An arduous day’s march had ended mercifully, one in which the group had decided to turn inward and continue deeper into the forest. The primary motive was to take themselves farther away from the edge of the woodlands, before they searched out their next camp site.
Lee’s argument had won out over the option of continuing along the boundary of the woods. He had reasoned that the horse riders were limited to the open land, as his group had not come across any significant trails leading into the woods. Furthermore, if the bestial warriors were at war with the horse riders then they would also be concentrating on the territory where the horse riders were most likely to be found.
The others found the rationale to be sound, and around mid-day they had headed due east, pushing into the depths of the forest. By the cusp of evening, the energy regained during the previous night’s rest was utterly spent.
The hike had gone largely without incident, the greatest surprise coming when Lynn had suddenly given Lee a pinch on the arm. Looking over at her with a startled expression, Lee had followed her gesture to where a black and white plumaged bird with a long tail appeared to be regarding them from a tree branch.
“I heard about these birds once before,” Lynn said. “One magpie’s supposed to be bad luck, unless you do one of a couple remedies. Can’t remember the rest, but pinching a companion was one I remembered.”
Lee shook his head and grinned, “Just my luck, that you didn’t remember something a little less stinging.”
“Don’t want bad luck now, do you?” Lynn retorted with a chuckle. Though she was visibly tired, Lee was gladdened to see the sparkle in her.
Lee had raised his eyebrow, and looked over at Ryan and Erin. “Don’t forget to pinch each other. We don’t need any more bad luck than we’ve had already.”
“I’m not superstitious,” Erin had replied in a disinterested tone.
“I’m not too worried either,” Ryan had added.
“I think you can salute them too, or at least I think I remember that from the same source I got the other information,” Lynn had then said.
“Salute the bird, you say?” Ryan responded with an impish timbre. “Well, why didn’t you say so first?”
He had then proceeded to stare at the bird with a mischievous glint in his eyes. A grin had spread upon his face, as he then raised his right hand and prominently directed a vulgar gesture towards the magpie.
The magpie might well have been insulted, as it had emitted a few rather brusque cries in the wake of Ryan’s disrespectful acknowledgement. The timing was uncanny.
“There, a single-finger salute for the damn bird, delivered in classic New York style, just in case the pinch didn’t work,” Ryan had added, chortling. “Thanks for the advice on that, Lynn! That’ll make sure we don’t’ saddle you all with more bad luck.”
“You should take issues of bad luck more seriously,” Lynn had chided him lightheartedly. She then laughed aloud, “But there’s no denying you saluted the bird… or flipped that bird the bird, you could say.”
“I figured I could be creative. We’re already immersed in bad luck,” Ryan had retorted in dismissive fashion, as his waves of self-amused laughter simmered down.
“See? None of the precautions were really necessary, either of yours. I prefer Ryan’s version. It was a little less painful,” Lee had said to Lynn and Ryan, rubbing his arm where she had pinched him and evoking a little more laughter from the both of them.
He was grateful for the momentary levity. Yet in truth, Lee had felt unsettled all through the day, from the break of dawn until the woodland shadows had begun to grow and deepen.
Lee still felt the unease deep inside him as they finally drew to a halt, taking seats on the great roots of an immense, old oak tree. He took note of some primrose that was spreading within the vicinity of the ancient, mighty oak.
Nearby, high in the branches of another tree, was a large nest belonging to a sharp-beaked bird, whose graceful flight was a joy to watch above the forest’s ceiling. The sizeable bird’s thin call carried far, its long tail twisting as it changed course in the upper heights.
The four conversed amongst themselves for some time, fatigue doing nothing to dull Erin’s sharp attitude, or Ryan’s temper. Lynn and Lee had to nurse the overall harmony of the group along as they discussed their frustrations and condition, and took account of their current situation.
Before very long, Lee was fighting back the overwhelming urge to doze, summoning every ounce of his will to remain focused. He knew that the group would have no choice but to muster enough energy to set up a new shelter for the coming night. Day was starting to fade, and there would not be much more strong light left to work by.
Lee was about to get up to his feet, when he was startled abruptly by a forceful outcry that shattered the relative tranquility.
The invasive shouts hurtled down upon them from the sky, from just above the tops of the trees, as a large shadow flitted across the ground. Lee was unable to tell who or what it was, though his heart caught in his throat. The cry evoked the raw memories of the brutal scene that they had witnessed at the edge of the woodlands, but Lee could not be for certain. The form of the flying entity passing overhead was thoroughly distorted by the overlying mesh of tree branches.
Lee cast a glance towards the others.
Lynn jumped up quickly from her place of repose, her eyes wide with fear. Ryan reached quickly for the bow at his side, fumbling with it clumsily in his urgency and frayed anxiety.
Erin was no longer keeping her moody distance from the other three. She stumbled in her maddened haste, crawling on hands and knees to get near the others.
They all looked frantically along the top of the treeline. Even without seeing its form, Lee knew that there was little chance of mistaking the outcry that had come from such a close proximity. Each small patch of unbroken sky was watched assiduously, as they all became statues of flesh and bone.
