A Charge of Valor by Morgan Rice Page A

this desert can give us?” Reece asked, joyful to be alive.
    Indra shook her head, somber.
    “ You celebrate prematurely,” she said, looking very worried. “After the rains, the desert animals come out to drink.”
    An awful noise arose, and Thor looked down and watched in horror as an army of small creatures arose from the sand and scurried their way towards them. Thor checked back over his shoulder and saw the lake of water the rains had left, and he realized that they were right in the path of the thirsty creatures.
    Dozens of creatures which Thor had never laid eyes upon before raced his way. They were huge, yellow animals, resembling Buffalo, yet twice as large, with four arms and four horns, and they stood on two legs as they ran towards them. They charged in a funny way, running on two legs, but every once a while pouncing down on all fours, then bouncing up again. They roared as they came for them, their vibrations shaking the ground.
    Thor drew his sword, as did the others, and prepared to defend. As the first of the animals neared, Thor rolled to the side, out of the way, not striking it, hoping that it would just run right past them and go for the water.
    The creature lowered its head to gouge Thor, and just missed as Thor rolled. To Thor’s dread, it was not content—it circled back, in a rage, and charged right for Thor. It seemed it wanted him dead more than it wanted water.
    As it charged again, lowering its horns, Thor leapt high into the air and swung his sword, chopping off one of its horns as it rushed by. The animal shrieked, jumping up on two legs, and spun around, clipping Thor and knocking him to the ground.
    The creature lifted its feet and tried to stomp Thor, and Thor rolled out of the way as its feet made an impression in the sand and stirred up a cloud of dust. The creature raised its feet again, and this time Thor raised his sword and plunged it into the creature’s chest.
    The beast shrieked again, the sword plunging to the hilt, and Thor rolled out from under it right before it collapsed down to the ground, dead. He was lucky he did: the weight of it would have crushed him into the earth.
    As Thor gained his feet another beast charged for him, and he leapt out of the way, but not before its horn grazed his arm, slicing it, making him scream out in pain and drop his sword. Swordless, Thor extracted his sling, placed a stone and hurled it at the beast.
    The beast staggered and screamed as the stone impaled its eye—but still, it charged.
    Thor ran to the left and to the right, trying to zigzag out of the way—but the creature was too fast. There was nowhere left to run, and he knew that in moments he would be gouged. As he ran he glanced over at his Legion brothers and saw they were not faring much better, each on the run from a beast.
    The beast neared, just inches away, its awful snorting and smell in Thor’s ears, and it lowered its horns. Thor braced himself for the impact.
    Suddenly the beast shrieked, and Thor turned to see it being lifted high into the air. Thor looked up, puzzled, not understanding what was happening—when he saw behind it a huge lime-green monster, the size of a dinosaur, a hundred feet tall, with rows of razor-sharp teeth. It held the beast in its jaw as if it were nothing, and leaned back scooped it up in its mouth. It held it there, squirming, then chewed it and gobbled it down in three huge bites, swallowing and licking its lips.
    All around Thor the yellow creatures turned and ran from the beast. The beast chased after them, sliding and whipping its huge tail as it went; the tail caught Thor from behind, and sent him and the others landing hard on the ground. But the beast continued charging past them, more interested in the yellow creatures than in them.
    Thor turned and looked at the others, who all sat there, dumbfounded, and looked back at him.
    Indra stood there, shaking her head.

    “ Don’t worry,” she said, “it gets much worse.”

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