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He felt a bite on his far rear leg The second dog danced away as Auron spun to face it He dashed toward it, and it turned tail and ran, giving the other canine the opportunity to leap on him from behind
As thedrew his attention as the other bit at his backside The dogs did not fight like wolves; neither did anything more than bite hied was to get atired fros
Another horn call shook Auron frohts One man moved to throw one of his spear, but another put a hand on his ars Auron couldn’t flee cross-country, so he fled upward, cli ju to the branches He was treed The dogs began barking, standing on their hind legs with front paws on the trunk of the tree, slobbering ood for you," Auron growled down to theainst his crest in warning
"Caught! Treed! Caught! Treed!" the larger barked back
The men approached and spread the run The one who tried to throw his spear earlier released it this time, but Auron shifted his body, and the weapon only took a piece out of the pine
The hed and taunted his frustrated fellow hunter There was no telling what the iven time Blood trickled fro dogs below Auron calculated distances, shifting his head side to side as he triangulated He sprang fro mountain h--Auron landed full atop hi up his spear The pair rolled down the hill
They fetched up against a rock, Auron’s supple frame bruised, but the man’s broken The mountain man cursed and waved his arms, but his oddly twisted torso would not e The man still drew a knife froo with Father He knocked the weapon aith his tail and tore at thebut his own pain, Auron jumped atop the rock that had stopped their roll
The strickenBoth threw spears, but Auron slipped behind the rock and watched with only his eyes and crest showing as the s ran as close together as if they were harnessed, bloody ht with the hunt Auron tensed, raised his neck, and threw his head forward, hurling fire at the oncooing downhill Thebehind threw themselves on their faces The liquid fire fell well short of them, but it had its desired effect: by the tis following, Auron’s escape went better By the ti the floor of the valley He ran into the woods and went to a fallen tree He panted froue probed the wounds I’ their co his blood trail He heard their voices and footsteps Auron shifted hi ain
He watched the the tree trunk close One of the round after etching so away the carpet of pine needles He hung his fur hat from it Some kind of pre-battle ritual? His companion stood ready and ith spear raised over his shoulder
Unlike the dogs, the ht of his half-closed eye Auron scra both fro He ju by the throat as his saa dug in to flesh Auron was heavier and stronger now He tore theman’s hip bones, toes well inside the soft stos fro a loop of innard wrapped around his ankle as he turned toward the last --spear ready to throw He saw his eviscerated friend and let out a choking cry Auron gathered for a leap The hunter threw his spear Auron ducked, and it clattered off the one armored piece of his body: his crest The man turned and fled The spear’s impact hurt Auron’s ears and jaw, but he jumped after the man nonetheless He bounded to the tree trunk and leaped in pursuit of his erstwhile hunter, but thehim down in the first dash, and the man soon outdistanced hih to finish the entire corpse, but stopped after consu e, seeking the heart, he reons, who can’t fly at their need He left without eating another bite
Auron wished he knew more of men He looked at the branch stuck in the dirt, the hat, and the sign beneath, but could ement Was this a on Nor was it an ie of a face, as he had seen on Father’s coins, or even that wizard’s cursed circle He somehow felt it was a threat, so he knocked over the stick and rubbed out the mark