Sabit had been amazed by the speed of her walk from Ghabar to Bahteel. But setting her feet to a run in this bizarre realm set the world iself rushing past her. With the flicker of thought, she was out of Rayshabu’s home, into the streets of Bahteel. A moment later, the city gates lay behind her and she whisked along the road to the left of Mount Irrent. She had barely set her foot upon that twisting roadway when it brought her between the high, thin branches of the tall forest she had seen from the courtyard. Looking over her shoulder, Bahteel looked like some child’s plaything in the mountain’s shadow.
With careful step, Sabit ventured under the leaf-dappled shade of tall, thin leaves. Two deer burst onto the road just before her, vanishing into the underbrush on the other side in a heartbeat. A dozen steps later, another deer sprang from the treeline, its dozen-pointed rack whistling before Sabit’s face. Sabit turned to face the direction the animals were fleeing, lowering her spear..
Not a moment too soon.
From the underbrush charged a huge boar, easily twice Sabit’s size. It’s razor-sharp tusks sliced the air as Sabit leapt aside. A thin stripe of pain blazed along her side where the tusks had grazed her.
The boar circled for another charge. This time, Sabit was able to position her spear to catch the beast as it lunged. She sank the iron tip deep into its shoulder, but the raging beast still pushed toward her. Sabit could see that the wound was mortal, but the beast would not die quickly. The crash of its tusks against her spear showed her that it was ready to score one more kill before it dropped.
The impact yanked Sabit’s spear from her grasp, one of her fingers badly cut by the boar’s sharp tusk. Sabit leapt away from the raging boar, clinging to the trunk of a young tree. She pulled herself above the reach of the beast’s deadly tusks, struggling to keep her grip with her bleeding left hand.
Looking up at its elusive quarry, the boar set its tusks to the roots of the young tree. Great clumps of dark earth flew from the ground with each toss of its massive head. The tree trunk began to lean under Sabit’s weight. Even as she climbed, the tree tipped faster, roots snapping under the weight. Sabit looked around frantically, but all the other tree trunks were too far for a leap. The ground rushed up toward her. The boar dragged itself beneath her, its tusks sharp and ready.
At the last moment, Sabit leapt away from the boar. Her hand slipped on the blood-slick tree bark. She landed clumsily in the leaf litter, her ankle twisting beneath her. Sabit tried to stand.
Not fast enough.
The boar hobbled toward her, tusks shining, lips covered in pink froth. Its breath reeked of Sabit’s death.
Thwock.
The boar collapsed.
An arrow’s black fletching protruded from its great eye, the shaft buried so deep that it seemed that a bird had come to rest on the boar’s cheek.
“Not your best day, Sabit,” came a woman’s voice from the woods. “Not that I mind. No matter how many times I save your skin I never tire of hearing you offer your humblest gratitude.”
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Wayfarings of Sabit: Chains is copyright (c) 2018 by Michael S. Miller. All rights reserved. New chapters post every Thursday (and the occasional Monday). You can support this and other stories on Patreon: https://patreon.com/michaelsmiller Find more sword and sorcery fiction at http://ipressgames.com/fiction/.