Page 15 of Stone Awakened

She looked at me with wide, startled eyes but immediately scrambled to do as I’d asked her. I approached the slightly propped open door, my knife out. Propping my back against the wall next to the door, I carefully peeked outside and froze at what I saw there. A creature was ambling across the cleared space between the tower and the trees, a wide flat snout pressed to the ground as it sniffed in loud, deep snorts.

It was big, coming up to my shoulder, with four muscled legs tipped with claws. Its eyes were flat as they scanned around them, thick pelt keeping it warm from the cool night, and protecting it. Then the flat snout split into four pieces, opening and curling back like a flower, I winced at the strips of sharp, hook teeth it displayed. What the fuck was this creature?

It lifted its head, waggling it around on a thick neck, left and right until it suddenly snapped in place, pointing directly at the tower. I scanned it, looking for any signs of weakness as it started padding in our direction on clawed feet. This thing was big, solid muscle, and it looked mean, it also stood directly in our path.

I shivered when I felt Aggy’s small hand press against my back, she’d slipped it between my wings so her fingers lay directly against my spine. “That’s a Jukjuk,” she murmured, “I just read about them… They’re blind, but they will kill anything they cross paths with. Careful Sunder.” She had dropped her voice down to the softest of whispers, but I still saw how the creature’s head came up, looking directly at us.

I hadn’t the foggiest what a Jukjuk was, except that the name alone invoked images of vomiting, with a mouth as it had, that wasn’t surprising. With my foot, I carefully nudged the stone free that I’d used to prop open the tower door. If I could close this metal panel before the creature got here, I was pretty sure the heavy door would keep it out. This tower would have been made to withstand attacks from the planet’s wildlife.

The stone made a soft noise as it tumbled out of the opening, I wrapped my hand around the door handle and started pulling. My eyes on the creature through the open slit, not good, it had accelerated and was galloping at the door at full speed. My skin twitched, my body surging with the instinct to shift into my battle-form, except I was already shifted. The result was a painful ache spreading across my skin, my hardened flesh feeling brittle to the touch.

There was no time to think about that now, so I shoved my worries aside and fought to close the heavy door. The metal panel wasn’t hung right, a hinge misaligned, making it hard to wrest it into place, and when I finally pulled it fully shut, the creature skidded into the door with a massive banging noise, followed by an unholy screech. Aggy yelped, a frightened sound, that incited my urge to protect, to fight.

The lock wasn’t engaging, and scratching and scrabbling sounds made it clear this massive creature was trying to claw its way in. I needed both my hands to keep the panel in place and it was starting to become a struggle, my clawed feet dragging along the dusty tower floor. “Aggy, try the lock,” I huffed between clenched teeth. I didn’t like that this meant she was right next to the door, if it slipped from my grasp… But what choice did we have?

She darted beneath my wing, her hand slamming on the electronic panel, but it didn’t engage. I saw claws curl around the side of the metal door, as long as my fingers, and razor-sharp. I groaned as the creature pulled harder, and for a brief moment, Aggy and I stared out of the two-inch gap and into a flat, milky eye.

With a shout, I yanked the panel back, and Aggy pulled the manual lever as hard as she could. The sound of rusted metal grating against each other filled the air, but though she hung from the rod with her entire weight, the lock still didn’t engage. No wonder I’d had such trouble opening it earlier. I knew what that meant, so I needed to time this right, and do it on my terms.

“Aggy, get back now, go up the stairs,” I said and waited until she’d retreated before I slipped one hand off my hold on the door. Groaning when the skin across my left shoulder and arm cracked and broke when all force was suddenly on the single limb. I snatched up the knife I’d dropped earlier and then I reversed direction, slamming my shoulder into the door, I forced the panel open, colliding hard with the Jukjuk on the other side.

It made a screeching noise that rented the air, hurting my ears but I had caught it off guard, I’d knocked it off its feet. I leaped outside, wings spread, catching a breeze I soared up and over the animal, dragging my knife along its back. It wasn’t dazed long and while my blade was very sharp, the thick pelt protected it from serious harm. I needed to find a weak spot, neck, eyes, where could I hit something vital? I wasn’t too keen on getting close to that awful mouth.

We exchanged blows, or rather, I leaped through the air, aided by my wings, and avoided blows. Twice I scraped it with my knife, but I couldn’t figure out where to hit it. The Jukjuk had long claws tipping muscled legs, its reach was bigger than mine. When it reared back, it flayed open its terrible jaw, exposing the rows of hooked teeth in four strips, and a throat lined with spines.

