Post date: Jun 12, 2016 12:50:08 PM
Caradorynee: Feats & Wagers
#11
While every creature in the stands had been rambunctiously cheering the battle…no slaughter of the Pouriecolt’s victims, Lark had been concentrating on the Human girl.
Observing her with intensity he’d scrutinized her every move, noticed the increasing dampness of her buttoned tunic, and unconsciously absorbed her pain as she winced and struggled to get over the ash brick wall.
It was obvious that the girl had injured her left shoulder in the tumble she’d taken when she’d jumped over the lava boil. How severely? It was hard for Lark to judge but he had to give the girl credit. She had spunk and tenacity.
Now she was running along the top of the ash brick maze walls. Leaping from one wall to the next seemingly heedless of where she was headed.
Lark held his breath as the girl came to the end of yet another brick wall and without breaking stride leapt towards the nearest wall. Lark winced himself as she misjudged the jump and went crashing into the corner of the wall.
A cry of excitement went up around him as the Human girl flailed and miraculously sank the tip of her small blade into the top of the wall. She pulled herself up onto the top and jumped to her feet without barely a moments pause to the fact that she’d torn the sleeve of her tunic and that blood was now visibly soaking the material.
She began her frantic escape and Lark realized that in her panicked-state she’d gotten herself even more turned around even more than before. She was now heading back in the direction of the beginning of the maze.
“Stop!” Lark called anxiously. “Come on, girl, stop.”
For a second Lark didn’t register the hush that had suddenly fallen over the crowd. He kept yelling. “Stop, girl, stop.”
When he did notice his attention was drawn to where creatures all around him were pointing. The Pouriecolt had leapt up onto the top of the maze walls as well. The crowd erupted in cheers once more and creatures all around him began placing bets at a furious pace.
Lark ignored everything but the girl and her proximity to the Pouriecolt. The massive creature had jumped up onto the farthest ash brick wall from the finishing point of the maze. Distance enough from the girl if only she would stop and turn around.
Lark began shouting at the top of his lungs, which surprisingly at the moment were much stronger than he expected his Dueanian lungs could ever be.
“STOP! STOP! STOP! YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY! WONG WAY! TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND!”
At first Star thought the distant noise, oddly familiar, was the rapid beat of her panting or perhaps some form of internal intuition.
Spending her entire life aboard a spaceship travelling the galaxy, with very few people to interact with, she’d found herself talking more often to herself than probably was healthy. In her early teens, when she’d started her combat training, she’d transferred her internal dialogue to her short blade, thus why she’d named the weapon ‘Mr. Bladey’.
The noise came again. This time Star’s mind began to filter out the crush of the crowd’s roar.
N…ROUN N…ROUN ST… ST… OP
Star slammed to a halt.
Had someone just hollered for her to stop?
Apparently bolstered by her actions the noise continued, even louder.
WRONG WAY! TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND, GIRL!
Star sucked in a breath, she whipped her head up and began to search the stands.
Someone was speaking an Earth language to her. She was sure of it. Yet she had no knowledge of any of the Caradorynee creature’s being capable of understanding any of Earth’s tongues.
Still someone or some creature was because the noise quickly turned to coherent speech.
THE EXIT IS AT THE OTHER END OF THE MAZE! YOU HAVE TO TURN AROUND!
Star scanned the stands searching for the source of the advice. All she could see was Caradorynee creatures of every variety. No human being.
Star took a deep breath and turned around to look out over the maze. Whoever was talking to her was right. Now that she took a good look, she could see that with her back to the stands she was almost in the identical position she’d been when she’d taken a look at the maze from above.
She was going in the wrong direction.
Turning back towards the crowd, she held up her right hand and gave the universal ’thumbs up’ sign.
The voice obviously understood because it began shouting again.
HURRY! HURRY!
Star didn’t hesitate. She started running back the way she’d come, only this time she brought forward the map in her mind that she’d memorized of the maze.
The voice cheered momentarily and then was lost as another ruckus rose in the crowd.
Star kept running feeling confident that she could now manage to find her way out. If she could just-
A Pouriecolt jumped to the top of a wall off in the distance to her right. Star’s heart jumped into her throat because she immediately recognized that this creature was fully intact. It wasn’t a skeleton that was now bounding toward her.
Star’s legs pumped harder.
She now had two Pouriecolts to outrun. One on either side of her.
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt