James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

He extended fully in the air, his paws reaching for anything to which they could grab hold. He just barely reached the foliage with his spring, but he got paws full of twigs and leaves, the branches to which they were attached supporting the sudden increase in weight. The tip of Tarrin's tail brushed the water as he bobbed down, then he hauled himself up and onto a sturdy branch, then he turned and looked.

The Wyvern had pulled the ship about as far as it could go without rolling. Tarrin could see half of the ship's keel and the rudder. Then the ship shimmied to one side, and it rolled over on the Wyvern with a thunderous crash that sent white spray high into the air. The Wyvern screeched once before the ship rolled over onto it, then the ship rocked upside down several times. Then it began to move.

The Wyvern was pushing the ship from underneath.

Tarrin looked at Dolanna, who had managed to swim upstream somewhat. The sailors were all swimming for the opposite bank, the bank farther from the Wyvern, the bank where Rennee was standing and calling to his crew. Tarrin was about to say something, but the hideous stench of Trolls struck his nose like a hammer.

He looked down, and saw three of them, approaching the tree where he was. All of them were armed with spears, and he could hear more of them over the shouts of sailors and the rocking swish of the ship.

He couldn't jump into the water, not with that Wyvern between him and the other shore. And he couldn't fight so many Trolls alone. That left only one recourse. Flight. But if he fled, he doubted that he could rejoin Dolanna and the others. With the ship capsized, they would most likely flee in every direction, and they were all soaked, which would make it impossible for him to track by scent.

Dolanna had seen the Trolls, he was certain, for it explained what she shouted to him. "The Tower!" she called. "Go to the Tower! Go west to the coast, and then south to Suld! I will see you there!"

Tarrin nodded, even as the first spear arced in. Tarrin ducked under it frantically. It had been an elaborate trap, and an effective one. If it didn't kill him, it did separate him from the others, leaving him to survive on his own. He vaulted higher into the tree, scrambling into the high branches with the grace of a squirrel, using his claws and strength and agility to get out of sight of those spears. They chased him up the tree, several missing him only by a whisker. Then he felt the whole tree shudder. He looked down, and saw five Trolls working the tree back and forth, trying to uproot it. He'd have scoffed at such a notion, for the tree was old and it was huge, but the tree was already swaying alarmingly. He had no doubt that they could do it. He looked around frantically, and noticed that the branches of another tree were rather close by.

High over the ground, Tarrin vaulted from one tree to the next with surprising ease, landing on all fours on a sturdy branch. The Trolls below all shouted and pointed at him, and it occurred to Tarrin that, as old as this forest was and how thick and large the trees were, he could go quite a distance before having to touch the ground. And if he could get a few minutes out of sight of the Trolls, he could lose them. But travelling in the trees wasn't as fast as moving on the ground, he discovered quickly, and Trolls had outstanding eyesight.

For two long hours, Tarrin scrambled through the branches, trying to get far enough ahead of the Trolls to hide, or come down onto the ground and run at a faster speed without getting a spear in his back. But there were a lot of Trolls; the air was literally befouled by the stench of so many. There had to be a hundred of them, and most of them were following him with their surprisingly fast lumbering gait, and they tried to knock down any tree he stopped in for any amount of time. They couldn't get him down, and he couldn't get away from them. He moved in totally random directions, often going in circles. Once he stopped to rest, but a spear had blasted in and came about two fingers' width from his nose. It had almost startled him out of the tree.

Tarrin was almost exhausted, feeling the effects of lack of sleep, running on pure adrenalin and depending on the Cat's skills of the forest. It helped him know which branches weren't safe to jump to, it kept him from going in a predictable direction and letting them get ahead of him. He saw daylight in front of him, too low to be anything but a break in the woods. He kept moving towards it, planning to cut in one direction or another when he reached the edge, but he stopped once he got there.

It was either the same river or another one. He had no idea. It didn't look quite like the other river, though, for the water was not as muddy on this river. What made him stop was that the river was deep, very deep, and it was at least fifty spans across. Just like the other river, the branches of the trees overhung the river a goodly ways, a good ten spans over the bank, on both sides. That left thirty spans of open air…and if he went high, he could come down and grab a lower branch, which would give him at least five more spans of distance…

It was insane, but he was getting tired, and if he stopped, they would kill him. He was hopelessly lost, and there was nobody to help him this time. If he didn't separate himself from them enough to where he could really get away from them, he was going to die.

Tarrin climbed higher and higher into the tree. He'd already chosen his branch, a long, heavy one that would take his weight almost to the very end, one that had several prime candidates for grabbing almost directly across from it. He could hear the Trolls rumbling towards him, a few of them almost under him; as soon as they had enough, they'd try to topple the tree. He reached the branch and squatted for a moment, preparing himself. If he missed, and fell into the river, he'd be speared before he could reach the other bank. He had to wait for the Trolls to get involved with knocking down the tree, so that he'd have enough time to recover from the jump and get out of sight before they could throw spears at him, or figure out a way to get across the river and chase him. They would get across the river. If they were smart, they'd find a long enough tree and knock it over the water. But that would take time, and all he needed was enough time to get onto the ground and away without taking a spear in his spine. He was much too fast for them to chase him down once he got a lead on them. At least he fervently hoped so.

The tree shuddered violently. That was Tarrin's cue. Taking a deep breath, Tarrin swallowed his panic and sprinted over the uneven branch, running along it as surely as if it were solid ground. He spaced his strides carefully so that he'd hit the very end and be able to jump. He felt his heart go into his throat as his foot hit the jump mark he'd mentally made, and he pushed off from the branch with every bit of power and desparation that his tired body could muster, giving out a cry of effort as he hurled himself into the air.

Stretching out in the arc of his jump, his paws led the way as he sailed over the bubbling waters of the river, some fifty spans underneath him. Even from there, he could tell that it was going to be close. Had he been fresher, he could have put his feet on his target branch with such a run at it. But his exhaustion had removed that advantage. Even his inhuman strength had its limitations. He started descending, and for an instant he panicked, thinking that he wasn't going to make it. He missed his target branch by nearly two spans, but his forward momentum lined him up to grab one of the ones underneath it. He stretched out as much as he could, even his claws reaching out, reaching out for that branch.

He snagged it in his claws, and instantly his hand closed around it. He came flying down, then was snapped back by his hold on the branch. The limb cracked and splintered under his sudden impact on it, bowing it down deeply, but it had served its purpose. It had kept him from going into the river. He swung wildly on the branch for several moments, grabbing it in both paws. He caught a glimpse of something as he started slowing down, and just barely managed to identify it as a spear. He twisted his entire body around that arcing weapon, shocked and impressed that a Troll could throw such a huge spear so far. Natural invulnerability or no, if he was hit by something like that , the shock alone would probably kill him, if it didn't slow him down with him trying to pull it out. He pulled his body up and out of the trajectory of another spear, then physically curled his body up and around the limb above him. He hooked his waist around it, swung over, then hauled himself up, then jumped straight up reflexivey an instant before yet another spear tore him in half at the belly. The spear slammed into the trunk with a loud thok , and Tarrin's feet came down to land on the haft of it. It was embedded so deeply into the tree that it supported his weight.