Chapter Thirteen: Stand By Me

Clackhissis had drained the calf the moment that she’d gotten it to the top of the hill. She appreciated that Cushing had thought of her needs and had even offered her an opportunity to hunt her prey before taking it down. How could she not respect his wishes to not watch her eat the animal? So, in deference to his desires, she’d carried the animal up to the top of the hill where she could eat in peace and still keep an eye on her team.

After desiccating the cow, she macerated it into a tasty pulp and made short work of the remains. By the time she had finished, only a few small bones were left, which she promptly silked and then carried to the top of a tall tree. She would not leave any hint of her feeding for others to find.

With that task completed, she made her way to the ground, resisting the impulse to lower herself via a web line. Her trip to the ground was utterly silent, and nary a branch moved to give away her position. At the base of the great oak, she settled and relaxed. Her eyes were vigilant and focused on her party below. Her legs fed her some information, but not as much as she was used to. Had she been human, she would have equated the sensory deprivation to the loss of smell one experiences when one's nose is clogged. You get whiffs and short sniffs but not the eloquent bouquet you are used to, which worried her. Though she was young, she had relied upon her vibrational sensitivity to alert her to numerous enemies and dangers for the entirety of her life. Once, she had avoided a flash flood because she had felt it coming a full two minutes before it had made its way to her location. She could not count the number of enemies she’d managed to slay because even though she hadn’t been able to see them, she knew exactly where they were. Now, she felt like she was only operating at half her capabilities and had no idea what to do about it. She could not even ask another spider about it because they were far afield of the Death’s Head weald. She decided that since she could do nothing about it, she would set it aside until a better opportunity for introspection arose.

Instead, she turned her mind to when they had met Korvath, and he had shown them the locations of the ichthyoid infections. Something had nagged the back of her mind ever since then. Something had felt familiar, but she could not put her pedipalps on it. She tried to conjure the image in her mind’s eyes, but it was no good. Clackhissis lacked total recall and could only vaguely remember the generalized locations, but she had no idea why she felt they were important or stood out to her.

She used her left leg by lifting it a few inches in the air and then making a tiny dot in the ground to represent an area transformed into an otherworldly transformation. She did this over and over until about two dozen marks had been made. She stared at them and continued to get a sensation of familiarity, but she could not discern what it was that stood out to her subconscious. Frustrated, she was about to erase the ersatz map when she heard yelling in the field below. Her focus returned to her companions, and to her surprise, she saw Hyde dressed in formerly functional clothing. His shirt was little more than shredded rags; he was running as though he was being chased by more wolves.

She strained to see what it was that followed, and she could make out man-like shapes, large and muscular humanoids that made Hyde look like a child. And that was when it hit her. Several adult Ogres were chasing him. There were six of them by her count, and they were beyond any shadow of a doubt after the boy. She watched as Cushing drew his sword, and Tes scurried behind the tree. Hyde ran right for them. He was counting on them to help him.

Hyde’s shirt was gone, and his chest and arms were wrapped in gray cloth bandages. Whatever clothes Cushing had gotten him had not been used effectively; the boy was practically naked again. The wrap was stained with blood in several spots and was slowly unraveling as he ran. Even at such a great distance, Clackhissis could see the complete look of fear on the boy’s face. He obviously did not want to be near the other ogre. From Clackhissis’s perspective, there was not much that Cushing could do against six ogre warriors, and Tes would barely qualify as a nuisance to them. That meant she had little choice. They would have the boy within minutes, and Tes and Cushing would be little more than practice dummies for the monstrous ogre to beat on. She had to help them!

Clackhissis started down the hill but stopped. She would not be able to get there in time, no matter how quickly she scurried or skittered. They were too far and moving too fast. She could get there quickly, but she had to try to emulate a motion she had only ever seen another spider perform. She would have to trigger her Flic-flac skill on her way down. It had appeared to be so much fun when she’d seen some of her cousins use it when she was a hatchling, but Clackhissis recognized that it was not an easy maneuver and that she would need every ounce of Dexterity and agility at her disposal to pull it off.

