The tiger roared.
Xu Hao had heard that sound before, in wildlife recordings played through the inadequate speakers of a lecture-room computer. He had never liked it. There was something objectionable about a noise made by an animal that knew perfectly well it could eat you.
This was not the same noise.
It struck him through the chest and held him there. His fingers closed around his staff. His knees locked. Even his breath stopped, caught halfway into his lungs. He could see the stripes shift as the creature rose on the rock; he could see Sia standing three paces ahead with her hackles raised. He could not so much as turn his head towards her.
A branch cracked somewhere behind him.
He wanted to run.
His body had apparently resigned.
The tiger came off the rock, its great forepaws landing on the earth with scarcely a sound. The fur along its shoulders lifted as it swung its head from one side to the other. Three huskies faced it. Two men were moving among the trees. And Xu Hao, who had spent considerable time practising how to fall without injuring himself, could do nothing at all.
Something warm and solid struck the middle of his back.
He stumbled forward, inhaled with a painful gasp, and nearly dropped the staff.
Er Bao caught his collar.
"Can you move?"
"Yes." Xu Hao bent at the waist, dragging air into his lungs. "What was that?"
"Innate skill. The roar carries Spirit. It can stop weaker creatures for a short time."
"Short?"
"Long enough."
Across the clearing, the tiger turned towards Grey.
Er Bao pushed Xu Hao behind the trunk of a pine. "Stay here. Do not enter the clearing, whatever you see."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
Er Bao drew his sword and moved away.
Xu Hao pressed one hand against the bark. His legs were shaking. He had imagined that, given enough warning, he could choose whether to run or hide. The tiger had taken that choice before the fight even began.
He looked down at his walking stick.
It was a good stick. Da Bao had carved a comfortable grip and fitted a blunt iron end to it. Xu Hao was fond of the thing.
He doubted the tiger would be troubled if he hit it.
* * *
Sia stood closest to the beast.
Xu Hao could feel her through the card inside him. The connection carried no words, but he sensed her fierce attention and the tension gathering in her legs. Little One kept edging towards the tiger's left flank, while Grey moved more carefully on the right.
Da Bao raised his club and shouted for the girls to retreat.
None obeyed.
The tiger dropped into a crouch. Xu Hao recognised the movement from documentaries, and from the unpleasant moment when an angry house cat decided that an ankle was prey. The comparison did nothing to improve his confidence.
"Grey!" he shouted.
The tiger sprang.
It crossed the distance to Grey with terrifying speed, jaws open, one paw outstretched towards her neck. Xu Hao had time to see the dark curve of each claw. There was no time for Er Bao to reach her.
Wind caught the grass.
Grey disappeared sideways in a blur of pale fur and flying leaves. She reappeared several strides away, stumbled once, then recovered. The tiger's paw smashed into the ground where she had stood.
Wind Step.
It worked under pressure. Xu Hao would have been pleased by that discovery if his heart had not been trying to escape through his ribs.
The tiger twisted after Grey. Sia was already moving.
She darted in beneath its turning shoulder and raked her claws across its side. Four red lines opened in the striped coat. The tiger gave a furious cry and whipped its head towards her.
"Sia, back!"
She retreated, but not before its paw passed close enough to stir the fur at her throat.
Xu Hao's hands went cold. He remembered a line on her card: Willing to die for her owner. He had thought those were fine, loyal words when he first read them. Now they seemed to have been written by someone who had never loved a dog.
Da Bao stepped into the clearing.
"Girls! Back!"
This time he spoke with a force that cut through the noise. Little One wheeled towards him. Grey followed. Sia hesitated, eyes fixed on the wounded beast.
Xu Hao called her again, using the sharp whistle he'd taught her beside the campfire. Her ears twitched. Then she broke away and came running towards him.
He had barely time to kneel before she collided with his chest. He held her by the fur at her neck and checked her face, shoulders, legs, and belly in a hurried sequence.
"Stay here, please. Just once, do exactly what I ask."
Sia licked his wrist.
The tiger roared a second time.
Xu Hao flinched, but the sound came muffled this time, buried beneath the thunder of Da Bao stamping his foot.
