sticks on me.Sal ran around our feet, honking and squalling in panic as I was covered in sytos.Someone stabbed a finger in my eye, and I punched over my head.Half blinded I grabbed whatever I could reach and ripped a syto off my back, only for another to throw himself at my legs.
I stomped at him, but the extra weight of the sytos clinging to me threw me off balance and I crashed to the ground.Jessa screamed my name over Sal’s plaintive honks and my world narrowed to the bodies pressing in on me as I fought, blood pounding in my ears, a blood rage swamping my senses.
Something sharp lodged itself in my ribs, heat spreading over my belly.I was seconds from losing myself to the rage, I wouldn’t hurt Jessa but Sal and every other turoch in my band would be at risk until it passed.
A syto grabbed my ear, wrenching on it as he thrust his shock stick at my face and blinding pain jolted through my skull.
“Tovis!”Jessa’s yell was muffled by my pulse, rushing through me as my instincts insisted I rage, tear my enemies apart and survive.Sal’s calls were abruptly drowned out by a stampede of heavy steps and bugles.
“Percers!”Someone yelled.Syto or turoch, I couldn’t tell anymore.All of it was just buzzing noise.
Something slammed into me, lifting me from the ground and hurling me through the air.I spun, the blood rage fading just a bit as I tried to catch myself and I hit the ground with a tooth jarring impact that cleared my head in an instant.
When I lifted my head, I was looking up at a massive percer boar, his bony face inches from mine.Hot breath rushed over me, fluttering my hair as I stared up at the beast.The boar’s nostils flared, his muscular body trembling as we locked eyes and Sal honked again, running toward me through the chaos behind the boar.
The baby percer crashed into my shoulder, stubby legs scrabbling at the dirt as he tried to crawl under me and the boar huffed once before wheeling around and charging back into the fray.Sal shivered against my chest, honking in fear and reeking of piss as I slowly brought an arm up to cradle him.
Jessa stood a few feet away, frozen in the same shock I was feeling as we stared at the bloodbath in front of us.Where seconds ago, I’d been under a pile of sytos, a whole pack of percer boars was slaughtering every syto in sight.
There were at least ten of them, all huge, and they were battering the smaller sytos with tucks and headbutts, trampling them under foot, gorging them and hurling limp bodies into the air before crushing them until there was no hint of life left.
“Tovis?”Jessa called.I slowly pushed myself up, still holding Sal’s shaking body and Jessa staggered over to me.Her hair was a wild mess around her face, her lip and one cheek were swollen and her clothes were torn, but otherwise she looked unhurt.The percers seemingly ignoring her.
She slammed into my side as I stood and I winced as her small hands dug into my battered body.But she was alive and with me, so I pushed down the pain and kissed her head as we watched the violence slow as the percers finished their work.
Within minutes, the battle was over.The remaining sytos were fleeing the camp, and everyone else clustered together at a distance to watch in confusion as the boars slowly sniffed around what was left of the sytos corpses and clumped together in a tight group.
“What just happened?”Jessa asked shakily.
The biggest boar, the one who’d stared me in the face, stalked past us.The rest of his pack followed behind, backs hunched as they eyed us.No one moved, all of us locked in the same moment of awe and confusion I was feeling.
The lead boar paused, a few feet away and let out a vibrating rumble.Sal lifted his head and honked in reply.I looked down at the tiny percer, wondering if he recognized his kind, if he was capable of understanding that he belonged with them.
He seemed unafraid, despite the vast size of the boars and the stink of blood hanging off them.When the lead boar rumbled again, still staring at Sal, the baby cocked his tuskless head to the side, but made no move to go to the boar.
The adult percer looked back at the camp, and shivered, armored sides heaving with his breaths and then slowly walked away.The pack left as quickly as they’d come, stopping only to sniff the ground where we took Sal to relieve himself and leave his own mark in the dirt before moving off at a slow, ground shaking lope.
“Did they just...”Jessa shook her head.“Come help us?”
“I think they came to help Sal,” I said, looking down at the baby percer who had calmed down and was resting his body against my chest.
“How did they know not to attack us, too?”she asked.“They’re animals, right?That seems too complicated, to run into a fight and pick one side to attack and not the others.”
I shifted on my hooves, all the aches and pains of the fight making themselves known now that the danger had passed.
“The percer followed us when we escaped.I injured him and he still died trying to get Sal’s egg to us.They must be more intelligent than we knew.”
“That’s a little scary,” Jessa whispered.I spotted Vret limping towards us as the rest of the camp took stock of the damage the sytos had left.Injured turochs were lifted from the ground, but a few red bodies lay unmoving on the dirt.
Kadal had two sytos by the tentacles, and was marching them through the crowd toward Adak.We’d won.
