"COAL!"
Giant fifty foot wings throw my world into shadow, blocking out the pale and heatless sun. I roll out of the way as they beat the air, the booming, sudden gust of wind knocking me backwards even further.
Slowly, the enormous creature rises into the air- With Coal.
Distantly, I can make out the tiny, dark speck that is Coal, who, hand over hand, is climbing up the side of the Beast, despite it's constant writhing and struggling, like there's a fly on it's back.
I scream his name again- Not that he can hear me. Then the Beast's wings rise again, blocking him from view. When they come back down again, Coal is gone.
"COAL!" I shriek again, heart pounding so fast it's painful. And now the other Beasts are awakening. And now-
"Yeaahhhhhhhhh!!!"
My god. He really has lost it.
I'm knocked on my butt as the great Beast swoops down past me, the sudden shock wave from it's huge wings forcing me to the ground. And there's Coal, cheering and whooping from it's back, one hand grasped around the terrifying tips of either of the two horns that jut from behind the creature's ears.
"Oh, Coal..." I breath in regretful awe. Now he's pushing all his weight to the left, forcing the creature's nose to the right. It fights back, straining it's head the other way, cords and muscles bulging under the soft white fur, but the pressure on it's long, spiraling horns is too much, and, albeit reluctantly, it eventually, turns it's nose, sweeping the ground with the tips of it's wing on the steep spiral, and, awestruck, I turn in a slow circle watching the sight.
For a split second, our eyes meet, his blue to my grey. He's smiling, overjoyed with happiness, just for this moment. He knows that his riding a giant killer animal do nothing to solve any of our problems, he knows we're both still going to die, sooner, probably, now, because he's infuriated the entire pack. But right now, does that really matter? Because when he looks down at me, his eyes are light and warm... Stone's eyes...
Turning to watch, a smile breaking across my face, more blood filling my mouth when my lips crack painfully, and the smile is wiped right off my face when Coal drives the flying creature into another that's leaping upwards at it. They collide with a sickening, crunching impact.
I scream, but you can't hear the sound over the collective, suddenly rising growling, snarling, and roaring from the awakening monsters.
YOU ARE READING
71
Science FictionThe world ended a long time ago. Some humans survived. But in order to do so, the original Survivors enhanced themselves with animal DNA, adopting traits that allowed them to live in this mutated wilderness of giant Beasts and vast, unexplored swath...
