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His felt his leg spas exciteht it odd that they hadn’t carried those tools last night Even more curious was the fact that they seehtly under taut green flesh Tattoos as ferocious as their weaponry ran up and down their bodies in alternating hoops, jagged bands and cat-like strips of red and black ink Still, it wasn’t until Lenk noticed the space under their long snouts that the realisation dawned upon him
‘Beardless,’ he whispered ‘These aren’t the same ones’
‘These are warriors Look at the way they move’
Lenk took note immediately No step was uncalculated, no ae of the Nag with gazes far ht
Killers’ gazes, Lenk thought They can ser for it They’re violent, bloodthirsty creatures His grin grew so large that he had to bite his lower lip to stifle it Gods, but they’re going to kill hten around the scrub grass in ecstasy If the voice could feel the plants, too, it made no indication
‘That one,’ it muttered ‘The one with the bow That’s the leader’
Scarcely a revelation That one lingered behind the three others with the cool casualness of coilance Its polished black bow hung off its shoulder with the easy relationship of adoubt was quickly dispelled by the fact that its tattoos covered more of its flesh than any other lizard present
‘Cho-a?’ it called out, apparent disinterest in its voice
‘Na-ah!’ One of them, the one that had first arrived, looked up with a snarl ‘Man-eh shii ko ah okah!’
‘Shaa,’ the leader said, waving its scaly hand It jerked its head back toward the ridge they had coeh ah Shalake Na-ah man-eh hakaa’
The other two lizarde with nods They grunted once, then stalked away fro behind it The leader sighed and folded its arms over its inked chest as it stared at the obstinate one expectantly
‘Mad-eh kawa yo!’ it snarled, jerking its head back to the ridge ‘Kawa!’
‘Sia-ah!’ the other one hissed, scanning the wreckage with desperate intensity ‘Shii ko a itated,’ Lenk whispered, unconsciously slithering a little closer He eyed the quiver of brightly coloured arrows hanging off the leader’s back and his voice took on a hysterical edge ‘Absolutely irate, even How close do you think we’d have to be?’
‘For what?’
‘For hiht betweennow, look’
Lenk bit back a despairing shriek, or it was bitten back for hi save for the fact that the insistent lizard- dejected, it turned to go and follow the leader back up the ridge
Until soht its eye
‘Yes,’ Lenk squealed, ‘yes, yes!’
‘No!’ the voice countered with a chilling anger
Lenk followed the creature’s yellow gaze past the gutted ti crabs, onto the moist sand
To the perfectly preserved indentation of his footprint
‘Don’t move,’ the voice warned ‘They haven’t seen us yet’
‘Well, we can fix that’
‘No! DO NOT--’
The voice’s cohter Its control vanished in a fevered surge as Lenk rose to his feet He spread his ar in the sunlight and catching the attention of the creatures below
Frolireen protrusions Murals of blood and steel and teeth stretched from brow to backbone
The obstinate one pointed a scaly finger up, opened its jaws in a shriek
‘MAN-EH!’
‘Yes, yes!’ Lenk cried back ‘Welcoentle weapons, we can finally get down to the gritty process of spilling uts onto the dirt!’
‘This isn’t your decision!’
‘You keep saying that, but here I a his bow, nocked and drew back an arrow in short order ‘If it makes you feel any better, you can say it was your decision’
‘Down, fool!’
It was not a suggestion Lenk’s legs gave out thehu curse as the arrow shrieked just over his face His hand seized up, clenching his sword as he tumbled down the dune and onto the beach
‘No le of sand and steel, ‘noto be a bit h his feet as he cla clawed toes kicking up earth as it shot toward hiht have had for a fond relative, as he looked up at the ridge
He did not have to wait long
‘SHENKO-SA!’
The war cry came on the eruption of sand and a shiny e over the dune For an instant, Lenk saw thein the creature’s war club, the enraged circle of its stare, the tensing oing to be good’
‘No,’ the voice uttered ‘Fight’
‘I don’t want to’ The protest of Lenk’s voice was a sentiardless ‘I want to die’
‘Fight,’ the voice coainst the creature, which slid down the dune in a cloud of sand and screa its club in wide circles over its head Lenk watched the tattooed flesh, saw thehis own bloody demise
‘FIGHT!’
‘I don’t--’
Lenk did
His sword jerked up spastically, was seized in hands not his own The club sputtered a spray of splinters as it bit the blade, steel grinding against teeth Lenk felt the shock rattle down his are Gouts of fire lanced his leg as he felt hi pushed backwards