Dog Eats Dog
by Aris Merquoni
o/~ It's a world / Where the dog eats dog / And they
kill / For the bones in the street / I raise my eyes to
see the heavens / And only the moon shines down / The
harvest moon shines down! o/~
The air outside was crisp and cold. The snow crunched
quietly under my boots, loud enough to be heard. I could hear the
Thing out there, as well, crunching through the snow. Its psychic
radiance was stinging at my mind, making a nasty taste in the
back of my throat, but I couldn't home in on the source of the
sting-pzzt. I ground my teeth in frustration and loosened up my
sword arm.
Every time I have gone into a combat situation, I had
always tried to get a thorough briefing on the lay of the land
and the inhabitants, or I had dug the information up myself.
Here, the information we had was sketchy at best, horribly and
wildly inaccurate at worst. I clenched my jaw, took a deep
breath, and began some breathing exercises to prepare myself for
the unknown assailant.
Selvane and I were going through a flush and kill, more
effective than stalk-and-pounce or scream-and-leap. I was dodging
around trees while Selvane took the attacker's other flank. I
hoped that he was having more success than I was. My sixth sense
was infringing on my other senses, just about driving me batty.
A branch snapped, someone cursed, and sounds of gunfire
sprayed out ahead of me. I sprinted toward the sounds, stopping
just short of running headlong into the clearing.
A huge... thing, that's all I could see of it, charged
into the clearing. It charged at Selvane like a Kzin, but the
Ranger managed to dive out of the way in time. As the thing
crashed to the ground, I managed to make out some of its form.
Bipedal humanoid, looked like a big ape, with long arms
and hunched back. As it struggled to its feet, I sprinted out of
the bushes, as silently and swiftly as I could manage over snow.
I pulled my dagger and leaped, locking my arms around the beast's
waist. Before it could turn or throw me off, I buried the dagger
in its spinal cord.
The thing shuddered beneath me, and I kicked off,
dragging my dagger with me. It fell to the ground, right next to
Selvane. He had gotten to his feet and was still training his gun
on it.
We warily circled it, looking for any sign of movement.
I finally tipped it over with my foot, then knelt to clean my
dagger off on the thing's clothes while Selv fired two well-
placed shots into the thing's skull.
"That was a good fight you had," he said. I looked up to
see him smiling faintly. I shrugged.
"Anything you can walk away from... or is that car
crashes? Anyway," I said, grabbing at the cord I had spotted
around the thing's neck, "I think I found something."
"What?" he asked. I pulled, hard, and the cord snapped. I
brought it up to eye level, surveying the small gold amulet.
"Warded," I spat. The thing buzzed with the equivalent of
jamming waves on three levels. I used my dagger to chisel away at
the marks, and the buzzing slowly faded. "That's what was playing
hell with my head. O'rrall rah'krevn! Irr'tae!"
"Uh, right..." Selvane said. I glanced at him.
"I'll deal with the p'hat"darm. You should get some
sleep-I'll take watch the rest of the night." The last Selvane
complied with, going back into our little hut for some rest. I
dragged the body of the ape thing away, up into the hills to
dispose of.