Chapter 95 - 96: If you have finished mating with each other’s faces, move
Arion grabbed his father’s shoulder.
"We move."
This time, Garran did not resist.
Soren raised his voice.
"Cubs, wounded, and healers in the center!"
People turned toward him.
"Hunters on the outside. Strongest guards at the rear. No one leaves alone."
He pointed toward the western passage.
"We use the dry stone riverbed."
Nerin’s broken antler trembled.
"The ground near it was stable yesterday."
"Check it again," Soren ordered. "You lead the center."
Nerin nodded and ran.
Soren turned toward Tilla.
"Count every cub."
Tilla had Tavi tied against her chest with a hide wrap.
"I already started."
"Count them again."
"Yes."
"Nahla, medicine moves before bedding."
Nahla slapped a male’s hand away from a herb bundle.
"Anyone who drops my feverroot will become my next medicine test!"
Sari grabbed the bundle properly.
Tovan began throwing rope, stone tools, and dried food into separate carrying hides.
Swanly climbed onto a broad stone.
Her cubs clung to Kael beneath her.
Kairo held Nilo’s hand.
Nilo held Miko’s.
Miko had one fist buried in Kael’s hair.
Swanly shouted over the screaming.
"Divide every supply!"
Several carriers looked at her.
"Do not place all the food in one group. Do not place all the medicine with one healer. If one group is cut off, the others must still have enough to survive."
Tovan immediately changed the bundles.
"Food in four groups!"
"Water in six!" Swanly shouted.
She pointed toward the survivors nearest the broken underground barrier.
"Anyone touched by black water, rot blood, claws, or teeth moves to the marked rear group. You stay away from the cubs until Nahla checks you."
A male protested.
"My arm is only dirty."
"Then you will be clean and angry in the rear instead of infected beside a child."
He shut his mouth.
Kael looked up at Swanly.
"Come down."
"I am helping."
A hollow bird dropped from above.
It did not look like a bird until its wings opened.
Its body was thin and gray beneath wet feathers. Human lips split across its narrow face.
"Swanly," it called in Kael’s voice.
Kael’s golden eyes changed.
The creature dove toward her.
Swanly drew her black bow.
The system flashed inside her vision.
{Unknown ancient species.}
{Rot resistance: High.}
{Suggested targets: Eyes. Wing joints. Open mouth.}
Swanly released.
The arrow pierced the joint beneath its left wing.
The creature spun through the air.
Its false mouth screamed in the voice of a child.
Swanly fired again.
The second arrow struck its eye.
It crashed into the stone below.
Kael leaped onto it in panther form.
His claws tore through its exposed throat.
The creature kept moving.
Kael slammed its head against the stone until the skull broke.
It finally stopped.
Swanly stared at it.
Not infected.
Not easy to kill.
Wonderful.
The nearest outer barrier burst inward.
Bone-backed crawlers poured through.
Their pale limbs struck the ground too quickly.
Guards stabbed at the hard shells covering their bodies.
Spears snapped.
"Underneath!" Thalara screamed.
Everyone turned.
She stood beside the broken roots, black blood already running from one nostril.
"Do not strike the bones. Turn them over!"
Raku charged.
His crocodile tail swept across the stone.
It struck the first crawler from the side and flipped it onto its back.
Soft gray flesh pulsed beneath the bone shell.
Three guards drove their spears into it.
The creature shrieked.
Raku slammed his stone weapon into its exposed chest.
Once.
Twice.
The body went still.
"Again!" he roared.
The guards stopped wasting attacks on the shells.
Thalara thrust both black hands toward the barrier.
Living roots exploded from the walls.
They wrapped around two crawlers and dragged them sideways.
One creature tore through the roots.
Thalara cried out.
A black crack spread across her forearm.
She tightened her fingers.
The roots crushed the second crawler against the wall.
Swanly saw her knees buckle.
"Thalara!"
"I can still hold them."
"You are bleeding."
"So are many people."
Another Root-Eater climbed through the underground opening.
Its mouth opened.
"Mama?"
Kairo flinched.
Swanly’s entire expression changed.
"Do not use my cubs’ voices."
She fired.
The arrow vanished into its mouth.
It bit through the shaft.
The creature crawled toward her.
Too fast.
Swanly jumped from the stone.
Its jointed arm swept through the place where she had been standing.
She rolled across the ground.
Another arm struck down.
She caught it beneath her bow, twisted, and kicked the thin joint sideways.
Crack!
The limb bent backward.
The Root-Eater screamed.
Swanly drew a short stone blade from her belt and drove it into the joint.
Black blood sprayed across her face.
The creature’s other arms closed around her waist.
"Swanly!" Kael roared.
It lifted her.
The jointed fingers dug into her ribs.
Swanly’s breath vanished.
Her blade fell.
The Root-Eater pulled her toward its open mouth.
She drove both feet against its chest, but the creature did not loosen its hold.
Kael struck it from the side.
His claws tore through two arms.
Swanly dropped.
Kael caught her before she hit the stone.
The Root-Eater twisted toward them.
Kael shoved Swanly behind him and tore into its throat.
Swanly grabbed her fallen blade.
She drove it through the creature’s open mouth and pushed upward with both hands.
The stone point pierced the softer flesh behind its teeth.
Thalara’s roots burst from the ground beneath it.
They entered through the wound in its mouth.
The Root-Eater’s body jerked.
Roots tore through its chest from the inside.
It collapsed.
Swanly stumbled backward.
Kael caught her face between both bloody hands.
"Are you hurt?"
"I am fine."
"You were in its mouth."
"Near its mouth."
"It was pulling you away from me."
His eyes were almost black.
"Kael, we need to move."
He kissed her.
Hard.
His mouth crashed against hers with enough force to steal the words from her throat.
Swanly froze.
Noise surrounded them.
Screams.
Breaking stone.
Dying creatures.
Still, Kael kissed her like the world had already ended and she was the only thing left inside it.
His claws trembled against her cheeks.
Swanly grabbed his hair.
For one wild heartbeat, she kissed him back.
Then Soren’s voice cut through them.
"If you have finished mating with each other’s faces, move."
Kael lifted his head.
Swanly’s lips burned.
Soren stood several steps away.
His expression was glacial.
A hollow bird dropped silently behind Kael.
Soren’s tail shot forward.
It wrapped around Kael’s waist and ripped him aside.
The bird’s claws struck empty ground.
Soren caught its neck in one hand.
His fangs lengthened.
He spat venom directly into its open mouth.
The creature convulsed.
Soren’s tail tightened around its body.
Bones cracked beneath the pressure.
He threw it into the underground hole.
Kael landed in a crouch.
His golden eyes narrowed.
"You touched me."
"You are alive."
"I did not ask you to save me."
Soren’s silver gaze flicked toward Swanly.
"She would become unbearable if you died."
Swanly pointed at both of them.
"Fight later."
Soren’s eyes dropped briefly to her swollen lips.
"Gladly."
Kael growled.
Raku ran between them carrying an injured male over one shoulder.
"Romance later! Death now!"
They moved.
The first migration group reached the western passage.
Most shifted into their beast forms.
Deer carried supply hides across their backs.
Large cats moved beside the cub groups.
Boars and bears carried the injured.
Smaller beastmen crawled through narrow spaces and checked ahead.
Tilla ran among the center groups with Tavi pressed to her chest.
"Stay together!"
Kairo walked beside her.
He was tiny in his human form, but his serious face looked older than it should.
He held a strip of hide tied to three younger cubs.
"Follow Kairo."