Aiyana Redfeather's Arc

Chapter 6 of 6

The tribe reached the stone hills at dusk. Aiyana stood before the arched cavern mouth carved deep into the cliff. Inside waited the beasts that held his home. He knew the forest trick would fail here. Against gray rock the creatures turned invisible. He could not lure one into open ground and see it come. He stared into the black opening and had no plan. Kaya crouched beside him, spear across her knees. She had scouted this place with him before. "We can't wait them out," she said. "They hunt in there. We need to pull one into the light, where its skin can't lie to us." "Bait won't work," Aiyana said. "Dead meat sits still. They ignore it in their own den. It has to move." Then Aiyana thought of his tamed hunter. He had raised the young rex from a hatchling. Its own hide broke into brown and green patches, made for leaves, not stone. In the cavern it would show clear against the rock. But it was fast, loud, and alive. A living thing the beasts could not resist chasing. He whistled. The rex crashed through the ferns and lowered its head to his hand. "You'll get it killed," Kaya said. "It's faster than they are," Aiyana said. "It runs in, stirs them, runs out. They follow. We wait at the mouth." They rigged a snare of vine and heavy stone above the arch. Then Aiyana led the rex to the cavern mouth and slapped its flank. It bolted into the dark. Roars boomed off the walls. Aiyana heard claws scrape rock. He counted his breaths and gripped the drilling spear. The rex burst back into the fading light, jaws snapping over its shoulder. Behind it a shape moved, gray on gray, betrayed only by the dust it kicked. It cleared the arch. For one heartbeat the beast stood on open dirt, its stone color useless against the brown earth. Kaya cut the snare vine. The stone dropped and pinned its haunch. The beast screamed and twisted. Aiyana drove the cone-tipped spear under its jaw. Kaya rammed hers into its ribs. It thrashed, then sagged, then died. Aiyana pulled his spear free and breathed hard. The rex nosed his shoulder, unhurt. One beast lay dead in the open. He had proved it could be done. Then he looked past the body into the cavern. More shapes shifted in the dark. He could bait them out one at a time, but each try woke the rest. The next would not come chasing. They would learn. "They saw how their brother died," Kaya said quietly. "They won't take the same trap twice." Aiyana nodded. He had opened the door to his home. But the beasts inside now knew his face. The next fight would be on their terms, deep in the stone, where his rex could not follow.