Excerpt: Deus Ex Machina

“You know,” Omon said slowly. “You were pretty close that last time. You should have another run at it.”

She looked over at the trees. Three more hoops still hung from the branches, the rest having either been snared or torn off and dropped. “Maybe I will,” she said, and shouldered her spear. She thought maybe she’d have some better luck from this direction anyway, with the sun behind her rather than in her eyes. “Here we go, Lewi... Ha!” she shouted and he took off in a cloud of dust.

It almost happened by accident. From the angle she was running, two of the hoops lined up. She caught the first, adjusted slightly, and speared the second as well. Before she could congratulate herself on this, she swung her arm around, turning Lewi slightly as she did so in order to better see behind her, and hooked the third, finally swinging him around to a backwards stop that left his tail reeling and his legs twisted around. But his stance was solid.

“Three!” she exclaimed, holding up her spear. The others cheered exuberantly.

"I want to try again!" someone shouted to which another added "Yeah, hang them back up!" Suddenly, without Hin's supervision, it became a game. They tied up every leather ring they could find and began running the course again, this time feeling free to experiment with excessive amounts of improvisation. Omon, despite his earlier fall, borrowed a second hookspear from Anlu tried a hands-free method with two spears at once, and of course caught none. Anlu, spear-less, was convinced her Lawejo would be able to hook one on his horn, and they very nearly managed, clipping one but not pulling it down.

The luck Adelay had earlier must have worn off, because run after run she came away with a completely empty spear. Tena decided he was going to try an even faster run at it, and rode off several yards to get a long head start. He spurred Lax forward and they raced towards the trees. He hooked one, then two loops, ducked under the thick branch that was now very close, and turned his norbok’s head for a quick stop. But their speed was too great and they had veered to close to the edge of the mesa, and suddenly they vanished over the edge.