And they brought their clawed feet down as they landed.
The one on my left missed tearing my leg in half by just a few inches. His oversized toe claw tore through the saddle instead, and I kicked out with my left leg to push him away so he couldn’t bite at my chest.
The one on the right actually nicked Hope’s front shoulder, and the parasaur let out a startled honk from her horn as she twisted away from her attacker. I hadn’t quite expected Hope to shift as she did, but it wouldn’t have been much of a problem if the raptor on my left hadn’t sliced through the cord that held the saddle in place.
Hope twisted left, and our saddle kept going forward. Both Sheela and I were flung from the top of the parasaur’s back and we rolled on the ground like tossed marbles.
For half a moment, the world was just green grass, brown tree trunks, and a spinning blend of those colors. I rolled across a surprisingly soft ground and tried to protect my head the best I could with my arms. A rock dug into my shoulder a moment before I stopped tumbling, but it hadn’t really injured me, and I was able to pop back up on my feet only a second after Sheela.
Then I saw the raptors closing in on us.
I knew that Sheela and I were about to die, so I commanded Hope to keep running home. The saddle was still beside me, and even though the clay jug of water had broken in the fall, my spear was still in its holder, and I was able to yank it free before the group of green feathered assholes made it to us.
“Stay close together!” Sheela ordered in a surprisingly calm voice as she pulled an arrow from her quiver and put it against her bowstring.
“Okay!” I replied, but my voice cracked in the middle, and I felt my limbs start to go numb. I’d been brave this morning and taken on four of these fucks, but this was almost twice that number, and they were charging toward us at full speed.
I lowered my spear and then watched Sheela’s arrow leave her bow in slow motion. It connected with the face of the fucker closest to us, and I pointed the tip of my own weapon at the raptor that was next in line.
Then they were on us.
Chapter 4
I thrust my spear forward and up at the green feathered raptor leaping toward me. His jump had taken him over the flailing body of the dino that Sheela just arrowed in the face, and the angle of his descent gave me a good view of his throat.
I didn’t really have any training with a spear beside the few hours I’d spent with Sheela and the combat I’ve been through, but the weapon was really easy to use, and I found it easy enough to angle the tip upward toward the target. I was also a bit lucky, and the point tore through the raptor’s throat at the side, and the beast didn’t get stuck on the weapon. Instead, he flopped on the ground beside me with a spray of crimson rain.
I carried my thrust to my left and aimed my weapon at the other fucker jumping toward Sheela. The cat-woman was still calmly loading an arrow, and I wondered if she somehow thought that she’d be able to get it on the string, pull it back, and then kill the raptor as it was in mid-air.
Maybe she could, but I was still going to try my best to defend her.
My spear-tip hit the thing in the chest below its left wing. He hadn’t leapt as high as the first one I’d just killed, but the impact of my thrust was powerful enough to dig a good four inches into his flesh, and the thing let out a screech when I managed to heave it backward into its friends.
“Good!” Sheela said as she raised her bow sideways and let loose with the arrow she had half-nocked.
The bolt flew the ten feet between the raptors and took another one in the chest. It screeched with surprise when it realized that it had gotten hit and then slowed its running speed suddenly.
And all the other raptors skidded to a halt.
“What. The. Fuck?” I whispered slowly as the raptors all turned to one Sheela had just hit.
“Maybe that is the leader,” Sheela said as we both took a step away from the group of dinosaurs. They were all hissing at the one Sheela had just shot, and it, in turn was hissing back at them between wheezes.
“Shit,” I gasped as I realized that they had some way of communicating to each other. “I totally underestimated these fucks.”
“There is a tree behind us,” Sheela whispered as she spared a quick glance back. “We need to be near it so they cannot surround us.
“Got it,” I replied as we started to step backward. Unfortunately, our movement got the attention of the raptors, and they turned away from their boss to screech at us.
Sheela let go of the arrow she had nocked, and it hit the leader again in the chest. He let out a bellow of surprise, and I had to make a quick few jabbing motions with my spear to keep the group at bay.
Then, just like Sheela predicted, they began to circle us.
“Fuck,” I gasped as we backpedaled toward the massive redwood tree behind us.
The leader was still standing, even with the two arrows sticking out of his ribs, and he let out a snarl as he took a few steps toward us. Most of these raptors were about the size of giant dogs, maybe two hundred pounds at the most, but this guy looked almost big enough for me to ride, and he must have been around two hundred and fifty pounds. He was probably the alpha for the whole little family we’d been murdering for the last day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d decided that it was time to deal with us personally.
But then again, these fucking feathered dinos probably weren’t that smart.
At least, I hoped they weren’t smart enough to plan this whole ambush.
My feet felt the roots of the redwood under me, and I glanced down so I didn’t trip over anything. One of the raptors on my right saw me look away, and he darted forward toward my leg at the same time as one on the left jumped at Sheela. Her bow sang as I shoved my spear forward. My weapon went right into my attacker’s jaw, and it let out a hysterical screech when I tore through the back of its throat. The raptor Sheela shot with her bow tumbled on the ground between us and the group of his friends, and I saw the warrior woman had put her arrow through his throat.
“Victor, some of my arrows fell out of my quiver when we fell. I only have two left.”
“Fucking shit fuck,” I growled as I tried to keep my wits about me. There were still too many of these assholes around us, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to kill them all.
Maybe Sheela could.
“I’ll give you my spear after you use your arrows,” I said. I hated the idea of giving up my weapon, but Sheela was a better warrior than me, and it was the best chance we had for surviving.
“I believe we can climb the tree,” she said as the butt of my spear bumped into the massive trunk.
“Uhh, how? The thing is like ten feet in diameter, and the closest branch is thirty feet up.”
“The saddle is made of many lengths of cord,” she said as she pulled one of her arrows back. “We can use it to wrap around the trunk and then scale it.”
“Shit!” I shouted as one of the raptors jumped at me. The point of my spear missed him, and I overstepped a bit. His jaws snapped down and around my weapon, and I could have sworn that his teeth closed around the hairs of my knuckles.
“The saddle is all the way over there!” I shouted as I nodded toward the device Trel had made. It was some twenty feet to our left, and Sheela would have to run around the group of raptors to get to it.
Or she would have to go through them.
“I can get it,” she said nonchalantly.
“Uhh, then how are we going to untie all the rope and wrap it around the tree?” I asked as I swung my spear around to keep the raptors at bay. I figured we had about half a minute before they realized that they could all just attack at once, and then Sheela and I would be lunch.