The cackling warbles of blackbirders rose on the night air. The troupe's mounts shied away from each other, and from the shadow. And above it all the skyship dropped closer.

‘Moordenjah! Moordenjah!’ A cry rose from the troupe around him. ‘Blackbirders’

As Peter watched dark shapes swung down from the skyship on ropes crying out in challenge.

‘Turn to the side. Away from the skyship's path,’ cried Peter. But Vale just drove his mount on, and the rest followed

Some of the troupe slipped to the side, but instinctively the beasts came together as a pack and the riders did not force them apart.

‘That’s the worse thing to do. Turn them to the side. We can’t outrun the skyship.’

‘Our mounts pack hunt and will stay together,’ Vale said. ‘Especially when attacked.’

‘But the skyship,’ said Peter. ‘It can’t turn. If the troupe runs straight they’ll land on us, amongst us.’

Vale drew his long lance. ‘They will find the end of a long pointy stick then won’t they.’

Peter despaired. He knew the skyship’s could only be carried by the wind. If only they would move away from its passage.

A riderless mount swerved in front of Vale’s mount and the beasts collided. Vale swore as the two swerved to the side. The other beast with no rider ran in its wake splitting the troupe with its wild turn. Somehow they had broken free from their tethers.

Behind him someone screamed and Peter knew a blackbirder had caught a rider.

‘This is madness.’

Vale drew his mount to a halt, the sudden stop shoved Peter almost off his seat. A mount stampeded past a blackbirder standing on its back, a blade glinted in the moonlight. A rider had fallen.

One of the free beasts had baled up Vale’s mount, reared on two legs it snapped at Peter and Vale.

‘Should have done for those beasts long before,’ said Vale. 'Killed them back when the riders first fell.'

He pulled the head of his mount around, clicking and clucking commands to draw them apart. But the huge creatures rose in challenge.

A blackbirder swung past, missing him and Vale, but landing on the riderless beast. It bucked and snapped at his the blackbirder rider, tossing them in the air, then catching them with a gruesome crunch in its huge maw.

‘Holy heck,’ Peter swore.

Why do they take the risk to keep these beasts around?

And then a blackbirder landed behind Peter. Without a thought he slid off the beast, slipping, tumbling to the ground, while Vale reared his beast onto two legs in a pirouette to shake the attacker off.

‘I told you,’ Peter shouted. ‘Should have gone sideways.’

He ran back from Vale’s mount only to find himself face to face with the rampaging riderless mount. Without the constraint of a rider the beasts had turned rogue, back to their wild state. And this one had always had its eye on Peter. It opened its mouth and roared at him as it crouched low.

Then it leaped.

Peter had never seen something so big jump so high and fast. But then he made a good attempt to fly in his dive to the side in an attempt to keep away from the creature.

He felt its rage. Pent up and now boiling over as it leapt to his right and snatched a blackbirder out of the air. With the rope still its mouth The beast hauled on the line to the skyship like it angled for a fish.

Who’s caught who?

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Then the beast tossed its head and the blackbirder ship shuddered until the line broke with a crack. The skyship bounced higher as its flight engine over-compensated for the sudden loss of the beast’s pull.

The gaze of the beast had returned to Peter, and he backed away. All around him the screams and cries of attack and fighting, but he only had eyes on the great meat eater eyeing him up for dinner.

He took in a huge breath and gave a huge warlike roar as he jumped at the beast. Then he channeled his inner warrior and slapped his legs and shouted a haka to challenge back.

If I’m going to die I’m going to go down defiant.

He launched into his school’s rugby haka, stepping forward, slapping his legs, his chest and roaring for all he was worth. His passion rose, pounding blood in his head and heart, as he drew nearer and nearer to the head of the beast his eyes always on the creatures huge but beady stare.

Then it blinked. The nictitating membrane swept across its watering eye.

Peter stopped and drew breath. The musk of the creature rose around him and he could feel the heat radiating from the its muzzle.

Realization struck then, the mount had lowered and extended its head to the ground. Submissive, it waited for something.

He didn’t but instead ran up the muzzle, onto its head, and into the saddle webbing that had not been removed when its rider had fallen.

