Contents
5. Hoooooo, Hoooooo!
Overview
Galva and the narrator push higher into the Thralls, stalked by eerie, head-bobbing, six-foot owl-like predators. A night probe leaves their donkey wounded; a snowstorm later boxes them at a ravine where six attackers close in. They maim and kill some, but their donkey bolts into the crevasse and a dead tree topples, sending both heroes into the abyss and leaving their fate uncertain.
Summary
Climbing deeper into the Thralls, the narrator and Galva struggle with altitude and cold, camping on a rocky shelf. Strange hoots and clicks encircle their fire. When yellow eyes appear, the narrator looses arrows to warn them off, provoking an attack that Galva repels long enough to save their terrified donkey, which suffers a shallow cut.
At dawn they continue, the unseen hunters trailing them. A sudden snowstorm forces them onto a flat that ends in a deep ravine beneath a leaning dead tree. Six towering, white, owl-like predators advance in a skirmish line, bobbing their heads and clicking as they close.
As the narrator wounds one, panic overtakes the donkey and it bolts off the cliff into the crevasse. The owls surge; Galva shears a leg from one, prompting two to fight over the severed limb. Retreating up the dead tree, Galva fends attackers while the narrator sinks more arrows, finally killing one that tumbles into the abyss.
Their position collapses with the dead tree’s roots. With owls below and the void behind, they hesitate to jump down and instead ride the tree as it tips over the ravine. Branches snap, snow whirls, and the narrator glimpses an owl above as they fall, strikes his head, and blacks out.
Who Appears
- NarratorFirst-person protagonist; scouts, shoots at the owl-things, kills one, then falls with Galva when the dead tree topples.
- GalvaWarrior companion; endures the cold, saves the donkey, severs an owl-thing’s leg, fights from the tree before falling.
- DonkeyPack animal; wounded during the night probe, later panics and plunges into the crevasse.
- Giant owl-thingsSix-foot, white, head-bobbing predators that stalk, probe, and attack the party at the ravine.