♁.•°°•.•⭒•.•°˙°•.✧{25}✧.•°˙°•.•⭒•.•°°•.♁
A low rumble resonated through the forest. Tiah stiffened on twilight, the beast huffed, shaking its head in irritation. Aaron shook his head, stepping back a bit and let out a chuff before continuing forward on Kellen's instruction.
"Tell me that's the wolves"
Tiah whispered.
"Hold onto my waist, put your feet here."
Ava chose to ignore Tiah in favor of prepping to run, the hunting saddle Twilight was wearing was definitely not meant for double riding but you could get away with using the two hooks on each side as a second set of stirrups in a pinch.
She glanced up at Kellen as she directed Tiah into a semi crouched position, he was already standing in his stirrups crouched ready to run. Waiting for the signal.
Ava readied herself as she stood in her stirrups. One hand reached back and pulled Tiah forward so they were pressed together and then wrapped around the girls waist to the best of her ability, the other secured Tiah's hands around her waist and reached down to grabbed the horn of the saddle desperately praying that this wouldn't come to a full on forest sprint with an angry predator and a very green hunter.
She could hear it dragging its long body though the frostbitten undergrowth.
The nerix kept pace.
It moved slowly, scutes scraping the ground behind the group.
It moved to the left behind Kellen now.
The nerix kept pace.
She tightened her hold on Tiah praying the girl could hold on.
Kellen's knuckles turned white against the horn of his saddle.
The nerix kept pace.
A branch snapped under its long body, Tiah flinched.
It moved to the right behind Ava and Tiah.
The nerix kept pace.
A bird was heard in the distance, ending in a sharp upward screech.
Distinct, it was the group, they were asking if they were okay.
They are not okay.
The nerix kept pace.
Kellen glanced over his shoulder hope gleaming in his eyes. At Ava's nod he responded to the bird call with one of his own slowly puttering off at the end to say he needed help.
Another branch snapped.
The nerix kept pace.
Ava reached forward and patted twilight's neck.
Kellen looked to the left desperately trying to spot the creature stalking them.
The nerix kept pace
Another call, closer now punctuated by two sharp trills at the end.
Two people were coming.
The nerix kept pace.
A blood curdling hiss came from the inky black of the forest.
Then they saw it white scales moving forward to cut them off and trap them.
Ava sucked in a quick breath and let out a quick loud high pitched whistle that could rival the district's sirens.
The nerix took off in full sprint galloping at full speed into the darkness.
Kellen whistled quick sharp high pitched bursts of air. A call for help, a distress call.
Suddenly a snake head lunged out of the black on Ava's front right side.
Tiah screamed, Ava tightened her grip on her and leaned left with Twilight as the nerix narrowly avoided teeth in her flank.
Kellen and Aaron dodged right as the head launched out of the foliage.
"There's two!"
Kellen screamed between his whistles. He was frantically trying to ensure the rescue party wouldn't lose them.
"Move move"
Ava responded.
"Come on guys, keep going"
She yelled at the nerix, but there was an evident problem. The girls were falling behind.
Twilight was carrying two people which despite being completely manageable wasn't ideal when it came to speed.
Another snake head launched from the side.
"Hold!"
Ava screamed as Twilight pumped the brakes allowing the snake head to shoot past her into the forest. Then she continued her stride leaping over the snake's long body and pounding after Aaron and Kellen. The pair was just barely visible in the black of the cold season.
The few plants that weren't in hibernation didn't grow here and therefore large vicious predators like the hikyo were hunting.
Panic surged though Ava as Kellen kept getting further away. She couldn't hear his whistling anymore.
Twilight jumped another hikyo, Tiah screamed.
Ava started whistling sharp, fast, and powerful.
Was Kellen safe, why did he stop signaling.
Suddenly Twilight reared up onto her hind legs coming to an abrupt halt, almost sending Ava into her neck. She stopped whistling when she heard it.
Ava couldn't see but she heard the hissing. There were hikyo and they were everywhere.
Twilight's hoofs came down with a sick crunch. Ava shuddered knowing the sound was Twilight hoofs going through the reptile's skull.
Tiah sobbed at the sound and Ava pulled her impossibly closer. She was the one who knew what to do in this situation so she had to be responsible and deal with the situation.
Ava looked around as Twilight shook the snake's dead body off her hoofs.
There were five very angry looking snake heads on the ground.
Twilight huffed desperately trying to catch her breath. Tiah continued to sob and Ava continued to scan the surroundings.
She couldn't make the first move; she would get them jumped by five snakes.
She had to wait for one of them to jump first. That was her only hope. The snakes were all hissing, it felt like the noise was in her brain like grains of rice rolling around. Nobody moved.
Then she heard a sound that she would praise till the day she died.
A quiet deep trill. She recognized the call immediately as Felix. The best bow hunter in the village. And another trill higher but soft not sharp like Ava's was.
