Feathered Dragon - Douglas Niles [71]
Ignoring the ants jerking and twisting around him, the great cat’s yellow eyes fixed upon the humanlike torso pitching and lurching among the insects. The drider passed the tree, still barking in its harsh, foreign tongue, and the ants pressed into the brush after Gultec’s band of archers. Keesha had already commanded them to fall back, the jaguar saw with satisfaction.
Then came the moment, as the man-bug moved away, its attention fixed steadily on the jungle before it. Silently the jaguar’s muscles flexed, hurling the heavy body into a great leap.
Gultec soared through the air and crashed heavily to the back of the drider. The weight of the cat bore the thing to the ground, and the human torso twisted frantically as the black-skinned face turned toward its attacker.
The drider screamed once, very quickly, as it saw the gaping jaws studded with curved, gleaming fangs. Gultec’s claws scraped for a hold on the hard carapace as his jaws clamped around the slender neck. He bit hard and felt bones snap beneath his jaws.
Instantly the creature went limp beneath him. Ants twitched in confusion, many turning toward him while others circled in aimless agitation. Mandibles snapped at the great cat, but before any could reach the creature’s spotted hide, Gultec flexed his muscles again.
With a powerful kick of his hind legs, he sprang straight up into the air. His forepaws seized an overhanging branch, quickly pulling the rest of his body behind them.
Then he leaped to another tree, darting away from the army, and in another second, he was gone.
The companions and their escort of desert dwarves had followed the smooth, barren coastline north for nearly a week when they began to encounter signs of increasing vegetation. First a fringe of hardy brown grass appeared, covering the dunes and spreading inland. Next, clumps brittle brush-dry and weather-beaten, but very common began to dot the land.
Hills rolled along the shore, though the beach itself mained smooth and sandy. Finally they noticed trees nest in the valleys between the hills.
At last, near noon of a typically hot and cloudless day, the reached an irrefutable sign that they had left the desert behind.
“A stream! Running water!” Jhatli, who had been scouting ahead of the procession, came racing back across the sand with the news. He looked older now, though his face still brightened with a childlike eagerness for good news. His
body, however, had been toughened over the trek, even as he had grown an inch or more. Now wiry muscle rippled beneath his dark skin and tiny creases of concentration showed around his eyes.
Storm’s ears pricked upward at the scent of fresh water, and with Halloran jogging beside her, the mare carried Erixitl forward at an eager trot.
They reached a shallow grotto, where the stream flowed into the sea, and wasted no time in drinking and bathing. By the time Coton, Lotil, and the dwarves caught up, the three humans had drunk their fill and were basking peacefully beside the placid brook.
“The edge of the forest country,” remarked Luskag, staring in suspicion at the clear stream. He gestured to the wooded hills beyond. “The mountains of Far Payit lay there, to the northeast. We will skirt them as we continue to move north.”
For several more days, they journeyed along the coast, but now it was a forested shore, with realms of fiat savannah or rolling, wooded hills fringing their trail. The beach itself often disappeared, replaced by rocky crags and small, sheltered coves.
But game was plentiful, and so was water, The companions made good time now and didn’t complain when Luskag told them that their path must veer northward, away From the Sea of Azul.
They made their way through grassy valleys, lush with blossoms, berries, and wild mayz, and followed a multitude of streams and lakes. The desert dwarves spread out in tentative exploration of this new environment, soon overcoming their discomfort in the face of a