The earth rose.
Not the little ridge Da Bao had used to frighten Xu Hao during training. A broad wall rolled across the clearing like the front of an overturned hillside. Grass tore free. Stones rattled together. The tiger attempted to leap aside, but its wounded flank slowed the movement. Soil piled around its legs and chest, pinning it against the rock.
Its head remained above the rising earth. It snapped at the air and made a noise that set Xu Hao's teeth on edge.
Er Bao approached from behind its shoulder, keeping beyond the reach of its jaws. He waited until the beast threw its weight against the earth one final time.
Then his sword flashed.
The tiger went still.
No one spoke for several heartbeats. Soil slid gently down the broken wall. A leaf turned in the disturbed air and landed on the stone where the animal had been sleeping.
Xu Hao realised he was gripping Sia's fur hard enough to hurt her. He loosened his hands at once.
"Sorry, girl."
She pressed her nose beneath his chin.
* * *
Da Bao went to inspect the carcass while Er Bao cleaned his sword. Grey stood beside her master, unharmed except for a smear of mud down one flank. Little One had acquired another thorn in her fur. Xu Hao removed it, receiving an extravagant amount of affection for the service.
He inspected all three dogs a second time. It seemed more important than hearing about the tiger.
He had carried medical supplies on expeditions in his old life, but nothing here except water, a narrow strip of clean cloth and the habit of checking a patient twice. He made Grey walk slowly in a circle, looking for favouring of the injured leg. She did not limp. When he pressed gently around the joint she accepted the examination without pulling away, although she kept trying to turn her head towards Er Bao. Xu Hao was careful not to pronounce her healthy simply because she was quiet. Some injuries showed themselves only after the excitement passed.
Er Bao waited until Xu Hao had finished. "No wounds?"
"None I can find. Grey's front leg might be a little stiff after that sudden turn. I'd like to check it again when she's rested."
"Good."
Xu Hao looked towards the dead animal. Now that it wasn't moving, he could see that it was not as long as he had first believed. That made very little difference to the size of its teeth.
"Do they all do that?" he asked.
"Roar?" Da Bao said from beside the body. "Most tigers, yes."
"Stop being helpful. The paralysis."
"Some spirit beasts have an innate technique. This one's was a fear roar. A weak cultivator can freeze even when he knows what's happening."
Er Bao touched the tree behind which Xu Hao had sheltered. "It doesn't mean you were cowardly. Your body couldn't answer."
"I appreciate the distinction. It didn't make the experience any more pleasant."
Da Bao lifted the tiger's head to examine its teeth. Er Bao knelt beside him, running a hand through the striped fur and studying the paws. They spoke quietly for a while, then exchanged a look that Xu Hao didn't like.
"What?"
Er Bao straightened. "It's younger than I thought."
"How young?"
"Not full-grown."
Xu Hao stared at the carcass, at the shoulder broader than his own chest, and the claws that had carved furrows through the dirt.
"You're telling me that thing was a cub?"
"An older cub," Da Bao supplied, as if that made the matter reassuring.
Xu Hao looked towards the trees. Beyond them the forest continued for miles, thick and dark and patient. He imagined a tiger twice this size stepping through the undergrowth, with the same power in its voice and considerably less trouble breaking out of an earth wall.
His earlier ambition had been modest: find a road, get some paper, learn enough of the local language to ask for directions.
He had somehow added hunting with enormous dogs to the list.
"We're leaving," he said.
Da Bao opened his mouth.
"After you collect the meat," Xu Hao added. "I know. We can't possibly waste the meat."
Da Bao closed his mouth, satisfied.
Er Bao stood and studied the surrounding trees. "Quickly, then. The blood will carry. Whatever else comes looking, I don't want us here when it arrives."
Xu Hao put a hand on Sia's collar and kept her close while the brothers worked.
He had learned two things during his first hunt. The dogs were brave enough to risk their lives for one another, and he was so weak that a roar had nearly finished him before the fighting began.
He watched Er Bao's sword slip into its sheath.
One day, he decided, he would be able to help without standing where a tiger could reach him.
For the moment he would settle for walking home with everyone alive.