The Fickle Winds of Autumn
45. The Fatal Ravine

Kira’s shoulders wrenched and erupted in agony; she fought back a torturous scream as Harath’s fierce talons tore into her shocked flesh and dragged her forlorn weight upwards.

Her eyes had been determined not to watch the deadly ground rush up and crush her miserable life, but the sudden excruciating pain forced them open in appalling horror.

The bitter, unforgiving air stung into them; the delicate unsuspecting flakes of snow crashed and bounced into them.

She blinked and squinted through the unyielding torment; her ears roaring and red; Harath’s powerful, compelling wing-beats pounded a rushing swirl of currents and eddies around her.

The vast engulfing sky swallowed her deep into the wonderful mysteries of the Surrounder.

She was flying!

But her restless shoulders assured her that the clean, swift finality of death would have been far less traumatic.

They swooped away from the solid mass of cliff and climbed into the open, airless void of the ravine.

Kira told her wayward eyes not to look down at the prowling danger which waited below; she tried to force them to peer ahead for the safety of the far cliff and the waterfall.

But they insisted on flickering towards the terrifying swirl of vivid rock and cloud and death in the gaping jaws of the valley below.

The searing pain and deadly terror overwhelmed her mind.

Her shoulders jerked and sang out in anguish with every beat of Harath’s wings - they understood how it might feel to be the shredded and tormented flesh of Graath - but her shuddering thoughts also knew that each distressing, flapping pulse pulled her closer to safety, closer to the blessed relief of the waterfall, closer to her friends.

If she could just withstand this bitter agony, if Harath had recovered enough energy and strength to propel them across the open dizzying sky, they would make it, she would be safe.

Above her, the breathless howl of the wind was pierced by a shrieking cry of alarm.

The smaller, more agile guards from the corridor had caught up to them.

Kira tried to twist her head to see, but the distress of her shoulders pinned her in place.

Was Harath safe?

Was she?

Harath screeched in torment; the rhythmic tugging down-draught of her wings faltered and lurched and checked.

Kira’s anxious thoughts convulsed at the angry, violent sound of the guard’s flapping, battering attack - but her bubbling frustration knew she was useless in this situation - there was nothing she could do to help her friend now.

Her turbulent stomach retched and shuddered as a sudden lunging drop juddered and bounced across her shoulders; her face crumpled in a terror of shrieking pain.

They veered and swooped from side to side to deflect the angry hacking blows; Harath’s fierce talons flinched deeper into her bloodied shoulders; biting in hard to grasp and secure her dangling body; Kira’s forlorn weight wrenched at the seeping wounds; her damp clinging tunic shredded and soaked with dark blood.

A second sinister silhouette flashed threateningly through the swirling mist at her side and tore towards Kira’s terrified legs.

The angry guard twisted and contorted its muscular body as it sped in; its fierce talons glinted menacingly in the pale, thin altitude.

Kira braced herself and tried to dodge the swooping attack, but the guard’s sharp claws hooked and ripped at her vulnerable flesh; the raging curve of the guard’s powerful beak slashed and stabbed and snapped.

Kira cried out through her lacerating pain; she reached up in tormented defiance of her shoulders and grasped at Harath’s legs, desperate to secure her trembling, tumbling weight.

She lashed and kicked at the huge bird as hard as she dare; her body swung in agonising jolts; her shoulders wept through their harrowing agony.

Her boot thumped a heavy, bruising blow at the guard, who wheeled away with a shrill embittered screech, leaving a deep oozing wound gashed across Kira’s opened thigh.

She tried to adjust her painful weight; her fingers grasped at the leathery skin of Harath’s legs, but slipped and slithered in the thick unexpected blood that dripped down on them.

Harath was wounded too.

Kira’s bleak, caustic thoughts reeled and unravelled.

Was Harath badly hurt?

Would they still make it across the valley?

Harath was already exhausted from her previous journeys - would she have enough energy left to prevent them from plummeting down to their horrifying deaths?

In mid-air, Harath couldn’t make her bigger size and fighting strength count - especially burdened with the extra weight of a human passenger.

Kira’s anxious eyes glanced towards the far cliff - they were more than half-way there - but out-numbered and out-manoeuvred, they would never be able to reach the rumbling safety of the waterfall.

Her empty stomach sank with the raw, stark realisation.

They could not continue like this - they would be picked off as easy prey for the vicious aggression of the two belligerent guards.

