Page 55 of I Married A Catman

Why the fuck didn’t he warn me?

No one would have set up this trap without his knowledge. If not for listening to my instincts and seeking out the source of this odd smell, I never would have known its presence. If chased by a Sikkal, I would have run straight for this tree and fallen into what appeared to be a simple pit. Without seeing its actual depth, I couldn’t say for sure how much damage I would have sustained. In the best-case scenario, I would have been stunned or maybe broken a limb. But the most likely outcome would have been for me to be stuck with no way out while the creature devoured me.

A seething anger burned deep within me as I began exploring the area, searching for more traps. A short distance away, the same subtle scent tickled my nose, leading me to a second, and then a third trap. The former was clearly a net trap, whereas the latter was a spiked pit. Thatgrovasdenied me a blaster for fear the creature’s fur would be damaged but then elected to hold the battle near spiked pits?

That scent clearly was some sort of pheromone meant to draw the beasts towards the traps. We used similar techniques in the past, but this specific scent was new. The question was whether it became their new standard during my absence, or if Moriak deliberately changed it to something he knew I would likely not pick up or pay any attention to.

The sound of incoming creatures cut my investigating short. One moment, I heard the muffled sound of some stampeding beasts. The next, a massive male shot out from the tree line and came charging straight at me. In the distance behind it, my three companions were running to catch up.

Judging by the span of the Sikkal’s four, heavy, recurved horns, it was a fully mature male. Big, angry eyes stared at me from its long face. Three additional horns lined each side of its face, from the temple to the corners of its mouth, which appeared deceptively small. It tilted its head and aimed the bone ridges lining its long forehead at me as it surged forward. The damn things acted like a battering ram. A direct blow at full force would shatter every bone in my body.

I bolted towards the tree with the net trap, pursued by the thundering sound of the beast giving chase. With its huge torso and massive front legs, each step sounded like a giant hammer bashing an anvil. Despite their imposing size, Sikkals moved at dizzying speed. Although extremely fast myself, I could hear it gaining on me. Without slowing down, I jumped over and onto the tree behind it and used my claws to latch onto the bark before scrambling onto a branch.

A second later, the startled and angry scream of the creature filled the clearing as the trap closed around it. The rope immediately yanked up the net, dangling the caged beast from one of the limbs. The ancient tree shook, rattled by the sudden addition of such tremendous weight on a single branch, thick though it was.

The creature thrashed savagely, aided largely by the fact that the net was too small to properly contain it. Even as it dangled upside down, it tried to stab me with the sharp horn-like spike at the tip of its tail. I barely managed to jump onto a different branch to avoid getting impaled. Without pause, I immediately tried to spear the creature, but the branch broke right as myweapon would have made contact. The Sikkal plummeted a short distance to the ground and fell into the pit below. It was too small for the beast’s considerable size, but it still got partially stuck.

To my utter shock, instead of closing in to finish it off, my companions just stood there at a safe distance, observing the scene.

With the claws of my left hand digging into the bark of the lowest branch, and the claws of my left paw sinking into the trunk for support, I leaned over the scrambling beast and stabbed my spear at it. The wretched thing turned just at the right moment to cheat me from giving it a fatal blow. The blade of my weapon found its mark in its flank instead. The Sikkal screeched and blindly swiped its tail at me. I narrowly escaped getting lacerated to oblivion by the sharp bone spikes, which lined its upper side by yanking myself back onto the branch.

I cussed under my breath when that movement appeared to give the creature the jolt required to get it unstuck. It shot out of the pit, stabbing the tip of its tail at me even as it began to ram its forehead against the tree to break it. The creature would then violently swipe it from side to side so its huge, recurved horns would further jolt the tree. Despite its thickness, my refuge would eventually break from the repeated assault. But the tail’s attacks forced me to move to weaker branches, which shook too much under each impact.

Running the length of the branch I was currently standing on, I leapt onto the next tree. Before I landed, the angry scream of another beast resonated behind us. A smaller Sikkal came rushing into the clearing. As one, Moriak, Latsa, and Olmar shifted their attention to the calf, leaving me to deal with the mature male on my own.

