Blasting Trumpets

[SOME OF THE WORDS NEED ITALICIZED. SEE MS] Kate ducked the flying arrows coming at her from the Acchim riders. Pulling an arrow from her quiver she remembered her lessons from Mejor. Nock! Mark! Draw! Loose! Schhwaff! Wap! Her arrow met its mark. An Acchim tumbled from the sky, taking its Indringer rider with him. Just like in practice, she quickly notched one arrow after another onto the string, marked her target and drew back. But this was real battle––she did not wait for the command loose. She let the arrows fly toward her targets. Schhwaff! Wap! Schhwaff! Wap! Schhwaff! Wap! Her hand automatically reached for another arrow after she shot the fiftieth arrow, but her quiver was empty. She tucked herself into her Maup and banked right. Jen was in her sight. She headed toward her cousin. “Jen!” Kate shouted. “I’m out of arrows.” “Me too,” Jen pointed at her quiver. “Time for hand to hand combat!” Jen drew her sword. Kate wrapped her hand around the hilt of her sword, ready to draw it for the fight. She stopped her movement when she heard the cry from below. Kraa––Kraa––Kraa! With the Air Power knights distracted from their primary duty of protecting the crossing rafts, another, and much louder sound was heard. Kraa––Kraa––Kraa! The ravenous sound of the beast Elak broke the surface of the water a millisecond before its body slithered upward. Though smaller than Atasa, the beast was still monstrous. His fiendish dragon-like large, black eyes were set in a scaly snake-like face. A flaming three-pronged, forked lizard tongue lashed from his gaping mouth. Teeth, ready to grab and pull everything in its path to the deep chamber below the water, gleamed with acid-like saliva. Forty foot waves rolled up and outward with his raising body. White caps splashed over the edges of the two rafts in the middle of the river. Aaargh! Aaargh! Aaargh! The crashing water upon the decks of the boats capsized the primitive rafts and washed the Pilger warriors into the swirling water. Elak’s tongue whipped around the water and snatched any warrior who thrashed around trying to swim away from the chaos. Aaargh! Aaargh! Aaargh! The Pilgers struggled to fight off Elak but, heavily weighted with their battle armor, they could not retrieve their weapons nor keep their bodies afloat. Tucking herself into the fuzzy body of her Maup, Kate turned downward toward the river in hopes of saving the flailing Pilgers. Elak’s bulging soulless eyes caught sight of her streaking form and turned his attention away from the chaos in the river and on her. “Not this time!” Kate yelled. “You don’t win this time!” She aimed her Maup directly at the monster’s head. Flashes of flaming anger filled the black eyes of the beast. Elak’s focus no longer was on the struggling Pilgers being sucked into the spiraling water and disappearing to their death below. Swallowing a flailing Pilger wrapped in its forked tongue, it lashed a bearlike claw at Kate. Swish! Its sharp talon-like nails caught Kate on her left leg. Grimacing with the sharp pain, Kate pulled her Maup straight up, missing the second swipe from Elak’s massive claws. Blood trickled down her calf into her boot. Reaching the pinnacle of their climb her hand slipped off the knob on her Maup's neck. Her hand was filled with blood but she felt no pain. She looked down at her Maup to assess the injury. “Oh no!” Kate whispered. “Elak sliced your head!” Blood from her Maup spilled out from a five inch slash in his neck. “Kate!” Jen yelled, joining Kate's fight against Elak. “I’m okay,” Kate struggled out the words. “But...” She wiped the oozing blood from her Maup's neck. “I see,” Jen said. “Can you two make it back to camp?” “We’re both growing weak,” Kate offered, “but we'll try.” Elak rose higher from the water toward Kate and Jen, but his eyes never took his focus from Kate. Orange-red flames belched from its gapping mouth and reflected in the black pits of his eyes. Kraa––Kraa––Kraa! Kate felt the heat from the flames. She twisted her body, but the gash Elak had inflected rendered her left leg numb and she grew dizzy. She could no longer give her Maup directions, and the jagged tear in his head caused him to lose his self-navigation ability. Kraa––Kraa––Kraa! Elak's tongue lashed out toward Kate and wrapped around her injured leg. With very little strength left, Kate could not pull away. Pulling from an inter strength her Maup extended his legs and stretched out his talons, clamping down on Elak’s tongue where it left his slimy mouth.