“Well, now I know,” Darla said, picking a few more and adding them to his pouch. “I thought you packed up food from the village. Why stop for this?”
“Because it is always best to conserve your resources, especially foodstuffs. If we can feed ourselves off the land and save what we carried with us for a time of true need, all the better.”
“Do you foresee that happening? A time of true need, as you called it?”
“Hopefully not, but I learned long ago that prudence is the wisest path.”
Darla couldn’t argue with the logic. “All right, then. Let me help.”
“You would hunt?” Heydar asked, his violet-gold eyes crinkling slightly with amusement. “Very well. Let us see what you can manage.”
He drew one of the twin blades the Oraku had provided him for their trek.
“What? No, I’m not going to go killing Bambi. Or Thumper. Or whatever those things are. I mean give me a bag. I can fill up on berries as we go. And with two of us working together we can stop less. Make better time, you know?”
He cocked his head and pondered her offer a long moment then sheathed his knives. “Very well,” he said, handing her an empty pouch. “Gather what you can, but do not fall far behind. I will not slow for you.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ve made that abundantly clear.”
He stared at her a moment longer with his unreadable gaze, then turned and headed off once more. Darla followed, keeping him in sight, but not close by any definition of the word. Their path was fairly straightforward, though there wasn’t an actual trail where they were heading. But the space between the trees and rocks was more than ample to make for a fairly easy passage.
Shady patches beneath the burgundy and green canopy gave them a nice cool down from time to time, where others the red stone would radiate heat up at them where it was exposed to the sun. Darla couldn’t help but think that if not for their circumstances, this would be a rather beautiful walk.
Heydar was not one for sightseeing, maintaining a steady course, scanning their surroundings as he moved, alert and ready, like a hunter. Like a predator. Even from a distance Darla was taken with the way he carried himself. Confident and in control. Ready for anything.
Darla felt the growing desire to show him she wasn’t just some helpless waif riding his coattails. She wanted to prove herself. It wasn’t as if she had a praise fetish or anything, but the thought of winning his approval brought a little smile to her lips.
I’ll fill this thing up in no time, she thought, veering off the direct line Heydar was following and into a thicket where she could see some dense clusters of berries growing. Why he bypassed them she had no idea. Probably, he was too focused on tracking game to worry about more berries.
But Darla? She wasn’t about to pass up such a dense patch. As she moved closer, weaving around some low bushes blocking her way, she realized this one detour might even fill her little pouch close to halfway. Not bad in her opinion.
She began picking quickly, adding the ripe ones to her pouch, skipping the questionable ones. Her fingers were getting quickly coated in astringent juice, but she ignored the tightening of the skin on her fingertips and kept working, moving around the low shrubs, following the trail of berries.
A few minutes had passed before she realized she had wandered a bit too far from the path for comfort. Heydar was moving quickly, and if she didn’t get back on his tail she might lose him entirely.
A crack made her jump. Another followed, along with the sound of rustling leaves. Footsteps, and more than one set. Someone was coming, and they were not alone. She quickly turned and began retracing her steps, hurrying back to the open area they’d been trekking through when a low-pitched, rumbling shriek pierced the air just to her side.
Without another moment’s warning a pair of creatures leapt through the foliage right at her. Darla dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of the hairy beasts. They were the size of a large dog, but their builds were more like miniature bison, with massive shoulders and narrow waists. They also had horns, not just sprouting from the top of their head, but also a ridge of smaller spiky bits running the length of their spines.
Darla scrambled backward, her hands grabbing for anything she could use as a weapon. Her fingers jammed into something solid and she yanked hard, pulling free a softball sized rock. She refrained from throwing it though. It was her only weapon and there was no telling if she could find another before the creatures made it to her.
The two beasts crouched, teeth bared and snarling, spreading out and trying to flank her. The wiry hair on their necks was standing up straight, running to their foreheads in a rigid wave of agitated mane. The goat-like eyes were just icing on the terrifying cake. If she’d had to come up with a spooky-ass creature in her nightmares, Darla would have been hard pressed to top this one.
“Come on you fuckers!” she yelled, hoping a little show of bravado might make them think twice about their would-be meal. “I haven’t got all day!”
The beasts were clearly not impressed, made apparent by the low, throaty growls they each let out, creeping closer, their hackles raised. Darla lifted the rock higher, ready to strike at whichever attacked first.
A third growl from behind her made her body flood with every last drop of adrenaline she possessed.
Darla spun as the stealthy beast that had snuck up on her charged and leapt high and fast, its gaping maw aimed directly at her head. She raised her arm in hopes of diverting the deadly teeth at least a little but the impact never came. Instead, a sharp yelp of pain rang out as the animal was violently flung into a tree, dark foam dripping from its mouth.
Heydar stood crouched and ready, both of his blades in his hands, one of them already green with the animal’s blood.
Green blood, Darla’s shocked mind marveled even as the two other beasts rushed toward her.
Heydar was in motion in the blink of an eye, putting himself between her and the attacking creatures. His blades slashed and stabbed with speed she would never have expected from so large a man, their bright lengths driving home with every blow.
There were more growls and yelps, accompanied by a splash of hot green blood, as he battled the two assailants, keeping them at bay while they lost energy as they bled out. The third, however, was shaking off the shock of its impact with the tree and moving quickly to rejoin the fight while the tall man was occupied.
Darla let out a yell and charged it before it could fully regain its senses. She swung the rock hard. Far harder than she realized she could, the strength enhancing rune on her shoulder making her muscles tingle with a strange warmth as it poured additional power into her limb.
The beast’s skull let out a sickening crack from the impact and fell to the ground. It would not be getting up ever again.
Heydar spared but a cursory glance before dispatching the two animals at hand in a violent, bloody fashion. He bent over their motionless carcasses and wiped his knives clean before sheathing them.
“I told you to stay close,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I was. I mean, I just stepped off to get some berries,” she said, noticing the pouch and its spilled contents, most of which had been trampled in the fight.
He shook his head, a slight look of disappointment on his face. “You move like a child. No caution. No awareness. You must pay attention. These are merely wild Tsinoki. Dangerous, yes, but there are much worse things out there.”