She tentatively raised her forelegs into the air and coiled her rear legs in preparation for a leap. Without hesitation, she shot forward into the air, flying an easy twenty yards from the leap. Her forelegs angled downwards as if she were diving into a pool of water, and as soon as they touched the earth, she tucked them under herself and rolled forward until her back legs again touched the ground. Forelegs out, she leapt again, covering another twenty yards in the span of a second. Clackhissis repeated the process again and again until she managed to soar over a dumbfounded and slack-jawed Game Warden and land in the center of Hyde’s pursuers. She didn’t hesitate. Clackhissis struck the group's largest member and did so with such force that he stopped her forward momentum and was knocked a dozen yards away.

She had not struck him with the spear-like points of her legs as they had been bent in preparation for another jump. Regardless of that fact, the impact was enough that she heard his ribs crunch and the Ogre exhale a great woomph! of air. He lay still when he landed. She saw the words Critical Hit flash when she’d struck, so she supposed he’d still taken substantial damage.

The next time she struck, she swung her right foreleg upwards and caught another Ogre warrior in what Cushing had described as a tender spot for bipeds. That one also dropped to the ground, emitting a loud woomph as he fell. His eyes were also crossed, and while he did not pass out, he did lay there whimpering like a child. That was two down in as many seconds. While her instincts were to climb upon her fallen foes, bite them, and inject them with her venom, she did not think these men were evil or in need of killing. They had not looked like blood-crazed killers chasing a helpless boy to her. They were more like pursuers in search of something they’d lost. Say what you would about Cushing, but he had forced her to see things in a different way than she was used to or comfortable with.

She decided to end things as quickly as she could. She leaped backward and away from the remaining Ogre but kept close to them. She opened her HUD and made sure that her Essence was full. She knew it was, but Cushing had assured her that she should track her available Essence whenever she used one of her special abilities. Without further thought, she cast Impact Webbing and ensnared the disoriented warriors without any further trouble. What looked like small baseball-sized missiles flew from her abdomen, their impact on the ogre’s bodies causing the compressed silk to explode and encase each of the ogres she’d targetted.

They all struggled futilely against the silk strands holding them in place, but despite their unquestioned strength, they were powerless against her webbing. She had even managed to get the one that she had tenderly struck, or did Cushing refer to that as striking the tenders? It didn’t matter; they were all, for the moment, trapped and going nowhere fast.

“Please don’t kill them!” Hyde’s voice blasted through the nearly night air, it was filled with fear and pleading.

“We need to knock them out,” followed Cushing’s suggestion.

“How we knock they’s heads? They’s heads hard and thick like rocks’s.” Tes’s voice, furtive and sly, came from behind the tree.

“They just want me to go home; they don’t want to hurt me, but I don’t want to go back. Please don’t hurt them.” Hyde was nearly out of breath and was clearly afraid of these men, but he was still advocating for them.

“Look, kid, if we don’t give them a bump or two on the noggin, they are going to pick up where they left off, and that means literally picking you up and hauling you off! Find a rock; we got heads to bop!”

“Bop! Bop!” Tes’s enthusiasm filled the air, and she darted into the darkness, looking for a rock with which to bop a head.

Realizing that her time was about up, Clackhissis did the only thing she could. She carefully jumped onto one of the Ogre and inserted her fangs into his neck. She did not dig them in deeply, and it was a struggle for her not to do so. Her every instinct told her that this was prey and that you took care of your prey before it could escape or attack in turn. She then struggled to inject just a few drops of her venom to render her victim unconscious but not paralyzed for several days.

Then, she repeated the process, careful not to get herself trapped in the shadowy webs until each Ogre found themselves unable to move. She jumped clear of the shadows and waited for the spell to fade. Once the summoned webs had vanished, she took them one at a time and strung them to the tree so they would not become a meal for a wandering monster. Cushing began to loot the men, but Hyde begged him off.

“Please, they will need those things if they are to survive out here. You might as well slit their throats if you take their belongings.”

Emboldened, Tes stepped forward, a knife in each hand, “Slit them’s throats?” Her question was so innocent and void of any hatred or anger that she might have been asking to give them a kiss.

“Uh,” Cushing started, “No, Tes. And we won’t be bopping them either.” He rubbed the back of his head, even though he had his helmet on. Clackhissis took the motion as a sign that he wasn’t sure of what he should say or do.

Tes’s shoulders slumped in disappointment, and she sheathed her daggers. After that, they let Clackhissis do her work and put the bodies high and out of the sight and reach of most predators. She would not guarantee their safety if the boy asked but would be honest and tell him they had a better-than-average chance of making it through the night. That was about how long she estimated her venom would hold them in check.

