All this she could see because the creature wore nothing other than the hide wrapping that only just fit around his waist; even his feet were bare. Yet if she saw nothing else, she would have had to agree that this was a man.
It was what she saw from his neck up that forbade her.
Rinda’s eyes opened wide, and she absentmindedly chewed at her knuckles, transfixed by the figure that had wandered out of some nightmare and that now stood before her. For atop this man’s body was the head of a giant leopard. His mouth was turned up in a vicious snarl, revealing two enormous fangs, and his eyes were two fearsome blazes of burning yellow. And this leopard-headed man-beast, broadsword still hanging from his hand, was slowly walking toward the spot where Remus and Rinda stood motionless.
Just then, movement in the underbrush caught Rinda’s eye. Behind the leopard-man, one of the riders that had been flattened underneath the captain’s corpse had come to; gritting his teeth against the pain, he was now quietly cocking his arm behind him to throw his sword at the creature’s broad back.
“Look out! Behind you!“shouted Rinda. Why she would aid this creature that was very likely—no, almost certainly— coming toward them with the darkest designs of delivering them to the fate of the black riders that lay scattered on the ground, she could not have said.
But before she knew it, she had shouted a warning—and the leopard-man’s reaction was swift.
He spun around and knocked the blade from the air with a lightning-like parry, then closed the distance between himself and the rider with two great strides and drove his sword through his attacker’s neck. His movements were precise and merciless, as though the spilling of blood was something to which he had become accustomed long ago.
Ah, Remus and I are surely next. Janos protect us! Rinda covered her mouth with her hands. Remus shook, still gripping the sword— yet just holding the heavy blade seemed to have taxed the strength of his slender arms to their limit.
Almost leisurely, the creature turned back around to face them. His two eyes shone with a ghoulish light, marking the two children where they stood. Then, to the twins’ startlement, the broadsword dropped weakly from his hand. It seemed as though, all of a sudden, strength had left the leopard-man’s entire body. All that force, all that vitality—and now he rocked side to side, and finally fell to his knees on the forest floor.
“What… What’s wrong with him?” Remus’s voice quaked. Rinda noticed the bestial face, and the hand, reaching out toward them as though he were asking something of them. The mouth moved as though he were going to speak, but all that leaked out was an unearthly, flattened sort of growl.
“He… he’s asking for something. He wants us to do something,” said Rinda.
“Rinda, let’s go, now! The rider’s horses! We can—”
“Remus!” Rinda’s voice was half surprise, half outrage. “He’s just saved our lives! Can’t you see?”
“He? You mean to tell me that thing’s human? Rinda—”
“Look!” said Rinda. The leopard-man’s huge hands had gone to his throat. With his left hand, he grabbed his throat as though in pain, and he repeatedly scratched at his head with the right.
Rinda clapped her hands and shouted, “I understand!” as she rushed forward. Her brother dropped the heavy sword and tried to stop his sister, but she wouldn’t so much as look back. “He’s human, he’s just had a leopard mask put on him! Look, he wants us to help him take it off!”
“Rinda! I don’t think we should bother him—“said Remus, but his sister cut him off again.
“Well now! Have you lost your nerve as well as your sense of obligation?” Clearly, Rinda had made up her mind about what was going on. She strode forward without a bit of hesitation. “How can I help? What do you want me to do?”
She reached out a delicate hand to the leopard-man’s blood-covered head, trying to see underneath the mask. The young girl with her slender, boyish figure, worrying over the great hulk of the leopard-man, looked like a rabbit or a frail little bird poised before a lion.
Then the leopard-man spoke. Or rather, the low whine he had been making slowly took the shape of words. “Guin… Guin.”
Again and again, he spoke that word.
“What’s that? Is that something you want? How can I help you?” Rinda repeated patiently. But just then, the great leopard-man’s body lurched, and at last he fell on his side on the thick undergrowth of the forest. Rinda sprang aside as the great body slammed to the ground, but then, emboldened, came back and laid her hand on the man’s shoulder, which was still sticky with blood.
Then she gave a start of surprise.
“Dear me, Remus! This man is sick! He seems very weakened. Why, to see him a few moments ago, who would have known? Remus…? Remus! Go to the spring and find something to bring some water in, quickly! If we don’t do something now, I fear this man will die!”
“Um, Rinda, are you quite—” Remus began.
“If you stand there like a fool much longer, it’ll be nightfall!” With all the air of one who is accustomed to being obeyed, Rinda pointed her unwilling brother into the woods toward the spring. Reluctantly, the boy stood up. His sister was completely taken with the man-creature—that was clear. She shook the last few brambles out of her glimmering hair, and, with a determined expression on her face, she sat down once again by the side of this man with the head of a leopard.