Could we even out run him?
His snout burst though the water first, pointing at exactly who his target was.
I used Shannon’s death grip on my arm to yank her the last few inches onto the bigger piece of land. His mouth snapped closed with a bone crushing crunch that made me nauseous.
His nose brushed the back of her neck, showing how close he’d really been to taking her head off. That wasn’t a warning or bluff. He meant business.
He twisted in mid air, smoothly landing into the other slough with a dive that was worthy of the Olympics.
She landed on the ground with a whimper. Her hand touched the back of her neck, and came away with fresh blood on herhands. I was right. Those scales sticking out of his nose and head in a straight line were as good as razors.
He stepped onto land with a growl on his snout and menacing eyes piercing Shannon. He tilted his head side to side, as if he was popping his neck and panic filled me. I stepped between them, putting my hand up. “Stop!”
He froze and glared at me. Probably wondering where I got the audacity to tell a swamp monster to stop from.
I didn’t have a good answer for that either.
He shoved me out of his way as easily as swatting a fly, and I fell into the nearby brush with a grunt.
The branches tangled with my limbs as if to keep me from intervening, as he stalked toward Shannon.
“Help!” Shannon screamed, crawling backwards, desperate to put space between the two of them.
I ripped the branches away, so I could get loose, rolled to my feet, and blindly ran to him. I wasn’t even sure what made me think I could do it, but I shoved him as hard as I could in the back.
He didn’t so much as stumble.
Instead it was me who almost toppled over from my own force, but I hissed at him, “Leave her alone.”
His growling deepened in a way that reminded me of a man irritated with a puppy who just didn’t understand potty training.
“I know you understand me, asshole.”
He turned slowly on his heel, his tail coiled against my calf as his eyes glared holes into my soul, exposing everything I was to him.
His snout raised, showing his teeth, and growled like I personally ruined his day. His tail tightened on my ankle to bruising levels, before it yanked me closer.
There was no doubt this was a threat, but I didn’t understand what he wanted from me.
All I could think of was how he yanked me around, like everyone else. Like every other man.
I spit in his face before I could even think about it.
He blinked, like I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t believe what I’d just done and his nostrils flared. He took a slow deep breath that made dread turn the saliva in my throat to heavy sludge.
His mouth opened wide enough to stick my head and roared loud enough in my face to make my ears ring and my life to flash before my eyes.
He leapt to the side into the water, but the bubbling roar still filled the air, muffled under the water, until he was out of our sight.
My knees turned to jelly, and I flopped gracelessly on the ground. My breathing hitched loudly in my ears as I tried to regain some sense of my surroundings. But it was hard to do with my body trembling hard enough to make my entire field of vision shake.
I should have died for doing that.
“Did you see him that time?” The broken wheeze that I didn’t recognize as my own voice sliced through the silence.
Why did he let his prey go? Nothing made sense.
Shannon stared at me with a wide-eyed mixture of fear and confusion that would be comical if the situation wasn’t so serious. “Yes.”