What the heck just happened?

He could not explain it to himself even though he had just experienced it. Somehow he knew what the mount wanted, and it knew what he needed. Escape.

The skyship had barreled past him, scattering the troupe. Several fights between blackbirders and Thorn’s troupe petered out as support from the blackbirder ship slipped away on the wind.

Without thought his mount ambled forward towards the last fight while he searched for the cousins. And Sarah.

Their beasts had scattered left and right just as he had hoped they would. In the chaos of the riderless beast’s attack the pack cohesion had broken enough for them to get away from the skyship.

‘Probably just bad luck,’ Peter said to his mount. He shook his head at that. But he knew the truth of it. The valley would be the best way down from the mountains for a skyship. Their paths had crossed and they had taken advantage of it.

‘We’re safe now old girl,’ Peter thumped the side of the beast and got a rumbling response he could feel but not hear. Then the troupe had surround him, heads centered on him.

The looks from the riders chilled him. But Sarah’s glare of anger shocked him deeper still.

’What is this?’ said Thorn. ‘How is it you ride?’

‘Shaman.’

‘Witch.’

‘Evil eyed devil.’

Peter looked for a friendly face but even the cousins stared at him in dismay.

‘Cast him out.’

Thorn’s mount reared up and stomped its forelegs on the ground.

‘Enough,’ bellowed Thorn.

The group quietened but the mounts fussed as they settled after the end of the brief skirmish.

‘Explain yourself,’ said Thorn his stare deep but patient.

Peter looked around to see who stood around him. Fewer mounts and riders then before. Tiz and Walt’s mounts hung back but they looked anxious but safe.

Can’t be good to be always reminded how dangerous this planet is.

Jan and Sarah sat tall on a restless mount. Like the others their beast stood on its rear legs opposite Thorn’s, but it pawed the air as if wanting to strike him down.

Vale stared at him in amusement on this right while other resentful glares smoldered from all sides. The remaining beasts all had riders on them. Those without had run off into the bright night. Peter saw one rolling in the river. They had lost at least two from the troupe.

His mount remained the center of attention, and the only one that remained on four legs, submissive and still. As he considered his response his mount lowered its head and rumbled low and quiet in the purr he had heard before. The rest of the mounts began to fall back onto four legs again.

‘I can’t explain it,’ Peter said in Thaluk. He glanced at Sarah and saw her roll her eyes. When she saw his gaze she sent him a stare filled with daggers. He smiled and looked back at Thorn.

‘I think it is like the connexion you all have with your mounts.’

A rumble of confused comments came from the other riders. Peter sensed they did not know what he meant.

‘The imprinting you use to bond with your mounts is only part of the way you manage your mounts. I sense it…’

‘See. He admits it…’

‘It’s obvious. You all have a way with your beasts, you direct them where you want. They act like extensions of yourself. The most dominant beast is the one under your leader Thorn. I’ve seen this before.’

‘Where?’

‘Elsewhere. A place called Eoth.’

‘You come from this Eoth?’

‘No. But I stayed there a time. I gained some skill there. That is all. I’m like Sarah. I’m from Earth.’

‘It’s true. She could not imprint her beast easily. It took years.’

Peter looked towards her and understood a little more of her anger towards him. He could talk to these people after only a day. He could ride a beast like a native. His guts wound tight. He had not meant to show her up, or to challenge or belittle her. But he had.

‘Thaluk. It is a language I learned there too,’ Peter said. ‘It has a way of crossing and communicating between peoples. It allows understanding even when we do not share a language.’

‘Sarah does not understand,’ called one rider. ‘She says you speak nonsense.’

‘She is nuvra. Not of this planet.’ As soon as he said that he regretted it. The last thing Sarah would want is him reminding everyone she had come from outside.

‘Why does that matter?’

‘I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m surprised what I learned on Eoth is the same here.’

But even as he said this it struck him. Eoth, where skyships are manned by blackbirders. Just like the one he had seen tonight.

He looked around and saw that perhaps he had satisfied them. Sarah and Jan had fallen into close conversation with the old Italian. Sarah raised her eyes and he knew had just made an enemy.

And I thought she might be a friend. At least.