In Enemy Territory - Shannon West Page 0,89
any moment for a swipe that would no doubt kill him, he rolled slowly and gently even farther away. He got into a crouch and began moving faster, and when he’d made it about twenty feet away from the beast, he got up the nerve to look back over his shoulder at Kylon, and his heart almost stopped. The tiger was awake and staring at him, his golden eyes never moving and a low, growling rumble beginning in its chest.
His nerve breaking, Rasc jumped to his feet and ran as he’d never run before in his life. He could hear the beast getting to its feet behind him. Only steps away from a tall tree, he pulled and shoved at the boy to get up, almost gibbering at him in terror. The boy leaped onto the trunk and began to climb, and Rasc was right behind him, hearing the tiger below them, snarling and clawing the tree in rage. They both climbed as if their lives depended on it—which they no doubt did—both of them getting higher in the tree than Rasc thought possible. He was a city boy and had never climbed trees as a kid. It was amazing how much abject fear and panic could help you when you least expected it. The tiger suddenly roared and began to climb toward him when the sound of voices coming closer made the animal turn and snarl his fury. He jumped down and took off into the jungle, disappearing from sight among the bushes in only seconds.
Rasc froze where he was because though one danger was gone for now, another one was coming. He signaled to the boy to be quiet and he nodded solemnly. Through the trees below, he could see the general and his men, their eyes on the ground as they tracked through the jungle. Before long they came into his clearing, the general in trousers and a dark shirt now and no longer wearing his gray robe. He made his way along with his eyes fixed in utmost concentration on the ground before him. He paused, almost beneath the tree, dropped to his knees, and studied the ground. Rasc’s immediate impulse was to hurl himself down and run, but he saw that the general’s right hand held a small disruptor. Not as deadly as the ones used by the guards, but it would definitely get the job done.
The general looked puzzled, and then he straightened up and glanced up at the tree where Rasc and the boy were hidden.
Rasc held his breath. The general’s gaze was traveling inch by inch up the tree. Rasc froze there, every muscle tensed for a spring. But the sharp eyes of the hunter stopped before they reached the limb where Rasc was crouched slightly below the boy and a sly smile spread over his face. Very deliberately he turned his back on the tree and walked casually over to the stream. Rasc could hear the swish of the underbrush against his hunting boots and his voice as he called to his people. He spoke to them softly, and Rasc could hear them all laughing together.
It soon became evident to Rasc that he was stopping there to rest. And that he knew full well that Rasc and the child were in the tree. Maybe he just wanted to torture them a bit more before he finished them off. Their “rest” seemed to go on forever, but finally, the talking and laughing stopped, and the general stood up.
“Well, human, time to end this little charade. And time for you and that boy to come down—one way or the other.”
He aimed his disruptor directly up at Rasc, who braced himself and sent up a quick prayer that shooting him might be enough and the child would be spared. And that Kylon and Ryan and the others would manage to elude this horrible man.
The general was smiling broadly, when from out of the jungle came a terrible sound. It was a roar, but unlike anything Rasc had ever heard before. Louder, fiercer, and more blood curdling, it seemed to shake the ground with its force. The general cried out in surprise, and he and his people looked confused, their eyes scanning the trees for any sign of the beast. The sound came again, even louder this time, and Rasc realized the roars were coming from two different sides of the stream at the same time.
As Rasc watched in fear and amazement, a golden body