Page 36 of Sohut's Protection

He could hear the bushes rustling far ahead of him as the creature tried to put distance between them but he didn’t need to hear the she-animal to be able to track her.

He’d caught on to her scent now, locked on to it, and following her across the jungle would be easy.

Hopping easily over fallen trees and huge roots, he gave chase and it brought back a memory.

One of him and his brother running after they’d escaped the mines. The wind had been in their faces, freedom in front of them…and terror behind them.

Only this time, he was the terror and the creature running in front of him was the one dashing away to freedom.

Deep within him, adrenaline pumped in his veins, pushing him forward and it didn’t take him long to notice the animal wasn’t running in a straight line.

Instead of darting straight forward through the undergrowth, the creature shifted direction every now and then as if trying to lose or confuse him.

He’d been right about it being intelligent.

Eyes ahead of him, he entered a particularly sparse section of the undergrowth and that’s when he caught sight of the creature for the first time.

His vision wasn’t the best in the dark, but still he could see better than most and what he saw almost made him stumble.

The creature looked nothing like he thought it would and, for a second, he contemplated whether he was tracking the wrong thing.

He’d have thought so if the creature running in front of him wasn’t obviously a non-native species to this jungle.

It was obviously the alien creature he’d been sent to find—only, it wasn’t at the same time.

The animal in front of him was…bipedal.

Confusion mixed in with the thrill of the chase as he surged forward.

Ducking under hanging branches and thick vines, Sohut closed the distance between him and the creature, reaching out as soon as he was within arm’s reach to grab hold of the animal.

For a moment, he didn’t know what part of the creature he’d caught hold of but his confusion was only compounded when the creature let out the most feminine of sounds as they both went tumbling into the bushes.

It was a high-pitched shriek that had his ears ringing and the animals around them running back to their dens.

He didn’t know what he’d expected when they tumbled into the bushes, but the first kick caught him right in the midsection.

The animal was screeching and bucking, trying to wring itself from his grasp and the second kick landed squarely in his gonads.

Phekking draxx…

He released the thing momentarily as pain surged in his groin and the creature tried to scramble away.

Grabbing what he supposed was one of the creature’s legs, he pulled the animal back toward him.

More struggling ensued as the other leg kicked back, trying to find a mark.

It was like trying to keep a chid in a tantrum steady.

As he launched himself on top of the bucking creature, just so he could hold it steady, he felt another pain, this time in his arm. But that sharp pain was quickly dismissed as more prominent thoughts forced forward in his mind.

Holding the creature steady enough so he could look at it, shock rendered him motionless.

This was no animal.

Despite the darkness that surrounded them, he could see enough to tell that this…this creature wasn’t what he’d thought it was at all.

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