Its hoofed leg scraped at the muck and leaves, and a cloudy mist formed near its nostrils as it blew out a snort.
“Gods alive,” Bermuda whispered, lifting her chin. “It must be almost seven feet tall.”
A second moose joined the first. Then a third. A fourth. The crew could only surmise that more remained over the hill that they could not see.
“Kazuaki.” Bermuda’s finger caressed the trigger of her gun. “What are those things?”
With a scrutinizing gaze, Kazuaki cocked his head. “I don’t remember, but …” His nose scrunched, as he shook his head. “I didn’t think they hunted in packs.”
Several more of the moose huffed and scraped at the ground. One hammered the horns on its head into the trunk of a tree. It seemed to shake the ground.
The muscles in Kazuaki’s arms stiffened. A crippling realization struck him. “They may be influenced by the Goddess of Animals,” he announced, increasing his grip on the weapon at his side.
“The Goddess of Animals?” Nicholai asked sarcastically. “The same Goddess of Animals who undoubtedly hates us for entering her realm and blowing her forest up?”
Without removing his eye from the moose, Kazuaki nodded. “The very same.”
Bermuda bristled. “Did we pack enough bullets?”
Revi lifted his gun and lined up his aim. “We’re about to find out.”
The shot reverberated through the forest, temporarily deafening those who stood nearby. Revi waved away the smoke from in front of his face, trying desperately to see if the bullet had struck its target, let alone injured it. When his vision cleared, he watched as the moose flinched, reared its head up, and released a bellowing cry.
For however much pain it was in when the bullet struck its shoulder, it did not fall.
The gunfire served as a signal. In moments, the herd advanced. The ground trembled beneath the crew’s feet as each took several steps back.
“You just pissed it off!” Brack cried, fumbling to put more bullets into his gun.
Kazuaki shot several times, crippling one of the creatures by striking the knee cap. The weight of the stampeding animal crushed it to the floor, but the others were not deterred from advancing.
“Go for the kneecaps,” the captain instructed. Seconds away from squeezing the trigger again, a falcon swooped down from the sky and ripped his gun from his hand.
Having witnessed the disarming, Brack’s eyes widened. “Shoot and run, mates! Shoot and run!”
Chapter Eight
Rogue branches split their skin when the crew bolted through the forest. The rugged twigs seemed to stretch out like clawed fingers, trying to slow everyone down, as they distanced themselves from the stampeding moose.
Rennington leaped over a moss-covered log, landing in a crouched position on the other side. He looked over his shoulder and fired off three succinct shots.
Another lumbering creature bellowed before its shattered bone gave out beneath its body. It was like a small earthquake when it struck the ground. Muck and leaves flew up from the force at which it fell.
A second moose tripped over its fallen brethren. The others were quick enough to leap over or run around it.
“No, no!” Nicholai halted long enough to throw a judgmental stare toward Rennington. “What are you doing? You’re just going to upset her more!”
Swatting at several crows that swarmed near his head, Kazuaki snarled. “Since when are you an expert on gods?”
The former Time Father winced when another low-flying bird struck his forehead with its talons. He ducked, his hands flying to the brim of his hat, as he tried to keep himself protected. “It’s less about being a gods-expert,” he called out, his irritation bubbling over, “and more about knowing how to appeal to a person’s gods-damned preferences!”
Traipsing backward, Bermuda fired off the final rounds in her pistol. When the weapon emptied, she used it as a projectile, and chucked it at an aggressive owl. As quickly as she abandoned the weapon, she produced another from the belt at her waist. “We can’t outrun them forever!”
Kazuaki growled, belting the last crow forcefully enough that it cawed a curse at him and flew away. Bermuda was right. They couldn’t run forever. The creatures of the forest were fast and numerous—and they had the advantage: they knew the terrain. “They’re hooved creatures,” he barked to the others, planting his feet to buy them as much time as he could. “Don’t outrun them; out climb them.”
