Page 18 of Feast

She rebounded, landing sprawled and breathless in the snow.

Szzkkkt!

The hissing, clicking sound that came from above her sent goosebumps prickling over Ika’s skin, and her stomach knotted with fear. It was not a sound that she had ever heard, but it matched a description Rolf had given to her many times before.

The stars cleared from Ika’s eyes, and she stared up at the thing she had barreled into. It was not a tree trunk, though its reptilian hide was every bit as rough and gnarled as the bark of a tree.

It was a nith.

The creature towered over her in the moonlight. Its body was somewhat like an ukkur’s—two arms and two legs—but it was lankier, and it was clothed in a uniform of dark, perfectly smooth material that looked like no pelts Ika had ever seen.

The head atop the creature’s shoulders was nothing like an ukkur, however. Jet-black leathery skin, an elongated pair of jaws bristling with fangs, and a pair of beady, soulless eyes.

A terrified cry died in Ika’s throat.

There were more of the creatures emerging from the shadows, a half dozen in total. They advanced, ringing her in. Long metal weapons glinted in their hands. The one that Ika had slammed into stood over her and spoke in its ugly hissing, clicking voice.

“Szzkktt. Well, well, what have we here? A little morsel.”

Although the nith were a different species, Ika could understand their native language. As a matter of fact, it was the same language that she spoke. The only language she knew.

Rolf had explained it to her long ago. The nith were the overlords of this world. They grew the ukkur to be slaves on their ksh farms, and they instilled the minds of the ukkur with their language so that they could make them obey orders.

Obviously, in some cases that obedience had not worked out.

Is that what would happen to Ika now? Would these nith carry her off and force her into slavery? The cruel gleam in the creature’s eyes made her think they had something even worse in mind.

Ika was trapped.

She had a choice to make.

As far as Ika could tell, three options lay before her. The first option was to simply do nothing, to allow the nith to take her captive without putting up a fight. She immediately discarded that option.

Rolf had raised her better than that.

She may not be an ukkur, but she had a warrior’s heart and a hunter’s skill. She was not going to make things easy for these nith bastards.

That left her with the other two options. She could make a run for it and hope her legs could carry her faster than the nith could follow.

But Rolf had explained to her that the nith were masters of the dark arts of technology. They had weapons called guns that could throw fire and kill from a distance. That must be what those metal tube-like weapons in their hands were.

If Ika tried to flee, these nith would gun her down before she reached the edge of this clearing.

That only left one more option open to her.

Stand and fight.

The nith standing over Ika leaned down and reached out one black, scaly hand to grab her.

Ika realized her spear had fallen from her hand upon impact. It was lying in the snow a few feet away, just out of reach. She would need a different tactic.

In a flash, she drew the flint knife from the sheath at her hip and drove it hard into the middle of the nith’s reaching palm. The nith screeched in pain and stumbled backward, clutching at its wounded hand. Ika’s knife was yanked from her grasp in the process.

Now she was unarmed, and the other nith were closing in.

Ika rolled to the side and grabbed her spear. She came up with a roar and jabbed the point at the first nith that she saw.

She was quick, but the nith was just a little quicker, and it turned away from her attack. Instead of driving the sharp point into the creature’s black heart, Ika only dealt a glancing blow to the shoulder.