“You can climb up first while I defend with your spear, then I will climb up.”
“I don’t know how to climb up the tree like--” A raptor interrupted me by making a sliding type movement toward my legs. I was caught completely off guard by his maneuver, and my spear passed harmlessly over his head. I stepped back in time to keep my legs from getting sliced open by his snapping jaws, but I knew I’d damned near gotten killed.
We couldn’t do this for much longer. There were too many of these oversized roosters, and they were slowly figuring out how to coordinate attacks.
“I will climb using my claws and then lower a rope to you. Then you can climb up.” Sheela’s plan sounded less crazy than me trying to lumberjack up the tree, but there was one thing she probably didn’t realize.
I couldn’t really do a pull-up, and I doubted that I’d be able to climb a rope fast enough.
A cold realization came over me, and I felt my brain begin to calm. At the moment, there were only three possible outcomes to this situation. The first was that both Sheela and I would get killed and devoured by the group of snarling raptors. The second was that one of us would live, and the other would die. The third was that we both lived.
I didn’t think I’d be able to climb the rope fast enough, but if I could buy some time, my friend could live.
Even if it meant my own death.
“Go run and get the saddle.” The words escaped my mouth as if someone else had said them. I almost didn’t feel like I was in control of my body anymore. I was looking at myself over my shoulder as if this was a game I played.
“I will wait until the ones on the left are--” Sheela interrupted her own words by sending an arrow into the one on our far left, it stumbled away from us when the shaft pierced its eyeball, and the two beside it turned to look at their snarling friend.
Then Sheela sprinted away from me.
The big-clawed raptors turned toward her, then glanced back toward me, and seemed conflicted about what to do. It was a bit of a blessing, and I stepped toward the one who had almost bitten off my hand and jabbed my spear at his face. The point of my weapon hit him in the head but didn’t pierce his skull. Still, he twisted away with a surprised screech of pain, and the entire group turned their attention back to me.
Uh oh.
I stepped back as the alpha raptor darted toward me. He moved like lightning, even though the asshole had two arrows sticking out of his chest, but I managed to lean my face out of the way before he could bite it off.
Another one on my left made a lunge at me, but I kicked out with my left leg and managed slam my foot into his throat before he could snap his jaws over my hip. I spun my spear around to the side and then thrust the weapon into the face of another raptor that had leapt toward me. He screamed when I tore his face open, and blood showered the ground as he turned to dash away from me.
I turned toward the saddle, but it wasn’t where I had seen it lying, and my heart dropped into my stomach. Where was Sheela? Had one of the raptors gotten her before she grabbed the saddle? Then where was it? I couldn’t believe that she’d been able to grab it so fast, but I didn’t hear her return.
“Victor!” she shouted from above me, and I raised my head slightly to see one of our ropes fall through the air. She had somehow already retrieved the saddle, and climbed up the tree, tied all the ropes from the saddle together, and then thrown it down to me in like thirty seconds.
“I’m not going to be able to pull myself up quick enough!” I shouted as I swung my spear around like it was some sort of long sword. The raptors were starting to close in around me, and I saw the alpha’s eyes focus on the rope next to me.
“Slip your leg through the loop and then jump when I say!” she shouted, and I glanced down to see that the end of the rope tied into a noose-like knot.
“I’m in!” I shouted as I kicked my leg through the loop and thrust my spear at the alpha. I was a good two feet too far away though, and the animal didn’t even flinch when my spear missed him.
“Jump!” she shouted, and I coiled my legs before I jumped up and grabbed as high as I could on the rope with my left hand.
I slingshotted off the ground as if a giant had flicked me.
The rope tightened around my groin like a vice, and I let out a scream of agony as my nuts got squeezed. I almost dropped the spear I carried in my right hand when the shock spread through my groin, but I somehow kept hold of it, and then found myself face to face with Sheela.
“Hello,” she said with a half smile. She was dangling from the other end of the rope, and I realized that she had thrown herself off the tree branch and used the momentum of her fall to lift me off the ground. We were both hanging some fifteen feet in the air, and I glanced down to see the angry group of raptors circling below us.
“Hi,” I gasped as another wave of agony coursed through my stomach and legs. My vision was spinning a bit, and I felt like I had to throw up.
But at least I was alive.
“Give me your spear,” Sheela asked, and I handed it to her without question. The cat-woman grabbed it with her right hand, and then I watched her use her left hand to climb up the rope. Her movements looked effortless, but I could see the long muscles in her arm, shoulder, and back tense a bit each time she pulled herself up on the rope. She used her feet to hold onto the rope when she had to reach up, and I couldn’t imagine the amount of muscle control she must have possessed.
She really was amazing.
“I will coil the rope around the branch to keep it from unraveling,” Sheela said once she reached the branch, and I watched her wind her length of rope around under mine so that it wouldn’t slip loose. “Can you climb? If not, I will pull you up.”
“I’ll… try…” I gasped through clenched teeth as I reached my right arm up to join my left. The agony in my nuts was now making my lower body numb, and I knew I couldn’t do a pull-up to save my life. Still, I wanted to give it a try before I had to tell Sheela that she needed to haul me up like a bucket of bricks.
I pulled my elbows down toward my hips and let out a gasp of surprise when my body easily rose up the length of rope.
Now that the tension was out of the cord, the pressure on my groin was a lot less. A bit of relief flooded through my stomach, and I reached with my left arm to grab higher on the rope. Then I did it again with my right hand and was soon pulling myself up on the tree branch with Sheela’s help.
“What is wrong? Are you injured?” her hands rested on my shoulder while her golden eyes stared at me with obvious concern.
“I’ll be okay,” I whispered as I carefully pulled the rope from between my legs.
The raptors were now far below us, and I saw a few of them attempt to climb the tree. Their claws couldn’t find purchase on the bark, and they kept tumbling away from the trunk. The scene might have been a bit comical if we hadn’t almost died and my body wasn’t in agonizing pain.
“You do not look okay,” Sheela whispered.
“The rope just got me,” I said as I gestured down to my belt, and I saw her gold eyes open wide with understanding.
“Ahh. I see.”
“Thanks for the save,” I said as I forced myself to stand up on the branch. It was surprisingly wide, maybe two feet in diameter, but I still kept one hand on the tree trunk to steady myself. Then I pumped my feet up and down in an attempt to force blood back down my legs.
“It was the only solution I could think of. I am sorry for your pain.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll be alright. We are alive, that’s what is important, but now we have bigger problems.”
“Agreed,” Sheela said. “We are still running distance from our camp, but I am afraid that the raptors will wait for us.”
“I feel like these guys have been stalking us,” I said as I looked at the large alpha raptor. He was standing back from the group and looking up at me with angry eyes. “The biggest one that you already put two arrows in seems to be the leader.”