"Come on!" Alam shouted to Frost. Her feet scrambled to get a hold on the gravely wall of the pit.

Tajar loosed an arrow. The hellcat hissed as it sunk deep into its shoulder. The beast bounded forward roaring. Prall broke out laughing as he launched himself towards it. His sword flashed in the sun. 

Frost got her second hand to the handle. Alam bellowed as he pulled with all his might. 

The beast opened its mouth to catch Prall. The big man avoided the jaws by swerving to the left. He swung his blade with both hands. It sunk deep into its side. The hellcat screamed. Tajar's second arrow struck its arm. The beast swiped at Prall with a clawed paw the size of a wagon wheel. The paw hit him in the chest. He was smashed him into a column and collapsed to the dirt.

Alam gave a final heave and Frost scrambled to the surface. They turned towards the hellcat only twenty paces away.

In front of it Prall was dazed. The beast had no trouble. It snapped up Prall in its jaws and shook him savagely.

"Prall!" Frost screamed.

Tajar's third arrow took the beast in the chest.

It bit down. Bones cracked. Blood spilled from its mouth. Prall's sword fell. A fourth arrow struck. It continued to shake Prall while biting down. Prall's torso separated from his legs with a spray of red and fell from the beast's mouth. It thudded sickeningly on the ground.

"No," Alam gasped.

Fury flooded into him. Somehow he controlled it, contained it. Frost was motionless with shock, staring at the beast with Prall's leg's in it's mouth. Alam grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards opening they had come from.

"Run! Come on Tajar!"

With superhuman calmness Tajar fired at the beast as he walked backwards towards Alam and Frost. The beast flinched as arrow after arrow found its mark. It growled, turned and retreated with Prall's legs still in its mouth.

Somehow the training that Chief Urlock had drilled into him overrode Alam's emotions.

Win the day. Then we grieve.

Tajar's face was stern but controlled. "What next?" Tajar asked.

"We kill it," replied Alam. "Frost, are you alright?"

She was shaking and breathing fast. Her face was pale.

"I'm fine," she said.

"You don't look fine," Alam replied.

"Half my arrows are gone," said Tajar. "And it didn't seem to feel the ones that hit."

"If it bleeds it can be killed, and Prall got a good blow in before his end. Let's move." Alam started pulling Frost along. She pulled her arm from his grasp.

"You two are too loud! It will have no problem finding and killing us all," she spat and set off in front at speed.

Alam spared a moment to look up at the spectators for a clue of the beast's location. All were watching the prisoners.

Strange. I had completely blocked them and the drums out.

Frost reached an intersection. She looked both ways and then quickly back at Alam and Tajar. Her eyes were wide and dilated. She was breathing fast. Before they caught up with her she shot around the corner and was gone from sight. Alam and Tajar reached the corner. She was sprinting away. Alam just barely saw her duck into an opening some fifteen  paces away.

"Frost!" he hissed. "Slow down!"

"She's going to get herself killed," muttered Tajar.

The two friends ran after her as quietly as they could, but Alam was again aware of the metallic shaking his chain shirt made with each step. Alam poked his head around the corner while Tajar made sure they were safe behind.

"I can't see her," Alam whispered.

"What? She's gone?" hissed Tajar.

"Damn!" muttered Alam.

"She's abandoned us! The selfish witch!" spat Tajar. "She's trying to sneak out and leave us to die!".

"Let's go," Alam said. He gripped his axe tighter and felt a strange flutter of power pulse through it and up his arms. Before he took a step Tajar stopped him.

"Do you know what direction you're heading in?"

"No," confessed Alam.

"Then I'll lead." He looked to the ground. "Let's follow Frost. After all she was kind enough to leave a trail for us."

Alam could see slight scuffing on the ground but they were hardly a 'trail'.

They crept back and forth along twisting corridors of rough stone for a long minutes. All sense of direction was lost for Alam. Another bestial scream pierced the air. Alam pulled his attention to the crowd and saw the people above them quickly moving towards the mountain and pointing at something in front of them. Ahead of them they heard heavy feet pounding the ground. Over the noise of the crowd the beast hissed. They were close.

