Here is a bit more from book one of the Draken trilogy. Book 2, "The Heart of The Forest" is now available through Amazon.com.
The next couple of days passed quickly. They ate whatever Lyam caught in his snares, often having plenty left over to eat on the trail, the following day. Towards the middle of the third day, there appeared to be a break in the forest ahead of them. “Strange,” Lyam said, “we are at least another couple of days from the hills.” Looking at Rose for a second, he shrugged and started forward; when suddenly she growled and leapt ahead of him.
Running to keep up, Lyam pulled his bow from his back, a notched an arrow to the string. Coming into the clearing he saw a Hill Cat, without thinking Lyam drew back and fired over Roses racing form, grazing the Hill Cats’ flank.
Rose raced straight towards the bigger cat, and suddenly leapt sideways dodging a swipe from a large grey paw; quickly Lyam drew and released another arrow, this one striking the cat in the chest. The beast didn’t even notice the arrow, but instead focused its attention on Rose.
Shaking his head, he drew and fired a third arrow, this time hitting it directly behind the shoulder, and once again it ignored the attack. In amazement, Lyam drew his short sword, and charged the cat from behind and to one side of it, as it circled Rose.
This time the cat took notice of him, as his sword dug into its side, and spun around quickly for something that big. The cat swung a paw at him, catching him squarely in the chest, and knocking him backwards a good five feet.
Struggling to stand, Lyam saw the beast start to pounce towards him, only to have Rose throw herself onto its back and grab hold with her claws. As the beast bore down on him, he drew his second sword, and thrust it upward into the cats face as hard as he could. He immediately found his face was just inches from the cats snapping jaws for several seconds, before it stopped moving and fell over onto its side, his blade buried to the hilt in its neck.
When he finally dragged himself out from under it, he decided it was a shared kill; as he could see where Roses teeth had dug into the back of the cats’ neck directly opposite from where his sword had entered. If it hadn’t had such tough skin, he might have accidentally killed Rose while trying to kill it.
Slowly he got to his feet, and retrieved the gear that he had discarded during the fight, and then proceeded over to a nearby stream to wash up. Upon the painful removal of his leather armor, he found it had five cuts completely across the front, which matched the five deep cuts across his chest. After cleaning and binding the wounds, he put his armor back on and proceeded to follow the stream in a north easterly direction, Rose padding along next to him, occasionally looking up at him as if she were worried.
Unknown to him, Rose was worried, she just couldn’t tell him so, those cuts where deep, anybody else would have found their ribs severed, and even though he had washed the wounds, she could smell the infection already spreading. Well, for now all she could do was keep an eye on him, and try to find some way to help him heal.
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