Imdiately, both figures vanished from sight.
"Lavayla!" Ressha scread her na again, panic tearing through her voice as she rushed toward the broken edge of the cliff. She barely reached it before the Skystalker’s screech split the air once more.
The flying beast wheeled sharply, its four wings cutting through the sky as its gaze locked onto the remaining figures on the ridge. The loss of its prey and the interruption caused by Lavayla’s scream had driven it into a frenzy. In its mind, this was revenge.
With a violent beat of its wings, the Skystalker dove.
The Shadow Claw tribe reacted instantly.
Dark, Tharn, Voss, and the others spread out and took defensive positions, weapons raised, claws bared. They attacked the mont the beast entered range, but the disadvantage was obvious. The Skystalker was not only massive and powerful, but cunning, and most importantly, airborne.
Every ti they struck upward, it pulled away just out of reach. Then it would swoop back down, wings slicing through the air like blades, claws raking, beak snapping with lethal precision. There was no safe angle. Every part of the beast was a weapon, and even experienced beastn were forced into constant retreat.
Above, the ridge echoed with roars and the clash of combat.
Below, the Ember Stripe tribe tried to push forward.
They had seen Mirek roll away with Lavayla, had seen the fight unfold on the cliff, but they could not break away. The surrounding beasts still pressed in on them, forcing them to fight on multiple fronts. There was no opening, no chance to pursue.
So they changed tactics.
The restraint they had maintained shattered.
With a collective surge of killing intent, the Ember Stripe warriors unleashed everything they had. No more holding back. No more conserving strength. Claws tore and beasts died in rapid succession.
An hour and a half later, silence returned to the canyon floor.
Every beast lay dead.
Those that had charged, those that had lurked near the canyon walls and those that had tried to flee. The River Canyon was no longer a battlefield. It had beco a graveyard. Blood soaked into stone and earth alike, the heavy scent of copper and salt clinging stubbornly to the air.
Then they looked up.
On the ridge above, the Shadow Claw tribe was still fighting.
Their movents were slower now. Blood stained fur and stone. Several warriors carried visible injuries. anwhile, the Skystalker, though wounded, still dominated the sky, its form steady, its shrieks sharp with rage.
Khor and Zuran exchanged a look.
"What do you think we should do?" Zuran asked quietly.
Khor’s expression darkened. The image of the human’s shout echoed in his mind. She had saved Mirek. Mirek had saved her. And now both had disappeared before their eyes.
They still had Mirek to find. And now, whether they liked it or not, they were tied to what was happening on that cliff. The human had been with Mirek. That alone made this their problem.
"We can’t ignore this," Khor said at last. "We need to help them."
Vajaf scanned the canyon walls, his gaze sharp. "Is there a way up there?"
Raitum shook his head. "I don’t think so. The walls are steep, and the shale is loose. Even coming down would be dangerous. Climbing back up is worse. There are no solid handholds." He paused. "There’s a small chance they could descend sohow, but not directly into this canyon."
"There has to be another route. They ca from sowhere. Even if it doesn’t lead here, it has to exist. But that doesn’t solve the problem in front of us." Frowning, Zuran ran a hand through his cropped hair; It was shaggy to the touch, but that was better to him than the hassle of long hair. Honestly, he didn’t understand how Mirek coped with such long hair while taking care of it.
His eyes lifted back to the sky. "That beast is going to kill them if this keeps going."
"Maybe if Mirek were here, he’d just jump up there," Nate muttered with a dry chuckle. The humor did nothing to hide the worry in his eyes.
Kivia snorted as she wiped blood from her arm with a clump of dry grass. "You’re all thinking too hard. You can’t climb, but you can talk. Just shout instructions at them. That’s what the human did, wasn’t it?"
Zuran froze.
Then his eyes lit up. "She’s right."
He stepped forward, gaze tracking the Skystalker’s movents. "We can see things they can’t. When it banks, its underbelly is exposed. From their angle, they won’t notice it, but we will."
Above, the fight worsened.
Dark swung his bone knife in a wide arc, but the Skystalker caught a rising current and lifted out of range. The blade cut only air. The beast screeched, sounding like grinding tal, and dove again. One wing clipped Tharn’s shoulder, tearing flesh and sending blood spraying across the stone.
"It’s too fast!" Tharn growled, staggering back.
