Leah's Hero - Miranda Martin Page 0,63

the thing stabs with its beak. The two of them are fighting while the bird creature hovers. Beak, claw, claw, beak broken by Urukol stabbing and slashing. He blocks a claw from reaching me by thrusting his arm between it and me.

The claw closes on his arm and the bird flies backwards. He’s jerked forward, off balance. He swings with the makeshift cast on his other arm, slamming it against the thing’s leg.

The creature screams in pain or frustration, then jerks forward again. Urukol is dragged to the edge. I grab his waist and pull back. My feet skid across loose gravel—we’re both going to the edge.

Urukol acts without hesitation. He slides his tail between us and pushes me back to the cliff wall, then leaps forward before I can get a fresh hold.

He’s swinging from the thing’s grip as it fights to gain altitude, carrying him away from me.

“NO!” I scream, reaching towards him, desperate to pull him back.

The creature pulls him up, and they disappear into the fog. I’m alone. Stuck on a cliff face stunned. Staring up at the light gray fog where the love of my life disappeared.

18

URUKOL

My arm is going numb in the anzilu’s grip. It’s all I can do to keep my grip on the knife. I can’t lose that, it’s my only chance to survive this. I must return to Leah.

When I pull myself up, my broken arm throbs with pain, but I don’t have a choice. Curling my arm until I lift myself up level with the things claw, I grab its leg with my broken arm. Pain shoots through the arm. Stars form in my vision but the bijass rises in response. Red haze drowns the pain.

Leah is in danger. She needs me. Protect.

Pushing past the pain, I twist myself around until I shift the knife to my bad arm. Good arm free, I twist around until I have a solid grip on the anzilu’s leg. Any moment now it’s going to drop me. That’s the normal way that they feed. Carry their prey up to a good height, drop it onto the rocks below and then feed on the carcass.

I’m ready when it does. I don’t fall and it screeches in anger and surprise. It bends its long neck, snapping at me.

I curl my tail around its neck, wrapping it around and choking it. Its long beak opens wide, revealing row after row of sharp yellowed teeth. It screeches in my face, deafening me, but that’s the last of its air.

It struggles to inhale while also trying to stay in the air. I’m not done with it. I let go with my hand. I’m dangling upside down by my tail around its neck.

I swing back and forth, easing the grip of my tail when I get enough swing going, and I go up and around. When I reach the apex of my swing, I let my tail hold go and drop onto its back. It cries out, bucking.

I lean forward and grab its neck with my good arm and pull back. It bucks, fighting, and trying to knock me off.

I hold tight, letting it fight. I want it to wear itself out, use its own energy against it. My only goal now is to ride it out.

We soar through the air, rising up while it bucks and fights. It goes into a roll, over and over, but I use my tail to keep myself on its back, even while we’re upside down. My single wing catches at the wind rushing past, creating drag that should help wear it down.

It closes its wings and goes into a dive. Wind rips against me, pulling and causing me to lift from its back. Pulling my tail tighter, I jerk myself flat against it. Briefly I see Leah on the cliff as the creature dives to the ground.

She is radiantly beautiful, and the sight of her infuses strength into my muscles. The dragon roars seeing its claim, and I can’t contain its joy. I let it out in a long, joyous bellow. I’m more alive than I’ve been in lifetimes.

The ground rushes closer and closer. We’ll hit soon if it doesn’t pull up, but I trust in its survival instincts. Sure enough, right before impact, it opens its wings, and we glide over the ground which is so close I could reach out and touch it if I wanted.

We climb back into the air, but the fight is going out of it. The climb