Page 78 of Warrior of the Wild
“You can do this,” Soren says. “We’re not leaving you to do this alone.”
Iric rubs his arms before dropping them. “Fine. One throw.”
“Each,” I say. “One throw each. Then we can discuss our next move.”
Iric agrees, and he leads us up the small cliff face. We each carry our own spear, the length of rope attached to it coiled around oneof our shoulders. We come to a stop in a line along the edge, and we carefully place our ropes behind us, so that when we cast our throws, they will unspool without trouble.
“Let’s do this,” Soren says, the prospect of a battle exciting him.
I nod. “For Iric.”
“For Aros,” Iric says quietly to himself. “For Mother and Father. Forus.”
Iric begins pulling the sheets of armor from his clothing, and Soren and I follow his lead. It feels so wrong to go into battle without armor, but I know it is a necessity. Should we fall into the water, we can’t be burdened down, and armor will not stop the hyggja should anything go wrong, anyway. Though I can’t help but wonder which death would be less painful, drowning or being eaten by the hyggja?
Would it bite a person in half? Or would death be more slow and painful? Perhaps I should not indulge in such thoughts.
From up here, I can see the hyggja. The skin of its back skims the top of the water, and the rest of its outline is easily discernible below the surface. Its eyes are located at the top of its head, and I swear I see them watching us.
As soon as we approach the edge, the water beast swims toward us, moving in circles below the rise.
Definitely watching us.
Iric holds his spear at the ready. He sizes up the beast. “The water plays with the eye. You’ll want to throw just ahead of where it looks like the hyggja is.”
“How do you know that?” I ask.
“Aros,” he says, and he throws.
The spear moves too quickly to track it, but I know it hitshome because it halts when it’s halfway submerged in the water, and a gurgling growl, unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, surges upward. It’s the kind of sound that instinctively makes me want to run.
“I hit it!” Iric gets his hands on the rope at his feet. He holds tight as the hyggja starts swimming in a mad jumble below us. Red turns up with the bubbles. “Hurry! Someone else cast!”
I take aim and throw, but the hyggja is moving too disjointedly. My throw misses by a foot, and I hurry to reel my spear back in.
In the next instant, Iric’s spear dislodges from his quarry, the hyggja’s pulling finally freeing it from the weapon. “Damn!” Iric says as he pulls his rope end over end to go for another throw. A small chunk of flesh comes up with the spear’s tip.
I gag again.
“Soren, throw before it swims off!” Iric bellows. He rearranges the rope at his feet so it will unravel easily with his next throw. It somehow managed to get mixed in with my spear’s rope as the two of us reeled them in. We scramble to separate them. Meanwhile, Soren pulls back his hand to his ear and launches his spear forward.
Soren whoops. “Got it!” he says over the top of another deep growl from the beast. Soren’s hands go to the rope near his feet.
“Good!” Iric says. “Whatever you do, don’t let go. We’ve almost got this sorted out.” Iric and I finally have our ropes separated, but we have to wind them carefully on the ground so they will unravel with our throws.
“It’s trying to swim away,” Soren says with a grunt. He takes a couple steps forward to keep his hold on the beast.
“Let it go,” I say.
“Donotlet go!” Iric says.
“Soren, drop it now!” I shout.
“It’s too strong!” Soren says.
“Don’t you dare let go of that rope!” Iric yells.
“Shit.”