When she got the body of the first man she’d struck, Clackhissis could tell that she’d broken several of his ribs. She lifted him gently and spun a tight web around his chest before taking him into the tree. Of all of them, he was the least likely to survive. He was pale and sweating profusely, but there was nothing more that she could do for him. Cushing could not heal him with his Heal Monster Skill, but perhaps the Game Warden had done as he said and purchased some potions.

She met Hyde when she came back down. His face was worried and he kept glancing at where he assumed his people to be. Clackhissis imagined that he envisioned them hanging like meat on a hook. The way her belly rumbled told her that he would not be wrong. That was not a hunger rumble, she thought. The borborygmus sound bothered her.

“Will he be all right?” Hyde cut right to the point as he stared directly at one warrior and didn’t give her a lot of wiggle room. He’d basically just asked her a yes or no question. What could she do?

“It is hard to say. I struck him very hard. Bones were broken. It is a matter as to whether or not he has the will to survive.” She strategically held back the fact that once he was tied to the tree, she had bitten him in the hopes that the paralyzation would slow any internal bleeding, keep him from moving, and let him rest in spite of the pain that he was in. She was under no obligation to volunteer information.

Cushing stepped up beside the boy. His face was one of both awe and respect. She could see that he’d returned his sword to his side and casually rested his hand on its hilt. The Game Warden reached into his pouch, handed the boy a fist full of vials, and pointed at the ogre in the tree. Hyde nodded in thanks and went to his people. Clackhissis suspected he had just given the boy healing potions he’d gotten in Shadley; it made no difference to her. Healing them would not negate her paralysis. They would still be trapped, and would be no threat to them.

“Clackhissis,” Cushing began, “I have never seen anything like that before. You literally cartwheeled them into oblivion.” He was about to say more when the spider noticed an odd rumble in her stomach. She shuddered with queasiness, and she felt something inside her pushing to make its way out. She opened her chelicerae to say something to the Game Warden when a stream of gore gushed from her mouth and covered the man from top to bottom with the liquefied remains of the former Heck Kow.

“Blurt,” she said with a gurgle.

“I thought,” he said as he wiped the gooey remains of a cow that he was rapidly growing to dislike more and more from his face, “That spiders of your size didn’t puke. I distinctly recall you stating that you drained your prey dry.” He spit several times and then fought back a gag of his own as he looked at the jellified material oozing off his hand. “You know, I have been fighting the Filthy Status ailment for several days, and this,” he said, making a huge circle with his open palm around his whole body, “Isn’t helping matters.”

As he finished his sentence, he looked at his new notification. He had received another status ailment. This was called Taint of the Unclean, and while it might have sounded like the title of an awesome horror movie, the drawbacks were not nearly as cool. The notification read as thus:

^^

Status ailment:

Taint of the Unclean: You are marred by the Taint of the Unclean. Your body is covered in a sanguine gore that gives you the appearance and odor of the living dead. While you are covered, your Vitality score is reduced by 10%. You will also suffer a 10% reduction in movement and speed due to the uncomfortable way the filth has insinuated its way into your clothing. Attack damage is also reduced by 5%.

Additionally, your odor is now a beacon for nearby predators. Any carnivorous creature will automatically be attracted to your position. The effects of the taint can only be removed entirely by bathing, but the negative effects of movement and attack will fade after two hours as the gore dries.

------

“I apologize,” Clackhissis clicked, “But I believe that is the consequence of my going abdomen over teacups repeatedly to make it to you in time.” She paused and gave a slight gurgle, causing Cushing to back up when she made the noise, “I did not, as you say, mean to blurt on you.” Her abdomen still rumbled, and she shivered as she fought to keep what was left of her meal down. She could see the frustration in his eyes but also recognized that he did not hold the event against her. She wondered if she would have felt the same way if their positions had been reversed.

“You stinks.” Tes, who had appeared out of nowhere, crinkled her nose and squinted her eyes, giving the impression that she had just fallen near a cesspool and was trying to avoid getting any of it on her. Clackhissis supposed that he smelled more like a charnel house but wisely opted not to add her opinion. She did not need to rub salt into his wounds, as the humans often put it.