Near the edge, Ressha stood frozen, grief and fear choking her chest. Lavayla was gone. And now her brothers were being hunted by sothing they could barely touch.
Then a roar thundered up from below.
"Hey!"
Khor’s voice bood through the canyon, magnified by stone. "WHEN IT DIVES, DROP TO YOUR KNEES! IT CAN’T ADJUST FAST ENOUGH! STRIKE THE BELLY AS IT PASSES!"
Dark’s ears flicked.
He did not know the Ember Stripe warriors, but combat logic was universal. He locked eyes with Vors and Tharn and gave a sharp nod.
The Skystalker circled again, wings beating heavily. It spotted Ressha near the edge and folded its wings, diving like a living spear.
"NOW!" Khor roared.
Instead of running, Dark and Vors lunged toward Ressha.
At the last possible mont, they dropped flat against the stone.
The Skystalker shot over them, missing by inches.
Dark drove his knife upward. Vors leapt with his claws.
Flesh tore.
A wet, ripping sound echoed through the canyon as they ripped into the pale, vulnerable underside of the beast.
The Skystalker scread, the sound breaking into a choking gurgle. It did not fall, but its flight twisted, blood spilling freely as it spiraled away from the ridge, wings flailing as it fled toward the far side of the canyon.
Silence followed.
Dark stood slowly, chest heaving, his eyes imdiately snapping to the broken edge of the cliff.
Below, Khor stepped forward into the center of the canyon floor and looked up.
Across an impossible distance, the two tribes t each other’s gazes.
The tension in the air was so thick it felt no different from the heavy, tallic scent of blood lingering in the canyon. Above, the Shadow Claw tribe stood on the brink of grief. Below, the Ember Stripe warriors remained surrounded by a field of fallen beasts, their presence alone radiating pressure.
"We will move forward and et at the narrowing!" Khor’s voice thundered once more as he pointed north, toward where the canyon walls pressed closer together. "There is a lower ridge there. You can descend, and we can climb!"
Dark gave a single, decisive nod in acknowledgnt. He did not waste words. The wind was already shifting, carrying the faint scent of approaching scavengers. Turning, he faced his tribe, his gaze settling on Ressha.
She was still staring into the abyss, her hands trembling at her sides.
"Ressha," Dark said, his tone unexpectedly gentle. "She saved him. If anyone can survive a fall, it is soone from the Ember Stripe Tribe. We move now."
The journey toward the eting point was silent.
The Shadow Claw tribe moved along narrow paths and unstable stone, while below, the Ember Stripe warriors advanced through the canyon floor. For the Ember Stripe, their salt bundles were tied to their tribe’s survival through winter, so they carried them with care despite exhaustion.
By nightfall, both groups reached the place known as the Joint.
It was where an ancient rockslide had reshaped the canyon, forming a slanted stretch of stone that served as a natural ramp. It was far from safe, but it was passable.
As the Shadow Claw tribe descended the final stretch of loose shale, they were t head-on by the oppressive heat and aggression radiating from the Ember Stripe warriors. Up close, the tiger beastn were even more intimidating. They were larger than most beastn, their builds dense and powerful, eyes burning with restless, volatile energy. Walls of muscle, Lavayla would have called them.
Khor stepped forward, his height nearly matching Dark’s. He did not extend a hand. Instead, he offered a grim look of mutual respect.
"The human," Khor began, his voice low and rumbling. "Where did she co from? She has no beast scent, yet she noticed the Skystalker before we did."
"She is Lavayla," Ressha said sharply, stepping forward despite the pressure radiating from the tiger warriors. Her fear was outweighed by sothing fiercer. "She is part of the Shadow Claw tribe. A healer. She is the reason my brothers are standing here alive."
Zuran, the scout, tilted his head thoughtfully. "A healer?" His gaze darkened. "Mirek took a heavy blow before he jumped. If that is true, then his chances are better than we feared."
"We found the trail," Raitum called out, crouching near the edge of a side ravine. He pointed toward broken brush and disturbed stone. "They rolled. Far and Deep. The tracks lead toward the lower basin. The place of the mist."
Dark lifted his eyes to the darkening sky, his expression grim.
"The basin is a maze," he said quietly. "If the Skystalker still lives, it will look for the easiest prey. But it is badly injured." He paused. "We will not search in the dark. We move at first light."
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