Give us rest.

Tawny Wagner · 01-23-2012, 12:50 AM

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Word Count :: 555 About 2 miles outside the Festival grounds. January 24th.

There was a dying animal nearby…why it was suffering, Tawny was not sure. The screams and sounds of struggling was clear through the forest, echoing from the treetops and bouncing around until it fell upon her ears. Whining softly, she grabbed a knife from one of her packs and began searching, hoping that she’d be able to help in some way. The closer to the struggling she got, the more nervous she became, not knowing what was causing such a horrendous racket. A few more steps…just a few more… The young woman pulled back a few branches and peaked from behind them. Her breath caught at the site in front of her, eyes blinking rapidly in shock.

There was a large dark horse thrashing around on the ground, those awful screams coming from its throat. The snow covered ground was sprinkled with little puddles of blood, leaves on the trees colored red as well. Small squeals and snorts came from about ten feet behind the big horse, and Tawny could see that it was a baby…not new born, but not old enough to be on its own yet. Mother horse was fighting for her life…from a mountain lion apparently. It was a relatively small cat, young and not very smart in the ways of hunting yet. The mare kept getting in good kicks and bites, wearing it down slowly. It wasn’t enough to save the horse though, and the young female knew that she had to do something in order to help.

Growling loudly, she leapt out from the bushes and rushed at the horse and cat, snapping her jaws and making lots of threatening noises. Apparently she wasn’t scary enough, because they all but ignored her presence. Irritated and full of adrenaline now, she rushed again, slashing her knife out in an awkward arch, grinning viciously when the blade sliced through the fur and skin on the cat’s back. Another terrible scream echoed, this time from the large feline as it turned and ripped one huge clawed paw through the air at Tawny. The mare took advantage and slammed a front hoof out, catching the cat on the hip and throwing it aside. Running over to the fallen attacker, Tawny fell to her knees and stabbed the knife down on its chest multiple times.

Blood arced out from the holes she was making, splattering over her face and fur, staining her a killer once again. Finally there was no more movement…there was simply nothing at all. Just a bloody mess of torn flesh and fur. Tawny dropped backwards and stared at the dead cat for a while before looking over at the horses. The mare was down, twitching slightly…but down, and she was not going to make it for even a few more minutes. Whimpering softly, the woman moved over to the horse and drew her knife across the muscular neck, pushing hard to slice through. She simply could not allow the creature to suffer like that, laying there in pain, dying at such a slow pace.

Moving away from all three of the animals, she plopped down on the ground and closed her eyes, burying her face against her hands with a sigh. All of that had happened rather fast and was hard to take in all at once.

Image courtesy of krystian_o@Flickr; table by the Mentors!

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