Axel Barkwood's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Axel found the wounded dog-horse in a clearing of black stumps. Its brown flank heaved. One hind leg sat clamped in a hunter's iron trap, and blood matted the white fur below. The beast smelled him and screamed. It thrashed, and the trap chain rang against a root. Axel dropped to a crouch and kept his hands open. Skyler hovered at his shoulder, wings buzzing. "Get behind me," Axel said. "Land, and stay back." Skyler dropped to the ash but did not move away. "I want to help. I found it first." "You'll spook it. When it kicks, that trap chain will break your legs." Axel pointed at a fallen trunk twenty paces off. "Wait there." "No." Skyler crossed his thin arms. "I'm staying by you." Axel had no time to argue and no safe place to put the boy. Every second cost the beast blood. He needed both hands on the trap and his eyes on the animal, not on a child underfoot. Then the light changed. A shape stepped from the dead trees at the clearing's edge. It walked on two thin legs, tall as a man, its dark body marked with lines that glowed pink and blue. Its head was a smooth skull, and it grinned a wide row of white teeth beneath two enormous black eyes. The eyes did not blink. Its long claws hung ready. Skyler grabbed Axel's arm. "What is that?" Axel had never seen such a thing. It smiled, but it moved toward the wounded beast like a hunter. He understood at once. It wanted the trapped animal too weak to fight. "Skyler," Axel said, low and fast. "Now you can help. Fly high. Get its eyes off the ground. Circle it. Don't let it touch you." The boy's fear turned bright and sharp. He shot upward. The grinning thing's head snapped back, tracking the small dark shape against the sky. It hissed and swiped at the air, drawn away from the beast, step by step. Axel moved. He knelt at the trap and pried the iron jaws with both hands. The metal bit his palms. The dog-horse kicked, and a hoof grazed his shoulder, but Axel held. The jaws opened. The wounded leg slid free. The beast rolled, staggered up, and stood swaying on three good legs. It did not run. It stared at Axel, and Axel stared back, close enough now to picture every part of it. Above them, the grinning creature gave up on the darting boy. It turned back toward the clearing. But the beast was loose now, and it was not weak. It lowered its head and charged the intruder. The grinning thing shrieked and fled into the black trees. Skyler dropped down, breathless and proud. "I helped." "You did," Axel said. He looked at the freed beast, then at the tree line where the smiling hunter had vanished. He had saved the animal. But he had not driven that thing off for good, and it now knew exactly where his prize was.