Chapter 7
The Sky-Dance
Fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!
Such was my level of eloquence at that point in time. Why had I lacked to forethought to plan my actions through all the way? Sure the pony had escaped but now I had a gang of barbarous skull-fucking anthro-dogs chasing me down. They had a multitude of weapons that made my claws and teeth look like nothing, I had a pair of fairies that were acting like Navi.
"They're attacking you, toru!"
"They have clubs, hmm!"
"Why don't you run,toru?"
"I think I know a way away, hmm!"
"SHUT UP!" I roared at Kuroko and Asura. "YOU ABANDON ME WHILE I DO THE JOB BUT RETURN AFTERWARDS TO ACT LIKE GRANDIOSE DICKS!"
"Fine then, I won't tell you the way to escape, hmm." Asura said in a huff.
"If you have some decent advice then by all means feel free to share!"
Asura bolted ahead. "Follow me wolfy!"
Without any other kind of orientation to abide to I decided that whatever Asura had in store could hardly be worse than my current situation. Unless he was leading me into an even bigger jug-fuck, in which case it still couldn't really escalate any further. Another dart wedged itself into the ground an inch to my left making me jump out of my fur. These guys sucked at shooting, but I wasn't about to give them an easy target. Weaving my way past yet another row of tents on the trail of Asura; the fairy lead me out of the camp and into a large field, without any cover.
Still better than that camp though.
The sprite zipped along at an impressive rate, I couldn't keep the same pace but I could keep his luminous body in sight. A spear that looked fashioned from a bone of some sorts grazed my flank, a small bead of perfectly obscured blood rolled down my leg. What the hell did these things have against me? I heard the occasional burst of speech from behind me, none of which sounded all that appetising.
Common words were 'kill fake' or 'get the pretty' with the odd mutter of 'taste the flesh.'
These things sure had a mastery of linguistic communication.
As did they have a mastery of digging.
Not two metres away a member of the pack burst from the ground with arms outstretched and mouth slick with drool. It was coming right at me! I needed to get rid of it.......
I wanted to get rid of it........
It just..... Needed to........
GET BACK!
My horns exploded with energy and a wall of red haze launched itself at the creature that was totally vulnerable in mid-air; no escape from the blast. A strangled yelp came from the dog as it was thrown in cartwheels away from me. It flew an impressive distance and landed with a crunch that made me flinch a little. Well that's new. I filed that new spell under 'force push' and continued to flee. By now the pack had started to close in on me, they were fast as a teenager's first-time. For those who don't know how fast that is it's somewhere between light-speed and twice the speed of sound. So still pretty damn fast. By now those who had been firing darts had long given up their attempts to hit me, they had come close once or twice though. The crowd was parting; allowing one of the dogs to move to the front of the pack.
It was the one with the odd contraption on his arm.
Just what did that thing do?
It launched a freaking net is what it did.
The entire thing burst from the device with a loud 'pumf' and closed the gap between me and it fairly quickly. If it wasn't for the spell I had picked up the best part of three seconds ago I would have been screwed in more ways than a big city prostitute. Instead I shouted that net right back at them; it hit the shooter and several others sending them bundling away in a writhing mass of greasy fur and spittle. Take that you kibble eating fuckers.
Asura was awaiting my arrival close to the edge of the field. A cliff-edge. Just what the hell did this fairy have planned?
"I hope you didn't forget our promise wolfy, hmm!" Asura said
"No, I remember. I free that girl and you give me the..... Sky waltz?" I replied through pants.
"Sky-DANCE, but yes that was the deal hmm. So the contract is fulfilled, I grant you the power of the Sky-Dance!"
"So when do I get to use it?" I queried as the cliff inched closer and closer.
"Well there's no time like the present, don't you agree, hmm?"
So that was why I was being brought to a cliff; crafty bastard planned this all out didn't he? So all I had to do was make it over this ravine?
What could possibly go wrong?
"So how does this work?"
"Just do what feels natural wolfy, I can't offer any more advice beyond that, hmm."
What the hell Asura? I thought you guys were supposed to help me! Not like I could complain. This speech power came rather naturally to me also as did my magic; this would be a breeze.
The dogs were nearly upon me. The drop was but a metre away
Now or never Lycan, now or never.
I inhaled what seemed like half the atmosphere, and jumped.
Time didn't stand still like many describe these moments. It more slowed to a sickening crawl of distorted airflow and mixed scents. Many of my pursuers copied my action, claws scrabbling at my flanks and pulling hairs from my tail it a vain attempt to catch me. I looked down to allow the depth of the ravine to hit home.
The bottom looked almost like a cartoon where the bad-guy would drop to that oh so familiar 'wheeeeee' sound. Except this was real life, and the idea of falling that far nearly made me stain my fur yellow. The dogs that hadn't jumped got this idea also and promptly halted their chase. Those who had jumped after me were none too lucky. At this rate I would be following them in their fall.
Wait, what was that?
My pads touched down on something soft, fluffy like wool but firm like oak wood. It nearly stopped me totally. The back of my mind told me to jump again. So I did. What ever intangible force had been beneath my feet it was sturdy enough to allow me to propel myself once more into the air. Once more I landed of said intangible force, but opted to run this time.
It felt fantastic.
This feeling of effortless travel was all too welcome to me. The closest I could compare it to was running on a cloud, the comparison makes no sense but you must understand what I'm getting at. I wish I could run in this way forever; that would be cheating though. That chance to cheat was cut short by my legs suddenly feeling unbelievably weak. I took one final leap to clear what was left of the ravine and stumbled to the ground on impact.
Wow I felt tired like a car-wheel.
Despite wanting to give us much distance between me and the dogs on the other side of the ravine, I gave myself the privilege of rising back to me feet and doing what I called the wolf equivalent of giving them the finger and trotted away calmly; with a small limp to emphasise my weariness. Asura and Kuroko both floated back into view, one of the two seemed to be buzzing with energy.
"That was AWESOME, hmm!" Asura beamed. "A perfect run, never seen anything like it!"
"Yeah..... Awesome..... Cool...... Sleepy." I muttered.
Ignoring what little more the fairy had to say. I curled up at the base of a nearby tree and for the first time since death; fell into a peaceful slumber.