“Yes, well, I’m tainted thanks to arachnid barf,” he wheezed in response to the kobold’s comment. Tes gave him a tentative sniff and let fly a small sneeze in response to her actions. She shook her head like she had water in her ears and backed away from the Game Warden. “Where in the hell is a river or stream when you need one?” Cushing lamented.

Hyde, Clackhissis noticed, stood just far enough that he was apart from them but close enough to still be considered a member of the group if, indeed, that was what he now was. The boy confused her. He did not want to go with them, nor did he wish to see harm befall them. Never one to hem haw around a subject, she got right to the point.

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

“Why are you here,” she hissed her question as softly as she could so as not to startle the boy but with enough force to let him know that she wanted a straight answer. She was not in the mood for trifling this day.

Hyde looked startled at the question, and some of the color drained from his face so that he looked more like he had when they’d first found him tired, weak, and drained of blood. This time, rather than pain, his face was etched with lines of shame, and Clackhissis also really saw him as a child for the first time. Indeed, she was always aware of his status, but he was large compared to Cushing, which made it hard for her to think of him in such a manner.

“What do you mean?” His voice was filled with fear and uncertainty; she could tell he hadn’t understood her question.

“Why,” she clicked with as much patience as she could muster, “Are you not with your people? Why return to us? I nearly killed them and would have if not for your pleading on their behalf. They might have killed Cushing, Tes, or even myself in their efforts to corral you. So, I'm asking you one more time: Why are you here?” Her words were deliberate, steady, and commanding. They floated on the air long after she had hissed them out, existing as echoes that only Hyde could hear. The boy’s chin dropped to his chest, and he stared at the ground, embarrassed by her words and his very own actions.

“They,” he fought to get the words out, “They want to take me home to my father. My father, Rokeby, is our Chief and a great Shaman. I am his only child, and I am a sign of change. He wants me to take up his mantle when he passes on, but I don’t want that. I don’t want to lead, and I don’t think I want to become a Shaman. I just turned seventeen and am supposed to undertake my test of manhood. Once that is done, I’ll be trained to be a shaman.”

Tears fell from his eyes in great drops as he turned his head to stare at Cushing and Tes. His face was a mask of remorse and regret; his trembling hands formed into fists, and he sniffled. His fists lightly pounded his upper thighs over and over again as he struggled to maintain his composure. He was most definitely not a typical ogre. He had said that his skin color indicated he was not a normal ogre; perhaps that meant he was also more emotional.

“I am so sorry,” he said to the pair, “I never meant to put any of you in danger, but I can see now that’s exactly what I did. Throg, the big warrior, would have killed you all without a second thought so long as he brought me back to my father. Damok would have, too. He’s the one you hit in the, in the,” he gulped as he searched for the right words, “In that down there,” he said in a whisper as he pointed to his inguen area. “Damok isn’t right in the head. He acts like he’s never going to die, and so takes a lot of risks. The others respect him for that, but I think he’s crazy.”

“Death should be respected,” the ogre said soberly. “It is a solemn thing, both an ending and a beginning, and is not meant to be dabbled with.”

Cushing gave a meaningful glance to Clackhissis when Hyde spoke about the man she’d struck in the place humanoids didn’t like to talk about. She gave him a slight bob of her body to indicate that she, too, had gotten more from Hyde’s words than he realized.

“They were there waiting for me. I guess they anticipated my heading to Shadley to get supplies and figure out where to go.” He shook his head in disgust, “I’m stupid. I should have known they would look for me there. I have friends, well, I had friends there,” he amended somberly, “And it would have been the first place they’d have looked.” He began to clench and unclench his hands in frustration. “They healed me, and as soon as I could, I tried to run, but they were ready, and I barely escaped them there.” He turned his face up to look at them, and Clackhissis could see the defiance and the pride in his eyes.

“I want to come with you. I want to become a part of your party and hopefully find out what I am meant to be. I will help you in every way I can until I can help more when I finally become what I am meant to be.” He stood stock-still, “On my honor, I will bleed with you, and if necessary, I will die at your side, but,” he said ardently, “No matter your choice, I will not go back with them.” He waved his hand towards the upper branches of the tree that held the Ogre warriors. “They’ll get me if I don’t go with you and drag me back to my father. I would rather be dead than let that happen. So, I can fight and die alone or come with you and have a fighting chance.”

