Trek For Survival

"We can"t take as much water as we were planning to, because it would make the load too heavy for the lions," Sudar was telling Vonn as they climbed back into the elephants.

Gia was going to ride in one with Von and Mikey, with Sudar, and her parents were going to ride in the other with Brin and Kei to equal out the loads. All of their stuff would be with her, since Mikey didn"t weight as much as her mom.

"When did you meet the lions to form this friendship?" asked Vonn, shading his eyes to look for the approaching lions.

"Oh, they"re not friends," laughed Sudar. "They"re more like what I call acquaintances that require lots of payment."

"Oh," said Vonn, stepping back in surprise. "What will you be paying them with?"

"I plan to give them a lot of meat that I will be getting from the orcs when we arrive. It should take the lions only about ten to twelve hours to fly us there. Those carvings from your dad should get a lot from the orcs."

Vonn didn"t correct Sudar about who"s father Tom was, and Gia grinned at that. He was trying to help them get the last of the ropes in place when four huge creatures seemed to appear out of nowhere. They looked like cats with wings, only huge. One stood almost as tall as the elephant.

Gia pulled Mikey back into the elephant, trying not to stare. Sudar had told them they might not like them, and to stay out of sight. Vonn quickly joined her and Mikey, and they waited in the very back of the elephant as Sudar spoke to the lions.

"Thank you so much for answering my summons. I wasn"t sure you would be willing to accept my request," said Sudar.

"We found ourselves with some spare time. I do hope you remembered that we don"t work for free, human," came the rumbling voice of one of the lions.

"Oh, no, I a.s.sure you that I will pay you as much as you feel I need to. I will trade for meat from the orcs when we arrive," said Sudar.

"The orcs are generally easy to please, so I don"t doubt your abilities to get meat from them. It better be fresh though. We don"t care for dried meat."

"I understand. Are you ready to have us start attaching the harnesses?"

"Yes, have you equalized the loads?"

"I believe so. If you feel they are still needing work, we can fix them."

"Very well. Be careful around our wings. The feathers are new and we don"t want them damaged too much."

One of the lions stood in front of the elephant for a moment, peering in at them, before moving out of their line of sight. Mikey was grinning ear to ear.

"Do you think I"ll get to pet one?" he asked.

"Mikey, they aren"t pets. They"re wild animals," said Gia. "If you make them angry, they may eat you."

"I bet they could swallow me whole!" Mikey said, nodding to himself. "They"re mouths are so big! Did you see those teeth! They"re as long as me!"

"I just hope that this goes smoothly," said Gia, shifting her weight. "My mom is going to freak this entire trip!"

"It can"t be any worse than riding in the tree, running from those giant spiders. Or how about on the back of the lizards when they decided to jump off the cliffs?" said Vonn, trying to rea.s.sure her.

"I don"t think this is the same at all," said Gia, shaking her head. "This time we"re going to be high up in the sky, without anything touching the ground. If the elephants were walking, we would be close enough to survive falling, but if anything happens, and we get dropped, there"s not much of a chance of surviving."

"Oh, Gia!" said Mikey, scrunching his nose. "You sound just like mom! You should calm down and not worry so much!"

"Mikey"s right," said Vonn, giving her a hug. "I don"t think the lions are going to drop us, and I certainly don"t think Sudar would want us to get dropped. If there were another way out of here, I think he would have offered that before contacting the lions."

"Hold on guys!" shouted Sudar suddenly. "We"ve got a sand storm coming in fast! We"re going to have to rush to get this done! When they lift off, it"s probably going to be rough!"

"No time to check weights!" called out the lion. "Hurry with the straps over my back haunches. We"ve got to get into the air now!"

"I"m trying!" cried Kei.

"I"m done!" cried Brin, as he scrambled into the other elephant.

"Done!" cried Kei, following Brin.

The two lions strapped to their elephant rose up in a great gust of wind. Vonn frowned as Sudar seemed to be trying to hurry, but the others had left him alone.

"I better go help," said Vonn, sliding towards the entrance, but Sudar appeared just then, breathing hard, and barely managing to grab ahold of the elephant before the lions they were attached to began to, lift them off the ground.

Vonn grabbed his arm and finished pulling him into the cavity, and they all got a really good glimpse of the receding city below them as they pulled high into the air. The lions wheeled away from the wall of sand that was rushing towards them, and Sudar pulled the leather mat across the opening, to block out the blinding sun as they flew away from the storm.

Gia couldn"t believe how fast they were moving. Far below them, she could see through some of the holes in the floor, giant sand worms appearing and seeming to reach for them, but falling back to the ground before the edges of the storm overwhelmed them. She hoped that the lions were able to stay ahead of the storm.

"That storm looked nasty. If its what I think it is, it can grind the skin off a man"s hide in a matter of minutes. I don"t know how long the lions will be able to withstand it, if it overtakes us," said Sudar, glancing through another hole near the back of the cavity.

"We will not be overtaken," said one of the lions above and to the side of them. "These wings of ours will not fail us."

"I meant no disrespect," said Sudar, moving back to the front.

"It is understandable for a race that doesn"t fly, to not understand the might of us lions. You are forgiven," said the other lion.

They had turned again, and the sun was no longer blinding them. Ahead, Gia could see the other lions with the other elephant suspended between them. It was amazing watching the way the lions synchronized their wings so they didn"t strike each other with their wings.

Glancing behind them, she saw that there was nothing to see but the wall of sand. While they had drawn further away from it, she couldn"t help but feel like it was chasing them.

"Where do you lions live?" asked Vonn, taking advantage of their willingness to talk.

"We live where ever we wish," answered one lion. He sounded amused, but Gia wasn"t sure.

"We prefer to live where there is plenty of food, and away from you pesky humans. We don"t generally like elves either," added the other lion.

"Why don"t you like elves?" asked Mikey, peeking through a hole in the side to see the lion better.

"We have bad history with the elves. They often wish to take our cubs, and we don"t care to lose them," said the lion he was looking at.

"We don"t care to lose our young either," said Gia, watching the sand wall cautiously. "Is the storm following us?"

"I certainly hope not," said Sudar, moving next to her, to see it better. "My friends, I do believe the storm is getting closer, quickly!"

"Hold on!" said one of the lions, as the other roared to the others.

The lions in front of them glanced behind them before picking up their pace. They could all see the strain on their faces as they flapped their wings harder.

"We need to lighten the load," said Vonn, as they all realized at the same time that there was no way the lions could keep up such a pace for so long.

"Cut the water bags," said Sudar. "If we don"t get to the orcs, it won"t matter if we"re thirsty."

Gia took the knife that was tossed towards her and started cutting the lashing that held the water bags to the outside of the elephant. Sudar shouted to Brin and Kei to cut their water bags loose as well, and the bags were soon dropping to splatter on the desert floor. The roar of the storm started to lessen as they picked up speed and pulled away from it again.