30

Battle

Saber ran. He had shed his pack along the way, casting it beneath some bushes and lightening his weight by a great deal. Now that he was without the weight he had gotten so used to, it seemed like he flew through the trees.

All around him were the shouts and the direction calling of his pursuers. "Infra! He's to your left, get him, get him!" Saber couldn't tell which one it was, but he thought it was the short, fat one.

WHAM! No, he was right in front of him! Saber cried out in alarm as the rounded Lunattack slammed into the ground directly before him, and he reversed direction hastily. He ran as fast as he could, again dodging through trees and under bushes. He yelped as an energy blast blew past his side, and then watched in amazement as a bush tore itself out of the ground and started floating in the air! Had the energy done that?

Saber looked back to see that the round one, Earthquake, was pointing the big gun at him. He dodged to the left, and it went past, hitting one of the others that had been sneaking up on him The boy ducked in reflex when he saw how close the other was; it was the blue skinned one. He ran once more as Chilldon floated up in the air. "Earthquake!!" he hollered angrily.

Earthquake winced and hanged the setting of his gravity carbine to let Chilldon down.

Oh gods, Saber thought. Don't let me die here, not now so close to home! He looked up to see lightning rip through the sky, even though there were no clouds., And the lightning was red as fire, as if the gods themselves had decided to interfere.

He was not far off. Above the trees, Mumm-Ra scanned the forest for his young quarry, casting his electric energy down when he caught a glimpse of him. Ohhh, yes, he wanted this one's head on a pole in his pyramid.

Below, Saber had run straight into Sounder, who grabbed him. Saber was getting sick of this one, he could move without making a sound! And his enhanced hearing had led him straight to the boy. He grabbed him with quick reflexes. "I got him!" he called to his comrades.

But Saber was not going to cooperate. The boy whirled around and decked the taller being in the face. Sounder yelped and staggered back, but managed to keep his grip on the boy. He scowled darkly and punched him back, sending the boy's head backwards. But Saber had grown much stronger since they last met, and retaliated immediately. He knew little of fighting, although he had met a warrior in one of the villages who taught him a few moves. Saber had not remembered most of them, but he was able to recall one he particularly liked:

Twisting around in Sounder's grip, his back was now to the other's front. He crouched, and with a sudden pull, pulled the Lunattack over. Then he quickly straightened his legs and pulled the arm that held him pinned.

The technique was supposed to slam the one behind on the ground, but it did not quite work out that way. Saber, untrained as he was, lost his balance and fell to the ground along with his enemy, who sprawled on the dirt next to him. But Sounder had been taken by surprise; Saber had not. He got up quickly and made yet another turn into the thick woods.

Sounder spat a quiet curse as Infra and her brother came running up. "I lost the little bastard," Sounder said in his intensely quiet voice. "But I'll get him again. Go on, find him!"

The others nodded and dispersed once more.

By a combination of good luck and quick thinking, Saber was getting farther and farther from the most of the Lunattacks. his adversaries were spreading farther and farther out in an effort to find him. The scanners up in Skytomb helped, but Saber was a wily little kid. He found animal dens and little caves of thorn bushes, and other nooks and crannies to hide in, in the dense woods.

Still, they nearly caught him more than once.

Chilldon had broken off from the rest of the group. He, more than any of them, had a score to settle.

Luck would have it that Saber ran right into him rounding a tight grove of trees. He yelled in startlement, and fought when Chilldon grabbed him. "Let me GO!" he yelled, kicking at his groin.

Chilldon growled and blocked with his knee. "Oh no you don't, you little shitbag!" he drew in a breath to ice the kid.

Saber saw what he was doing, and his eyes widened. With a sudden lurch, he freed his right hand, which whipped down to his belt to retrieve his dagger. He unsheathed it, swiping at his adversary's face.

The Lunattack jerked his head back to avoid the blow, but took a shallow cut to the chest. It was nothing fatal, but made his ice attack go askew, and his hand to let go off the human.

The boy took the opportunity to back off, and jumped out of the way, as the angry Lunattack shot another blast of ice at him. Seeing that he would not be able to outrun the Lunattack without being frozen, a prospect that scared him a great deal, he instead ran at him.

