Time Of Traitors

7

Suddenly, the ground beneath him rushed away, and Cres rolled head over heels into the ravine. From the wet and cold ground, there was no longer any reason to curse the white light. He is tired.

The wound was driving him crazy - he felt it, just to the left of the navel. At every wrong move, the flesh groaned as if it had been torn with iron hooks. Soon the composition will begin to operate, and then Kres will be able to rise - wait a little more and he will immediately go on.

... until the pain in his eyes peered into the inaccessible sky. High above, blue stars blazed above the sweeping paws of the refs. The strength to rise went to look for the sun.

Soon the pain really receded - through the body, from the top of the head to the tips of the fingers, grateful warmth spread. Immediately, a pleasant drowsiness pressed persistently on the eyelids, whispering a long-forgotten lullaby into my ear. Cres took a deep breath, thankfully free of the hot cage that tentacles of pain had encased in his chest. Until this moment, he had no idea how tired his body had been during the last few weeks of this devilish race. All these crazy nights were just a mockery of him, he had long forgotten what it was to sleep for real.

No longer able to resist fatigue, he closed his eyes, and the whole world was drowned in a sweet haze.

He disappeared. He disappeared with the world, and there was not one reason to return. None.

…

No.

Hell?

Yes, she looks like she was screaming. Somewhere very close.

Knocking down a bear with bare hands is even easier than picking up this cast-iron blanket. Cres rested his elbow on the frozen ground and tried to sit up. Pain burned him with a sharp stroke of a whip. Tears welled up in his eyes, only to freeze on his face, which was red with exertion. Following with a sigh, the cold rushed into the lungs like a wild wolf. Cres groaned and collapsed onto his back again. The earth took his sick body into its arms, like a capricious child. Everything is meaningless - a tired person, and even with a wound in his side, is unable to catch up with a healthy girl, even if she is out of her mind. Ada had already pulled away from him, and only a miracle could help bring the fool to reason.

And you?

Didn't know, or tried not to think about it. From something continued to resist and fought. And fought.

As usual.

What for?

Again her cry. It couldn't be heard twice.

Kres growled in impotence, ashamed of himself and his own weakness. For the tenth or hundredth time he was able to bring himself to his knees.

Raising his head and opening his frozen eyelids seemed like child's play now. Cres coughed, and a new attack of pain twisted, hammered him to the ground. Pain reached the lungs - an iron grip milked them to the bottom. Another terrible, almost impossible effort, and he, almost screaming, got to his feet ... and walked, moving his legs with difficulty. Behind him stretched a red scattering.

She screamed, and her voice was drowned in the mass of the dense forest.

A cauldron of blood and sweat boiled. Fires darted furiously between the trees, naked iron sparkled, shadows rushed at each other, imitating wild animals, cries of rage and despair rushed to the sky and got stuck in the ring of intertwined branches.

She screamed, and the wind carried the scream with it.

To run and fight and endure being wounded, with your heart bursting out of your chest like a snared bird, what a familiar feeling it was. The drug gave a second wind and forced to act. The pain lurked deep inside and tossed about like a mad dog in a cage. For how long, it's hard to say - in any case, there is very little time.

Barely alive, Kres went to the clearing and immediately saw Ada and the raised ax. The girl growled helplessly at her offender, swallowing blood from her broken nose. Then she was quickly thrown to the ground, and the ax was already sticking out of the trunk, hammered into the bark in one movement. His master stood with his foot on Ada's chest and lowered his trousers.

Kres rushed forward with the fury of a hunted wolverine, pain and caution forgotten. The dagger, which until recently was sticking out of his stomach, himself called to put it into action, and do not care that chain mail sparkles on the shoulders of the enemy.

It remained to cover twenty steps, but then something fell from the sky, loosening the earth with thick claws. A huge four-legged creature, overgrown with black hair, snapped its teeth right above his head, but missed by a hair's breadth. A hair, and a barefoot would have torn off his head.

From the flapping of heavy wings, the refs rustled the leaves as if in fear and almost rushed to their heels. The Bosorka roared deafeningly and fixed its small, sharp eyes on the warrior with his pants down, who unsuccessfully tried to pull the ax out of the bark. The creature licked its bearded, wrinkled muzzle, purred carnivorously, and jumped. The blow of huge wings again shook the clearing, followed by a wild cry.

The failed rapist almost immediately escaped from her teeth and, clutching a lacerated wound in her shoulder, made an attempt to escape. Bosorka didn't mind. The night beasts of Borno's whiter nurseries prefer to play with their supper for a bit before burrowing in search of the sweetest. Even worse, the creature was on its own - there was no rider, and the reins with broken saddle straps beat the beast on the sides - which means that no one will stop the monster from feasting to its heart's content.

Bosorka did not rush and let him crawl a little. She immediately jumped and bit again. She jumped back and purred again, welcoming new cries. Jumping gallop. Leap-jump until the warrior was a piece of squealing meat, and the monster had already sniffed another tidbit, softer and still more agile. The flattened muzzle was all painted with black blood, the pale eyes did not express anything at all except bestial hunger, which, according to rumors, was generally impossible to satisfy.

Ada, shackled with fear, could only flap her eyelashes and silently wait for her turn.

- Come on, come here! - Cres shouted with all his might and launched a stone into the head of a feral cannibal.

Then he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled at the top of his lungs.

- Do you want to eat? Eat me!

Bosorka didn't have to be asked twice. Leaving dessert for later, she growled disgustingly and rushed to the new fun. If only Ada had the brains to run away...

In the next instant, a sharp crack ripped through the air. A bloody slit flashed across his hairy muzzle, missing his right eye by a finger. The Bosorka shrieked and staggered back, hiding behind her wing, and immediately hissed, and Kres was already raising the whip for another blow.

Didn't expect bitch?

The Bosorka roared throughout the forest so wildly and furiously that it blocked its ears. The monster tried to lunge at Kres, but the whip howled in his hand, cutting through the air with a merry whistle, and pinned her to the ground with another painful blow to her wing.

He beat and beat her with his whip, pushing the monster away from the clearing, closer to the trees, where it could not reach Ada. No matter what awaits him after - if only to avert death from her. On the membranous wings of the bosorka, bloody strokes lit up, and with each blow the brutal bosorka tried more and more desperately to break through the whip dancing in his hand.

Giving up attempts to go ahead, she retreated to a distance inaccessible to the whip and began to carefully go around him from the side, without losing sight of the enemy. Kres untwisted the whip over his head, resounding with thunderous clapping in the frozen forest, and from each bosorka she cautiously squatted, took care of her head, but slowly and stubbornly seized the initiative and went on the offensive. In her empty eyes, concentrating on the moment of the attack, Kres recognized the shadow that he had seen before - a creature with the same eyes tore off the hand of the gaping driver with the root. Bosorka needed only a little courage to do this.

Spinning the whip for the last time, Cres leaned back against the tree and lowered the whip. The whip is no longer his help.