"Faster!" shouted Alam. He started running towards where he thought the sounds were coming from.

"No! This way!" said Tajar and headed down another passage. They were spiraling inwards. They ran past an opening on their right. Alam glimpsed beyond it a circular chamber with a pedestal in the centre of it. A glass flask was sitting on top. A snarl brought his attention back in front. It was very close. Tajar stopped and pressed himself to the wall near an opening on the left. He pulled his bow string back and nodded at Alam. Alam let the fury fill him. The axe again pulsed strangely in his hand.

He threw himself around the corner. It was a short dead end. The beast's back was to him. It was crouched, pacing back and forth, preparing to pounce. Beyond it Frost was cornered. She held her knife in front of her. It was dripping red. Her side, similarly was red where it had been gashed by claws. She swayed as if dizzy. As her feet faltered the hellcat's paw lashed out. She did not even move. The claws slammed into her side, throwing her down.

Alam roared and gave himself to the fury. An arrow flew past his shoulder and struck the beast's back. Alam launched himself into the air. The beast turned to its new foe.

"Die!" Alam shouted. His axe seemed alive with power. He swung it overhead. It bit deep into the creature's side. It screamed in pain and spun to face him. Frost had not fallen easily. An ugly, dripping gash ran across its face - including a now sightless eye.

With frightening speed the creature's head lunged forward and caught Alam around the right shoulder. The armour held most of the damage, but searing pain shot across his chest. He cried out and released his right hand from the axe. As the creature began to lift him Alam swung the axe left handed into its neck. It was a weak blow. The teeth tightened on him and continued to lift. He heard, and felt, a rib crack. Below and to his right another arrow struck the hellcat's chest. Followed by another. The beast shook him like a dog with a rabbit. Alam flew out of its jaw and smacked into the stone wall. Air was knocked out of his lungs. His vision began closing down.

No! No! Not now!

He shook his head and drove himself through pure willpower to stand. His right arm was useless. Through blurred vision he saw Tajar ducking and weaving in front of it. His sword flashing forward. The beast was wary, batting and swiping to keep him at bay. Alam took a deep breath and leapt at it. He swung his axe up. It raked against the beast's ribs, peeling skin back. The pain of movement made him dizzy. He collapsed with spots in front of his eyes. A heavy clawed foot pinned him to the ground. His axe clattered away.

This is a good death.

His eyes were drawn to movement near its rear. Impossibly, somehow Frost was up. The beast was distracted, swiping at Tajar whose arm was cut and dripping. Frost took her long knife in both hands and plunged it between ribs and ripped it down. The creature screamed and pulled away growling. It lifted its paw off Alam and scrambled clumsily over the top of the wall closest to Tajar. Half of the wall collapsed under its weight as it fled.

The exertion and loss of blood was too much for Frost. She tumbled lifeless to the ground.

Alam took quick breaths and lurched unsteadily to his feet. The world swayed and he found himself back on his knees. Tajar rushed to support him.

"How bad are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Is Frost still alive?" asked Alam.

"I don't really care."

"Yes you do." He crawled over to her and put his ear to her mouth.

Breathing, but barely.

"I saw the flask Kirill mentioned just back there," Alam pointed. "She needs it fast."

"Forget it. She abandoned us. You need it."

"Fine. I'll go get it." Alam picked up his axe and stood up.

"You stubborn idiot! I'll get it. You'll just pass out." Tajar picked up Frost's knife so he had a weapon in each hand and padded away.

Alam had no idea how long he had blacked out when Tajar shook him. "Here, drink this." Before Alam could fathom what was happening Tajar had poured half of the liquid into his mouth. Alam clamped his mouth shut.

"You're spilling it!" Tajar scolded.

Alam grabbed the flask from Tajar and shuffled over to Frost. He opened her mouth and poured the second half of the flask's contents into her mouth and raised her head so she could swallow. Miraculously he saw her throat move, followed by a bloody cough.

