Jennaca gasped and crouched low. "Gnolls!" she hissed.
Sasha hunkered down beside her.
"I count twenty two," Jennaca said. "That's a lot. If John and the girls stumble on them, it won't go well."
Sasha looked at her.
"I know, John can handle himself and so can the rest of them... but that's a lot of gnolls! I'd hate for anyone to get hurt," she explained to the great cat.
Jennaca fell silent and watched them. They were moving and heading south. Directly to where she'd have gone if she'd been heading straight west. She looked to Sasha while the tiger studied the party of gnolls.
"All right, we distract them. Sure, they're big, but that means they won't be as fast as we are, right? We'll go down and get them to chase us and lead them off away from Lord John."
Sasha's tail swatted the wheat behind her.
"If something happens, you let John know, okay?"
Sasha's ears laid back on her head.
"Good. Let's go show those dogs why cats make better pets!"
Sasha's answering rumble made Jennaca grin as she rose to her feet. She slipped down the hill to her right, flanking the gnoll hunting party and moving so she was behind them. Sasha followed her but stayed low in the wheat, making her all but impossible to see from more than a few feet away.
Jennaca reached a point on the hillside where she still had a good shot at the gnolls. The path they were taking was starting to round the hill on her left and would soon have them out of sight. She drew her bow back, took a quick aim and timed her breath before loosing the arrow.
A second and then a third arrow were in the air by the time the first one struck a gnoll in the arm. He yipped and turned, catching the second arrow in his side and the third in his hip. The gnolls reacted quickly, but it took them a moment to figure out where the arrows were coming from. Three gnolls had been pinned by the time they organized and began to give chase.
Jennaca grinned and stowed her bow over her shoulder. She turned and ran, heading back up the valley to the north. She couldn't help but grinning. It had been days since they'd had a challenge, and that had been a band of goblins that tried to ambush them while they camped in a cave. Hardly worth the effort of drawing her swords.
This looked promising. The gnolls gave chase and then cried out when Sasha let them pass and then launched her attack. The tiger laid open a gnoll's leg and knocked it down, but the commotion caused two more to turn and force her back. She darted back and had to run from the humanoids that went after her.
Jennaca felt the wind in her face and felt the strength of her body in her thighs as she ran. The ground rose as she ran and became rockier. Her feet were sure and she darted behind rocks and put distance between herself and the gnolls. A few more minutes and she'd move to the side, doubling back and around them so she could make sure she made it back.
She glanced over her shoulder, preparing to make her escape, and stumbled for the first time. The gnolls weren't falling behind, like she'd expected. They were keeping up with her. More than keeping up, the long-legged monsters were getting closer!
She let out a surprised huff of breath and refocused. If they were going to give her a chase, so be it. She'd show them! She bent forward and put her focus into running harder. Sasha would have to fend for herself, but she was more than able to do that. She'd hoped to perhaps strike them from a distance with a bow a few times and then run and do it again, but that wasn't going to happen.
In the end, she supposed it didn't matter. They were still chasing her and that was what mattered. She just had to keep them away from John and the others. She could handle herself and so could John. Artesia too, she supposed. The others though... they were a skilled and talented lot but the sisters were still learning the differences between a real fight and an arena match.
Arika...well, Jennaca wasn't sure about her in the least. She was bound to John and, she supposed, a sister of sorts to her now, but she still didn't trust her. She wasn't human... or anything remotely close to human, after all. There was no telling what priorities a woman sired unnaturally from a dragon would have. Even if she was easily the most beautiful woman any of them had seen. When she looked like a woman, that is.
Jenna pushed the thoughts away. She had an uncomfortably large group of gnolls chasing her and there was no telling what they'd do to her if they caught her! She'd seen gnolls before, when Queen Grishna visited Altonia from her city of Noraven, but she only knew a little about them. Grishna's gnolls were disciplined and fierce. Others, she'd read, were vicious and sadistic. Voracious too... would they tear her limb from limb and eat her alive like animals?
She almost felt ashamed at the thought. They weren't animals, they were people. A strange and violent race of people, but people nonetheless. Then again, people were often more cruel and dangerous than the wildest of animals.
Jennaca put some extra effort into her legs, eager to make sure she didn't find out firsthand just what they had planned for her.