The surprised Chilldon had no time to ice him again as the boy tackled him. They both fell to the dirt, grappling, each with a different aim. Both wanted to hurt the other, but Chilldon wanted to hurt him for revenge. Saber just wanted to hurt his opponent long enough to get him off his back.

Chilldon, not wanting to chance icing himself, took his own dagger from his belt. Intending to give him a little of his own medicine, he thrust the weapon at the boy, who managed to move barely in time. He slashed with his own weapon, but the more experienced Lunattack rolled on the ground to avoid it. Deciding this was a fight of principle...someone had dared defy him was the issue...Chilldon did not ice the boy. He lunged at him with his dagger.

Saber was not fast enough this time, and caught the blade in the shoulder as again they fell to the ground to fight. He screamed in pain as it plunged into his arm, and kicked at his adversary to get him off. He struck with his blade, but Chilldon caught his arm, leaving his own weapon in the boy's shoulder. Now he had his two hands to fight with, and one of the boy's was injured.

His shoulder felt like fire, but Saber still used it. He tried to ignore the pain as he gripped the collar of Chilldon's vest wit that hand and attempted to fend him off with the other. Chilldon punched the boy in the face, stunning him for a second. while he was seemingly out, he sat up, still pinning the boy down, and prepared to ice him.

But Saber was wilier than he had thought, and Chilldon had underestimated him. When the Lunattack paused to take his breath, Saber gathered his strength, and in one surge of energy, brought his knee up. Chilldon had not been ready, and this time took the blow to the groin. With a strangled outcry, his hands clutched the injured area, and Saber was able to shove him off of him and scramble away. While Chilldon tried to recover from the blow, Saber steeled himself and yanked the dagger from his shoulder. He shrieked again as the wound began to gush blood, and clutched it. had it been broken?

Shooting a glance at Chilldon, who was trying to get up, Saber threw the Lunattack's dagger into the bushes, and grabbed his own. Shoving it hastily into his belt and again grabbing his shoulder, he staggered off into the woods.

Chilldon tried to follow him, but he was feeling sick. With a voice that dripped hatred, he called in on his communicator to the others to alert them to where they were.

Fortune was with Saber. As the other Lunattacks converged on the spot where Chilldon still recovered from the well-placed knee strike, he was able to finally escape his pursuers. They still had their sensors, but they were moving away from him. He was safe for now.

Safe from the Lunattacks, at least. One figure watched the boy stagger away from the scene. He watched him elude the Lunattacks, holding his shoulder tightly to try and stem the bleeding. He watched Saber move farther and farther away until he had to rest, and curled up under a tree. He used leaves to tightly bind his wound, and that was no mean feat with one hand. He watched him curl up to sleep.

Mumm-Ra could easily have destroyed the boy now. He was defenseless, powerless against Mumm-Ra's dark magic. He could easily just swoop down and strike him dead with one stroke of power.

But he did not.

The ancient mage was not a being used to questioning himself. But he had before. He often asked himself why he never slipped into the Cats' Lair, the home of his greatest adversaries in centuries, and kill them in their sleep. He could have done it. But he never did. Why? It was not as if he had not done such a thing before.

And now, why was he so reluctant to kill this child while he slept? It was not conscience: he had killed children before. Mumm-Ra growled and shook his head, and flew off to join the others. He had to rest soon, he had been too long from his sarcophagus. Leaving the Lunattacks to search in the wrong directions for the boy, he flew off to the sanctuary of his pyramid.

***

Saber was two weeks from home. But he did not start off right away. In the morning, when he awoke, he took the bandage of leaves from his wound and looked at it. It was covered in dried blood, so he could not see it well but it hurt like nothing he'd ever felt, and he covered it back up. He coudl move his arm, and so maybe his arm was not broken. but it hurt like anyhting.

The boy stood to get his bearings, and tried to remember where he's thrown his duffel, taking longer than he should have he finally found it. Why was his directional sense not working right?

The young adventurer traveled throughout the day, trying to go fast. He'd had one run in with the enemy, he did not think he could survive another. But he could not walk fast. He couldn't get himself going, and his directional sense was fading in and out. What was wrong? He felt hot and cold at the same time, shivering even in the warm spring air. Was he sick again?

