章 588: That Snot it
Aurora was fighting feverishly to keep the caravan moving. Being in the middle of the pack, she could see both the danger in front and behind her. Atop the bench of the wagon, the smooth, monster-free sand was in front of her, but not close enough. Her arrows would run out before she would be able to make it to the safety of the far dunes.
The Empress was releasing arrows at a blinding speed. Barely one was out of her hand before another replaced as she aimed again. None of the fighters needed to worry about being hit by a mistimed release. Aurora's shots were flawless.
After returning from the far north, the Empress had redoubled her efforts at archery. In the end, it was Mairwen's impeccable aim that had saved her mother from the Taran's claw, and Aurora needed a way to release all the anxiety of what might have been.
There was a comfort in the predictable nature of the feathery fletching between her fingers. The repetitive action had been a type of therapy between the grueling trials. It had given her an outlet in ways that words never could. And now it had given her an extra edge against this unpredictable enemy.
The number of wolves below the surface was unknown, but based on how many paws were shooting out of the ground at the humans, it must have been close to a hundred or more. She had no idea that many sand wolves even existed, no less why they were flocked together to lay ambush to the caravan.
None of it made sense.
Having finally run out of arrows, the Empress climbed onto the tall canvas covering of the wagon to get a better view. The thick fabric held her slender frame as she crawled to find the first wooden rib of the roof for her to stand. The group was in very bad shape.
Ahead, two wagons seemed to be limping along, with the others having to go around them to keep from losing progress. There was a noticeable gap before the wagon in front of her where the large wooden cart had vanished. Behind them, one of the wagons was nearly completely pulled beneath the sand, and the very back one seemed to be disabled as well.
Aurora's heart sank. Brinn, Alvar, Metehan, Gandr and Reyan had been in the back wagon. While she was pretty sure they would survive this mess, the thought of losing so many of Metehan's possessions upset her. She would have to worry about it later.
There were far more important things than stuff. The people needed to get out and away from the overwhelming force of the wolves. She wished desperately that she had more arrows.
"Looking for these?" Out of nowhere, Reyan threw Aurora a new quiver. He must have been able to retrieve it from the wagon before it went down.
"Thank you." The Empress did not need to be told twice. She looked at the sinking wagon and gasped. "Devrim!"
"I'm on it!" The fairy flew away from Aurora without another word. He took the child which the Emperor was protecting and lifted him from the ground.
After shooting another two arrows off at the pale pink arms threatening to rip her wagon apart, the fiery-haired woman looked to make sure Reyan had gotten the child to safety. Instead of relief, Aurora felt nothing but dread.
The child was being safely flown out of harm's way, but Devrim...
He had no defense from the gargantuan paw that broke the surface and scraped at the sand. Aurora shot off an arrow to ward off the beast, but it was too little, too late. She watched in horror as her husband dipped below the surface of the sand...
...and was gone.
------------
Devrim suddenly lost all semblance of up and down as the sand surged around him like waves of the ocean. It was an oddly familiar sensation, like when the giant wave had swept him from Polymede's boat all those years ago.
Only instead of a mountain of water pressing down on him, it was the tremendous force of a canine paw.
Devrim held his breath. He was pretty sure that taking in sand would be the same as taking in water. He needed to find a pocket of air to breathe before he passed out. There was also a bigger problem.
Although he could not see much in the darkness, he could feel the paw pulling him downward quickly into a more open space. Something white gleamed. No...many somethings.
'Teeth!' The gaping maw of the sand wolf was spread wide to receive the soft morsel that was the Emperor. And there was nothing Devrim could do to stop the downward descent. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion and yet faster than light all at the same time.
Devrim pressed his body up into the recesses between the wolf's gargantuan pads. Like a dog's paw, the crevices were meant to absorb shock and protect the creature from harm, but they were also a perfect place to hide.
The sand wolf was so massive that Devrim neatly slipped inside the moving valley. Finding a pocket of air inside the trench, the Emperor gasped, filling his lugs with life. He had found a momentary respite, but it would not last long. Already the paw was flexing, trying to press the soft human out like a banana from its peel.
When that did not work, it began to move rapidly through the sand. The mighty paw shook and flexed, trying to remove the human splinter. But Devrim did not budge.
The grains raked against his skin as they flew by, but somehow he was able to maintain the uncomfortable position safe from the moster's maw.
Or so he thought.
The swing of the paw suddenly altered, reversing direction. Instead of the sand being pulled past Devrim, it was now being pushed into every pore of his skin with tremendous force.
The Emperor could feel his skin split as thousands upon thousands of tiny grains ripped across his body. Each by itself was irritating, but as a mass, it felt like daggers were tearing at him from all sides.
Devrim wanted to scream, but the air pocket he had found had dwindled to nothing, and he was forced to hold his breath once more.
He needed to do something, anything, to disrupt the sand wolf and give him a fighting chance. Sand stopped passing by him as he came back into an open space. That could only mean he was nearing the creature's mouth.
Devrim squinted against the almost non-existent light. The wolf's mouth was open: ready to gnaw at the paw until the offending object--the Emperor-- was removed.
There was no time to think, just act. And Devrim did the only thing that made any sense. If there was any sense to be found in the action he made.
The Emperor pushed away from the paw and went for the wolf's nose. The creature was so big that Devrim was able to climb into the nasal cavity. Unlike the bulk of the wolf's body, the inside of the wolf's nose had one very precious commodity: hair.
Grabbing onto a follicle for dear life, Devrim pulled himself out of the dreadful tide of sand. There were miraculously no grains in the wolf's passages except the one's on Devrim's own body, and the Emperor happily gasped what air he could.
The place was filled with wetness, but Devrim chose to ignore the slick ground as he wedged himself like a stone between the two opposing walls.
Then, he pulled.
The hair, though stubborn, came free. Like a mouse feeling a hole, the wolf surged upwards into the open daylight.
He sneezed and roared, determined to thrust the offending human from his body. Devrim flew out in a pile of snot. He tried to stand and failed, unable to get any traction with all of the mucus surrounding him. In the blazing sun, the Emperor struggled to open his eyes.
One way or another, he was about to die.
Except he didn't.
Instead a guttural growl and an earth shifting crash graced Devrim's ears.
Then a voice broke through his consciousness. "You are the strangest looking booger I've ever seen!"
At last, Devrim was able to focus and see Brinn's relieved face.
"What happened?" he asked the elf. He looked over to the still form of a pink, fleshy giant that resembled a wolf.
"You just helped kill their leader, and the rest retreated." Brinn looked at the horizon. It was hazy. "I think the coming sandstorm may have caused them to skedaddle."
Devrim didn't care what had caused them to leave. He was exhausted, covered in mucus and mostly naked.
"Let's get you some clothes, snot-man," Brinn said gently. "I would hate for anyone to get ideas. And I imagine mucus and sand are not a pleasant combination..."
Devrim soon found out...she was right.
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