Chapter Nine
IT SHRIEKED AND was momentarily fazed.
Julio ran!
His left arm leveled the wood he was carrying as his other arm shielded any possible attack. He brought down the full weight of the wood with all the strength he could manage on the creature's left wing, and scored another hit.
But not before it started to launch itself. As it shrieked in apparent pain, it bumped Julio's body in mid-air, depositing him on his back with wooden weapons still in hand. It proceeded to move forward flapping its wings, jumping a couple of times before it managed to take off.
Even in flight, it seemed a little shaken. But whatever it lost in terms of the fight it was in, it more than made it up for it in fierceness. Julio saw it as a blur again as it swept down. He rolled aside as fast as he could, stopped when he felt the heavy thud of the creatures feet hitting the grass. He stood up to face the beast.
Or tried to. When he was up, he immediately felt dizzy, and the creature was already heading in his direction! Julio backed off, raised his wooden weapons in hope that it would ward off the beast or at least keep it at bay.
The creature landed just a few feet away from him. Though everything was still spinning, he swung the wood in his right hand in an upward stab. But it just raised a wing and the wooden pole hit the center of its bony wing. Julio felt like he had hit stone! Then it moved again and hit his elbow solidly, sending pains up and down the length of his arm. The wood fell from the grasp of his right hand.
But as he wheeled to the right, his left hand had aimed for its head in reflex. It reared back and the hit landed on the base of its neck. He drove the pole hard enough that splinters buried themselves in his palm. His body went with it, the momentum saving him again from being impaled. It also gave him a little advantage.
As the beast was starting to retract its right wing, his left hand came swinging hard from below, scoring a strong hit on the side of its head. The pole almost broke as it bounced back. He swung again and missed the head, but hit the scale-laden clavicle of the beast. But the pole did not bounce back this time-because he'd found skin.
Not hesitating, he drove the hit home!
He quickly grabbed the other wood he'd dropped and swung it high in a slicing motion, hitting the other clavicle. He swung it again, this time from the left side, and brought it down, hitting the middle of the creature's neck. Again using momentum, Julio again raised his weapon and hit the other side of the creature's neck.
The pole hit something hard. The creature had recovered and had blocked his attack with its bony wing, then swung its tail from the left, under its wing! The barbed end of the beast's tail tore through the flesh above his right knee, burrowing under his clothes, continuing all the way up to just a few inches below his right breast.
Julio felt his skin tear inch by inch. Blood soaked though his worn shirt and shorts. He could smell it, and he realized the creature did, too.
It was suddenly more aggressive. Its beak came forward at a dizzying speed while the pointed protrusions of its wings alternated in trying to stab him. Julio had to step back several times, his bravado all but gone.
Then the creature stopped using its wings to attack and just used its beak. Julio could see as its powerful neck muscles moved as it snapped its head back and forth at such dizzying speed. It flapped its wings while attacking him. Oh, Julio was in the most desperate position he was ever in.
He was still bleeding. He could feel his blood trickling down, the fabric of his clothes that could not soak up any more. He was bleeding and growing tired. The adrenalin, the fear, the fighting and the wound were now starting to take their toll on him. He was barely able to catch his breath.
With his physical reserves draining off by the second, he would be a sitting duck when it tries to eat him-alive. He wouldn't even be able to outrun it in the trees. It was just too fast.
But he could not think of succumbing. He did not step back too much as to leave a big gap between him and the creature, nor turned to present his back to it. He provoked it with his weapon to keep its attention. Every time his wooden pole landed on any part of its body, a guttural, fearsome growl issued from its throat. It was getting incensed. It might not have been familiar with prey that fights back as long as it breathed. It had never taken on someone like Julio.
And incensed, it acted like a predator. When he was sure that he had provoked the creature enough, he backed off really fast. He knew it was a gamble but his gamble paid off. The creature went wild when it thought its prey was escaping. Instead of flying, it ran after him with great bounds of its powerful feet.
Julio knew he had to act fast. He ran screaming towards the creature, his abrupt attack and the noise he made surprising the enemy. It was all he needed.
He slid down, his entire body dragging in the grass.
