"Scott G. Gier - Genellan 02 - In the Shadow of the Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gier Scott G)

repeated the process.

"How sweet," O'Toole cooed.

Tatum shouldered past the slighter man and huddled in the warmth of
the sputtering fire. He chewed hunter jerky and moved a pot over the
flames. Tatum stared into a brutally clear sky. The horse tenders, human
and hunter, watched with silent contentment as the sun's rays bent over the
ridge, illuminating cottony tendrils of fog that lay thickly across the lake and
river valleys. A giant eagle sailed silently below them, black and tan pinions
spreading to the rising sun.

Tatum lifted the bubbling pot, filling his kit cup with steaming rockberry
tea. He brought the hot fluid to his mouth. Spitter screamed.

"What theтАФ! Damn!" Tatum yelled. Scalding liquid dribbled into his
beard. Screeching, Spitter and Bottlenose flailed at the heavy air. Both
hunters set their wings and glided for the tree line. The horses stampeded
into a thundering golden blur, manes streaming, tails flowing.

Tatum jerked around. Coming through the evaporation mists, silhouetted
against the sun's ascent, two dragons, a male-female hunting team, rose over
the grassy ridge. The predatory horrors covered ground in prodigious
bounding zigzags, one sweeping wide and the other cutting into the
stragglers. The reptiles hit with savage coordination. Thud! Thump! A
golden horse fell screaming beneath blurring claws, neck and hips broken in
the instant of contact.

One of his horses!

"Bastards!" Tatum shouted, grabbing his rifle and sprinting uphill.

The rock-gray monsters saw him coming. They were the larger species,
denizens of the riparian valleys to the far south, almost three meters tall,
unlike the skittish, man-sized buffalo dragon that haunted the northern
taiga. As one, the great flared-neck lizards reared up and roared, rapacious
teeth dripping gore, yellow and crimson throat bladders billowing vibrantly.
Short, thick tails twitched spasmodically, and scaly dorsals trembled beneath
rippling muscles.

Tatum stalked resolutely toward the beasts, his great arm raising the
assault rifle to his shoulder. The defiant dragons, jealous of their kill, held
their ground. Tatum halted, legs spread wide, and fired a burst into the
taller one's chest. The male reeled, staggering to all fours, but did not go
down. The dragon pirouetted violently and leapt high into the
airтАФunbelievably highтАФand came down screaming and flailing maniacally.
In blind rage it attacked its mate, knocking her to the ground and
eviscerating her with vicious clawing strokes. Rearing, the crazed male
screamed in tortured victory, all the while glaring defiantly at the puny
human, gibbous eyes glinting gold in the morning light. The killer jittered