“The eyes, it can’t see! Stay still,” Aggy yelled. I dared a look at the tower and saw that she’d disregarded my advice and was standing just inside the door opening. The beast had heard her too, proving that its hearing was better than its sight, it chose the softer target, and started sprinting for the door.

It had a short tail at the back, vestigial maybe as it didn’t look useful. I leaped at his back, my knife cutting through that tail, that was certainly the distraction Aggy needed. While I leaped away, beating my wings to lift into the sky, I yelled at my female. “Hide damn it, don’t make a sound!”

The Jukjuk had its full focus on me now, growling and clacking with its strange maw, head swinging this way and that as it tried to pinpoint my location. Silencing my wings, I folded them tightly against my back, arrowing straight down. I was dive-bombing this fucker, my knife out so I could hopefully penetrate the back of his neck with the blade and the force of my fall.

At the last moment, the creature tilted its head up and I knew it had heard me. Curving my body, I tried to avoid the sharp maw and keep the aim of my blade true. The collision rocked through my arms, up my shoulders, tearing through my battle-hardened skin. The creature let out a bloodcurdling scream as my knife sank deep from the force, then we were rolling from the momentum and I found myself pinned beneath it.

Pain rocketed up my spine, my sight whiting out for a second, the wind knock out of me from the weight. I had lost my grip on my knife, but the Jukjuk wasn’t moving so I was fairly certain it was out for the count. Ignoring the pain, I struggled to get my hands beneath the bulk of the creature and push it off me. My body was hurting everywhere but I had to ignore that, Aggy couldn’t free me, I had to pull myself from this mess.

Her warm scent suddenly surrounded me, soft hands running over my face, “Fuck, Sunder. Are you badly hurt?” she said. Her hands skated over my shoulders and then she made a keening noise, lifted her fingers up, and we both stared at the blood that coated them.

“Grab hold, on three, pull,” I said, ignoring the panicked look in her eyes. She nodded bravely and then counted down. On three, I pushed off the ground with my wings and punched up with my arms. Aggy was pulling on my armor straps, and I scrambled to kick myself free with my legs, we went tumbling free from the Jukjuk’s body in an ungainly heap.

Rolling, I scrambled to my hands and knees, “Aggy, are you hurt anywhere?” I’d landed on top of the small human and I with my battle-form always active… I was not an easy weight to handle, I’d never forgive myself if I’d broken one of her fragile bones.

She was on her back in the mossy clearing, her hair wildly haloing around her face, her expression one of indignation. “Am I hurt? Sunder! You’re bleeding all over!” I was, my battle-form had cracked and crumbled in places, the skin breaking from the pressure so that raw cuts ran all over my body. That wasn’t the worst of it… But I wasn’t sure how to bring that up to her.

Since she was scrambling to her feet now, red flushing her cheeks from exertion, I was fairly certain she was alright. I checked my wings, forcing my sore muscles to stretch them out, and cycle them through their range of motion. I rolled my shoulders, pushed myself to my feet, and decided that it could have been worse.

Then I saw the horror-filled look on her face and self-consciously tucked my tail behind my back. “Oh my God, did that beast take a piece of your tail off?” She wouldn’t let me hide, rushing over to pull on my arm so she could duck around me and look at what remained of the appendage. The tip, about a good foot, had been broken clean off. It’s why my spine was aching, the pain traveling up it in a dull throb.

“It broke when the damn beast landed on top of me…” I said in explanation. The loss of a portion of my tail was mostly a nuisance, I’d be off my balance until I could work in a bit of training to adjust for it. The cracks running all over my skin were much more worrying, they would heal within a few hours, but it meant my health issues were far more advanced than I thought they were.

“Your freaking tail broke?” she sounded a bit hysterical, definitely concerned and it made me realize how unfamiliar these situations were for her. She’d handled herself alright, giving me a good clue and staying out of the way, but this had to be a shock for her. She was just a schoolteacher, not a trained spy.

A howling noise split the night, followed by another, and then another. Aggy cursed, “More Jukjuk, this was just a scout… We need to get out of here! Can you fly?” Her eyes scanned over my bloody form and I bristled at the implication that I couldn’t keep her safe, that I needed help. Then I settled down, I did need a moment, and I certainly didn’t feel like fighting another of those beasts, let alone a whole pack of them.

We hurried back into the tower together, this time I slammed the door shut, and then tried the manual override that had jammed for Aggy’s much smaller form. It took a few grinding tries, but I got the gears to grind through their rust without breaking, and the door locked with a satisfying snicking noise.

“Now what?” she asked me, her eyes huge and wide.

Chapter 11