I cussed again as my stalker charged the new tree I was in. Waiting until the last minute, I jumped down as soon as thebeast rammed it. Legs and arms pumping, I ran towards the third trap, praying that the spiked pit would be wide enough to engulf the Sikkal. If not, I would be in serious trouble as it was located at the foot of the rock formation that sealed off the clearing. Heart pounding, I could almost feel its breath on my nape as it gave chase.

For one horrible moment, I feared I wouldn’t make it. One meter from where I believed the pit to begin, I leapt towards the stone wall. I hissed at the sudden burn in the back of my calf as three vicious claws swiped at it. Had I been half a second slower, it could have done serious damage and severed both muscles and tendons.

Mid-air, I threw my legs forward, as one would do to perform a long jump. The startled scream of the Sikkal resonated at my back followed by a loud ruckus as it fell into the pit. As soon as my paws touched the wall, I bent my knees to absorb part of the impact before pushing back with all my might. I backflipped, landing just behind the creature. Once again, the pit was too small, but a few spikes still managed to pierce through the front left leg and shoulder.

Without missing a beat, I dashed forward and jabbed my spear at its back. I missed the spine by barely a couple of centimeters. It swiped its tail at me, and the sharp points of the bones lining it rushed straight at my face. I dropped to the ground, and the underside of its tail grazed the top of my mane.

Before I could fully recover, the beast spun around, almost tearing its front leg off on the spikes. Maw open impossibly wide—belying how small it looked when closed—the creature lunged at me to bite my face off. On instinct, I thrust my spear into its gaping mouth, jamming it through its throat and into its brain. The Sikkal emitted a sharp, gurgling sound, almost stunned, its entire body stiffening for a brief second before it shook with a series of dying spasms.

Only then did the quickly approaching galloping sound register in my brain. My blood turned to ice when I glanced over my shoulder to see the calf, only a few meters away, charging me. I yanked my spear out of the defeated Sikkal and jumped on top of its carcass a split second before the younger one rammed into it, sending both of us crashing against the stone face of the mountain.

My teeth rattled in my head, but I pushed past it, jumped onto the ground, and ran. Behind me, the calf had resumed its pursuit. Although younger, the beast still stood close to five foot high and over six foot long, with a weight of no less than three hundred pounds. The mature male I’d slain had been a third bigger.

Being smaller and lighter, that calf was also a lot faster. But I had nowhere to take refuge in. He was pushing me towards the barren side of the clearing, away from the trees, and directly alongside the impassable stone wall.

He was trapping me the same way we’d intended to trap them.

Searing rage flooded through me at the total absence of intervention from my companions. Where the fuck was that stun gun Moriak had brought? Why weren’t they running interference or taking shots while it was focused on me?

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on this.

As I would never outrun the Sikkal like this, and with it only a couple of meters behind me—and quickly gaining—I leapt with all my strength, nearly ten feet high, and twenty feet forward in the direction of the rockface. For half a beat, I feared I might have miscalculated the distance, but thankfully, my paws hit the wall, and I kicked off of it again. Twisting mid-air, I stuck my spear between my teeth, and landed a few meters away, first on my hands, then on my feet to help dampen the impact.

I immediately pushed off the ground, using my front and back claws to propel me farther as I ran on all fours. I didn’t like running that way, but it doubled my speed as I raced alongside the mountain cliff. If I could make it back to the first trap that hadn’t been set off yet, it would give me the break I needed to finish off that damn creature.

Just as that thought sparked in my mind, the now familiar musky scent wafted to me. In my frantic escape, I nearly missed it. It was close. Too damn close. But I couldn’t see any of the barely visible markers delineating it. In desperation, I jumped at the wall, kicked off of it at a ninety-degree angle, away from the trap ahead, and pivoted to face the incoming beast.

My heart skipped a beat to find it right there, already on me. I barely had time to yank my spear from between my teeth and raise it in front of me to counter the swipe of its massive, clawed hoof. The staff snapped in half under the force of the blow, provoking a painful shockwave through my arms, and sending me crashing onto the ground.

Although I contorted my body to land on all fours, the much too short distance didn’t allow me to properly absorb the shock. The impact had pain radiating up my arms and legs, and my limbs nearly buckled under me.

But I had no time for pain.

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