Xar'Ar'ax and I look away from each other to Mar'cte.
His hand bleeds as the tiny female pulls it back out and strikes several more times.
He lets her go with a snarl, then pulls his arm back and slams it into her. Kira lets out a pained grunt as his arm impacts her torso, throwing her back. She hits the ground hard and rolls down a small, steep hill toward the river.
Then the ground beneath her disappears, and she is free-falling into the raging river below, screaming all the way.
"Kira!" I roar.
I have longed for an opportunity to confront Xar'Ar'ax, but now I must choose: stay and fight or jump in after her?
For a moment, I want to turn to the big red drakonid and tear into his hide, as I have in many of my dreams. Then Kira's scream pulls me away from my role as a warrior. Pulls me toward the strange woman, with her bizarre phrases, and those beautiful, perfectly squishy globes I had in my hands as she made my skin catch fire with her touch.
So much for being immune to her heat. This is exactly why draks avoid attachments and speak derisively about manticorid bonds.
As badly as I want this fight, I make the weak choice and quickly give in, sprinting to the steep side of the cliff.
Self-loathing that I couldn't let her go and am instead fleeing a formal challenge fills my chest as I urge my body to greater speed, panicked over the thought of losing her.
The others don't stop me as I jump off and start falling toward the river. I tumble, catching sight of Xar'Ar'ax and Mar'cte approaching the side of the cliff to scan the water below before I right myself into a controlled plummet into the water.
43
Kira
I am struggling to stay afloat as the current rapidly sweeps me downstream. Drasuk is surprisingly not too far behind me, maybe twenty feet. He uses his powerful arms and legs to propel himself through the water, trying to get to me as quickly as possible.
I throw up my arms to make sure he can see me struggling to stay afloat.
"Kira! Hold on!" he shouts over the choppy water.
He keeps shouting my name as my body twists and turns in the turbulent water. I think I see a glimpse of him behind me, trying to swim over to me against the currents.
"Drasuk! " I yell, only to start coughing as water splashes into my mouth.
I am starting to tire and lose my breath as the current continues to pull me through the water. Every now and then, the choppy waves come crashing over my head, and I find myself completely submerged. The roaring water is loud beneath the surface as I continue to get pulled in every direction like a piece of flotsam.
I briefly see Drasuk again before the waves block my vision and another current pulls me under. This time, I am down longer.
I feel lightheaded from lack of oxygen, and my movements become sluggish as I try to claw my way to the surface. Just when darkness starts creeping in at the corners of my eyes, I feel a strong pair of arms wrap around my body.
My broken ribs scream out a protest as he kicks us hard against the current.
Once we break the surface, I greedily suck in air and start coughing my lungs up, each hacking cough a new agony.
I throw my arms around his thick neck, using his spines to help me keep my grip, and he continues to push his way through the current. Drakonids may be strong, but even he is getting thrown around by the current.
He shifts us around until he has me above the water, then curls up into an approximation of an upside-down armadillo. Just in time, too, because we enter a section of the river with giant boulders and his tough hide takes the blows instead of my skull.
He has more surface area than I do, and so the river pushes us at alarming speeds.
"Hang on tight," he tells me, while also keeping a protective arm tight around my waist.
I don't respond but tighten my grip as much as I can without passing out from the pain.
As we continue to rush downstream, I spot a downed tree up ahead off to our left.
"Do you see that tree?" I yell over the sound of the water.
