View Single Post
Old 07-16-2008, 03:44 PM   #123
Thinlómien
Shady She-Penguin
 
Thinlómien's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In a far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 8,385
Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.Thinlómien is wading through the Dead Marshes.
The howls died away. It was all silent but for the rustling wind in the treetops. The defenders' breath and footsteps rang loud in the night. No birds could be heard and then even the wind stilled.

There was a low snarl and howling, so much closer than ever before.

The defenders of Bree froze. In no time at all there were deadly claws and teeth everywhere. There were cries and sounds of weapons and moving bodies. The night that had been so silent only a twinkling of an eye before was bursting with the noises of life and death.

It was difficult to see who was fighting and where. Amidst all the hassle, there were two bodies laying on the grass some hundred feet from them. Lea could recognise Toby and Kuric. She turned to Orin. The wargs had not attacked either of them in their first dash. "Listen. We go to Toby and Kuric. We try to save them. It might be too late later." She grasped Orin's arm and they ran.

"Keep an eye on the wargs!" Lea hissed to Orin, who looked very pale. Meanwhile, she cast a quick glance at the men laying on the ground. They were both very pale but breathing. "Orin, tear strips of your tunic and bind their wounds. Just like you bound the foot of farmer Kettle's dog last winter. Tightly. Be careful but try to be quick too. I'll protect you."

The boy had the sense to obey. Leanora took her bow. It was a slight bow, designed for hunting rabbits, not killing wargs. Nevertheless, it would have to do. She took an arrow too, and put it on the bowstring and drew the bow. She aimed at the nearest warg and released the arrow, and missed her target. Refusing to despair, she took another arrow. This time she shot more quickly and hit. The warg howled in pain, but did not turn. The lonely bowman was not much of a threat, not yet.

~*~

Only the childhood summers spent with his Aunt Rhea's dogs saved Ash's life. When the giant wolf landed on the top of him, he used its momentum to roll a little sideways so that the beast's groping jaws could not reach his neck. Its paws were tearing through his clothes and through his skin. Ash blocked the pain and stuck his knife to the creature's side. It howled in rage and attempted at his throat again. This time its teeth sunk to his shoulder and it was his turn to cry out. He pulled his knife off the beast and stabbed it again. They rolled in the ground, wrestling, the warg groping at the man's head and the man trying to stab the warg with his knife.

Ash felt himself weaken. The warg was too much for him, too strong. His shoulder was bleeding and his left arm was an alarming mixture of piercing pain and cold numbness. He put all his strength to the effort and managed to sink his knife hilt-deep to the warg's belly. It howled again, more agonised than ever before, but it retaliated with a deadly speed. Ash did not have the time or the strength to push its gaping jaws away.
Thinlómien is offline