[As Liem twists around on his perch, one hand gripping the girth fastened around Hayame’s ribs, he sees the creature dig its limb into the trunk of one nearby tree—and then disappear inside, as if stepping through a door. He feels his skin go cold beneath the padded leather of his armour as he whirls around to bark:]
It’s gone inside the trees—
[And he lurches forward, bowing over her back like a windblown reed as she stumbles hard against a tree trunk. The forest has come alive around them, and it seems hell-bent on hunting them both down. Liem levers himself upright again until he can see over her ducked shoulders, eyes darting about in search of the source of that howling, that dreadful, unremitting howling—
He finds it when the monster begins to haul itself out of a tree directly ahead, one clawed limb still gripping the bark as it reaches the other toward them both. Liem doesn’t curse; he just throws himself flat against Hayame’s spine, hissing as the roots glance hard off his shoulder and rip the cloak from his back. It hurts like a bastard even through the armour, but adrenaline absorbs the shock of the impact and he forces himself up again as they flash past, pulling the arrow from his bow hand to draw it back and send it racing at the creature’s skull.]
no subject
It’s gone inside the trees—
[And he lurches forward, bowing over her back like a windblown reed as she stumbles hard against a tree trunk. The forest has come alive around them, and it seems hell-bent on hunting them both down. Liem levers himself upright again until he can see over her ducked shoulders, eyes darting about in search of the source of that howling, that dreadful, unremitting howling—
He finds it when the monster begins to haul itself out of a tree directly ahead, one clawed limb still gripping the bark as it reaches the other toward them both. Liem doesn’t curse; he just throws himself flat against Hayame’s spine, hissing as the roots glance hard off his shoulder and rip the cloak from his back. It hurts like a bastard even through the armour, but adrenaline absorbs the shock of the impact and he forces himself up again as they flash past, pulling the arrow from his bow hand to draw it back and send it racing at the creature’s skull.]