“Kid,” Cushing started, “You have no idea what we are involved with. Hell, my most optimistic hope is that Clackhissis will survive our quest long enough to figure out exactly what we’re supposed to do, and even that is a dubious proposition at best.” He flapped his arms as he spoke, spattering the ground with vileness in an effort to get the vomit out of his vital areas. The spider gave him a soft hiss for his lack of faith in her survival abilities. He put his hands up in supplication.

“Sorry, no offense, but I sincerely doubt any of us is going to get out of this in one piece unless it’s as a corpse on a slab. This is a god-ordered quest in which we face the entirety of Dagon’s dark army. There are Ichtyhoids, cultists, and unknown horrors that we’re going to have to face. The odds of us pulling this off are just below slim and none. We have no real idea of where to go or how to accomplish our task.” He rested a hand on his hip and turned the other over in a what are you going to do gesture. “We barely got out of the first dungeon we had an encounter in, and we have what, a hundred more places to scout before we find a magic object that might help us close the gateway between worlds? Two hundred? We are just killing time until we get cacked, kid,” he took a deep breath, “And when we go, it ain’t gonna be easy, pretty, or exciting. It’s gonna be messy and painful,” he waved a hand at his body, emphasizing the gore that he was covered in, “You’ll wish you left a corpse this good-looking behind.” He had forgotten that his appearance left something to be desired at the moment.

Clackhissis noted that as Cushing ranted his warnings to the boy, Tes was a quivering mass of flesh. She was shivering so hard that she practically vibrated. Her body hunched up to the point that she looked to be in a standing fetal position. Her tail was between her legs, and her arms were wrapped around her stomach. She also emitted a whine that was so high-pitched that it was barely audible. The Game Warden was now talking about the rending of limbs and having entrails decorate the countryside, his voice growing louder and more ardent with each passing moment. Before she knew it, he talked about their party’s blood raining from the sky and their eyes being pulped into jelly.

“Cushing,” she barked, “I think the boy understands our situation.” She then surreptitiously pointed a pedipalp towards the quivering Tes. He glanced in askance at the kobold, and his mouth made that strange “O” shape.

“Anyway, now that you know the risks we face, I suppose you’ll be heading home.” Cushing’s query came from the side of his mouth as he bent down to face his furry companion. He made some shushing sounds and whispered so silently that only Tes could hear him, “I’m just saying that to scare him. You know Clackhissis is so tough that she’ll stop whatever comes at us.”

“Sometimes, we’s hasta be scary,” she agreed.

Tes shook her head, not in her disbelief in the spider’s abilities to keep them alive, Clackhissis saw, or that she foresaw certain death in their dungeon-delving mission. She shook her head because she was petrified from terror, terror inspired by the pack of wolves that had returned and encircled them as Cushing had ranted while she was distracted and Hyde had tried to make amends.

She cursed herself for not sensing their approach. She chastised herself for becoming so wrapped up in the emotional drama of her comrades rather than focusing on their surroundings like she should have been doing that they were now in honest peril. In the brief moment before all hell broke loose, she wondered if they had returned because of Cushing’s odour de’ slaughterhouse that hung in the air around him like a fog or if it had been his raised voice and ranting that had drawn them in. Either way, she saw it as his fault. She would have cleaned herself off before giving a lecture and kept her voice from ringing throughout the countryside. She liked the human, but sometimes she didn’t understand him. She tensed up and prepared to spring into action. Having realized the situation they now found themselves in, Cushing raised a hand to stop her.

“Let me try,” he pleaded.

The Game Warden began barking and yipping before the wolves or Clackhissis could move. Sometimes, he would snarl or growl, but he kept his hands up in the most non-threatening manner possible. She realized that he was trying to talk them out of attacking and was using his ability to speak to monsters. She had not realized he’d spoken to her in her own language before. She had just assumed that she could understand him and vice versa. Regardless of his desires, she could see quite plainly that the wolves were not interested in what he had to say. She suspected that not only had the Taint drawn them in, but its horrible stench was also a factor in why he didn’t seem to be making much progress with them.

It might have been because he was covered in blood and gore, or the fact that they were just doing what they did when they were hungry, but Clackhissis knew that if some potential prey had started begging her off, she would have killed it before it could have finished a sentence. She assumed, therefore, that Cushing must have had a reasonably decent persuasion score to start with, but she recognized that no matter how well he spoke or did what he could to back them off, they were seconds away from striking.

