A Jagged Adventure

CHAPTER EIGHT

"Get off of me!" Red twisted and fought the Great Izuchi that was carrying him in her jaws. The large monster shook him, disorienting him just enough that he fell limp. Red spat blood. "I hate your kind."

The Great Izuchi carried him up the mountain, past a small Felyne nest, and across a rickety wooden bridge that Red swore was not stable enough for any hunter, let alone this bird wyvern pack leader. She clutched him in her teeth and ascended a short cliff, pulling herself up and over the lip and into a giant wyvern nest that sat at the very top of the Shrine Ruins. The Great Izuchi dropped him like a piece of prey onto a bone pile.

Oh, wait, Red thought weakly, I am prey.

The Palamute tried to stand, but between his aching head and sore paws, there was not much energy left in his body. He slumped over and decided to glare at the annoying monster instead.

The Great Izuchi looked him up and down, then took a step closer, baring her teeth and flashing her claws.

Red rolled his eyes.

"Are you going to kill me or are you going to flex all day?" he growled. "Because if you're going to flex, I'd like to request that you just kill me and save me from this pathetic display."

The Great Izuchi snorted and lifted her head to the sky. She let out a call that reverberated through the area, and Red pricked his ears. Beanie would have heard that for sure!

Unfortunately, she wouldn't have been the only one to hear it. Two small forms clambered over the edge of the nest and ran over to the Great Izuchi's side. They were Izuchi, and Red knew what was next. No, he decided he'd rather go out his own way than be torn apart and eaten alive by this merciless pack.

"Uh... Bye." Red launched himself toward the edge of the nest, but before he could hurtle himself off the dizzying height to the shrine ruins far below, teeth clamped into his tail and yanked him back. "Argh!"

The Great Izuchi pinned him with her talons and growled in his face.

You're not getting off that easy, Palamute!

Red wasn't fazed and spat in her face.

"You know nothing of suicide if you think that is easy!" he bared his fangs, preparing to sink them into her long snout. The Izuchi bounced around their leader, chirping and screeching at him. "Eat me, already, and be done with it!"

The Great Izuchi stared for one long minute, then spoke again.

Can you feel the change?

"What change?" Red barked, struggling in vain against her grip.

We will not be enemies for much longer.

"What the heck are you talking about?!"

Someone new is coming to your Hunter Village.

"STOP DANCING AROUND AND JUST TELL ME WHAT YOUR-"

There was a whistling sound, and the Great Izuchi let Red go with a scream of pain. Red rolled over, away from the fighting, and saw Beanie riding on the back of the Great Izuchi. Wirebugs had attached to all of the monster's joints; Beanie was effectively wyvern-riding the pack leader. The smaller Izuchi cried out in terror and ran around helplessly as their leader smashed into rock columns and flailed around wildly. Beanie turned so that the Great Izuchi was facing the same cliff Red nearly threw himself off of, and with a petrified look on her brown face, she ran the Great Izuchi right off the crumbling sky-high edge.

"BEANIE!" Red yelled. "Beanie, no!"

Red skidded to a stop at the edge, damaging his already useless paws further, and stared down wildly, looking for any sign of his miserable little master.

"BEANIE!"

He spun around as a bone snapped from behind and saw the two Izuchi sneaking up on him. They froze when they saw him, and he growled a low warning.

"Get out of here, if you want to live." He whispered menacingly.

The two Izuchi flinched, took a step back, and then turned tail and ran. Red heard a tiny whimper from below his paws, and his head whipped around to see Beanie a foot below, clinging to the cliff edge with all her claws. Her eyes were wide and petrified as she stared up at him.

"Beanie!" Red exclaimed and leaned down to pull her up.

"That's my name," Beanie gasped, collapsing on the rock beside him. "Don't... Don't wear... Oh, whatever."

Red cured around her protectively and found himself growling at even the tiniest leaf drifting down to settle within the wyvern nest. He was so paranoid, and panic stricken, he could not relax. His eyes kept darting around, he flinched at ever little noise, and he knew that if he went back to the village now, there would be a casualty.

"Let's stay here for the rest of the day," Red said finally. "I need..."

"Time," Beanie patted his nose with a very shaky paw. "Me too, Red. Me too."

Red stared down at this tiny little Palico and blinked. She was caring. Almost too caring. Still... She nearly died to save his life just then. Just like...

Red curled even tighter around Beanie, covering her shivering form with his bushy black and tan tail.

Okay, maybe I was wrong about you. Red thought. It was probably the hardest thing he'd ever thought. You're not a human. You're barely a hunter. But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe, together, we really can become the first and best Palico and Palamute hunting force the lands have ever seen. You were prepared to die for me. I need to be prepared to do the same, or neither of us will survive.

Red licked her nose, and Beanie's eyes shot open in utter surprise.

"Uh, Red, are you alright?" she asked uneasily, pushing his tail off her.

"Yeah," he replied. "It's just... I think I am feeling something that I never thought I'd feel again."

"And what's that? It better not be love." Her whiskers twitched weakly.

Red covered her with his tail again.

"No. I felt this when my master was alive, but never since. I think... I think I am feeling the beginnings of hope."