Tooth and Claw - Doranna Durgin [79]
But Akarr was watching Riker, trying to spot the cartiga Riker had targeted—there, he had it; he raised his gun, lining up the sights of the short barrel, still supporting Ketan with his other arm. The cartiga was close enough, veering in at them, a massive thing of ponderous fluidity within the gun’s range—but Riker hadn’t acted. Akarr hesitated, following the rules of the kaphoora—the first hunter to acquire sights on a creature had priority’ Take the shot, Akarr,” Riker said evenly, still targeting the creature, sounding distracted and intent at the same time. “Take the shot, dammit—before I have to.”
Because this time the thing was coming in for a kill.
Akarr’s hair stood on end with the sudden thrill of it, but his training held firm, and even as the cartiga loped in at them with lazily deceptive speed—at his side, Ketan flinched—he checked his sights and gently squeezed the release.
The dart lodged in the thin skin at the base of one
huge, broad-based ear, and the cartiga squalled in surprise, breaking stride to bat at its face and snarl—movement which quickly became a lurching parody of the creature’s normal grace.
“The second one is running,” Worf announced as the tranked cartiga folded into a pile of fur.
“I doubt it’s ever seen one of its own kind go down,” Zefan said.
“And just how long will a trank keep one of these things down?”
“Not long,” Zefan admitted. “We have little practical experience with the cartiga. But two of the darts might damage it, and we cannot risk that.”
Akarr quit listening as he ran to the creature; its half closed eyes glittered dully at him, and it twitched, as though it knew he was there and badly wanted to sink its teeth into him.
He’d done it. Despite the crash, despite the sabotage, despite his time in the deep Legacy, over night and fighting for their lives the whole time. And now he had his first trophy choice before him.
Akarr circled the animal; his men were silent, as was proper. On this animal, there were a number of legal trophies. Akarr retrieved his trophy knife, touching the lush fur, touching a semi retractable claw—which could only be trimmed, not removed—running his fingers over the full brush of the creature’s whiskers. Those were fair trophy. If it had had spkies on the ends of its tails like so many creatures here, those would have been fair, also.
Akarr sunk both hands into the depth of plush, patterned fur. He could take only a tuft. A tuft that in no way would ever convey the size and immense strength of this creature. If only’ We don’t have much time,” Riker said, having come
up on him while Akarr admired the trophy, admiring what he himself had done. Riker’s trank gun was tucked away; the bat’leth hung from his grip like a thing that had worn a place for itself, and no longer needed a tight hold simply because it fit so well. “We’ve still got to get to the portal before it closes for the last time. We miss that, and we’ll be out here for two more—”
“Days, yes, I know,” Akarr said, remembering then that Riker was to blame for so many of his problems, his new way of seeing the world, and promptly forgetting who’d given him this chance at trophy—for Tsoran thinking was much too black-and-white to allow for both blame and gratitude at the same time.
He turned his back on the man and decided on the whisker. The cartiga had a profusion of them bristling around its long jaws; he found just the right one and plucked it out.
The cartiga made a noise from deep within, unable to do more. Or almost unable to do more—one of its tails twitched.
“Akarr…” Riker said—such an annoyance—while Zefan, still keeping watch with the group, cried something to Worf, and Worf apparently concurred.
“We have sighted the second one again,” Worf called. “It is not moving in. Yet.”
“We must keep moving,” Shefen said. “We must get away from this one, and make up this lost time, if we’re going to make it—”
“Almost done,” Akarr said, implacably cheerful. Nothing could go wrong now—at least, nothing wrong enough to ruin this kaphoora. He carefully rolled the whisker and inserted