Broken Wings

Reunion

My mind raced to take in and make sense of my new surroundings. Thick tree trunks with wide, clear spaces and several dome-shaped tents between them. Fifteen or more faces I could see at a glance, all either pale and freakishly thin or green-brown and brutish, all staring at me with varying levels of surprise and hostility. And a sudden onslaught of hundreds of voices, all talking at the same time and merging into a dull, incomprehensible cacophony. Then, as a pained shout of "Seize him!" pierced the din, my precious half-second of observation ended.

The green-skins rushed toward me! They fanned out without words to surround the raised platform I found myself standing on. I drew my knife and sucked in a breath. None of the attackers had weapons or any glow coming from their eyes that I could see. They were all built like linebackers, however. They also outnumbered me umpteen to one. I waited just long enough to be sure they were in range. Then I stepped toward them and shouted all of my terror and outrage into a spray of fire!

My venom covered and stuck to the closest three like napalm, I spun away from the hellish sight of panicked, screaming people engulfed in bright, hungry flames to dash into the surrounding forest. I hoped the chaos I'd just caused would buy me enough time to escape. Instead, I made it maybe three steps after jumping off the platform before a huge blow from behind knocked me face first into the dirt! Before I could scramble back to my feet or roll over, a sharp heavy weight, probably someone's knee, planted itself in the small of my back, and an arm wrapped around my throat to squeeze it shut!

Blood roared in my ears, and my vision constricted to a blurred pinhole as I gagged and choked! I panicked for a few seconds and almost stabbed myself clawing for a grip on the slick, slippery limb. Then I wised up and plunged the knife I still held deep into the muscular biceps pressed against the left side of my neck. A howl sounded in my ear, which I answered with a gurgling shout of my own as the keen blade pierced clean through my assailant's flesh and dug into my own collar bone. The arm yanked away, nearly snatching my knife out of my weakened grip as the saw-teeth on the back side tore against the edge of the wound. My vision returned, tinted red by the surge of blood that had piled up behind the choke-hold. Right before me was another swath of burning venom I must have sprayed without noticing. I flinched away from my horrific flames and struggled back to my feet, coughing at the stench of burning hair and meat that filled my nostrils when I tried to breathe through my abused throat.

"Get a suppressor on him, NOW!!" That now familiar gravelly voice shouted over the sea of overlapping conversation that hadn't stopped for a moment since manifesting. I braced to start running again, only to catch myself as I saw more green-skinned people appearing through the trees in every direction. Glancing around, I realized I'd made a mistake! I wasn't on the edge of an encampment. I was right in the middle of one! There wasn't anywhere to run!

"Take me back!" I demanded, turning to face Skor as he backed into the ring of his brethren that had closed around me. Some of them had weapons now, a mix of machetes and spears with long blades. These were leveled at me as I turned their way, but I hardly noticed that over my shock at the state Skor was in.

He was covered in blood, and most wasn't from the knife wound I'd just given him! He was squeezing a gushing stump where his left hand had been neatly sliced off, and blood was also pouring down his side from the mangled lump that used to be his right ear. What the hell?! That damned sure wasn't me! A quick glance around at the thickening ring of bodies and growing number of blades and arrows aimed at me banished my extraneous curiosity.

"You send me back right fucking now, or I swear I will burn every last one of you down to cinders!!" I shouted, hiding my fear as I tried to bluff my way out of this mess.

Skor smiled or at least bared his teeth at me, I couldn't be sure which. "Go ahead and do it, human, or whatever you really are. It won't change anything. You're beaten and you know it."