[Garen LiLorian]

Nop's bark cut the air, shocking Ned from his contemplation of the dried fruit before him. 'Wolves!’ came Elfred's shout. ‘We are being attacked!’

Ned fumbled his new axe from his belt, and loosened his other weaponry for quick access. Everything went into slow motion. Quite clearly he heard the click of claws over stone, the heavy breath of the wolves, Elfred's shouted commands. He moved into place slowly. His hand trembled as he brought up his axe, sighted along it, and threw it. It was a perfect toss, and Ned seemed to have all the time in the world to admire the glint of sunshine off of the blade as it twirled towards its target; the closest, and smallest of the wolves. Unfortunetely, when you are practising throwing knives, axes and stones, you rarely are allowed moving targets to practise on. Ned noted this with one corner of his brain.

The axe was, as aforesaid, a perfect toss. If the wolf hadn't dodged, it'd have been one mighty sick wolf. As it was, the blade gouged a line down its flank, and caused the wolf to veer aside from its intended target, Autumn, and head right for him, the handle of the axe still wagging from its flank. Even a wounded wolf could move awfully fast, and Ned's hands wouldn't work, grabbing first at his other axe, then at his sword. It was 10 feet away. Ned grabbed the sword. 5 feet. He started to pull the blade. It seemed to take forever to come out. Miles and miles of gleaming steel. Then there was no more time, and the wolf crashed into him, its jaws slavering as they searched for some hold.

Ned desperately tried to keep it away. His sword, forgotten, slid the rest of the way out and lay on the ground. He was holding its neck, and the awful jaws were 2 inches from his face, the paws scrabbling on his chest causing long, painful furrows. He wondered how the others were doing, hoped one of them could come to his rescue, but knew it wasn't going to happen. 'This is it, Ned,' he thought, 'the end of my story. It was pretty short. Wish I could have seen the rest of the tale.' The wolf lunged again, and Ned didn't have the strength to hold it off. All he could do was yank his head to the side. The wolf's teeth sunk into his shoulder, and he screamed. The pain was excruciating.

That was when he saw his axe, still sticking from the side of the creature. His hand was free now, and he reached for it, pulled it loose, and swung down. The wolf didn't expect this. Its prey was down, it had a hold. This was supposed to be the end. Then pain lanced through its side, over and over again. Ned didn't have the strength to kill the beast from this angle, but he was hurting it badly, and it was getting demoralized. It let go, backed off, the ran back towards the safety of the rest of the pack.

"Coward." Ned muttered, smiling tightly through the pain. Darkness reached for him, and almost he welcomed it, but shook his head, swimming back towards consciousness. 'That'd be great, Ned Brandybuck. Just when they need you, you go and let them down,' He thought.

His left arm didn't obey any of his commands, and the pain very nearly caused him to vomit again, but somehow he managed to struggle to his knees, and surveyed the battlefield. Elfred was down, Nop lay bleeding in a pile. Olo seemed to have killed one of them, but was on the ground as well, facing away, and Ned couldn't tell if he was conscious or not. Another of the beasts lay beside Elfred, its skull smashed in. Then he panned across to Autumn. As he watched, all the unharmed animals were advancing on the pale but resolute lass. One sprung...

[ January 07, 2003: Message edited by: Garen LiLorian ]