She will need all of it.

He put his mouth over hers and dribbled the contents in his mouth into hers. She swallowed more easily this time.

"What an idiot," said Tajar. "She wouldn't have done the same for you!"

"What does that have to do with it?" asked Alam. A tingling, prickling sensation spread through his chest. He felt his broken rib moving inside him, trying to set itself. Before it could finish the prickling stopped.

"I must have swallowed some. I'm feeling a little better."

"Now you're an idiot and a liar," said Tajar.

Frost stirred, then groaned, then cried out, then screamed, writhing on the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with her? Is it poison?" Tajar asked.

Alam could see her shredded skin beneath the ripped clothes close together in seconds. There was still blood all over her but the wounds closed.

Alam stood back up without feeling dizzy. "Can you walk?" he asked her. She nodded and slowly got on her feet.

"You saved my life," she said uncertainly.

"Twice," Tajar jabbed two fingers towards her. "But don't blame me, it was his idea." He pointed at Alam.

She gaped at him.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." Alam picked up his axe lightheaded.

"We can't," said Tajar. "We have to kill it. Kirill said we have to kill it to get out."

Alam's shoulders slumped. "I don't think I have the strength."

"It's wounded. It has fled. We need to hunt it while it's scared," said Tajar.

"Fine. Lead on. Frost, are you going to help or run?"

"I repay my debts," she said and started following Tajar on unsteady feet.

"We don't need her," Tajar said. "She'll just run again."

"No she won't," Alam said.

Tajar tossed her knife to the ground in front of her in disgust. "Don't stab me with it."

Tajar had no problem following the drops of blood the beast left behind. Alam and Frost had to cling to each other as they stumbled forward. Alam's vision swam before him, and Frost kept collapsing as they walked. They found the hellcat wide eyed and panting in a shadow-filled passage at the base of the Shattered Mountains. One of its back legs was slack. Its fur was shiny with blood and riddled with Tajar's arrows.

"It'll be dead soon," said Tajar. "It's bleeding too much."

"I'll do it," said Alam. It extended its claws and bared its teeth as he approached and managed to raise itself onto its two front legs. Even in its weakened state it was terrifying at full height. But after a few seconds it collapsed. "What's the fastest way, Tajar?"

"The neck, if you can reach it."

The beast's fight was gone. Alam raised his axe in his left hand. There was no thrill of power from the axe this time. With all the strength he could muster he brought it down.

Around the pit the crowd exploded into cheering and hooting. Looking down on the dead beast Alam felt a confusing mixture of relief that it was over, satisfaction for revenging Prall's death, and pity for the creature. Frost felt no such gentle emotions. She set a foot against its jaw, grabbed a long tooth in both hands and pulled. It took a while but she would not be turned away. Eventually she worked the fang out of the beast's mouth. She then spat on its face.

"Why take the tooth?" Alam asked.

"I intend to give it to someone," she said.

The three survivors retraced their steps back through the maze and collected the remnants of Prall's body. It was a grisly task. Alam's stomach pumped but he managed to stop himself throwing up by looking at sky. They then stumbled their way through the maze towards the exit.

"Hang on," said Tajar. He scrambled up the nearest wall and peered around. "There is something I don't understand."

"What's that?" asked Alam.

"Why did the hellcat stay in the maze? There are signs everywhere that it has been here for days but there's no cage, no fences - nothing to keep it in."

Alam had no answer. He did not really care. As they walked up the long ramp out of the quarry the crowd burst into voice again. Kirill, Nurlan, and a handful of guards stood by tapestries flapping at the sides of the top of ramp. Once they reached the top Kirill took their hands and thrust them triumphantly into the air.

"Your champions!" he shouted. The air exploded with drumming and cheering as the crowd pressed around them.

Alam looked in vain for a sign of Shaleh in the crowd. She was not to be seen.

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Please share your thoughts by commenting.

-Y. V. Qualls