Tricked

there’s a truck-size hound with red eyes coming at us. He’s six feet tall at the shoulder or I’m a horny toad. Ain’t no skinwalker can get itself a dog skin like that. You got any ideas? Friend or foe? «
    I couldn’t see what he was talking about, of course. But if it wasn’t a skinwalker, it had to be something sent by Hel, and the only hound Hel knew was … Gods Below! I scrawled two words hastily in the dirt by Coyote’s boots. GARM. RUN!
    » Run? Can’t I just shoot ’im? «
    I kept circling the word RUN with my finger until he got the message. I heard the rifle and flashlight clatter to the ground behind me, and Coyote grunted as he picked me up off the ground and slung me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.
    » You’re turnin’ out to be a giant pain in my ass, Mr. Druid. « A strained wheeze puffed out of me as the whiplash from flopping against his back reopened my delicate windpipe and sent searing needles of torture along the short highway from my throat to my brain. Coyote laughed about it. » Guess I’m a giant pain in your neck, huh? «

Chapter 11
    Coyote took four steps before he shifted us somewhere significantly different. Not only did we shift from an arid plateau in winter to a lush riverbank in spring, we arrived in the daytime. Fat bumblebees lazily pollinated the flowering bushes as the river sang its song over partially submerged rocks. Birds serenaded us and the wind sighed gently of serenity and fulsomeness. Coyote answered the question I wanted to ask.
    » We are in Third World, or Yellow World, on the banks of the Great Male River, near the dwellin’ place of White Shell Girl. « He set me down on the smooth, sandy bank much more gently than he had picked me up. » Oughtta be a good place for you to hide up and heal for a while. «
    I wanted to shake my head, but of course I couldn’t. I couldn’t hold it up. But the power running through here was strong; this plane was bound tightly to the earth, and, had we the time, I could have enjoyed recuperating here. But it wasn’t a safe place. Nowhere was safe from Garm. Unlike Hel, he wasn’t bound to the nine realms of the World Tree. Supporting myself with one arm locked at the elbow, I scrawled another message in the sand of the riverbank.
    Garm shifts planes .
    Coyote read this and shrugged. » So what if he can? He don’t know where we are. «
    I scowled and wrote furiously. He TRACKS!
    » Aw, bull— « Coyote’s dismissal got cut off by the sound of an epic belly flop combined with a surprised howl. Water fooshed into the sky as something elephantine displaced much of the river’s flow.
    » Son of a fucking bitch, Mr. Druid! «
    Propped up as I was, I got my first look at the monstrosity pursuing us. It was Garm, Hel’s personal widdle doggie: black fur over a thickly muscled, stocky frame and a muzzle curled at the lips to show slavering teeth with disturbingly red gums. His eyes were glowing egg yolks, burning Scut Farkus eyes to make your kidneys cringe. He rose from the riverbed, which was only three feet deep, and shook himself, showering either bank and making his fur stand out in spiky clumps. Coyote was hoisting me back over his shoulder, and I thought briefly about trying to run on my own while holding my head up with my hands, but I was too weak from blood loss to make a go of it. Garm spotted us and rolled out such a deep, vibrating bark that I thought it might be the etymological origin of the term subwoofer . He launched himself toward us, the water hampering his movements, and Coyote was able to take four steps and shift us away before Garm could close the distance.
    We arrived someplace where the ground was as blue as the sky. Startled by our sudden appearance, blue pheasants erupted out of the blue grass and shat blue shit.
    » This is Blue World, « Coyote explained helpfully, but this time he continued to run away from the place where we’d shifted, and I had to concentrate on keeping my head attached and my fluids inside as I flopped over his back. » He’ll be along soon, so we gotta figure somethin’ out fast. Tap once for no, twice for yes, okay? «
    I tapped his ass twice.
    » Do you know how to kill it? « No. » Is this because o’ that Famine thing that giant spooky bitch pulled? He’ll keep comin’ until he eats you? « Yes. » She said it was scent-based, right? « Yes. » Do you smell the same when you shift to an animal form? « No. I thought he was going to suggest I