Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

The igwaza Dashyl rode was considerably slower than the other two. Soern and Fretly were increasing their distance ahead of the boy and he had no idea how to make his runner run faster. "Goooo," he yelled and dug his heels into the animal's hide. The reptilian creature grunted and Dashyl quit trying to make it go faster. "You're probably already running as fast as you can," he told it. Dashyl turned around to take another queasy glimpse of the swarm on his tail. "But will it be fast enough," he muttered.

Facing forward, Dashyl noticed that Soern and Fretly had vanished. He could see no sign they were ever running in front of him or that they had ever been on the plains with him. Dashyl's mind raced faster than his mount, which was careening down the road so fast that Dashyl could hardly keep his eyes open. An even greater fear seized his heart and tears came to his eyes, not from the wind but from the fear that he was suddenly alone. 

All that was in front of the boy was the open road cutting its path through the unending grasslands. What was Dashyl rushing towards, he didn't know. But he did know he was running from a dangerous swarm of razorwigs, a type of carapid that could be deadly for some reason. He could now hear the faint noise of the swarm over the galloping of the igwaza's feet. The sound was not exactly a buzzing, it was a sound more like a thousand knife blades being sharpened simultaneously. 

Dashyl did not want to look back. He just wanted to close his eyes and let the igwaza take him where it would. Even with his eyes shut, he could hear the shhhkk, shhhkk, shhhkk sound growing louder, closer. But there was another sound, also growing louder, something familiar. His own name. Was the swarm calling out his name?

The bewildered boy spun around to make the madness make sense and immediately it did. Soern, calling Dashyl's name from the back of his speedy igwaza, was gaining on him. "Stop," he heard Soern bellow. Dashyl gave the command in kirzan to stop and the igwaza gracefully came to rest, panting heavily, eyeing the swarm behind it. 

"There's a ditch back there," Soern yelled once he had caught up to the boy. "We might be safe in it. Come on!" Soern's runner adroitly spun around on its hind legs and ran the other direction. Dashyl's igwaza soon followed. They were now running full speed towards the swarm. He could see the individual razorwigs now. The carapids shot themselves forward in great leaps using their back legs. Dashyl could also see the danger. The forelegs of the razorwigs had razor sharp edges that sliced through the grass stalks and presumably anything in their path. 

Soern disappeared into what must have been the ditch a little ways off to the side of the road. He popped up a moment later without his igwaza and waved his hands in the air. Once Dashyl realized his igwaza was headed straight for Soern and the ditch, he closed his eyes. The swarm loomed right above him now like the crest of a wave ready to break.

The massive wave of carapids crashed over the ditch just as Dashyl's igwaza leapt for safety. The boy heard Soern cry out and his igwaza gurgle in pain, then pain shot through Dashyl's cheek and neck and he cried out. His eyes shot open in time to realize he was flying through the air headfirst into the opposite side of the ditch. His chin hit took the brunt of the landing as his body slammed into the dirt wall and then crumpled into a heap at the bottom of the ditch.