As badly as Prevna wanted the tedium over with we couldn’t attack the crawler right away. The waves would slow us down and impede our balance while giving the crawler the home advantage. So, we had to wait hour after interminable hour for the tide to change and ever so slowly recede, inch by short inch.
Eliss notified the whisper women at this outpost to keep their distance before going to retrieve the other seedlings through the shadow paths. I kept my eyes trained on where we thought the crawler had burrowed into the sand, causing the water to ripple irregularly. I didn’t hope for it to not notice our presence, not to feel the others’ soft footsteps through the ground as they slipped over to join us on the ridge. Instead, I did my best to will those things into reality. We had trained. Everyone should know what to do and be prepared.
“Where?” Juniper breathed next to my ear.
“Three steps from the ridge, a dozen from the end of the beach. The waves are still covering it.”
“And will be for a while,” Prevna grumbled under her breath.
I gave her a look of displeasure, which she shrugged off, while Juniper questioned her with a look of her own.
Prevna rolled her eyes. “You can’t tell me you’re not bored.”
Juniper’s gaze trained on the spot I had pointed out to her. “All part of the hunt.”
Prevna huffed out a breath and went back to her stones, though I noticed she carefully dismantled her tower and started to arrange the stones on the ground. Not as likely to invite the sound of falling stones that way.
Idra and Ento had settled on Juniper’s other side, closest to the crawler’s location. Taking inspiration from the snow within arm’s reach of Prevna they began a silent drawing contest, careful to keep their movements hidden behind the tufts of tall grass. Eliss lay on the opposite end of our group and watched the ocean in case any unexpected threats decided to show up.
Their idleness was amazing in a way. I could hardly tear my eyes away from the spot the crawler was hidden while they were content to play games until it was time for the fight. Plans roiled in my mind.
“Don’t overthink.” The unasked for advice came from an unexpected quarter. Juniper had switched her cool focus from the spot back to me. “My mentor always said planning is good, but pick three broad options. Otherwise, you’ll freeze when the time comes.”
“I won’t freeze.”
She gave me another unreadable look and lapsed back into silence. I glared at the water.
I knew there was only so much I could do through planning, that when it came down it the fight would be ruled by reactions more than anything else. But as Prevna liked to point out there wasn’t a whole lot to do on the ridge and my training had always tended to theory over application. There was only so much one could do in a tent, after all.
The next half hour or so I took care to loosen up muscles that were sore and tight from lying on cold ground for multiple days in a row. Stretched my fingers, one by one, rolled my shoulders—anything that didn’t require me to stand up and present myself to the enemy. Juniper’s approving air irritated me as she joined in on the stretches but I didn’t rebuff her. The last thing I needed was to get in an argument right before fought we the crawler. Prevna, Juniper, Idra, and Ento might be able to talk their way back to the Seedling Palace even if we didn’t kill the crawler, but this mission was my main chance.
We waited. Waited as the sun rose higher in the cloud streaked sky. Waited as the tension notched up, bit by bit, until we were all restless and fingers kept slipping to check on weapons and tug on our protective coats. Waited as the crash of waves slowly receded to reveal more and more damp sand.
At one point, I looked up over the scrub land to see the outpost whisper women threading their way between the forest line and the beach as they scouted their assigned area. They were careful to keep far enough away that it was very unlikely the crawler would give up its surprise advantage to attack them, but also close enough that if the creature was intelligent it hopefully wouldn’t think they were purposefully avoiding the beach.
I had to work to keep my breath even as they passed.
Nothing burst from the sand. They didn’t swerve and try to take the crawler for themselves. The beach remained quiet.
We didn’t wait for the waves to pull back completely before we launched our attack. Just enough for us to have a stretch of sand between the crawler and easy escape. Any longer and I think someone would have snapped from the sickening mix of wire edged tension and tedium.
Ento had said that she thought that crawlers knew that their victims were near through tremors in the ground from their steps, so we did what we could to keep off the beach and walk as softly as possible while we shifted into position.
Eliss stayed where she was, so that she could respond right away if anything came from the ocean. Idra and Ento prepared to leap from the ridge between the crawler and the water while Prevna and I slipped up to a spot in line with the crawler, a net between us. I worried that we would be seen, but the wet sand didn’t so much as ripple as we came up right to the edge of the ridge. Juniper went alone around the crawler through the scrub land and onto its other side. Water began to well up from her cupped hands.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Then we had to wait again for her water to collect and slowly work its way down the beach. Idra had been vehemently against this part of the plan and Ento hadn’t like it either. Like the outpost whisper women, Juniper had to judge a distance that wouldn’t be too far from the fight, but that also wasn’t so close that it prompted the crawler to attack early. I had wished for a defense that was more efficient, but Juniper’s odd water attack could cover more ground than anything else we had, and I didn’t know how effective slings were against the creature. Given what had happened to that golden orange fish, I didn’t doubt that her attack would get the job done, if needed.
Long minutes passed as her little stream of water slowly grew. Then, seemingly impatient herself, her pearl began to glow and the water flowing from her hands doubled, tripled. It gushed over the low incline of the beach, meandering but still reaching for the ocean. Juniper shifted, taking a step to presumably try to guide the water better, and the sand closer to us moved.
Prevna and I threw the net just as the crawler launched itself from its hiding spot. Short. The net was short with only the creature’s tail and part of one smooth wing tangled in it. Prevna and I leaped after it. Other impacts hit the sand as I rolled back to my feet from my landing. Pulling my short spear free I sprinted over to where the crawler was writhing on the sand, readied it and…missed.