Amelia, Amelia and Felix. Quite possibly the best people to save the three from this terrifying situation.
Ava listened though the hissing straining desperately to hear the signature calls. They came again, along with one long deep note.
North, why were they saying north? She was supposed to be heading south west to camp.
Then it hit her. Was she not where she thought?
Taking a deep breath as she continued to watch the snake heads she whistled back one sharp high note followed by a long low note that got progressively higher until she stopped. Southwest.
A quick double whistle responded and then a long low note.
She was going the wrong way. The predators had turned them, herding them towards where more where and into danger.
Very slowly Ava reached down and patted Twilight signaling her to turn.
It was almost agonizing how slowly the nerix moved but it was necessary. Everyone knew it. The nerix came to a stop once she was facing north, signaled by Amelia whistling a sharp double whistle from somewhere in the trees.
Ava waited. She knew Felix and Amelia couldn't kill all five, it was hard enough to kill one, unless you had a nerix to stomp on the hikyos skull. But that was a lucky shot.
Ava caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She followed it and noticed a hikyo winding its body behind itself, it was in strike position.
Then Ava heard the snap of a bow above the hissing, she watched as a projectile landed on the large snake head and exploded in a thick green smoke.
Twilight ran without being told her hoofs trampled another hikyo as she exited the circle of death. Angered hissing could be heard as the group hightailed it out of there.
The snapping of bow strings and more smoke bombs popping in the distance could be heard. Along with the hissing of a hikyo who managed to follow.
The crater came into view not long after; Chris was perched on Jessabell at the crater ramp. His eyes widened as the group of three came hurdling out of the woods, one hikyo still snapping at the exhausted nerix heels.
Chris stood on Jessebell, he aimed his spear holding position as the three hurdled toward the ramp.
"Chris now!"
A scream rang from the trees, followed by the sound of weapons flying through the air.
Twilight shot down the ramp into the crater and the hikyo skidded to a stop at the very top of the ramp. Arrows stuck into its body at random places a spear lodged up through the roof of its mouth holding its giant mouth open. Two sais lodged in its right eye and a knife buried hilt deep in the middle of the giant snake's head.
"What happened?"
Chris asked, staring warily at the massive animal as though it was going to come back to life despite the large amount of blood pooling on the ground and continuing to drip out of its many wounds.
"They got caught coming back from playing with the noroe, she thought she needed to go southwest when she needed to go north, they turned them around."
Felix explained poking the beast's tail where it had piled the back half of its white and oil colored body.
"I'm not looking forward to cleaning this"
Amelia said glumly as she glared down at the hikyo. Its head and the first twenty feet of its fifty foot body was covered in white scales, slowly they faded out to deep blues greens and purples that melded together to make the illusion of black.
"Amelia, have you considered using these"
Felix asked, pointing at the scales on the hikyos tail from his crouched position.
"What do you mean?"
"Like for paint, have you ever tried drying some scales, grinding them to a powder, and using your paint base to make paint with the pigments?'
Amelia looked at him and down at the snake before shock and then joy rippled across her face.
The two knew that face, she had discovered a new way to make paint and therefore a whole new range of colors to add to her collection.
"Felix you are a genius, I bet I could even turn it into a dye. Come on, let's get this thing on the crater so nothing else comes to take it."
The group got to work grabbing rope from Jessabells saddle bag and using it to tie around the snake's jaw. They then pulled the hikyo down the ramp and into the crater, its seventy foot body taking up half of the ramp as it was pulled down by the three. Jessabell took the very end of its tail in her mouth and dragged it forward once the whole hikyo was in the crater.
She dropped its tail on its own head once the group stopped moving.
Ava and Tiah were nowhere to be seen. They had probably retreated to their huts to feel more secure.
"Where are we supposed to put this? Actually Felix, do you think the village would want the meat? I don't know how to cook it, if it's even edible"
Amelia asked as she looked down at the animal, she reached down and started removing the arrows from its body, sorting them by whose arrow they were.
"Actually they might want it, if we drag it into the tunnel to the village I'm sure we can leave it overnight."
"Okay but I'm gonna scale it before it goes to them though, I want to try that new paint idea"
"Not a big deal, help me move this for tonight and all go home and relay the message."
The group of three grabbed the rope again and dragged the large heavy animal across the crater. Jessabell followed behind until they walked past the stables where she broke off to play with the other nerix.
"Okay, this guys heavy"
Chris said as they came to a stop in the tunnel.
"What do you expect from a fifty foot snake?"
Amelia deadpanned well Felix chuckled in the background.
"Well see you guys tomorrow, good night."
Night Felix, the pair called as he disappeared down the tunnel.
"Do you think they will ever get the guts to ask to move into the crater? I mean they have huts here for the love of pete's sake"
Amelia questioned once the pair were out of hearing distance.
"I have no idea"
Chris simply responded.
The pair then made their separate ways, Chris whistling for Jessebell and Amelia heading to her hut.