An Extract from This Month's Release: Natalia's Run

I've decided to celebrate each release with a series of extracts that run for the month it's released in. This month saw the second edition of 366 Days of Flash Fiction released. Links to the collection can be found at Books2Read at: https://books2read.com/u/b6MrN0. Today's extract is:

Natalia’s Run

Written on October 17, 2015, for the March 7 entry of 366 Days of Flash Fiction, this piece is another one set in Tescher’s world.

Natalia found comfort in the swish of the walking skirt, the solid crunch of her leather heels on sand and pebbles. She found comfort in the way her hat covered her head and shaded her shoulders, in the manner in which its veil kept the flies out of her eyes. What she did not find comfort in were the short bursts of movement she could hear on either side.

The hurried scrunch of twigs and rattle of undergrowth. The pad-pad-pad of two-legged predators pacing either side was both furtive and deliberately provocative. If the raptors wanted to capture her, why hadn’t they struck? At least they would only eat her.

Natalia figured the longer they took to attack, the further she’d make it from the homestead. She hadn’t figured on Cameron’s place being so out of the way. She’d thought she could hitch a ride straight out on the airship that brought its supplies.

When the boat had lifted, leaving her stranded on the plateau, she’d discovered there wasn’t another ship for a month. Looked like her employer was going to be down one retrieval artist and the documents he required.

With only a few hours before the documents were found missing, Natalia didn’t have time to wait for the ship—and there just weren’t that many hiding places on the ranch. She wondered how Ari could have possibly missed that, and tried to find another way out of her predicament.

While Cameron’s party was still in full swing, Natalia had taken her valise and started walking. And, now, she was being hunted, by Cameron, as well as the raptors. And it was stinking hot. Squinting her eyes against the glare, Natalia wondered which hunting party would catch her first.

The rapid drum of hoofbeats should have had her breaking into a run, or scrunching into some bushes to hide, but neither was practical. Natalia kept walking. She almost fainted with relief when Ariel’s voice rang out.

“Care for a ride, m’lady?”

Usually, she kept Ari at arm’s length, but today, Natalia wrapped her arms around his waist, keeping the valise between them as he spurred the horse into a gallop. Behind them, the cackling call of a hunting raptor rang out. Beneath her, the horse accelerated.

They were a hundred yards from the airship he’d kept waiting out of sight, when the reptiles broke cover, fifty yards when the first shot rang out from both in front and behind them, twenty yards when the first raptor was taken out of the air mid-leap, ten when the airship started to lift.

The horse leapt, landed, and clattered inside. Waiting hands grasped its mane and turned it in the confined space of the lower deck as the loading ramp was winched closed. The raptor that made the leap was shot at close range and booted back down to the ground.

Cameron’s men scattered in panic below them as the raptors changed target.

“Didja get it?” asked one of the men who’d helped them board.

Natalia regarded him with cold disdain.

“But, of course,” she replied. “I said I could, didn’t I?”

 

Cover art is by Jake at JCaleb Design, and links to 366 Days of Flash Fiction can be found on Books2 Read at: https://books2read.com/u/b6MrN0