In which Vayne needs a vehicle to reach Voodoo.
A hunter follows movement. As soon as her prey moves, she zones in. She doesn't miss a flinch. A sweat drop. A heart beat. Tunnel vision blocks out the world. All she sees is prey until it's in her claws, in her beak, and in her mouth.
Shauna Vayne knew these ways. She trained her senses to snatch the slightest movement. She knew, deep in her core, how to do this as if hunting was her second nature like flying was to birds.
Her bolt zipped between two red raptors who were on the hunt. Like good hunters, they followed it. Their bodies formed tight bullets and dove after the silver thinking they were about to catch their prey, but she had distracted them.
She ran out from her hiding spot with three more bolts in one hand and her crossbow in the other. On legs like a windmill racing her up an increasingly higher slope, she pursued the birds. Her crossbow bobbed up and down with her pumping arm while she loaded the next bolt. Ahead, a tiny thud marked where her first shot pierced the mountain-side. The birds landed on either side of it, screeched, realized they'd been fooled. Their scarlet bodies reflected the sunlight with flaming red flutters of their wings.
She pulled her crossbow's trigger while sprinting. The bolt sang through the air and into one raptor's underbelly with a satisfying punch. Its legs wobbled and dropped. It wailed skyward with a cracked voice. Its mate who was bigger turned on her.
Vayne wanted that mate.
She loaded her second bolt as soon as the mate's wings kicked wide. It flapped upward higher than the trees. It pinned her from above with animal eyes studying the meat on her bones. Its beak snapped.
She shot the one on the ground and almost missed. If she took her eyes off the mate for one second, she was a gonner. That raptor's raven eyes gleamed. A starving animal didn't stop at pain. It went berserk. It went after food with every inch of its life.
She blindly fumbled the third dart in place when talons clicked madly towards her. The injured raptor flashed downhill. She emptied her crossbow in its face and it fell.
Talons screamed. A sword for a beak. The wind knocked out of her chest. Her feet left the ground. The world dropped beneath her. Ribbons of clothing tore off her shoulders slicing a breeze through her joints. She couldn't see. A mouthful of soft scarlet blocked her nose and mouth. Cawing filled her ears. Her back slammed on the rocky slope. The mate had bull-rushed straight into her chest. Glistening sickles unclasped her shoulders. The weight lifted off her chest. She wheezed while turning onto her right side. She faced downhill where the bird banked high into the air.
"A huge chicken knocked you over." She lodged the crossbow into her back where a couple buckles locked it in place. "A chicken!" She rose, flexed her arms with every ounce of strength, and assumed the body-guard position to take this raptor by hand. She didn't want to kill this one, she didn't even want to hurt it.
With a few flaps of its wings it rocketed.
She sprinted.
She grasped behind its claws. It's weight shoved her backward. Her toes lifted off the ground. Wind ripped through her hair, ears, wounded shoulders. It carried her higher than the trees. She hung on for dear life where she roared with success and fear. Somehow, she had to mount its back. After all, she couldn't hang on forever. Her legs dangled.
She flew at breakneck speed along the side of the Great Barrier.
She adjusted her hands swiftly to face forward just in time. A jut of rock protruded at her knee. She lifted her leg, it hammered her shin, the impact swung her to one side. She grunted. She ran in mid-air as fast as her bruised legs could.
The slope got sharper until she skated along a vertical scarp. The bird took her so close to the face that when her toes hit rock, she was sprinting. She zoomed along the Great Barrier at the same speed as the bird. Her thighs burned. Her shin pained. But she couldn't stop moving. She hurdled over cracks that grasped at her heels. One mistep and she would lose balance.
Using extreme core effort from an abdomen burning with power, she jerked the bird downward. She let go and snatched the first handhold to catch her fall. Her shoulder stabbed with pain and she cried out. The raptor plummetted beneath her. Her fingers slipped. She tumbled after it grinding on the mountain. She inhaled dirt and dust. It smelled like dried blood that flaked off of a scratch. She broke every bump on her way down. One vicious rock clubbed her ribs, shoved her, spun the world around her. She lost direction. Half of the world was blue, half of the world was brown. They wheeled around her like a drunk dream spinning her faster than she could follow.
She crunched her powerful core muscles. Her arms revolved. She somersaulted until her body formed an arrow pointing down. When she focused on the raptor flapping a few meters below, she reached for its back. "You are mine."
She sank her hands into red feathers. The taste of dry fluff stuffed her nose and mouth. She blinded herself in its neck. Her thighs squeezed its ribs. The entire bird's body rippled with muscle inside her arms and legs. It bobbed its wings with a fluid strength that outweighed and outmatched her. It was twice her height. Its wingspan was wider than a two-lane street. When its wings beat down, it captured powerful air pockets that ripped it forward. Easily, this monster ruled the low sky. Its wild strength demanded respect. It nearly toppled her and tore her heart out.
But it didn't. She listened to her heart. It hammered in her chest like a sledgehammer driving into her again and again. Proof that she was alive and she had beaten it.