She had to give the man credit, even if he was just a two-legs. He had sauntered up to the most enormous wolf in the pack and had managed to seem casual and unconcerned with their presence. With a quick glance, she had counted ten wolves but assumed there would be more just out of sight. She knew how they worked. The pack would harry them, coming in and out, snapping and clawing until the party eventually tired while they kept themselves fresh by swapping places from time to time.

It was an effective strategy and one that she respected. It was not something that she had ever employed simply due to the fact that up until a day or so ago, she had been a solitary hunter. Her mind raced as she considered how to counter them and their tactics. What would work best here? She was not up to Flic-flac any time soon. Ballooning would only get her airborne, and that would only be effective the first time. After that, they would all be watching for her. Trapdoor was no good, but it was also useful as a one-shot surprise attack. The most effective thing she could do was employ her Umbral Web.

Again, she found herself wishing she had time to prepare for them, but now that she was an adventurer rather than a simple hunter, she would have to formulate strategies that included all of her party members. If they survived, and that was an IF that was bigger than a mountain, maybe if they didn’t have the boy to consider and could fight freely rather than watching over him, she would have more confidence that they would all survive.

By her estimation, they would have to kill or seriously wound at least half of the canines in the area before they would back down. That was just a guess, and it hinged upon just how hungry they were. If the wolves were starving, she doubted that nothing less than their complete annihilation would work. Cushing wouldn’t be happy about that, but at least he could live with it. She also wondered once again if his odor hadn’t drawn them in; if it had, she doubted that anything aside from killing every last one of them would end this.

The beasts were easily twice her size. She was only proportionally as large as a small pony, and these were no cubs. Each canine was twice the size of an average wolf. She had faith that she could handle them in a one-on-one scenario, but that was not how this fight would go. Dire wolves coordinated their assaults better than ordinary wolves.

She could, she considered, make it to the tree and drop the webbed-up ogres down for them. The pack might ignore her party in favor of the easy prey, but she discounted that immediately. Neither Cushing nor Hyde would approve of such tactics, no matter how practical the solution was for them. She spoke to Hyde and Tes with a sing-song lilt, trying her best to keep herself from chittering, clicking, and clacking too loudly. She did not want to draw the attention of the dire wolves.

“We need to form a circle, standing back to back so they cannot strike from behind when they come for us.” She spread her legs out, making herself look bigger. Hyde gave her a nod and put his back to her abdomen, then twisted his head from one side to the other, scanning the ground. He spotted a sizable log that Cushing had set aside as firewood but would make a perfect club in his hand and snatched it up.

“Where is the furry one? Tes? Right? She’s not here.” The boy was stock still with the exception of his head, which rotated back and forth, searching for the kobold. Clackhissis could not help but notice that genuine concern etched the boy’s face as he looked for any trace of the small canine.

Clackhissis froze, and for the first time in her life, she felt a pang of fear, not for herself, but for another, shoot through her body. She had not been watching the kobold but had focused her attention on Cushing and his insane attempts to quell the upcoming battle. Again, she had reflexively depended on her ability to sense movement vibrations to track the wolves and her companions. Once more, her innate gift had failed her. Was it becoming worse, she wondered. Was this an Essence issue or a physical one?

It had become like breathing to her; she only noticed when it stopped working, and her dependence upon it was frightening. Her lackadaisical attitude towards it had cost her and her companions dearly. It was bad enough that she put her own life in danger, but now she was risking the party’s lives as well. She had to remain focused!

The thought that she had let something happen to the kobold appalled her. While she was not bonded to the creature in the way that Cushing seemed to be, the furry thing had grown on her, and she had let something happen to her on her watch.

The Alpha that Cushing was parleying with flashed a toothy snarl and let out a deep, rumbling growl that seemed to come from the depths of its soul. Clackhissis watched as the Game Warden slowly backed away from the massive mound of wolf flesh. It seemed negotiations were over and had gone as well as she had expected. No self-respecting predator would ignore vulnerable prey while its stomach rumbled. Cushing had shown weakness by healing the wounded pack members earlier. Had he simply killed them, he would have displayed a lack of mercy and an aptitude for killing. He would have demonstrated dominance, and the beasts might have reconsidered their plans to come back. All he did was let them know that he didn’t have the heart for killing, and that could not be ignored.