The friction between him and the ground halted his progress but as he'd expected, the great bird did not stop but continued to follow him with its beak, its body moving in the same direction. He quickly held the pole firmly in place, one end pointed to the scaly underside of the creature's torso, the other embedded in the ground, hoping the creature would use its own momentum against itself.
It did.
The beast let out a mighty shriek, flapped its wings and fell to the side. Then its shrieks died down almost into squeaks.
Julio scrambled up to look for more weapon. The creature's noise and its frantic flapping of its wings warned him that it was still alive and her was afraid that when it got back up, it would come at him more fiercely. He ran back to the scattered debris near the well to find something. But all manner of wooden implements he could use were short and would prove to be a disadvantage rather than an advantage.
When he looked back, the creature was getting back on its feet!
Julio panicked. He was almost there. Later, he knew he would think that it was impossible he was even able to fight the best back-if there would be a later. It tried to fly, but awkwardly. It was hurt badly.
But the creature's wings were synching. He had to do something! He couldn't think, the growing need to take action pressed upon him with each second. He scanned the clearing. His eyes fell upon the most unlikely of weapons--the small wooden pail that was tied at both ends by the rope. It looked unwieldy, but he had no other choice. He ran to get it.
The creature, once again thinking its prey was about to disappear, filled with renewed energy. But after lifting up a couple of feet from the ground, it could not sustain its flight and fell heavily upon its feet. With its flight option scratched off of the equation, it had no other way to attack but to go for Julio.
Julio did not bother to gather the entire length of the rope to see how far it would go. He just remembered how long he had to let it go in order to get water earlier. Julio just gathered the end of the rope as it had been removed from where it was tied off and picked up the other end with the solid, small wooden pail. He started swinging it above his forehead.
The creature came at him at great speed. Julio waited, and waited some more. The intensity of the moment was bearing down on him that everything seemed to take a long time. Except for his thoughts. His thoughts were all focused on releasing at the right moment. When the creature came near enough, he launched his roped missile into the beast with all his might.
It went wide, far over the creature's shoulders. It would have gone on further had there been no rope attached to it. He missed! Julio yanked the rope back hurriedly, hoping he could retract it in time before the creature got too close. But something happened that he had not counted on.
When it advanced, a long portion of the rope went over its shoulder. When Julio pulled it back, the pail dropped. The creature, with its wing partially opened in order to point the hooked protrusions at Julio, took no notice it. But more movement snapped the rope in place, wounding itself on the base of the creature's wing!
Julio stopped, and the rope forced the creature to stop, too.
; Thus ensued the hardest tug-of-war Julio had ever played.
The creature's objection to being tied up was apparent in the loud, almost roar-like noise that erupted from its scaly throat. It stood its ground and yanked its torso to the side. Julio pulled back and the creature lurched forward. But in a battle between him and the creature, Julio knew he would not win in the long run. Even if it was already injured.
With every pull, he backed two steps off. He found that slackening the hold on the ropes every time the creature pulled back made it easier for him when it was his time to pull. His aim was to get the rope around the stones of the well to make it harder for the creature to pull back.
Julio only needed an advantage. When the rope completely circled the well, he stepped on it to bring it lower, and then tied it. Ignoring the creature's noise, Julio frantically looked for his first wooden pole. He saw it easily this time, ran towards it, and then recovered the other still embedded into the soft earth.
Taking caution against the creature's tail, he approached it from the side.
In his exhausted state, bloodied and out of breath, Julio realized that he was no longer afraid of the creature.
Whatever the reason, he really just wanted the encounter to end. Weighted with his dread and will to live, he approached the creature and once within range, started his battery of hits. With as much passion as that of a butcher, Julio rained down a beating on the creature's torso that was only rewarded with the prompt growling and shrieking that the creature offered in exchange.
The creature was straining hard against the rope, the wooden pail serving as a lever under its wing that stopped the creature from tucking it in. Although its tail flailed wildly at Julio, it could not reach him either from over its shoulder or from under it.
It was getting hurt; the barrage of hits it was receiving from its attacker caused it to lose some of its majestic feathers and some of its scales.