Mika stumbled; tripping over Tam, he fell to the ground heavily, an accident that saved his life. A club crashed through the space where he had momentarily stood and thunked into the soft ground. Mika leaped at the shadowy figure who wielded the club and wres- ded it to the ground, struggling to reach his knife without losing the unknown assailant.
All around him, small blue figures flitted through the camp and, silhouetted against the grayness of the sky, Mika saw a multitude of bodies darting through the ferns.
"Hornsbuck! Blossom!" he yelled at the top of his voice as he struggled with the small, strong body. All chaos erupted: strange, high-pitched shrieks, guttered voices speaking an unknown language, snarling, snapping wolf sounds, Hornsbuck's roars, and the alarmed whickers of the tethered horses.
Mika wrestled with his assailant, rolling over and over, each struggling to overwhelm the other. Then it was over. Rolling up against an oak, Mika pounded his opponent's head against a hard root, and the man lay still. Blue paint and blood stained Mika's hand, and from the limpness of the body, Mika sensed that the man would never rise again.
Then, with a rush, they were gone. Mika, Hornsbuck, and Lotus Blossom were left standing back to back, heaving great gasps of air. A wolf barked in alarm. Mika turned and saw a dark movement, barely leaping aside before one of the huge boulders came crashing down the eastern slope and rolled over the spot where he had stood. An enraged yell told him that Hornsbuck and Lotus had also jumped clear.
"Here comes another one!" yelled Lotus Blossom. Mika looked up in time to see a second boulder picking up speed as it rolled down the western slope.
"Look out, the first one's coming back!" screamed Mika, seeing that the boulder had come to a halt high on the opposite bank and was now rolling back toward them.
"Make for the high ground," shouted Hornsbuck, pushing Lotus Blossom before him. Mika dashed forward, clawing at the ferns, attempting to reach safety before another boulder crashed down on them. Just as he reached the top, a swarm of tiny men, barely as tall as Mika's chest, darted toward him, brandishing small spears and swinging heavy, thorn-tipped clubs. Any one of the blows would have been painful, if not fatal, and Mika tumbled backward, rolling head over heels to the foot of the incline.
"Mika! Flannae! Aborigines! The spears and clubs are tipped with poison. We're surrounded. Get us out of here-use the gem!" Hornsbuck cried in alarm. Mika dove to one side as another boulder barreled down the slope, barely missing him and filling the air with the sharp scent of crushed ferns.
Wolves yelped and the horses plunged and neighed in fear all around him; giant boulders hovered on the edges of the deadly depression. The black night rang with the excited cries of the tiny aborigines who shouted out their hatred in an unfamiliar tongue.
Mika's party was in great danger, that much was obvious. They could not continue to avoid the boulders forever. Sooner or later, one of them would be struck and killed, crushed beneath the great weight, ground into the earth. And there was little that they could do about it. They were sitting ducks, fools for not having seen the trap they'd ventured into of their own accord.
"Damn you, Mika! Where are you?" cursed Hornsbuck as yet another boulder rushed down the slope, almost pinning RedTail between it and another stationary stone. "Stop fooling around and use the gem!"
But Mika did not want to use the gem, nor had he told Hornsbuck about the dreadful ramifications. A spear thunked into the ground next to him, slicing open the edge of his tunic. Another landed between his feet. A boulder appeared above him and wavered on the edge of the incline.
Mika turned and ran, dodging another boulder, larger than most of the others as it rampaged down the southern face of the depression.
He did not want to use the gem, but it was obvious that he would have to do something. Fumbling in his leather pouch he pulled the spell book free and quickly flipped through the pages as he searched for the first-level shield spell he had learned as a youngster. In the darkness it was hard to see the words, and Hornsbuck kept pulling him from one side to the next as boulders continued to crash down the slopes. He found the spell and tried to read the words in the dim light.
"Mika, hurry up!" bellowed Hornsbuck as another boulder passed close enough to nearly brush his eyelashes. Squeezing his eyes shut, Mika quickly recited the words of the spell and prayed that he had gotten it right. Suddenly he heard a low hum, and he sighed with relief, knowing that the invisible shield was in place.
"Hornsbuck, you and Lotus Blossom get behind me!" he whispered hoarsely, then called the wolves to him, hoping that the horses would be all right. The shield would not be big enough to protect them as well.
"I've put up a shield," Mika told Hornsbuck and Lotus Blossom softly after they'd followed his directions. The trio of wolves followed immediately, milling about, their harsh panting betraying their nervousness.
"Took you long enough," growled Hornsbuck. "Damned aborigines! Always trying to kill you."
Mika was about to ask why, when Lotus Blossom was knocked off her feet and thrown into Hornsbuck, who in turn landed on top of Mika, pushing him to the ground and burying him beneath his bulk.
"Damn it, Mika, I thought you said you put up a shield!" cursed Hornsbuck as he spat out a mouthful of leaves and dirt.
Mika blinked the dirt out of his eyes and tested his ribs to see if any were broken. He got to his feet and stared around as he picked the twigs out of his hair and realized what had happened.
A boulder had struck the rock behind them and shoved it forward. Fortunately, it had been at the very end of its momentum and had exhausted most of its velocity, or Mika and the others might have been fatally injured. As it was, they were merely jostled and frightened.
"Um, a shield spell only protects us from frontal attacks. Improves the odds a bit, but it's not perfect," mumbled Mika, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the shield was breached. He would have to do something else. But what?
As Hornsbuck cursed, Mika searched his memory. He had it! A web spell! Webs would keep out the boulders and would protect them from all sides! And best of all, he wouldn't have to use the gem!
Once again he hurriedly leafed through the book until he found the right page, closed his eyes amid a cacophony of clashing rocks, wolf whines, and foul curses, and spoke the words of the spell.
Instandy, great, gobby, gray webs dropped down from the branches above and circled them in a small space no wider than six feet across in any direction. They could see through the gray, gauzy webs, yet Mika knew that his party was almost completely concealed.
"Hope this works, Mika," rumbled Hornsbuck. "Here comes another one of those damned rocks. How many more can there be?"
Remembering the large number of stones scattered about the area, Mika doubted that the aborigines would run out of boulders any time soon.
The boulder paused on the lip of the crater and then, urged on by a chorus of high-pitched cries, sped down the bank, picking up speed until it seemed to fly above the ground. It struck a small incline, giving it enough impetus to leave the ground and sail through the air, striking the web from above.
Though Mika, Hornsbuck, and Lotus Blossom had ducked and were not struck by the rock, the force of the impact dislodged the web from the tree limb, causing it to collapse on top of the group, burying them in its glutinous folds.