Finally, he couldn't go any longer. He had been following the river now, the same river he had seen the black widow shark, the creature he had thought was a giant fish. He sat down and put his pack aside, intending to look at the wound on his shoulder. He removed the bandages and looked at it. It looked horrible, with the blood and the wound itself. He carefully washed it with the river water, keeping an eye out for a ripple that might mean the giant fish was near. But he saw none as he cleansed the wound.

It hurt. Cleaning that wound hurt like hell, and he cried when he did it. But what he saw when he cleared the blood away scared him. The skin was red, kind of mottled looking, and swollen. He strained to remember what he had learned, or tried to learn, in his school. He struggled to recall his life lessons. Fever, swelling... infection. It could only mean the wound was infected, and if he remembered right, it could kill him.

He did not have to struggle to recall what had to be done about infection. He had never had one, but his little brother had cut himself badly once, and it became infected. The healer had had to cauterize it, burn the wound and kill off the infection that way. Although he had herbs and potions to dull the pain, poor Drii had still screamed when it was done. Saber didn't want to imagine how it would feel with no herbs to soothe the pain.

Cauterizing, He had remembered the term, and it was hard to watch at the time. Drii had only been two, and Saber had felt sorry for him. But now...

After a few long moments, Saber built a fire. It was difficult to say the least, but he did not mind. He was glad it took a long time to get it started. His shoulder ached unbearably by the time he was done, but he was still glad it took a long time.

The healer had done something before he cauterized it, hadn't he? He'd had to cut the wound open and let it drain. He winced at the thought.

Water...he had boiled water. He used his canteen again to boil it, as he had in the swamp, and cleaned the dagger off. Biting his lip, he took it, and in a burst of will cut a slash over the wound. He did it fast, or else he would not be able to get up the guts to do it.

The boy cried out sharply in pain as the wound began to seep infected matter, and he made a face. Shaking, he applied pressure to help drain it, crying at the pain as he did. When all he saw was red blood, he hoped it was enough.

Next? Cauterizing.

Numbly, he stuck his dagger point into the fire and watched it. He bit his lip, thinking of what he was going to have to do before the infection went along too far and killed him. How long did it take? Could he hold out until he got home? It already hurt so much. Saber looked at the wound and again and decided he could not. It was bleeding now and badly. No, he would have to do it.

After he could see the blade glowed with heat, he picked it up with a shaking hand and pulled it out of the fire. The hilt itself was almost too hot to touch, but it was bearable. The tip, now, was a different story.

Saber started to cry silently as he held the blade. He was trying to work up the will to do what he had to, but he was not sure that he could do it. Finally, after several minutes, he tried. He gritted his teeth and pressed the hot blade to his shoulder.

The skin hissed, and Saber yelped and dropped the dagger to the ground "I-I can;t do it, i can't..." he whimpered. But did he want to die? No...

Swallowing hard, he put the dagger back in to heat.

Several minutes later, he had it again in his hand, and before he could think about it too much, held it one more against the infected skin. The boy screamed and slammed back against the tree he sat under as a pain reflex, but he did not drop the blade. Crying openly now, he kept the hot metal to the infected area until it was seared, and he cold see the red skin had been burned. Finally he let it drop and panted heavily, coughing, sobbing openly now. If this did not work, he did not know what he would do.

He had fallen asleep again in the middle of the day. When he woke again, it was night, and the cool wind dried the sweat on his body. The fever had broken. When he unbandaged his shoulder and looked at it, he saw the swelling had gone down, and it was no longer the unnatural red. The seared skin was red but it was a deep red from the burn. So it had worked. It just hurt like the hells.

He bound it one more time and slept again. In the morning he would continue.

He felt a great deal better the next morning, except for the pain. His direction sense was working again, and he no longer felt the fever. But still it hurt more than anything.

Trying to be courageous and ignore the pain, he put the duffel on his other shoulder and started off once more, finally almost home.

Part 31: Closing In

Table of Contents
ThunderCat Stories Page
Main Page