With barely enough time to glance in his friend’s direction, Simna finally shouted in exasperation, “By Gokhoul, bruther, what are you doing?”
“Setting sail. Hold them off, my friends, hold them off!”
With the battle-tested Simna shouting orders, he and Hunkapa and the black litah did just that, giving Ehomba time to ready their vehicle. As soon as the sail was up and fully set, he called out to his companions to join him within. Simna was first back aboard, followed by Hunkapa Aub. As the wagon, under full sail, began to pick up speed, Ahlitah ran alongside, dispatching those skeletons that tried to keep pace. Any that drew near found themselves crushed between powerful jaws or knocked asunder by claw-tipped paws.
Only when the last of their jabbering, gesticulating, spear-waving pursuit had fallen too far behind to pose any threat did the big cat rejoin his companions, clearing the space from ground to wagon in a single long, easy leap. Once on board he sat back and began to lick his wounds. They were minor, nothing worse than a few scrapes and the occasional shallow cut.
“It’s nothing,” he insisted in response to Ehomba’s solicitous inquiry. “I’ve taken worse from wildebeest.” As the cat spoke, it groomed its face and mane with moistened paw. “One time I took a blow to the stomach from the spiked tail of a full-grown female glyptodont protecting its young. Now, that hurt.” Twisting its head around, it began to lick a bloody gash on its right flank. “Made the kill anyway.”
“Hoy?” Sword laid out across his knees, Simna was sitting down, his back resting against the interior wall of the wagon. The was no blood on the blade: only the accumulated white stain of powdered bone. “I always wondered what glypto tasted like.”