Re: The Blood of Gula
With the skill of seasoned adventurers, the three neatly sidestep the stampeding lizard-cows, who flounder their way across the swamp, losing three of their ilk in the process. One of the smaller ones managed to free itself, and ran bawling after the small herd. The lizard squirrel, spattered with mud from their passage, sat down on a flare of swamp grass and commenced to wash its fur and scales with fussy little paws and tongue.
There was no sound from the other side of the swamp - none at all. No birds twittering, nothing....
Then - the crack of gunfire, and the bellow of a big creature. McCurdy instantly recognized the sound of a M1911a being fired, and the sound of a much bigger firearm, even as his body was used as a tree and climbed up once again by a frightened lizard-squirrel. The trees at the edge thrashed, and they caught a glimpse of the big hunter flailing among them, the jaws snapping. Then another loud bang, from a big firearm, and a heavy thud and shaking lower in the trees, the smaller ones flattened and broken by the impact - the big creature had fallen, and was struggling to get up, despite a huge dripping red wound in its side.
Bursting from the treeline, clutching cutlass and a handgun, was a bloody, tattered Sebastian Hawksmoore. He dodged the jaws of the monster as it reached for him, leapt like a gazelle and impaled the very eye of the beast with his cutlass, then jumped and rolled away, as the creature thrashed some more, splintering trees and sending up gouts of mud and earth. Coming behind him was an equally tattered Hornsby, firing a flintlock pistol at the monster's bare belly. The two pirates hurried away to reload and get their bearings, but the creature seemed to be in dire straits now, and unable to render any attacks. Both the pirates then turned to each other with matching grins, then looked at the swamp, where the three adventurers were standing. "Capitol !" Hornsby said, with a whoop, "We found you !"