Seventeen horses and five people couldn’t move a single Ripple. They did try. Putting together a very strange impromptu extra two harnesses and many towing lines, Nettle had been disappointed to learn these had nothing to do with toes, and giving it the old heave ho. When that failed, they took turns trying to get just the map. Rather than beat at the backdoor, they’d all taken turns inspecting for spells that held the backdoor. Nothing and by the time the necromancer returned, having worked her evil recruitment enchantment, they all practiced pretending again to be alright with the living embodiment of evil, destroyer of quicksand monsters and metal, as an “ally” that they couldn’t get rid of.

  “You’re missing a horse,” Laural frowned. “This better not be RIP Spanx, again.”

  “How exactly do we expect a pacifist to safely make it back there? If he rides fast, he’ll have a much better chance of not dying en route. I figured you of all people would respect me trying to keep another person alive.”

  Laural didn’t want to argue even though she disagreed. “We can’t keep losing horses. Kriti is already changing mounts all the time. Plus, we need resting instead of pulling between the Quad and the Pears.”

  “I was saving a life!” Day crossed her arms.

  A roar interrupted them both. Sitting on the road for many hours outside a very small town, maybe even a large village, and no protection resulted in the inevitable with a mountain of horseflesh becoming a new target. Plus, Laural had gotten so focused on trying to dispel the caravan and then Day’s arrival, she’d neglected her general tendency to have all the woodland animals out distracting monsters for them. A critical shield of protection that she’d forgotten to tell anyone about because none of those people could help her with it anyway. And she didn’t plan on blabbing all of her abilities to these randoms.

  Naturally, had they spent any time putting together a strategic approach, at least two of them might have an idea how to fight together. All had neglected these critical discussion in favor of traveling and emotionally bonding. Because who remembers they need to talk about how to stay alive and work together in a group that met shortly ago and barely knows everyone’s abilities? It’s an easy thing to slip the mind. By the laws of fiction, people knew this stuff by chance. But in reality, working together is hard and often requires prior communication skills if one did not have fitted roles. Thankfully, an accepted law of cool allowed for people to mysteriously know everyone’s abilities for effective combat together.

  Bodi and Nettle, standing together, charged towards the “front” or towards the noise, hit one another and both came up swearing. Spoon and Kriti likewise tried to take up mid-range position on top of the cart. Kriti got there first only for Spoon to vault up and hit her with an open tackle by accident. They went rolling to the right of the cart, their weapons flying and limbs tangled with one another.

  This put Laural and Day as the new frontliners. Except Day had gone. Laural pushed away the herd stock with commands, verbal and mental, from the offending claws of the Boar-Bear hybrid that had glowing stones jutting from its spine. On her cue, the horses scattered. It was huge hungry tusked and dusky blue and clawed and furred and generally every nightmare you could imagine of rage all stuffed into one beast. It fell on the back of Buddy, the largest nearby chunk of roast, and dispatched the large unlucky horse with a single blow.

  Jumping back to the top of the cart to protect himself, and blocking the firing range of Kriti, who climbed up behind him, trying to reassemble her crossbow, Spoon scrambled about looking for anything helpful to do since he no longer had his weapons. Day was already inside her bunker, Ripple, and absolutely not opening the door for anyone to come in and get her. Which would be her defacto location during most fights, they figured. Chiropractors aren’t trustworthy.

  The loose horses ran. The Boar-Bear started after them down the lane. Laural realized she had literally no way to protect the horses with her whip buried inside the very closed Ripple. She ran to the front, not the battlefront, of the cart cutting loose the pair currently in harness so they could get away. With harness stock being more valuable than some of their other riding horses, she should have gone there first but nobody else had presented a distraction for their enemy.

  A next horse died even as she released the others that she could and yelled for them to run. The other horses couldn’t outrun the Boar-Bear on their own. The Boar-Bear seemed confused by the overabundance of prey and what to do with it all. It’d hit upon a slow meaty herd that all seemed intent on screaming at it.

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  From his place on the top of the caravan, Spoon threw down a spoon which hit the bear in the face and clattered to the ground. He recalled the traveler's spoon and threw it again trying to distract the bear. His methods caused no harm, but the Boar-Bear spun around to see what tossed metal around. It charged headfirst into the caravan.

  The blow sent Ripple rolling away down the road, directionless, before skidding to a stop. Spoon kept up his useless assault of a single spoon but successfully hit the bear in the ear this throw. The bear jumped forward and started rocking the cart back and forth. The cart rolled a few steps forward from the sheer force or maybe trying to escape.

