Quintessential Tales: A Magic of Solendrea Anthology Read Free

spine, puffed out in all directions. Triangular ears were laid back along the skull, orange eyes, like burning embers, were slit by a slash of vertical black. Jaws half-open, exposing long fangs, it spit and hissed at Torus as it circled.
    None of this worried Royce so much as the three inch claws that tipped each finger. They were matte black and didn't reflect much light. They were also sharp as daggers. Royce's commune with the Quintessential Sphere hadn't been sufficiently dulled so as to prevent him from recognizing the danger Torus was in. If he stumbled or faltered in any way, those claws would make short work of his friend.
    "Captain!" he grunted, feigning a lunge with his plank and driving back the beast with a renewed round of snarling and spitting.
    "I see it."
    "Do something!"
    Torus wasn't prone to panic. They'd been together on enough fields of battle that Royce knew being caught off guard had set his Lieutenant on edge. The only problem was that there wasn't much Royce could do about it. With both legs out of commission, the best he could do was drag himself through the sand on his elbows.
    Without a second thought, Royce took a handful of sand and threw it, willing it toward the creature's eyes. The grit went wide, but the thing twitched its whiskers and bounded backward. Torus was quick to leap on the momentary advantage. He drove himself across the sand, grunting each time he came down on his bad ankle. Through the grace of the Eternals, the joint held, and Torus lowered his shoulder, slamming into the creature's midriff. Breath whooshed out of it as Torus drove it to the ground, grabbing its wrists and forcing them down, keeping the deadly claws at bay.
    Royce had just a moment to consider how lucky they were, when movement from the edge of the beach caught his eye. Two more of the feline creatures were closing on them. One was a larger specimen, mottled with black and yellow fur. The other was smaller, more slender, patched in white and gray.
    "Torus, look out!"
    The cry of warning came a moment too late. As Torus's head snapped up, a huge hand caught him by the chin, flipping him up and back from the supine form of the creature that he'd managed to lay out. Torus landed in the scattered wood of the hut, groaned once, then was still. The orange and white beast that Torus had tackled regained its feet with a grace that Royce would have envied in any other circumstance. A furry fist caught Royce in the temple and the world went dark.
     
    ~
     
    Royce was getting tired of getting knocked out. Dull throbbing at the base of his skull told him, in no uncertain terms, that his body didn't much care for it either. He kept his eyes closed, instead focusing on only what he could hear. It was quiet, save for the soft crackling of a fire. The roar of the crashing waves was gone, replaced with the chirruping of crickets and the faint rustle of small animals moving through the underbrush. Wherever they'd been taken, it was a decent distance inland from the beach where they'd landed.
    He opened his eyes and took stock of his predicament. Royce was in a cage that swung sedately about ten feet above and to one side of the fire. The cage was crafted of reeds about as thick as his wrist and lashed top, middle, and bottom with stout vines. With no blade, there was little chance of him getting free of his confinement. A glance across the clearing told him Torus was in the same kind of trouble. His huge frame was doubled over in the cage. Fortunately, he seemed to be still unconscious. When he awoke, Torus would be rather uncomfortable. If he lived that long.
    Three huge shapes crashed into the clearing around the fire. Six eyes gleamed in the firelight, looking first at Royce's cage, then at Torus's. The feline creatures spoke amongst themselves, the conversation consisting of a series of mewls, spits, and hissing growls. It was impossible to guess what they were saying. From their statures and body language, Royce could only