The others wasted no time obeying the captain’s commands. With the help of their knives, Revi, Brack, Rennington, and Elowyn scaled the nearest trees. Once in a suitable position, Revi reached down to assist Bermuda. Her muscles strained as she hoisted her lithe body up, balancing it on the nearest tree limb she could find.
Nicholai pressed his back against a trunk. Gods, the last time he climbed a tree was when he and Umbriel gazed out over the town of Nenada. He had the luxury of time then. As he turned to grab the nearest branch and pull himself up, the skin on his palms split. He thought the effort would be trying but found himself boosted by the powerful arms of Granite as he stood below him. “Thank you!” he called down, exasperated. Just because one lingered in the jaws of danger did not mean there was no time left for common courtesy.
Granite said nothing, instead leaping upward to climb his own tree. Fifteen feet was the minimum height to feel safe enough from the creatures’ reach.
Kazuaki splayed his arms out at his sides, having drawn a knife into one hand and a machete in the other. “Come on!” His boots sank into the soft earth and his wild hair disguised the rabid hunger in his eye.
“Ha!” Brack leaned over, gripping the rough bark of the tree he sat in. He gazed down to view Kazuaki. Several moose surrounded him, their heads lowered, their ears flattened. “You big-horned feckers!” he taunted, grinning. “Don’t you know there’s no stopping the infamous Captain Kazuaki Hida—”
The last thing Brack saw was Kazuaki’s body sailing across the forest. A moose had driven its horns into the man’s torso and whipped him back with a powerful jerk of its head.
“—taka,” Brack finished, sucking air in through his teeth as he winced. He knew the god was in no danger of perishing, but it hurt to watch the display. “Shit, you best be climbing a tree too, Cappy! We can pluck ‘em off better up here!”
Kazuaki grumbled, pushing himself out of the layer of debris and leaves that coated him. A calloused hand swept the muck from his face and beard, and he rose to his feet once more. No, there was no sense in avoiding the danger—he needed to eradicate it.
But, damn. They were big.
“I gotcha, Cap! They’re easy targets now.” Rennington cocked his head while aiming, sending shot after shot into skulls, and spines, and knees. It wasn’t until an acorn struck his face that he stopped. “Gods alive, I’m under attack!”
Nicholai crawled forward on his tree limb, grasping it with one hand and holding another acorn in the other. “Keep your head Rennington, I beg of you! Don’t make me throw another!”
“Nico?” Rennington’s brows pulled together on his face. “What the feck, mate?”
“Did you not hear me before?” The Time Father’s distraught eyes flicked from one gun-wielding crew member to another. “I cannot be the only one alive with some sense left here! You’re pissing her off!”
Against the seriousness of the situation, Brack threw a hand over his mouth and laughed. “Nico swore—bloody bastard really must be serious.”
“Of course I’m serious!” Throwing a wild gaze to Granite, Nicholai’s expression pleaded with him. “Come on, Granite—at the very least, you must understand where I’m coming from. She loves these creatures! How would you have reacted if someone were actively trying to hurt the beast?”
Granite’s giant fingers dug into the tree he sat on. The limb squealed from his subtle movements, scarcely able to contain the weight of his mass and muscle.
Nico was right. Men had lost their lives over the threats they
made against the beast.
It made sense he thought, that the Goddess of Animals would be no different.
Leaping from the safety of his tree, Granite landed beside Kazuaki. With one aggressive moose still cornering them, the captain was displeased by the action.
“Get back in the tree,” Kazuaki snapped, smearing the mud on his face by wiping at it with his sleeve. “These creatures can only delay me.” But they could kill his comrade.
“Captain.” Granite directed his words to Kazuaki, but kept careful eyes on the last moose. “I think Nico is right.” He struck a defensive stance, his arms out at his sides. “It is not enough to let the goddess know we are here. We must appeal to her too.”
Kazuaki peeled his lip back. No. He had gone to the land of the gods. He had tried to appeal to them there. He wasn’t granted a chance. They were lawless, merciless beings. He could understand Naphine’s fury, but the lot of them were pathetic creations birthed of mankind's weaknesses. The blight of Panagea. Kazuaki hated the gods. Hated that they would not help Bermuda. Hated that he couldn’t. Hated that he was stuck in yet another predominantly immortal body, existing as an echo of the very beings he despised.
