She was a plain human (particularly in her current situation), which was to Gibbsen's taste, though he was aware that humans generally preferred less plain girls. Still, she was of ripe age, and healthy, apart from apparently being sick. She hid her face under her arm and coughed into her sleeve.

The chopper was working its way closer to her, without collapsing any of the disastrous walls onto her, which was a tricky business. Gibbsen began to feel, then to hear, an approaching group of gluckasts, probably the return of one of their crude hunting parties.

Along with a whiff of their wicked stench came a shout: the beasts had only then noticed the chopper's cacophony and the searchlight's brilliance was in their nesting ground. Gibbsen could immediately sense their rage and a sharp increase in the swiftness of their approach.

The moment it was possible for Gareth to jump without being ensnared forever in the wreckage of their nest, he went like a black squirrel, and scooped the girl like grim death reaping up a young soul.

But the gluckasts had gotten nearer than expected. Gibbsen stood tense. The moment Gareth lifted the young one up, and she had enough grasp of the situation to roll onto the chopper floor, Gibbsen bit onto the control lever, trusting that Gareth would cling to the boarding rungs as the chopper roared upward.

Gareth did cling, but a gluckast came through an unseen hole, and latched its claw into the hem of Gareth's robe. Gareth savaged the hanging brute with his spurs, but even dead its claw remained snarled in the cloth, and the carcass swung. A spray of fire shot from the mouth atop the rotors protesting the fierce launch. Gibbsen released the lever and scurried over the girl to see if he could help his Gareth.

Gareth had already hooked his stained spurs on the chopper, and was working with a serrated knife to cut the claw from the rest of the gluckast. He let the body drop into the mob below. Gibbsen kept out of the way as Gareth got himself into the chopper, over the girl, and back into the narrow pilot's seat.

The girl reached out in the dark to pet Gibbsen's long, stiff hair. He inched away - who knew if he could catch whatever the human was ailing with.

#dailycreatedoom #writtenoom #adolphussearchandrescue 2023/10/11