21. Ruff and Tumble.

Eva had her shirt off before anyone could blink.

"I’ll take the one in the middle and you guys work on the other two. When I finish I’ll back you up."

She leaned in and quickly kissed her niece.

"You be careful out there." she told her.

"I will." Maria answered. "You be careful too. They look like they can dole out the damage, and you are not at a hundred percent yet."

She looked down at the still bandaged wound.

"Hey you know me." she answered with a crooked smile. "I’m a little tougher than I look."

She turned around, and in an instant, the wolf was running toward the lead Athach. It let out a below and Eva answered with a howl, as the leader ran directly for her.

The other two hung back, and soon Maria and the others could see why.

They had large boulders in their hands and at least two more, on the ground, near them.

"Do you think we are in range?" asked Warren.

The two beasts hurled the boulders in their direction.

"Does that answer you question?" said Harold. "Scatter!"

They did, just as the boulders landed too close to where they had just been.

"There good with those things." said Maria to Paul,. "We’d better watch it."

They had split into two groups when they broke off. Paul stayed with Maria, while Warren, Jenny and Harold had gone the opposite way. So each had one of the two other Athachs to take care of.

Both of the Athach had already picked up their second boulders.

Maria saw that Jenny was staying back a little behind the other two in her group and was readying her bow. She did the same telling Paul,

"We can’t get any closer right now until they run out of those things. I’ll see what I can do with this," she indicated to her bow, "and then you can at least engage it hand to hand when it is out of ammo. Sorry I won’t be of much use after that, but I seem to be shy a sword."

"That’s no problem." was all he was able to say before they had to leap out of the way of the second boulder.

"I think I can help you there." He held out his sword to her. "Here. Take it."

"I can’t" she replied. "That leaves you with nothing. Besides it is a little heavier than I am used to."

"Not necessarily." he said, as he took his large pack off his back. She always wondered what was in that thing. He took it with him every time they went out hunting, but she never saw him take it off his back. It was a huge bag but looked small when he carried it.

She sent off an arrow at the Athach as Paul opened up and looked around in his bag. It hit the mark on the shoulder but it didn’t seem to bother it too much. She could see that its neighbour was sprouting a few arrows of its own but also did not seem to be slowing down.

It launched its third and last boulder. They scattered out of the way, and Paul let out a little triumphant yell.

"There it is. I knew I had packed it."

Maria looked and he was holding an axe. It looked small in his hands, but as Maria looked closer she saw that it was a proper battle axe.

"You carry that around with you?" asked Maria incredulously.

"Of course." he replied. "No respected member of my tribe would go anywhere with just one weapon. That’s just wrong. You never know when you may need a little extra."

"So, you can use my sword and I’ll use this." he said swinging the axe and getting a feel for it.

Maria shook her head. "Crazy Norsemen" she whispered while picking up the sword.

It was surprisingly light.

Paul laughed at the surprise on her face.

"Just because I am big, does not necessarily mean that all my weapons have to be heavy. You should be ok with that one. So what do you say we go have a talk with that thing."

"Not top on my list, but I guess we don’t have much choice."

They moved off to meet the creature who had pick up a club that maria thought was as big as her, and started trotting off towards them.

Paul’s sword may not have been heavy but it was still bigger and longer than she was used to. So when they engaged their enemy she made a swing to come up in an arc and slice across the creatures inner thigh. Unfortunately the longer sword dug its tip into the ground and made her stumble.

Which left her open for an attack, that the creature took advantage of.

As she regained her balance maria saw that the Athach’s club was heading straight for her.

"I hope these swords are as sturdy as the’re said to be." she thought as she brought up the sword in front of her and braced for the impact.

The Club smashed into the sword blade and the force knocked her off her feet and backwards. She landed hard on her back and tumbled head over heels for a few feet more.

She regained her feet and looked at the sword.

It hadn’t dented at all. Thank the Gods not all the stories were exaggerations. She returned to the fray. Along the way she could see that her aunt seemed to be getting the upper hand with her opponent. But she also saw that her earlier wounds were open again.

She could only worry for a moment before returning to her own fight. Paul had managed to hit it a couple of times but it was still standing. It was concentrated on Paul right now, so she took the opportunity too get in a quick blow to its club hand. This time she swung over hand and contacted the arm just above the wrist. It was like hitting a tree with a dull axe, but it did hurt it.

It swung back around at her but it was slow and this time she ducked under the club. She and Paul where making progress but it was slow going and Maria feared that they would tire before the creatures did.

A cry came from over where Eva and the leader where fighting. Maria took a little time to see what was going on, and saw that Eva had been able to get her opponent on its back and she was standing on its chest with her jaws wrapped around its throat.

Maria realised that her aunt was trying to choke it since the wounds on it had not worked. It was still struggling to get her off and had its hands around her torso, trying to pull her off. Maria gasped as she realised that the fingers on one hand of the Athach had dug its way into the wound Maria had made on her aunt’s side.

Her aunts eyes showed her pain but she was determined to win, and refused to remove her jaws from its neck. Soon the hands fell away from her side and lay still on the ground.

The Athach that she and Paul were fighting saw this happening as well and looked at the body of its leader and then its companion, with what seemed a questioning look.

Eva stood on top of her kill and howled at the other two.

That did it for them. Together they turned and ran.

Maria went to see about her aunt and found her, in human form, sprawled across the dead Athach. She looked to be in a lot of pain, and her wound was now bigger and bleeding worse than ever.

She looked up as Maria came up, followed closely by the others.

"Kill the leader and the others will probably run." she said. "Figured it would work."

She sucked in a breath and pain showed on her face.

"I was still sloppy though" she said, then closed her eyes and passed out.

Maria quickly pulled her off the creature and put her on the ground where Warren looked at her wound.

"I need more than what I have." he said after a short while working on Eva. "I need more supplies and a better place to work."

"Then I think we should try to get to this place we were going to." said Maria. "He might have supplies or at least a comfortable place for her."

"It’s not like we have much choice." said Warren.

Maria picked up her aunt, and all of them began to walk in the direction they had been going.