“I can’t hold them off!” Harath shouted down. “I need my talons. We won’t make it.”

“Fight them, Harath!” Kira bellowed back up through the impossible wind. “Do whatever you need to do! Don’t worry about me!”

“Yes, my queen, I obey!” Harath replied.

The two swift, dark menacing forms wheeled off and swooped in again.

One plunged down from above, while the second marauded in from a lower trajectory.

The imminent vulnerability of her legs flooded through Kira’s startled body.

Her skin bristled with expectant danger; she winced and braced herself for the onslaught.

Kira’s right shoulder was suddenly impaled in an intense, numbing crush. Harath’s talons tightened their determined grip; the sharp claws closed and met in the middle of Kira’s wilting limb; they rasped at her fragile bones; her entire skeleton jarred with every powerful beating pulse of Harath’s great wings.

Her left shoulder raked in wriggling, oozing pain as Harath’s thick tapered talons slithered out of the seeping wounds and released their tortuous grip.

Her limp, dangling body jolted and sank to the right; the excruciating burden on her tormented shoulder doubled.

The deadly gravity of the fierce rocks beneath reached up, determined to drag her down to her death.

Perhaps this was it?

Surely she would be dropped and die?

But at least Harath would have a chance.

The unrelenting rush of wind lashed at her face; the roar of the waterfall grew louder.

The highest guard darted down and closed in.

Kira prepared to be welcomed into the arms of the Surrounder; her entire wretched frame spasmed and jarred with a terrifying and excruciating yank; her world reversed suddenly and sickeningly; Harath rolled over and aimed her hefty talon up in a powerful, well-timed strike.

Kira’s alarmed core spun round to join the rest of her churning body; her nauseous eyes witnessed a flurry of feathers ripped from the guard’s leading wing; the pitiful horror that extended across her caprine face.

The guard screeched hideously and flapped her despairing wings as she spiralled down helplessly and disappeared into the jagged mists and swirling rocks below.

The second guard whistled past Kira’s rotating tumbling legs with an angry screech which echoed across the ravine; the sharp, roaring draught of her failed attack blasted into Kira’s face.

She tried hard to catch her startled breath as the guard hissed past and circled off to attack from a different angle.

Her queasy innards lurched again as Harath whirred back over upright and pulled hard for the far cliff.

The booming force of the waterfall grew louder; the stinging air bit harder into her face; a frantic surging effort of speed under the straining canopy of Harath’s majestic wingspan brought her closer to the far cliff, closer to safety.

Her lacerated shoulder jarred and crunched; her aching, miserable bones and sinews cried out with every dragging throb of Harath’s wings.

Her desperate heart lunged with frustrating hope.

They were close.

They might get there.

The guard swooped and darted back towards them, low and hard and fast.

The grey cliff face loomed before them.

The booming water tumbled and thundered over a toothed rocky outcrop.

Harath’s blood seeped down through Kira’s fingers and onto her head; her body trembled and pulsed with straining effort.

The uncompromising guard flashed in through the swirling mist and launched herself at them for a lethal strike.

Harath gave out a painful, frustrated shriek which rent the valley air in two.

Kira’s lurching, wrenching weight suddenly swung high and backwards; the talons ripped from her shredded shoulder as she was tossed violently forward. She screamed as she soared high and helplessly over the jagged rocks, towards the furious water, with only the vacuous air holding her aloft.

Behind her, a squalling sickening thud echoed as the guard cannoned mercilessly into her despairing friend.

Her hollow heart jabbed in fear.

The fatal ravine drifted beneath her; its ravenous gravity growled.

Surely she would die.

The fierce, drenching spray rushed up at her; she closed her eyes tight in terror.

Her distressed dis-oriented senses crashed into the icy, thundering wall of water.

The angry foaming, shifting sheet of liquid tried its best to drag her down the cliff to her dismal death, but the violence of her momentum drove her through the heavy, unwanted water; it choked at her throat and dashed its way up her nose as she careered through into the echoing darkness of the cave beyond.

She pressed her blind feet outwards, hoping to break her fall.

A sharp, jarring pain tore up through her leg as her ankle struck a solid surface and snapped beneath her tumbling weight; the fractured agony shattered up through her shocked body.

For a brief tormented instant her elbows and body collided with something softer that smelt of Aldwyn, before the ugly waves of pain convulsed through her traumatised frame and engulfed her howling mind in writhing agony.

A cold shuddering darkness overtook her as the world fell away - distant and faint and black.