Page 33 of Trapped By Claws
Nausea roiled within me. I closed my eyes. "Run, Tagger…" I tried to click my tongue at him in case he knew that signal as well.
Tagger jumped onto my chest.
"Ah!" I lost my breath.
Tagger snarled, fluffing up his fur and raising his hackles. He let loose a piercing series of screeches as if cursing the crab and all its spawn.
That high-pitched shriek turned into a roar.
I blinked, trying to lift my head.
What?
"Get away from her!"
A blur of black, green, and yellow leapt over me, the voice booming and echoing off the cavern walls.
Corvin.
He crouched over me and Tagger, snarling at the giant crab. Somehow he seemed even larger now.
The crab swung its claw down again.
Corvin lunged up.
My eyelids dropped.
Heavy rocks crashed. Something snapped.
I struggled to look up again. He'd become an eel, massive and striped, with vicious jaws. And he was fighting on land? The crab caught him with one claw.
He seized the claw and twisted his head to the side. The claw snapped off with a sickeningcrack.
My eyelids slid shut again. Heavy cracks and blows followed. Tagger's rageful shrieks pierced the air, but they wavered in and out of my consciousness.
The pain in my side grew worse.
My legs. I couldn't move my legs.
Panic rose within me as I struggled for awareness.
Heat spread along my left side, wet and smelling sickly sweet and metallic.
I was going to bleed out soon. But what difference did that make if my legs or back were broken?
Another roar echoed through the passage. Something fell with a sickening crunch.
A hand suddenly grabbed at my face, claws scraping against my cheek. "Don't let go, Mena. Come on. Open your eyes."
I struggled to comply. His face blurred before coming into focus. My lungs weren't filling well.
"Oh…" His face paled more. He lowered my head to the cave floor. "Just—just breathe. It's going to be all right."
Tagger hopped up on the crab's corpse and started striking it with a rock.
"Get down from there," Corvin scolded, glaring at Tagger. "You can eat your fill later. Mena's hurt."
Tagger chucked the rock at Corvin but scurried down. He scrambled up onto my chest again.