  With all her horses free, Laurel turned on the huge claws down striking bear, terrible bare markets abound and took out a rope. She wished she had the whip or anything enhanced, but she at least attacked. She swung the lasso over her head. As she did, Bodi got himself free of Nettle and rather than letting her handle he hit the beast in the side. This turned the tiring and calming bear into a frothing monster. It turned and struck a right claw to cut at Bodi.

  It should have been a killing blow. The strike came down. As Bodi vainly put up an arm, a heavy neon-green shield appeared. The two met with insane force for a second the strength met. The bone cracked first. The bear shattering its claw on the magic. It let out a scream louder than the original battle cry and only mildly quieter than the bone break itself.

  Bodi glanced at his arm and down at Nettle still in the dirt but working the spell. Nettle gave him a I totally meant that to happen nod.

  The rope Laural cast passed through the shield without issue. It hit Bodi in the head. Bodi managed an “Ow” before rolling away from a second bear paw blow with the other paw. The bear screamed again and the glowing of the stone on its back dimmed even as they watched the paw starting to heal itself in front of them.

  “Just great,” exclaimed Kriti on the top of the cart. “We need to kill it properly not just give a wound or two. And Spoon stop throwing spoons at it. It’s not bothering it anymore.”

  He huffed but tucked the spoon back into his jacket.

  “I don’t see you doing anything to help!”

  “Cause you’re blocking my shot. Get out of the way. And don’t take the cart top next time.”

  Unlike a whip-wielder, her arrows were prepared with darts from the necromancer’s cave glued to front. As Spoon jumped back off the side of the caravan, she aimed the bolt. Her first one missed as the Boar-Bear made an abrupt turn, deciding to focus on Sleepnir. The only horse who’d not sensibly fled during the distraction. Kriti’s bolt hit one of the rock like protrusions on its back and danced off into the forest. Kriti winced, then began reloading again.

  Sleepnir raised his head, both eyes turned to pure whites. The Bear swung the claws at him, but Sleepnir dodged. The bear dropped to four paws, focusing on the horse galloping away. Nettle tried to scramble out of the way, but on the shorter road, didn’t make it. The side of the bear caught him a blow, only a partially formed shield protected him. He went flying into the ditch with a huff of breathe.

  Bodi and Spoon yelled out in sync. “Nettle!”

  Kriti stabilized her shot, narrowed her gaze, and fired the second loaded bolt. This hit the creature in the neck, burying deep with the dart. The Boar-Bear didn’t notice charging towards Sleepnir. Abruptly, the stallion executed a ninety-degree turn and gathering his haunches, leaped over the ditch into a thick copse of trees hemmed in with Northern Horseweed. The horse vanished behind the seven-foot-tall shrubbery. The Boar-Bear flew beyond the turning point with a roar as it tried to corner.

  Kriti hit it with a second bolt. This one landed on the elbow of the right forward paw. It sunk in deep. She grunted in annoyance at missing the heart and started reloading.

  Bodi ran back to the cart, hammering on it and yelling at Day. “I need better than the short sword!”

  Spoon ran over to see if Nettle was alright, scrambling down the dirt sides of the ditch and falling again. Laural had run off with the Quad and Pair. Other horses scattered to the front would need to be collected when the danger passed.

  Kriti finished loading and angled toward the giant creature. Too late, the Boar-Bear plunged into the woods beyond. The sound of its grunting and whiffling filled the air. Cracking and snapping of a heated pursuit. Sleepnir made no sound of pain, falling or passage. The horse simply vanished from within earshot.

  Kriti lifted up her crossbow, trying to track in the woods. If it returned for Buddy’s corpse, she’d get an eye this time. But she wasn’t foolish enough to go shooting at things she couldn’t see. They waited tense. Bodi gave up hammering on the caravan door. He went over to help a very groggy Nettle.

  “How is he?”

  Spoon had a slumped Nettle over his shoulder. “Hurt bad. Not knocked unconscious though. We need to get him in the caravan. If that thing comes back, we’re all in big trouble.”

  “If it comes back, I’ll have it,” Kriti insisted. “Just get out of my way.”

  With Bodi’s added shoulder for lifting, the three of them limped up the ditch side and over to the backdoor where they hammered on it. All the while the sounds of roaring crashing and clattering filled up the air. Day did open the cart though and all three men scrambled into the safety.

  “Give me all my stuff,” Kriti demanded, leaning down to get the weapons pack tossed up.

  The door closed again, and she found herself the loan standing defender. Kriti put her loaded crossbow down carefully and started putting together the one from the Smith’s shop. She got out additional bolts as well and even dipped a few in fresher poisons. This stupid bear needed to die.