She watched as he drew his sword deliberately, sliding it from its sheath one inch at a time, flames illuminating the darkness that had been slowly swallowing them as the night encroached. The fire on his sword danced and blazed as if fed by some supernatural fuel and was brighter than she’d ever seen it before. It was as if it shone in proportion to the amount of danger he faced, and at the moment, it glowed as if it had just been pulled from a forge. He turned his head enough that she would be able to hear him but not take his eyes off the wolf in front of him.

“He’s not interested in talking. He says that I smell far too tantalizing and that he will be kind enough to grant all of us a swift and certain death,” He raised his blade high into the air for all the wolves to see, “There is some good news, though.”

“What is that,” she wondered aloud.

“Kurliger, the Alpha, says he won’t eat you, and if you let him, he will make certain that your is a quick and clean death. The bad news is the rest of us are all on the menu for tonight.” As he finished talking, he made his way to them and placed himself with his back to them as well. Clackhissis made a mental note to ask what a menu was if they made it out of this alive.

“Where’s Tes?” Cushing’s voice was steady but filled with concern.

“We don’t know,” Hyde replied after Clackhissis took longer than she supposed he’d expected her to say something. “She was here one second and gone the next. We don’t know if she’s hiding or if the wolves got her.”

Cushing reeled as if he’d taken a gut punch. It was hard to tell in the light of his sword, but he seemed paler than usual.

“Tes!” He shouted but got no response in kind. His voice carried across the grassy field and rode on the wind like a raven in flight. He called her name twice more before his head dropped in grief.

“Tes is a hide-first-strike-later kind of fighter,” Clackhissis responded, but even she feared that the kobold had run off. She had been good up until this point, but she hadn’t had an opportunity to run to present itself before now.

“I’m going to kill every single last one of these SOBs,” Cushing said unequivocally. His face contorted into a mask of fury, “Do you hear me? I’m going to kill each and every last one of you mongrels.” Cushing leveled his blade at Kurliger, and in a language that only the wolf could understand, he said, “Do you have the courage to face me? Are you the big bad wolf, or is your liver white?” Without warning, the Game Warden charged forward, alone, to face the Alpha, seeking revenge and blood for his missing friend.

Clackhissis tensed. The Game Warden had just reduced their circle of defense by a third. Technically, he’d cut it by half since Hyde had no real weapons. The boy wasn’t going to be of much use other than maybe as a possible distraction. With Tes gone, she would be able to focus on just one member of their team. She would watch over Hyde and protect him as best she could. Cushing had made his choice and was beyond her help until he came back to them.

The huge alpha, Kurliger, snarled and lunged at the Game Warden. Slavering rivulets of spittle sprayed from the wolf’s jaws as it came for him. Those two had paired off, leaving the others for her and Hyde to deal with.

Without thinking, Clackhissis thrust her forelegs under Hyde’s armpits and tossed him into the air. She then drove her upraised legs downward, one of the razor-tipped points piercing the nape of a nearby cur’s neck, the other coming down a touch wide and jamming into the ground just before its shoulder. She could feel her leg slide past the wolf’s cervical vertebrae but did not sense that she had done more than wound it minimally by having missed major arteries and veins.

Acutely aware that she had barely done any harm and that her back was now completely exposed, she did the only thing she could. She flipped again, only this time she had left her leg anchored in the beast’s neck and used her forward momentum to vault the dire wolf through the air as if it had been fired from a trebuchet. A mass of fur, claws, teeth, and blood tore across the sky and came to an abrupt landing fifty yards from her position; it did not rise up to rejoin its companions.

She could hear Hyde thrashing about in the branches overhead. He was bellowing something about being able to take care of himself when one of the dire wolves that had been behind her leapt into the air and snapped its maw inches from his exposed foot.

Clackhissis paused and took stock of their situation. Hyde was temporarily safe, Tes was missing, she was surrounded by enemies, and Cushing had gone after what she assumed was the Alpha of the group. She cursed as she realized that the pack was too dispersed to use her impact webbing or urticulating hairs to any real tactical advantage. She could get one or maybe two of her enemies if she positioned it properly, but that would be a waste of Essence. Her other abilities were good against individuals, but considering their cooldowns, even they were trivial things in a fight like this. Her most significant disadvantage was her inability to climb. She could not get overhead and attack them from the darkness. She could not skitter up a wall or vault from different angles. She had to come up with something new quickly, or they were doomed.