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Even the Russian helped to gather rocks.
It took more than an hour to build the cairn once they had settled the corpse in a hollow in the hillside. Each stone was laid with care and precision, none of them wanting to inflict any harm on the man they were laying to rest. He was one of them, even if they hadn’t known him as long or as well as the rest of the team. They took his loss personally and wanted the best resting place for him in case they didn’t come back this way, which all of them knew to be a very real possibility even if they weren’t voicing it.
At last they settled down in front of the fire to a meal prepared from the supplies they had brought with them. In the stillness of the night they ate in silence.
As if by unspoken agreement, neither Maddock nor Bones mentioned the dead mammoth. No need to cause alarm or to give the others a reason to wander off in the darkness. They already knew there might be one or more large predators following them, so the discovery of the recently-alive prehistoric pachyderm gave them no new information that would be useful in their current plight. So, they remained silent.
The fire crackled.
In the distance they could hear the hoot of an owl.
Maddock searched the night sky in the hope of catching sight of it even though he knew there was little chance of spotting a dark shape against the bruise-purple sky.
He was still searching the sky when he heard the sound of movement. He turned toward the sound, finger to his lips.
Bones’ eyes narrowed. He had heard it, too. He sprang to his feet, weapon in hand.
Maddock snatched up a torch and waved it in the direction of the sound, only to hear another faint crunch behind him. The torch whickered in the air as he turned quickly, light flashing on a pair of yellow eyes in the near black that were gone as quickly as they were seen.
“It was one of them.” Nate Shaw lurched to his feet, fear ripe in his voice. Despite his injured arm he was immediately at Maddock’s side, a broken branch blazing in his hand. It cut through the air leaving a trail behind as it moved.
“I thought you didn’t see what hit you?” Maddock asked.
“I didn’t believe it. I was sure it couldn’t be something like that. Not here. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me. There was no way I was going to let you all think I was crazy.”
“Tiger, tiger, burning bright,” Professor muttered under his breath as he snatched up another of the burning brands and waved it out in from of him, filling up the gaps in the circle until they all had the fire to their backs.
“What?” said Maddock.
“It was a tiger,” Professor said. “But it wasn’t like any kind of tiger I’ve seen before.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Professor gave him the briefest of glances as he swung the branch again. “And if I were a betting man, I’d slap a few bucks on it being a sabertooth.”
“A sabertoothed tiger? Are you kidding me, Professor?” Bones asked.
“That would explain what mauled the mammoth,” Maddock said.
“Mauled mammoth? What are y’all going on about?” Willis stood, eyes wide, weapon at the ready.
“We found a mammoth carcass while we were gathering rocks.” Maddock took a deep breath, eyes still searching the circle of darkness beyond the firelight. “A fresh kill.”
“Unbelievable,” Willis muttered.
Maddock caught sight of a beast’s face as he swung the burning torch toward the darkness again. He saw it in fleeting glimpses, but that open mouth and huge incisors as it released a roar were unmistakable. Worse, the fire wasn’t frightening it away. It barely held the creature at bay, and it wouldn’t burn forever. Maddock switched the brand to his left hand and pulled out his pistol.
Before he could take aim Bones placed a hand on his arm.
He shook his head. “We can’t kill something like this, Maddock. We don’t have the right. They’re the last of their kind, thought lost to mankind.”
“What? It’s kill or be killed,” said Maddock, bluntly.
“I don’t think so. Look at them. They aren’t attacking us. It’s the fire. They don’t like it. As long as we keep it going, we ought to be okay.”
Maddock wasn’t convinced. “They seem too comfortable with it, if you ask me.” There was no guarantee the wood would keep the fire burning until the sun rose. “What do you suggest?”
“We scare them off.”
One of the sabertooths roared again, this time from somewhere on the slope above them. He looked up to see one of the great cats on a ledge no more than fifteen feet above their heads. Maddock turned to face it, holding his gun at the ready. Leopov stood closest to the creature. He understood why Bones wouldn’t want to kill it. Yes, it was beautiful even if it was dangerous. Yes, it should by rights have been extinct, but it was a clear and present threat. He hesitated for a heartbeat too long. The beast leaped toward them, its great paws the size of a man’s head, lethal claws extended, ready to tear out his throat given half a chance.
He’d seen what one of these things had done to Seb Lewis. He wasn’t going the same way. Acting on instinct and ingrained training as opposed to deliberate thought, he pushed Leopov to one side, putting himself between her and them.
The great cat landed where the woman had been standing a fraction of a second before, a couple of feet from the roaring fire. Its feet slithered in grit and gravel as it clawed at the ice bank in a desperate attempt to keep its footing. It threw back its immense head and loosed another peak-rattling roar.
Maddock fired into the air, hoping that the shock of the noise would be enough to scare it away.
It wasn’t.
The beast paused for a moment but made no sign of turning tail.
Those few timeless seconds were enough for Maddock to snatch up the branch Leopov had been holding. Two blazing torches in hand, he stood between her and the sabertooth. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Rather than holding back, he took a step forward slashing out with the brands. The flame rippled through the air in front of him. One step. Two steps. Closer.
He thrust the burning wood right into the creature’s face.
It let out a howl of pain and shied away.
Maddock didn’t give it a chance to overcome its fear.
He threw himself at it, the flame scorching the animal’s fur. He lashed out again, catching it on the side of the face, going for the whiskers in the hope that it was as dependent upon them for balance as a modern feline. The sabertooth howled again, matching his wild slash with one from its great paw. The big cat moved back and back, spine arched, fur on end, until it was pushed up against the hillside.
Fight or flight?
Cornered, it would likely be at its most dangerous.
Another flame appeared by Maddock’s side. It was Leopov, two brands burning bright in her fists. The cat cowered, turning its head away from the heat for a moment, then bolted. Its howls faded away as it disappeared into the night.
“They’ve all gone,” Bones said. No one broke from the defensive ring.
“You sure?”
“Sure,” Professor agreed.
“I’ll tell you who else has gone,” Leopov said. The men all turned to look at her. “The Russian.”