Avondale V by Toby Neighbors Page A

leaned forward. She felt a surge of strength flowing up from her feet, as if she were a mighty oak tree facing a winter storm, not a woman with a spear facing a charging beast that was twice her size.
    Even though the creature was bounding toward her at incredible speed, Olyva could see the muscles flexing and contracting beneath the beast’s dull coat of fur. A deep growl erupted from its throat and rose to a high-pitched crescendo, but Olyva didn’t move. She kept the spear held straight in front of her, her own muscles tensed and ready to thrust her weapon into the beast’s heart, but at the last minute, the creature veered away.
    It raced past, just out of reach of Olyva’s spear. One massive paw came swinging toward them, the curved claws raking nothing but air. It slid on the loose, rocky soil as it tried to stop and turn back. The creature was fast, but its footing was uncertain, and Olyva had more than enough time to turn downhill. Desyra wasn’t as fast. She scrambled around behind her older sister, and Olyva saw the beast’s eyes watching Desyra hungrily. She got the impression that the animal wasn’t interested in her—it wanted Desyra. Olyva didn’t know if that was because Desyra was smaller and weaker or if it was because of the change the Hosscum trees had done to her. But above all else she knew she would die before she let anything happen to her baby sister.
    “You can’t have her,” Olyva said, brandishing the spear. “There is nothing here but death.”
    The animal screeched again, baring its fangs and swiping at the air with its massive, claw-lined paw. Olyva twirled the spear over her head and then brought the point down in a speeding slash that made the weapon whistle through the air.
    The animal’s hind legs gathered beneath its belly, and Olyva knew instinctively that it was going to charge her again. She let one leg slide forward a single pace, then her toes once again burrowed into the ground. The spear rose to shoulder-level, and Olyva held it lightly in one hand. She had seen Rafe throw his spear, and she did her best to mimic him. She let the weapon balance in her palm, while her other arm pointed straight out in front of her. The spear moved back slowly; the metal point balanced so well it didn’t waver or sway.
    “Run,” Olyva whispered to her younger sister.
    “What?” Desyra asked, her voice a raw croak.
    “Run!”
    Desyra turned and scrambled up the hill. The animal saw her go and jumped forward at the same instant. It was no longer charging toward Olyva but angled slightly so that it could race past her and run down the little girl. Olyva knew she was taking a horrible chance. If her cast missed or if the spear didn’t kill the beast, it might reach her sister and devour her before Olyva could stop it.
    She tracked the bounding creature with her spear, waiting an agonizing moment that seemed to stretch out in a long, dreadful eternity. Then she threw the spear. The animal was barely more than a spear’s length away, and its body was stretched out before Olyva, its front paws reaching out and its rear legs propelling it up the mountain. The spear slammed hard into the animal’s side. Her throw wasn’t perfect. She had been aiming to hit the beast just behind its front shoulder, hoping to drive the spear’s steel tip deep into its chest. But the animal was moving so fast that the spear sank into the beast’s soft belly instead, just below the thick rib cage. The spear tore through the flesh and organs, causing the animal to collapse. The rear legs twitched but couldn’t hold the animal up.
    The roar of pain and fury was terrible to hear, and it was so loud that Olyva had to cover her ears with her hands. Blood was pouring into the ground from the wound. The heavy spear was wagging as the animal tried to find an escape. Olyva could see the red fibers of severed muscles and the bloody bulge of intestines being pushed out by the animal’s efforts.
    She approached the