moRe: P for Pleistocene: Making allies...
Much revision later, there's this...
(I'm up to file version Pleisto_0070q ;-)
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"Is that a youngster between them ?" Sue pointed.
"Yes." O nodded. "I can see a small trunk, ears."
"And in the grass ?" I had to ask.
Sue took a few moments to decide. "Wolves, I'm sure."
"Wolves," O agreed.
"Diamond up," I directed. Spears levelled, we advanced at a brisk walk.
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If they'd mobbed us, we would have been over-run. Instead, most circled while the boldest cut in to slash at our legs.
Theirs was a good plan, but we'd changed the paradigm.
"Yah !" Yelled O. His huge reach stabbed the super-spear into the lead wolf's flank. The shaft twisted as he clung to it. The tubular head screwed deep into his target's guts. It drew an eldritch shriek. Bright blood spurted.
I'd a wolf of my own. I stabbed at his skull. He swerved. My strike raked his right shoulder. I snatched the spear back, drove down, two-handed. The blade's tip hooked into the wolf's back. It chewed through muscle, caught on a rib. He spun, yowling. I almost lost my grip as the shaft's leverage parted his ribs. The blade suddenly sank several inches. It must have hurt. He shrieked, pulled away and kept going.
To my left, O's wolf had staggered a few yards, collapsed panting. That glance was my lot. A strong, young wolf tried to slip under my guard. I dropped the spear-point into the back of his neck. The blade lifted a curl of flesh, caught in the shoulder joint. Somehow, I held the shaft against that shock. I barely kept the wolf at bay. Our battle stirred the shaft. The point slipped from the shoulder. It stabbed deeper. The wolf yowled and fled, tail between legs.
Another yowl came from my right. Sue's spear was on target. Ripped from muzzle to ear, a large, grey male recoiled. Sue drew back, struck again. The point lodged between his ribs. She leaned into the spear. It bowed, but kept him at arm's length. Between jabbing at flankers, I lashed out with my super-spear. It gouged a bloody flap from his haunch. Chastised, he retreated to lick his wounds.
I'd no time to watch; I had incoming. I slammed my spear into the next wolf's shoulder. He kept on. I twisted as hard as I could. The curved point chewed ligament, hit bone. Maimed, that wolf fell back, limped away.
To my left, O wrought havoc on his second wolf. He'd pinned the screaming animal with his spear. He was winding the point into its side. Sue fenced another, drawing fresh blood with each rapid thrust.
A scarred, one-eared wolf tried to cut between me and Sue. I lodged my spear in its back, forced it down. The wolf still tried to reach us. He kept pushing. I clung to the shaft, worked it left and right. The raw pole slowly slipped through my desperate grip. Those open jaws were barely a foot from my legs. The wolf's rear suddenly toppled onto the bloody grass. Had the burrowing point hit a nerve ? The spear's shaft kicked against my failing hold. Leverage wrenched the buried point sideways. The stricken wolf shrieked, went into spasm. I tugged out my spear, rammed it into his neck. I twisted the shaft, twisted again. At last, I hit something vital. The wolf collapsed, twitched several times, fell still.
I spared a glimpse for Dave, who was chanting, "Sh**t ! Sh**t ! Sh**t !" He'd switched to his second spear, was furiously jabbing at flankers. His dropped catcher's serrated jaws had a frantic wolf-bitch by her left leg. The central nail was chewing her calf. Desperately trying to bite her strange, snaky attacker, every twist and turn made her injury worse.
Sue's wolf came my way. I thrust. My spear point found its shoulder, skidded off bone and gouged its back. My second blow took a deep bite from its thigh. Sue's swift strike on its muzzle convinced it to retreat.
O's victim was down in a pool of spilled blood and guts. He was eyeing a third. I jabbed at a flanker's hip, then another's neck, drawing blood both times. Then I levelled my spear at the next, a big, black male.
As this wolf snarled his intent, I feinted towards his eyes. The wolf snapped at the spear-head, clunked teeth on the steel. He knew only wood and tusks and frangible bone; Surprised and hurt, he eased the pressure of his broken bite. I did not waste the chance. I tugged the shaft slightly, twisted, thrust. The bevelled steel blade bounced off the wolf's inner jaws. It lanced down his throat, ripping gullet and windpipe. Maddened, the wolf still snapped at the spear. I leaned on the flailing shaft. The steel blade dug deeper and deeper. At last, drowned in his own blood, the big wolf stilled.
I worked my spear clear, risked a hasty side-scan. O's badly injured third was wisely retreating. Dave's first wolf had now escaped its trap, had fled. As Dave parried a dark flanker, Sue drove her point into its ribs. Outnumbered, the wolf retreated widdershins. I feinted a thrust. The thwarted wolf continued to retreat, snarling its fury.
"She's behind you !" Sue called, lightly. The dark wolf turned too late. A grey hill loomed. Momma elephant's right tusk connected. Tossed six feet, half-stunned and whimpering, the battered wolf began to crawl away. Turning, the irate elephant drove her long tusks down, ended its cries.
Faced with a combined defence, the remaining wolves scattered. One was too slow. The adolescent's short, vicious charge spun it into Momma's path. A huge tusk scythed across, connected hard. The wolf tumbled, lay twitching. Momma balefully placed a vast foot on her victim, pressed. Ribs snapped and crunched, life ebbed.
"Road-kill !" Dave whispered, awed.
