Post date: Mar 26, 2016 1:57:49 PM
Caradorynee: Feats & Wagers
#2
Lark had to admit, he was impressed.
The girl was performing outstandingly. Her fighting skills, for one so young, were truly astonishing. She’d survived where so many had either perished or fled for their petulant lives to the capitulation zones located in the corners, along the outskirts of the competitor’s square.
Yet she still had a long way to go.
Lark sat forward, his eyes fixed on the girl’s perpetual motion. She twisted and turned with the beauty and grace of a ballerina warrior child. Her back straight, yet her composure relaxed, as she sliced her short blade through the thinning blue haze.
Lark could tell she was far from hitting her stride. Her lungs hadn’t yet adjusted to the dissipating moisture in the Caradorynee’s atmosphere.
Still her movements were surprisingly precise although still a little sluggish to his senses.
His eyes widened and a cry of excitement escaped his lips. The girl ducked an incoming tentacle attach then fluidly dropped to the ground and rolled only to come up into a crouched position to strike at another advancing Tooacua. This time not only did the Tooacua lose an appendage but also a chunk of the Tooacua’s flank. The oozing flesh fell away and Lark could easily see the distinct backwards L shaped gap in the creature’s side.
The girl was back on her feet in the blink of an eye. She nimbly took a step forward then performed a perfect pirouette.
A gleeful grin transformed Lark’s mouth as he felt his own Human heart lighten. The blue haze was fading into a mauve colour. He felt his dormant Dueania lungs kick in.
“Now let’s see what she’s really got.”
Star scanned her immediate surroundings.
The Tooacua she’d just wounded was no longer a threat and the other she’d dodged was now engaged in a battle with a young Karco.
The Karco would win, Star had no doubt. The question was: would it then turn its attention toward her?
Star didn’t have time to fully analyze the prospect of facing a Karco, even a young one, before a Pouriecolt swivelled its head in her direction.
Star shivered.
Pouriecolts freaked her out. The way they could swivel their heads in a 360° manner, similar to that of an owl. Only this creature wasn’t anything like the cute, small, and feathery bird that had once inhabited Earth.
Nooo… Pouriecolts were huge. Well over seven feet tall and that was just to their hindquarters. The scaly, black flank of the beast stretched another two feet to the withers, where the neck and then the head made up another foot and a half. And that was when the Pouriecolt was balanced on all four legs.
The creature turned toward Star and reared up. Its cloven hooves clawing at the air.
Now the beast was just shy of standing close to twelve feet. It bared its sharp, irregular teeth.
Star exhaled slowly.
Her mind raced through all the facts she’d gathered about the fierce creature in the short time she’d been on Caradorynee.
Pouriecolts were a highly intelligent species. Incredibly adaptable and devious.
They didn’t play by any rules, least of all the strict protocol set out by the Caradorynee masters. And one of those protocols was: it was forbidden to kill. You could maim or inflict close to moral wounds, but taking the competition to the level of death, well that action incurred the wrath of the Caradorynee masters.
The Pouriecolts ignored that particular protocol. Which meant they more often were declared the winners of the competitions.
The Caradorynee masters were swift in their punishment of the Pouriecolt’s treachery, however, the Pouriecolts didn’t seem to care, for they’d accomplished their goal. And that was to eviscerate their prey.
The fact that the Caradorynee people welcomed the Pouriecolt’s victory disturbed Star. She would find no sympathy or protection. She was on her own.
Star took a slow breath.
She could turn tail and make a break for safety as so many of the other competitors were in the process of doing. The alternative was to face the razor-sharp claws of the beast’s cloven hooves or the jaw of jagged fangs.
Star did not plan on running nor did she plan on dying either.
Star wet her dry lips. Her tongue coming into contact with the damp cloth that still was secured around her face. Sweat trickled from her brow and down the thin column of her nose. The top edge of the material cling to her sunburned cheekbones uncomfortably.
Pouriecolts were known to be swift, but only if they were in motion. Standing up on its hind legs, exposing the soft meaty flesh of its underside, they were slow to react. Star saw a tiny window of opportunity.
The space between the two was a mere thirty feet. Plenty of distance Star thought to execute an accelerated sprint.
Star snatched the tattered cloth from her face and opened her mouth to shout the most fierce battlecry she could. Then she propelled herself at the beast.
Her footfalls stirred the volcanic ash as she carefully planted each foot securely onto the ground beneath. The force of her ensuing push propelled her with increased momentum.
The sun had by now fully risen, allowing Star to suck in serval lungfuls of oxygen lathed air as her strides ate up the distance.
The wind whipping by her plastered her wispy bangs back against her head where they soaked up her sweat and then clung in clumps to her forehead. Star ran harder.
She only had a fraction of a moment left before the Pouriecolt clued in to the fact that she was the attacker.
A few feet from the creature Star planted both of her feet onto the ground and launched herself upward and forward as if an invisible springboard had suddenly appeared on the Caradorynee surface.
Star raised her arm and twisted the blade in her hand until the handle was securely held in her fist. She reached out her other arm to help absorb some of the force of the coming impact.
Star held her breath and then slammed headlong into the massive beast.
The underbelly of the Pouriecolt was much softer than Star had anticipated. She had expected an abrupt halt to her forward motion, not the feeling of being swallowed up by a mountain of feathers.
Star sensed rather than felt the Pouriecolt move backwards. A second later the Pouriecolt’s underbelly pulled away from her.
Star instinctively forced her blade deeper into the beast’s flesh. It recoiled slightly and Star then thrust her blade in a downward motion.
The creature made an awful thunderous bellow.
Star retracted her blade and struck again and again.
The stench that expelled from the widening gash was positively repulsive.
Star chocked and yanked her arm from the beast. Then winced when she saw that chunks of scaly flesh and gore was now dripping from her arm. The gore splashed against her cheeks and lips.
Star plunged the blade back into the Pouriecolt’s underbelly and pulled downward with all her strength.
The creature’s bellow turned into a horrifying growl.
Star felt the beast shift its weight.
The moment of surprise was over.
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt