- Ar'ox -

“Are you well, my love?”

Emilia looks at me with her deep brown eyes, and they radiate worry. I suppose I must have dozed off.

I get to my feet, working against the dizziness that wants me to fall over.

“Let's continue.” I don't have the energy to say much more, but I don't want her to see it. I turn my back and walk on. The sun has just risen, and the light should help keep me awake.

Coming the other way was much easier, because the bobont migration attracted most of the predators, while all the others ran the other way. We could walk unmolested for days.

This way, it's worse. We've walked for four days. The migration has long since passed, and all the Bigs and Smalls are back in the jungle. My sword is slimy with blood and other fluids from the endless attackers, and the blade is getting dull. I have no way to sharpen it – all my tools are in my old forge back in the village that I will never see again. My hand is aching with soreness, and my swings are less sure now than before.

I haven't slept much since we were at the springs of Merk, only fitful little naps while sitting up with my back against a tree and my sword in my hand. At any time we could be surprised by an attacking predator. Or a pack of them.

It doesn't surprise me that all the predators in the woods seem to have gathered right in our path. The Ancestors are angry with me for killing Hen'ex and for abandoning the tribe as an outcast. I should have expected nothing else, but I now wonder if Emilia didn't make a mistake in bringing me along. I attract danger now.

All the fights have taken their toll. I have claw marks and bites and a myriad of new wounds. None of them are deadly, but all taken together clearly weaken me.

But Emilia must be protected. We're walking night and day towards a mountain in the distance. She calls it Bune, but I don't know if it's the same one that I've heard about. Probably not. I don't really have the energy to care that much. I have to concentrate on taking one step after the other, while also keeping a lookout for deadly creatures.

The gray ghost that Emilia calls Alice is still with us, and she seems as energetic as ever. She will sometimes disappear for a while, and then she returns with salen fruit in her arms. If she hadn't brought us nourishment like that, I'm not quite sure how we would have survived this. My opinion of her kind has changed dramatically, and now I genuinely doubt that they can be as bad as I was always told. I haven't seen her attack any predator, so I imagine those frightful teeth are not very useable after all.

We're almost back to where I found Emilia. After that, she'll have to lead us in the right direction.

She's not been able to tell me much about where we're going or what we'll find. We can't talk. Our voices sound strange in the woods and might attract even more predators.

Despite my exhaustion, my manhood sometimes swells when Emilia is walking ahead of me and I can admire her round behind with its fluid jiggle in that strange garment that she said Gur'ex made for her. I've never seen anything like it, but it suits her.

We climb up on a hill, and then we see the wide track of flattened jungle that the bobont migration left. Already there are new bushes and plants growing there.

We can also see the mountain in the distance. I would say it's about one day's walk away. It looks like any other mountain to me.

“Bune,” Emilia whispers. “The cave is close to it. On this side, I think.”

“Then let's keep walking.” I'm slightly worried that if I stop now, I won't be able to start again.

One more day to walk. I can do that. With any luck, we'll get there this evening. Wherever it is that we're going.

We walk on in silence until midday, and then we continue along the bobont track. It's much easier going than the dense jungle, and we don't meet any Smalls or Bigs either. It's either a miracle or the Ancestors have decided to have mercy on me.

Then, exactly at the time when I consider stopping for a rest before we leave the wide bobont path and continue into the jungle again, Emilia gives a thin exclamation and points up to the sky. “Dactyl!”

She sometimes talks in her own language, especially when we mate. I don't know what she's saying, so I tiredly look up.

I would have cursed if I'd had the energy. As it is, I can only sigh. “Irox.”

They are the deadly flying Bigs that we fear more than most other beings. Of course the Ancestors would send those after me, too. They want me dead and disgraced. I can't help but feel some bitterness rise in me. Can't they leave me alone?

But I will do my best to keep Emilia from dying here. The gravity of the situation finally sends some coldness to my mind and some heat to my limbs.

“Get under the tree!” I order, and Emilia throws herself to the ground and crawls behind the thick trunk of the closest tree. In my fear and alarm I still have the capacity to feel both proud and gratified when I see her speed. She's become aware of the dangers of this jungle, and now she's acting much more sensibly than when first I met her. Under the tree she'll be out of sight, and the irox will have trouble attacking her there.

I also seek shelter under the tree and keep staring at the irox. It circles lazily in the sky above, and for a moment I dare hope that it hasn't seen us.

Then the terrifying sound of its shriek reaches me, and I know that any hope is in vain. It sees us, and now it's calling its friends to come and attack. They are cowardly things and rarely attack alone.

Very well. I move quickly to get out from under the tree and stand there with my sword in my hand, ready to face the attackers. “Sneak away, keep close to the trees,” I yell to Emilia, and she immediately moves to follow my instruction.

At least she has a chance to survive this. The gray ghost Alice is still standing there out in the open, and I don't know what she understands of this. Well, if she doesn't have the sense to try to get away from this predator, then there's not much I can do to help her.

There are now three irox in the sky, and they come swooping down at me. I go into the stance that is used against the most intelligent Bigs – I'm seemingly relaxed and looking the other way, but in reality I'm as tense as a bent sapling and ready to swing the sword at full force.

The first irox comes diving, approaching me almost horizontally and with a lazy beat of the wings. Yes, they've fallen for my ruse. I keep the flying menace in the corner of my eye, and at the right moment I jump and turn at the same time, slashing the sword at the irox's snout. It shrieks and beats its four wings wildly to get away from me again, but that only makes it more vulnerable, so I slash again at its scaly underbelly and slice the whole thing open. Cold, watery blood sprays out of the now dying irox, and it manages to beat its wings a few more times, but there's no force in it, and suddenly it goes limp in the air and crashes to the ground.

Well, looking like I wasn't paying attention was the one trick I had. Now the two others know that I'm fully aware of how to fight them.

Except there are five now.

The next one comes from straight above, right out of the sun so I have trouble seeing it. I draw my sword back, feeling the muscles protest after days of hard swordfighting.

But the irox never reaches me. I see a small shadow shoot up from the ground, and then the irox veers off, flies right into a tree and crashes to the ground without even a whimper.

I scratch my head in puzzlement. That happened too fast for me to see what it was.

I hear Emilia yell something. “Yeeeaaah! Way to go, Alice!”

And then I see the little gray ghost, sitting innocently on the ground with most of the irox's neck between her immensely long fangs. She must have jumped up and ripped out the flying horror's throat in mid-air.

I can't hold back a short, surprised laugh. That's the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen. And I've seen some extraordinary things since I met Emilia.

Alice looks at me and takes the blood-dripping piece of irox out of her mouth with three hands and drops it to the ground.

It's a ridiculous sight. But it gives me hope. Maybe we can win this after all.

One more irox dives down, and this one is going fast. Alice bounces up in the air and takes a bite out of the terror's tail, but it's still coming, screaming in anger and pain. I faint a slash, then throw myself to the ground and stab the sword straight up into the attacker as it passes overhead. It shrieks so my ears are ringing, but it also flies unsteadily away with something dripping from it. It won't try again.

Together, Alice and I fight off the rest of the irox in a chaos of talons, fangs, beaks, teeth, steel and blood. And by the end, we've won. We don't kill any more of them, but my sword and Alice's fangs have taken a bite out of every member of the pack.

Almost. During the fight we've moved away from Emilia, and now I see that a small irox has just landed right by her. Although it must be very young and only half the size of the others, it's still larger than Emilia. She's standing there and holding her knife out on a straight arm, but will have great trouble defending herself from it.

She must realize that, too, because now she screams. “Aaar'oooox!”

“My love!” I run towards her as fast as I can, and Alice bounces quickly after me, but I can see we'll be too late. The irox may be small, but it's fierce and it moves fast. It will only be a second before it will bury its talons in my beloved mate and drag her away. It's already unfolding its wings in preparation to fly off with its prey.

Then I see a tiny streak zoom across the clearing, and the irox jerks backwards, stumbles over its own clawed legs and falls over, flapping its wings uselessly and scraping its beak into the ground as it fledges to move away. I catch up with it and slash its throat.

Then I run over to Emilia just as a small figure comes out of the jungle nearby. And if I had any more energy, I'd be astounded. Because that ...

The world spins around me again.

That's another woman.