Appeal to the Goddess of Animals? No. He would rather live a thousand more lifetimes than beg to that witch.
“Uh, Captain—” Elowyn’s panicked voice sounded from above. “We’ve got a problem.”
Those in the trees turned their heads toward the countless brown and gray furred bodies that clamored toward them. Chirpy little sounds chattered from their cheeks, as their bushy tails twitched back and forth. Black, beady eyes pierced them, resting in the sockets of skulls no larger than the length of a finger.
Brack scoffed, arching a brow. “A problem? Hardly seems worth it to waste a bullet on these beasties. They’re the size of a small—oh, bloody feck, it bit me!”
Despite the squirrel’s tight grip on Brack’s finger, it was flung away from him with the force he used to flail his arm about. One aggressor down was nothing to celebrate. The strength of an army remained, covering every exposed branch. Each level of the forest, from the ground to the trees to the sky, was lined with violent animals, waiting to fight back against the invaders in their land.
Abandoning the squirrel-lined trees, the others landed back in the rustling leaves below. Granite and Kazuaki stood between them and the last moose. When the creature lowered its head to charge, the behemoth shoved the captain from his path and grabbed hold of the beast’s massive antlers.
Perhaps he could exhaust it, as opposed to ending its life.
Revi lifted his gun, squinting. “I can’t get a clean shot,” he growled, as the moose tossed Granite from side to side.
“Come on,” Granite muttered through his clenched jaw, while he and the creature grappled for control. “Calm down.”
Nicholai watched, his jaw open. He shook his head. There was no recourse. No existing alternative to the storm that they found themselves in. He wondered whether it was too late to petition the goddess’s heart. “We’re dead in the water, Kazuaki. Kekona controls the forest and the animals in it.” He turned to the captain with a wide-eyed stare. “We cannot outrun every living creature in Southwestern.”
“Yeah, mate,” Brack cringed at the sight of the moose straining against Granite’s strength. “We definitely didn’t pack enough bullets for that.”
“We don’t need bullets,” Kazuaki growled. He charged the moose that Granite grappled with and swung his blade toward it.
Catching the movement in the corner of his eye, Granite threw out an arm to protect the animal. The blade of Kazuaki’s machete struck Granite’s arm, clanging as it bounced off the human’s skin.
Shit. The action put the captain in mind of all the situations he’d faced as a god. All the situations that left him feeling powerless to the only solution he had mastered: raw aggression. Growing increasingly frustrated, his voice twisted into a rough snarl. “It’s just a beast, Granite! A mindless, feckin’—”
The god’s words halted in his throat. Though the moose that Granite battled with continued to jostle him around, Kazuaki spotted the behemoth’s face. The flicker of misery when he uttered the word ‘beast’.
It was the same misery he would have worn if he were to lose something he loved, as much as Granite loved the beast.
It was enough to pull Kazuaki from his blood-boiling rage and reset his emotions.
The captain closed his eye, cursing internally. This was a mess. It was unlike him to act without planning ahead. He should never have gone to Northwestern. Should never have allowed his frustration to turn him into a man devoid of reason. At the moment, he felt less like a captain and more like a fool.
Kazuaki’s mind raced as he struggled to think of a solid plan. Damn Nico and his incessant diplomacy. Perhaps the former Time Father was right. As Kazuaki watched Granite struggle with the moose, and the squirrels descend from their trees into the leaf-covered grounds below, and the black specks of countless birds cawing overhead, he inhaled. More shadows closed in around them. Likely more creatures from the woodlands.
Granite’s muscles strained. The sound of cocking guns comingled with unidentified growls. Blades were made ready at everyone’s sides. Tension was thick in the air. Tangible. Upon realizing they were surrounded, everyone braced themselves.
A howling in the distance split through the aggression of the circling animals. It dominated the surroundings, rattling the leaves and comingling with the wind.