It wriggled free from the net just as I plunged my spear downward. Prevna took a long stride past me and managed to slap a single finger full of poison onto the crawler’s rippling wing. She had gotten more while we were still in camp. I scowled and pulled my spear out of the sand.
The creature shuddered and changed course, veering for the waves. It moved like it was still underwater. Fast and rippling. We raced after it.
We wouldn’t catch up before it reached the water.
The crawler slammed into an invisible barrier. Idra let out a victorious cry while a smug feeling in my chest shoved aside the disappointment of my failure. Planning definitely had its uses.
Still, it likely wasn’t long before the crawler realized her barrier wasn’t infinite. We converged on the creature. Ento from within Idra’s dome, a dagger in each hand, and Prevna and I from behind on the beach. Prevna had her own spear in hand now.
Ento reached the crawler first and slashed along one winged fin. It retaliated by whipping around its barbed tail. She tried to twist and dodge out of the way, but instead we had the unique experience of watching her be checked by seemingly empty air. Half in and out of her partner’s dome, Ento’s shoulder ran into the outside of the dome while her legs still moved freely in an experienced side step.
The tail plunged into her calf. She screamed through gritted teeth, dropped to her knees, and slashed a knife across the crawler’s eyes. The crawler didn’t make any noise but it bucked backward, pulling its tail free, blind and hurting.
I hated being late.
Again.
I put on an extra burst of speed and Prevna’s longer legs still brought her to the fight quicker than me. She plunged her spear down toward the middle of its back. An awkward moment where the creature’s skin refused to be pierced before the spear was turned aside into an ineffectual cut.
That would have been good to know earlier.
The tail went for Prevna’s leg. Without thinking, I grabbed it and pulled, dropping my spear. It slid back a handful of inches before the crawler began to struggle. Strength had never been my strong suit, even if I had had to help hold down struggling patients in the past. The good news was that I didn’t have to play nice with this creature.
I stomped down on its head once before biting out, “Underside.”
Prevna got the message.
Ignoring the beating of its winged fins she grappled the crawler and did her best to haul the thing on its back while I did my best to keep the tail from stabbing into any more people.
Prevna pulled hard on the creature’s long whiskers and one fin. Not completely on its back but the underside was still exposed. Ento took the invitation.
Glowing daggers flashed in several different arcs, narrowly missing Prevna’s fingers, and yellow blood sprayed. A moment later and I felt the tension leave the crawler’s body.
A swirl of frustration and victory along with a hint of worry swirled in my chest. I hadn’t gotten the final blow but the crawler was dead. Shouts and footsteps hurried toward us. I shoved the emotions aside and dropped the crawler’s tail. A dull yellow-brown, it nearly blended in perfectly with the wet sand.
Acting on old instincts, I stepped around the creature and made Ento show me her leg with a snapped comment and a glare. Blisters were already bubbling up around the wound but the barb on the crawler’s tail wasn’t long and hadn’t plunged too deep. She’d live and walk again normally as long as she didn’t scar the skin badly from trying to scratch out the itch that was likely already building.
Binding the wound didn’t count as healing. I pulled out a strip of cloth from a pouch and bound it around the wound. I felt her notice my quick, practiced movements but she didn’t say anything. A bit too preoccupied with Idra and Juniper’s fussing and keeping her hands clasped tight and leg locked in place in a sheer effort of will not to itch the blisters.
I stood and caught Eliss’s attention from where she stood on the edge of the group. She hadn’t helped just like I expected and wanted.
I gestured to Ento. “Take her to the healers’ tent. She was stung.”
Eliss clearly didn’t like taking an order from me, but we both knew why Mishtaw had assigned her to us. She scooped up Ento and hurried over a tree’s shadow, Idra on her heels after Juniper gave the other girl a short nod. They disappeared in the shadow.
I turned to Juniper. “How come the fact that crawlers can turn aside piercing attacks was never mentioned?”
Juniper returned my question with cool indifference. “Ento’s fighting style as well as her mentor’s focuses more on cutting. Likely trying to stab it never came up in the fight.”
“And something as important as that wasn’t common knowledge?”
She didn’t deny it.
“We needed to win this fight,” I ground out.
Juniper indicated the dead crawler with a tilt of her head. “And we did.”
“Why?” Prevna this time, incredulous.
Some of Juniper’s melancholy air came back. “Some things are best tested under duress.”
They didn’t sound like the younger girl’s words. More like something she had been told one too many times.
I still felt like throttling her. “Did you get the answer you wanted?”
Her eyes flicked to me, over the beach and ridge, to the dead crawler, and back to me. “Not fully.”
“Let me know when you finally get it all worked out.”
She shrugged and I had the very distinct wish that I was the only tight lipped person in the world.
I didn’t throttle her though I couldn’t help but scowl again before we set to work drawing in our nets and traps. Eliss appeared again part way through and helped us pull in the last of it. A few colorful fish had gotten caught which was a nice surprise. She brought us and our catch back in two shifts. Prevna and Juniper left with her to take care of our various other nets and traps—though some would stay. We wanted to see how they would deter the other enemies.
I was sent to the commander’s tent. The crawler’s slimy corpse slung over my back and shoulder. Its dead weight not inciting quite the triumph I had expected.