Boltanis's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The scaled predator circled closer. Boltanis stayed on his knees, arms dead, breath ragged. He watched the pale cords on its neck taste the air. It knew he was helpless. He thought he could stare it down. He was wrong about this place. He did not hear the second creature. It came from behind, low and fast, scales black as oil. It hit the circling predator from the side. The two tangled in a snarl of claws and whipping cords. Boltanis caught one clear look at the newcomer. It was built like a hunting drake, lean and armored, with fine tendrils that curled from its spine like living wire. It fought with its whole body, precise, almost loyal in its fury. The circling predator broke off. It fled toward the broken husk and vanished into the dark. The drake did not chase. It turned and faced Boltanis instead. He had no power left. His vision swam. The warm, heavy weight in his chest told him there was ability inside this creature to take. He reached for his draining the way he reached for breath. Nothing answered. The last of his strength was gone. The drake lowered its head and sniffed him. The tendrils brushed his shoulder, his face, his hands. Boltanis flinched but could not pull away. He waited for the teeth. They never touched him. The creature huffed warm air against his neck. Then the shelf tilted, the sky went gray, and Boltanis fell into the mud. He blacked out with the drake's shadow over him. He woke to shade and the smell of damp wood. Above him curved the inside wall of a giant shell, ribbed and hollow, like the heart of an enormous nut. Roots laced the floor. Small holes in the shell let in pale light. Someone, or something, had dragged him here out of the open. Boltanis sat up slow. His arms worked again. His legs held. The drake lay across the doorway, watching him with steady eyes. It did not rise. It did not threaten. It had carried him to shelter and stayed to guard the way out. "You pulled me in here," Boltanis said. His voice cracked. He touched his chest. The weakness had drained away while he slept, as it always did, given time. He understood the lesson now. Strength alone had nearly killed him. He had spent every scrap breaking monsters and knew nothing of how this planet hunted, rested, or chose its allies. He had survived not because he was strong. He had survived because this creature chose to save him. Boltanis held out one open hand. The drake's tendrils lifted, tasted the air, and settled. It did not back away. "All right," he said. "Teach me, then." He was alive. He was not alone. And for the first time, the power inside him was not the only thing keeping him breathing.