The creatures looked up. Ears of all shapes and sizes swiveled forward on their heads. Noses lifted to the air and sniffed, moving whiskers. Claws retracted. Bristled fur flattened.
When the sound of the howl faded from their ears, one by one, the creatures abandoned their hostility. Some stared at their prey longer than others before they turned and disbanded.
The crew stared in disbelief as the animals gave up on their cause. The darkness of countless trees swallowed them whole, leaving nothing. It was as if they never emerged from the hollows at all.
Granite grunted as the moose lowered its head. It stared at the ground, snorting. The man felt the tautness in the creature’s neck dissipate. He responded in turn by easing the tension in his muscles.
Carefully, after drawing on the stillness of the giant creature’s heart, he took a chance and released the animal’s antlers. The moose lifted its head and blinked as it stared Granite in the eyes. He spied his reflection in the brown and black hues that gawked at him … and in one long, drawn-out moment, the moose turned its head and walked away.
The air reeked of adrenaline and panic. Elowyn laid a hand over her terrified heart, hoping that everything the organ had endured was not enough to overwork it. “We’re not going to survive here,” she announced, not only to clear the silence but to redirect everyone’s focus. “I don’t know what the feck just happened, but this is one scenario we cannot run into headlong.” She turned her gaze to the captain. “We have to get back to the ship.”
Nicholai frowned. His stomach swirled with an ill-fated feeling. “If what we just witnessed is any indication … and the goddess already knows we’re here … there’s a very good chance that she beat us to it.”
Everyone’s eyes widened simultaneously. Bermuda turned to Kazuaki, her face draining of what little color it had. “Oh, gods. Penn.”
Kazuaki barely had time to make eye contact with Bermuda before he vanished from the forest and reappeared on the main deck of his ship.
Nico’s instincts were correct. He saw her immediately: Kekona. His eye narrowed at the scene before him. The goddess sat, one leg leisurely crossed over the other, as she balanced on the thin railing that ran alongside the deck’s edge. Vines and leaves wove up her body and into her hair. A creeping moss covered her breasts as she swept her locks over her bare shoulders.
Kazuaki pulled his focus away from her, toward his other primary concern. Penn stood in front of Kekona, backed into a corner made by crates and cabin walls. Hi
s body was frozen. When the captain spied the creatures slithering around his feet and ankles, he knew precisely why.
Kazuaki could not recall for certain which snakes were the deadliest. The only memories he had of the legless creatures were few and far between—but he believed very much that Kekona knew exactly which ones to employ. Knew which ones could drain a man of his life by injecting him with fangs full of venom.
Able to hear Penn’s terrified pulse thunder in his eardrums from across the distance, Kazuaki steeled his expression. Despite the success he had in displaying physical calmness, his insides were exploding.
“C-Captain,” Penn announced, a bead of sweat trailing down the side of his face. He was afraid to speak. Afraid to move. Rightly so.
Kazuaki peeled his gaze from Penn and directed it toward Kekona. “Let him go.”
The goddess mulled over his simple demand and tilted her head. “Or what, God of Salvation? You’ll destroy my forest? Kill my creatures?” Her expression flattened and she placed a considering finger against the side of her cheek. “You are lucky that my bloodlust does not match your own, or he’d be dead by now.”
“Doesn’t it?” Sheathing the knife he gripped, knowing it would not affect her, Kazuaki dropped his chin. “You destroyed Southwestern’s cities. The people who lived here, who did not have the wherewithal to outrun your desecration. All dead.” A nerve twitched beneath his eye as he struggled to continue exuding composure. “Do not hold a mirror of judgment up to me and fail to see your reflection staring back.”
A considering noise purred out of Kekona’s throat. “Poetic. You’re wrong, though. I desecrated nothing; only restored the balance of what once was.”
Flicking a rapid gaze to the slithering snakes at Penn’s ankles, Kazuaki clenched his hands. “To what end? The world once existed without people. Without gods or goddesses. Awfully conceited to deem yourself the judge of which timeline we anchor ourselves to, isn’t it?”
The Panagea Tales Box Set Page 139