Good thing Mav didn’t make Maren bet on the race, because she’d have lost by a landslide.
Maren wheezed as she pulled herself out of the cave, her quads on fire and begging to be doused. Mav began squeezing through an opening at the end of the long, winding tunnel, following the Monkey Titan. Maren slowed to a walk, then brushed her fingers against the wall. In Mav’s flickering firelight, and at the feeling of the grooves on her fingers, Maren recognized the same Chimera symbols on the wall that she’d found earlier that day.
Either they’d ascended an identical cave to the one she found earlier, or she’d actually found the entrance to what could have been a Chimera village so long ago and hadn’t realized it!
Maren so badly wanted to document the language, but they’d rushed up the cave for a reason and, sadly, that had nothing to do with linguistic scholarship.
Maren followed Mav’s receding light as he ascended the rock. He soon stood atop the large rock cluster which blocked the hole leading to the cave from view, staring into the distance. The Monkey Titan, sitting on a lower rock, looked worse than Maren felt. His breathing was shallow, his body listing. Maren placed her hand on the back of its head. Slowly, the Titan placed his hand on her head. He was fine. Just needed to rest.
Maren expanded her canteen and drew a large draught. Then the land rumbled. Distant sounds of crumbling structures and howling winds echoed through the trees.
“The campground,” Mav said, peering over the treetops from his vantage. “Lights are going out over there.”
Maren took another swig, then shrunk her canteen. Muscles crying for respite, she hopped from the rocks. “Then let’s go.”
The dash to the campsite had been much shorter than the long haul up the narrow cave and, blessedly, had been mostly downhill. It took only a few more minutes to reach the campsite, where chaos reigned. Large chunks of the land flung skyward, dragging vehicles with them, which then plummeted onto various buildings. Winds whipped and the Bird Titan swooped down, aiming for a spot a short distance from the camp, where a large mass twisted and twirled in the moonlight.
“They’re evacuating people,” Maren breathed, pointing to the mass, which was dozens of people fleeing the campsite.
A bright flame lit Mav’s shoulders. “I’ll save them.” And he was off.
“Guess that leaves the camp for me,” Maren muttered as a building collapsed.
Violent gales nearly snuffed out Mav’s flame. Growling, the chill in his chest spread, his fire burned brighter.
The Bird Titan swooped low, extending its talons toward a figure hovering above the panicked crowd. It was the Autonomous Bishop, Diego! He swept his arms to the side and a sudden wind shoved the Bird off course. Before the Titan careened into the trees, it righted itself and soared upward. It swooped around, preparing another attack.
“With me!” Mav roared, charging to the head of the confused pack, away from the descending Bird Titan. “Bishop Diego can’t focus if he has to protect you all, so let’s go.”
A few people at the head of the line shrunk back from Mav’s flames, bumping into people behind them who were pressing forward.
“I’m a friend,” Mav said, smiling. “And I’ll get you out of here. Tell the people behind you to follow the flame!”
Core growing colder, Mav formed a pillar of fire from his shoulders. With one last encouraging smile, he turned and darted away from the camp, the many sounds of hurried footsteps sounding behind him.
Maybe Mav should be here instead. Destruction on the scale of this campsite wasn’t exactly her forte. She preferred smaller-scale conflicts where an easy pressurized stream could knock a guy flat.
Preference be damned. The frenzied Cat Titan would require a little more work than that to take it out.
The Titan leaped into the alley where Maren was running. It growled, then slammed its front paws down. The alley rose up and charged forward like a wave. Maren squatted, prepared to vault into a side street, when the Supporter Bishop, Jada, charged from behind wearing a thick nightgown and slammed her hands onto the undulating street. It slowed, pushing her back with her feet sliding along the road, then stopped.
“Civilians,” Jada said, shoving the street back down. Sweat shimmered on her dark skin, which quivered. “Back down the block. Couldn’t escape with the rest.”
Maren nodded, turning from the Cat which bounded toward them. Jada grunted from behind, then the world shook again.
A tiny scream caught her attention. Not fifty feet from the raging Titan, two little girls huddled inside a building. The roof cracked, then began to fall.
Skin drying, Maren shot a torrent of water from her arms. It swept the little girls up, then out of the house as the roof caved in.
Maren brought the little girls to the ground. They were similar in age, though one was definitely older. Maren’s heart clenched as she went to them. They were the girls from this morning, who played outside and in the cart that Mav had pulled here.
It was Cara and Clara. But where were their parents, Kellen and Orla?