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We began the trek through the canyon. I didn’t want to travel through it by way of the bottom road, and I knew there had to be a side trail up the canyon walls that herders used to join the road or exit it.

We walked for several minutes before I found a likely shoot up the wall. It was a gulley formed from rain long ago, but it looked like there might be enough handholds to scramble up it. I was wrong. I barely got above Sige’s height before I fell back. It was too steep and too loose. We had several more dead ends until finally, I found an ideal path. It was worn smooth from use, and it was covered in small black oval-shaped pellets.

We began to climb and made good headway. At one point I bent down to examine a pellet. It broke up under the pressure of my seax tip. I realized it was scat but wasn’t quite sure from what. It wasn’t from a two-legger, whatever it was.

Sige sidled up next to me. He was inexperienced but he was athletic and didn’t complain, so he didn’t struggle too much with the climb up. ‘See that?’ I asked him, gesturing at the pile of mystery poop with my dagger. He bent down and examined it.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘Shit, if I know.’ I said. He looked at me and I gave a slight smile. ‘It’s scat, Sige. I’m not sure what kind though. It’s a little big to be from the bottom of the food chain, but not quite big enough to be at the top. Keep your eyes out,’ I told him and began to hike again along the natural path we had found.

We came up to a boulder that blocked the way, with no obvious footholds or options to get around it. I waved Sige over and told him to give me a boost. He obediently leaned down and interlaced his fingers to give me a foothold. I stepped into his hand and he raised me about chest height so I could get a handhold on the top of the boulder.

I couldn’t see over the edge yet and was just starting to pull myself up when something brushed my fingers. I jumped and pulled my hands back, alarmed. It was like that feeling you get when you’re going for a swim and some bit of water plant or a fish brushes your foot, but you can’t see what it is. I hate that feeling. And worse, I could hear what sounded like slithering, like a snake on the rocks, and also clacking, but I couldn’t see what it was. I stepped from Sige’s hand onto his shoulders and stood up a little ways from the rock, able to peak over the edge now.

A four-foot centipede reared up on its back half and hissed at me. I yelped and fell off Sige’s shoulders, crashing to the ground beneath the boulder. The centipede followed me, waving its legs and mandibles over us, before swiftly climbing down the rock face towards us.

I scrambled to my feet and pulled my saber from its scabbard. Sige let out an eek and backed away, groping along the trail for a rock. ‘It’s just a baby one,’ I said. The centipede hissed and advanced aggressively at us. They are mean beasties, you know, and can grow to be twice the size of this one, if not more, up in some parts. I’ve heard tales that their venom can melt the face off of a sheep unlucky enough to stray off the mountain trails.

It hissed again and lunged at me, but I parried it away with my saber. It lunged again and tried to bite down on my arm, but I managed to step to the side and slash at its carapace. The blade gouged some of its scaly plating, cutting into it a small bit, but not enough and that just pissed it off more than anything else.

Suddenly, the centipede flinched as a rock hit it. Then another. Its attention was broken from me as Sige hurled rocks the size of melons at its head. Good lad. This allowed me to get behind it. I dodged a rock that Sige had thrown a little wide, and then with a mighty side swing I slashed at the joint between its head and its first armored section. It wriggled wildly, slithering itself into a ball, as its head bounced on the path and then rolled over a small edge to the rocks below. A greenish ooze leaked from the body and the air was foul with its filth. I cut at it again, swinging down onto the ball of legs just to make sure it was good and dead.

The smell was still strong and it was hard to catch our breath. Sige and I pushed it off the trail with our feet and then he gave me a boost again. This time I looked long and hard before I put my hands out onto the rocks to climb up. When I was up, I offered Sige a hand and helped pull him up with me.

We were by a hole in the rocks and I could see more of those pellets in the entrance. There were larger pellets too, indicating there were bigger mommy and daddy centipedes nearby. ‘I think it’s a den. Let’s get the hell out of here,’ I told Sige, who heartily agreed, and we picked up our pace until we finally reached the top of the canyon.

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This is part three of “Love’s Sendero.” Click here to read the next part. If you like these free stories, please subscribe. If you REALLY liked them, please consider leaving me a tip by purchasing it on Kindle for .99 (the cost for 1/3 of a cup of coffee).