Free Sondranos: The Narrative of Leon Bishop by Patrick Stephens

boulder
fall.
    It caressed the hill, the way
it fell.
    Life slowed.
    The Belovore continued
climbing, not noticing it.
    Annalise watched, placing her
hand over her mouth.
    The boulder connected with
another rock embedded in the soil and bounced. The clack made a
solid reverberation that stung my ears. The Belovore heard it and
looked up. His eyes were now slits, and they focused on one, if not
all of us. It stood. The incline made it look ready to charge, and
it shook clumped dirt off its fists.
    The boulder aimed at its knees.
However, it pulled out a hand and caught the stone. The Belovore
was only sent back an inch or two. Its feet dug into the hillside.
Streams of dirt scattered away. The Belovore rolled the boulder
around him and let it continue sliding down. It scowled. Two
flat-edged teeth bore from the corners of its mouth.
    “ Huh,”
Annalise muttered. The boulder crashed into the trees and thumped
against a large trunk. Something round and heavy flew past my
sight. It flew like a Frisbee before I realized that it was the
sheet Melanie had pulled off the pod.
    The Belovore tried to dodge the
cone, but it flew too fast for the creature’s reflexes and landed
on the its left chelimb. The arm snapped off like a crab’s claw.
The crack reverberated up the hillside as the Belovore yowled,
sounding like a dog singing to an out of tune cello. The creature’s
chelimb dangled from a very loose thread-like tendon, and the other
chelimb started to spasm as it dislodged and reached for the
severed arm.
    I wanted to be stupid. I
couldn’t help it – seeing all of them do something and knowing that
I was too afraid to act forced my hand. I remembered thinking about
my rage for Davion earlier, about how Davion could have been a
better man to Daniel than I. I looked around and knew that everyone
had been acting of their own accord, whether it was to save
themselves or some complete stranger.
    What had I done?
    Was I really going to die like
this, after running away like I had?
    The Belovore surveyed its
broken chelimb and jerked it from the sinewy thread keeping it
connected. It tossed it behind him and let it casually roll to a
stop a metre away. In that same moment, I inched closer to the
hillside. The decline was still just as terrifying, but something
about the way the Belovore stood on it, defying logic, had skewed
my perception. The thought only occurred halfway, ‘I still have
time…’
    I slipped.
    “ Stop!”
shouted Annalise; I faintly heard her add: “what’s his name,
again?”
    My gallant and noble show of
strength had become a coordinated fall.
    I impacted with the Belovore
headfirst. My skull connected with the creature’s chest plates and
the ringing sent a shiver down my spine. My arms spasmed and shot
outwards, wrapping around the Belovore’s torso. I’m sure there was
pain, but when I think about it now, all I can remember is cold.
Blunt, uncontrollable cold. My sight dulled and my hearing was
nothing more than the ringing of a phone in the back of my head.
The creature smelled of machine oil and rust. Its skin was hard to
the touch, a fact my head had already discovered.
    Physics did the rest of the
work. All I could really think was: Daniel was right.
     
    The Belovore
tore at the ground and pushed me away with
its remaining chelimb as we fell. It stabbed at my side with the
remaining chelimb, and could have easily cut a rib had our tumbling
not screwed with its aim. I could have sworn it had pierced my
skin, but a look at my clothes later revealed it hadn’t even cut a
thread. I had no control of my own movement until the Belovore
pushed me loose.
    Grass and dirt caught in my
mouth as I separated from him. I pulled my arms to my chest to
cover my face with my hands. Everything changed in a second – the
hillside was smacking into me with blunt force, and then suddenly,
nothing. I was floating.
    I wondered what Annalise,
Melanie or Davion saw.
    I must have looked ridiculous.
Falling free down a