Today is the publication day for Riders of the Mapinguari, by Gaddy Bergmann. It is the third book in the Feral World series.
To celebrate, we are having a book launch party all day today. The party is being held primarily at Twitter, with the hashtag #FeralWorld.
Earlier, I posted the book descripion of Riders of the Mapinguari, and an excerpt from the prologue.
I have been promising everyone excerpts, I posted a pretty exciting and tense moment from Chapter 9.
Now here is another exciting excerpt, this time from Chapter 22:
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Blake was so afraid that he could barely move, and it seemed as though his entire field of vision was filled by the giant, brown mapinguari. He had never been this close to one, never had one standing over him, never been at its mercy before. The beast lowered its head, sniffed at Blake, and looked him directly in the eye. The mapinguari's eyes were big and brown, but compared to the rest of its huge body, they seemed small and weak. On its head it wore a shiny, metallic helmet with little notches cut out of it, from which the small, round ears protruded.
Maybe it'll go away if it thinks I'm dead. Blake played dead, hoping that the mapinguari would lose interest, but the creature continued to hover over him.
Rita and Zeke were mad with rage-and fear. They stood their ground, loudly barking over and over, trying to frighten away the monster. But it was no use; the mapinguari wouldn't budge. Indeed, the barking only served to aggravate the creature. It stood up tall, lifted its head, and emitted a low, powerful rumble. Hearing this, the dogs stepped back a few paces, but stayed close by, refusing to abandon Blake.
Just then, Blake heard a strange voice. A man was shouting orders of some kind, but they were in a completely foreign language, and Blake could not understand them at all. The mapinguari turned, and Blake saw that it wore a great saddle; its reins led from the mouth to the hands of a rider on its back. Like the other Terrans, this rider was well protected in a suit of jointed, metallic armor. Blake watched the man, and quickly realized that the orders were coming from him.
He must be telling the mapi what to do. But where is he guiding it? Does he think I'm dead?
The mapi observed the two dogs for a moment. Then, with amazing agility, it took a swipe at them with one of its enormous forepaws. The dogs scattered, however, and the mapi succeeded only in striking the ground. The paw's three great claws dug into the earth, and when the mapinguari retrieved its limb, huge clods of dirt came flying out of the ground.
With the creature preoccupied, Blake stood up and began to creep backward. Keeping his eye on the mapinguari, he hoped to get out of its reach and escape. To his dismay, though, the rider noticed what Blake was doing and directed his mount to attack him.
The mapi locked its gaze onto Blake once more and headed directly for him. Its gait was surprisingly slow-only about as fast as a man could walk-and Blake considered simply running away. When he looked in the other direction, however, he saw dozens of other mapis all over the battlefield, pursuing Bebelishi everywhere they went. There's nowhere to run! I have no choice but to stand and fight.
Blake turned to face the giant beast again. In horror, he watched as it came creeping toward him. Each of the claws on its hands were as long as Blake's forearms, and they were obviously lethally sharp. Blake's eyes were drawn to the claws on the creature's feet, which were just as long. In fact, they were so long that they forced the mapi to walk-in a rather clumsy but nevertheless efficient way-on the outside of its feet. Those feet! They do look like they're on backwards! Oh, God, Dandoll was right. He was right about everything! I wish we had listened to him and run away. But it's too late for that. Only one thing left to do, now.
Blake fired an arrow directly at the mapinguari's chest, but the projectile simply bounced off and fell harmlessly to the ground. Blake tried again, this time aiming for the creature's belly, but the same thing happened. Undeterred, Blake lifted his spear and threw it, too, but to no avail. Annoyed at Blake's tactics, the mapinguari roared and simply kept coming. This had an unnerving effect on Blake, and he began to panic. Dregs! What can I do? Nothing's working! Blake looked around frantically for ideas, but could think of none.
Rita and Zeke had taken up their positions on either side of him, barking and snarling continuously. The mapinguari paused to appraise them, but then it simply kept coming. Blake continued his incremental retreat, but failed to notice the corpse of a fallen Terran foot soldier lying directly behind him. He tripped over it and tumbled to the ground. As he scrambled to regain his feet, however, something caught his eye. An idea suddenly occurred to him. I know. The sword! I'll turn the Terrans' own weapon against them.
Blake seized the sword and hefted it in his hand. He had never even seen a sword before, let alone used one, and he was taken aback at how long and heavy it was. But the weapon was not so different from his own knife or dagger, and it seemed simple enough use. I'm not sure just how this thing works, but I've seen what the Terrans do with it. I'll just do what they did.
Blake gave out a fearsome battle cry and rushed forward, holding his sword out in front in an attempt to embed the blade into the mapinguari's torso. The mapinguari, however, was not only agile but battle hardened, too, and it immediately extended its left arm in defense. Blake's attempt at stabbing was thwarted, but when he saw the beast's limb, he reacted. With a quick stroke, he brought the sword down onto the mapi's forearm.
This time, he drew blood.
The mapi was as shocked as Blake was, and in pain and alarm, it suddenly thrust itself upward to its full height. Now the beast loomed over Blake, holding both its mighty arms out to protect itself, its blood matting the thick fur of the left one. The mapinguari looked down at Blake and bellowed.
Blake felt himself tremble in the face of this overwhelming foe. It was like confronting a tree with a face and claws. Blake was merely a rabbit next to this thing, and he feared he would be squashed underfoot, so he leaped evasively to one side. The mapinguari tracked Blake, its massive head moving atop the long, powerful neck. With surprising agility, the mapi shifted its weight and turned to follow the human that had injured it.
The rider on the mapinguari's back had not expected such a maneuver, however, and lost his balance. Then he toppled from the great height of his mount and plummeted down to the ground below with a clumsy howl. Blake watched the rider fall, and it only took him a moment to realize that the man was still alive. Only the mapinguari stood between the two men, and without its rider, it was obviously disoriented and confused. By and by, Blake saw the rider sit up and orient himself. The man quickly rose to his feet, but compared to the foot soldiers that Blake had faced earlier, the rider's movements seemed relatively clumsy and uncoordinated.
When the rider spotted Blake, he barked another command at his mapinguari. The beast turned around and soon located Blake for itself. Then it headed straight for him again. Frass! This could go on all day, and I'd collapse before that mapi does. There must be some way to stop it. Blake found himself studying the deposed rider just beyond the mapi. Maybe he's still woozy from the fall, but I don't think that's it. I think he's nervous without his precious mapinguari to protect him. Maybe if I take him out, the mapi will stop fighting, too.
When the mapinguari reached Blake, it took a swipe at him with its right paw. Blake, suddenly snapping out of his thoughts, responded by leaping backward. The creature's three long, deadly claws passed right in front of Blake's belly, but they did not make contact. Then, the mapinguari swiped at him again, this time with the left paw. Wide-eyed and jittery, Blake leaped back again, and successfully escaped evisceration once more.
Forget collapse. That thing is going to rip me in two if I don't do something fast!
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The Feral World trilogy is available wherever great books are sold. Here are the three titles in The Feral World tirlogy:
For more information about Flying Pen Press, visit www.FlyingPenPress.com.
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