It only took a few more moments to confirm the nature of what flew above them.
Just visible through a small opening in the treeline, one of the flying steeds passed into view with a rider on its back. There was no urgency in the movements of the creature, as it glided upon the air currents in a circuitous route around their position.
Lee’s heart sank as he watched the non-human rider gazing down upon them from its lofty perch. There was little mistaking its intention. It was marking their position for others.
Lee and Lynn frantically grabbed weapons, Lee taking up one of the remaining bows and Lynn grabbing the hilt of the sword that she had claimed. Though very afraid, Lee kept his hands steady and his countenance cool, as he drew long breaths and notched an arrow to the bowstring.
Lynn floundered a little with her sword, in her frenetic confusion about where to position herself, nearly dropping the weapon in the process. She was far from comfortable with the blade, and Lee knew that if it came to fighting on the ground, Lynn would be in great trouble.
Erin was frozen in place, her face a mask of panic. She stammered out, “What are we going to do? Oh my God. What are we going to do?”
“Get a hold of yourself, right now!” Lynn snapped at her friend, her usual patience entirely absent. “Defend yourself. You don’t have a choice!”
Lee could not have said it better.
They had all witnessed what the bestial riders were capable of, their deadly skill on vivid display as they destroyed the ill-fated horsemen with efficiency and ferocity. Perhaps the only good fortune that Lee and the others had in that moment was that there was no time to contemplate their odds of survival.
The brevity, urgency, and naked truth of the perilous moment, and their surge of adrenaline, excepting Erin, served capably to steel their resolve towards defense.
“Over here! All of you! Get to cover now!” Lee yelled out to the others, darting for an inviting spot by the trunk of a very large, old tree. Its mass of thick lower branches provided at least some degree of protection and cover over his head, while allowing him to try and monitor what was happening above.
Lynn and Ryan responded immediately, racing towards Lee, but Erin remained behind, still frozen in place. She had not even grabbed a weapon in the interim, and looked for all purposes as if she had been stricken dumb.
Lee cursed angrily under his breath, as he ran out from beneath his protective position by the tree. He raced over to her, his mind of singular focus.
Reaching out, he grabbed her upper arm, forcibly jerking her forward as he half-dragged her to the closest tree. A sibilant hissing of air preceded the dull thud that struck behind him, as an arrow embedded itself into the earth, right in the spot that Erin had just been in.
As they reached the tree, Lee spun her around to face the direction that they had just run from. The long arrow fletched with black feathers protruded from the ground as a visible, sobering lesson for Erin.
“Do you see that? Get a hold of yourself, or you will get killed, or get someone else killed!” Lee shouted quickly at her, incredulous at her stupefied behavior. He had never felt a more searing ire, though he knew that he could not have left her standing there.
He reoriented himself with his bow and set an arrow once again into place, his head tilting up as his eyes locked onto the treeline above.
Ryan was setting another arrow into his bow, having loosed one errant and desperate shot at the hovering rider that had fired upon Erin. The rush of the moment, and his inexperience with the bow, had resulted in missing his mark by a wide margin.
Lee aimed carefully, taking a couple of deep breaths and letting his hands steady themselves. He had once taken archery lessons as a youth, though the compound bow that he had used then was markedly different than the simpler wood construct that he now held.
He reminded himself that the concepts were still the same, even if the feeling was awkward. It took a considerable amount of pull to ready his shot, and in his rigid concentration the creaks of the bow sounded loud to his ears
Through the branches, he could see that the rider on the flying beast was readying another arrow, and searching out a target as it continued to hover in place.
Several other cries indicated that the one firing the arrows down on them was not going to be their only nemesis for very long. The archer was joined just moments later by another, the rider that had originally marked their location. It had broken off from circling and had come into view next to the first archer, readying its own great longbow.
Lee was about to let his own arrow fly, just as a blood-curdling cry rang out from behind and above him. Whirling about, he looked up just in time to see a large shape crashing down haphazardly, bouncing off tree branches and breaking others as it plunged towards the ground.
The wings of the creature folded as it finally tumbled into a free fall through open space towards the hard earth. Its rider had already been cast out from the saddle, shrieking in dismay, and then grunting loudly as it slammed into the forest floor.
Two sickening thumps resonated as the bodies of both steed and rider were crumpled against the hard earth, their forms distorted and broken. There was no life evident in either of them. Lee’s eye’s widened as he saw the shaft of an arrow sticking out from the neck of the winged creature. It was fletched with a lighter, different kind of feather than the deep black ones of the attackers.
Sparing a glance, he looked across to Ryan and Lynn to see who had fired the accurate arrow that had slain the steed. Both of them looked back at him with expressions of sheer astonishment. Ryan was standing with another arrow in his right hand, his attention drawn to the commotion near Lee. It was obvious that he had not suddenly gained great skill with the bow.
Lee turned quickly to look back behind him, his arrow notched as he strained to pull the string back again.