Worlds Apart. William L Frame

and ears alert for danger. Once he was safely back within the trees, Taric relaxed his guard and turned for home, quickly disappearing within the forests’ dark shadows, unaware that his quickened pace and familiarity of the area gave away his presence to three pairs of alert eyes. One pair of eyes turned to follow as Taric moved through the forest, thinking about the bounty a goroc kill would provide them. The hide and fur were ideal for making body wraps, leggings, snow boots, and other necessary items to keep warm despite the regions freezing temperatures.

      Asleep under the warm furs of her bed, Jennifer heard a low rumbling puppy growl issuing from Jaxx’s clenched teeth. The warning snapped Jennifer instantly awake. “Jaxx, stay!” she commanded sternly in a low whisper while reaching out with a hand to grab her collar as she felt Jaxx’s slight body weight lean against her hip and stiffen as if to bolt.

      Although Jaxx was not full-grown, she was still a wild animal of the grasslands and driven by her natural instinct to survive. If she could not escape to safety, she would face her adversary and fight fearlessly to the end. But Jennifer knew now was not the time for her to be brave and held on to Jaxx’s collar with her fingers.

      Within the early morning songs of birds fluttering in the trees and over Jaxx’s low growling, Jennifer heard barely perceptible clicks and clacks of long, thick claws striking stone from multiple footsteps of something big pacing the rocks above the opening that led to the interior of her cave.

      She looked around for a weapon other than her knife and saw the pair of lances Taric had made for their hunt, but she realized they were too long to be of use in the cave’s crowded confines. Despite her size and tender age, Jaxx managed to wiggle loose and jumped to her feet in brave defiance to stand her ground beside Jennifer with her little puppy hairs bristling up along her spine in response to the unseen intruder.

      Jennifer reached down and once again got her fingers curled around the collar of the squirming and excited lycur puppy. She lifted her furry bundle of fury up into the safety of her arms and held her. She then remembered the lockbox with the gun and, with Jaxx held firmly to her chest, scrambled over to where she had stashed the box in order to keep it out of the way and out of sight. She pulled the box out from under a mound of soft animal furs next to the firewood along the back wall a few paces above their sleeping furs. Her fingers trembled over the lock as she heard a thump of something heavy landing in the dirt outside the cave as Jaxx’s defiant puppy growls grew increasingly louder.

      Jennifer was alone and afraid, but Jaxx’s brave defiance actually calmed her nerves to make her trembling fingers enter the correct code for the lock to open the box. Once open, she pulled the gun out of the foam lining, slapped the loaded magazine inside the stock, then quickly pulled the slide back to load a bullet into the chamber.

      Jaxx’s persistent growling suddenly turned into a frightening howl when the light in the cave noticeably dimmed behind her, followed by a deep wheezy rumbling noise. The menacing rumble instantly terrified her, and as she turned around, she saw a kessra no more than fifteen paces away standing at the cave entrance blocking the morning sunlight.

      Driven by an insatiable hunger that would not be suppressed, the animal ignored its instinctive fear of fire and stepped into the cave with its eyes fixated beyond the flames. The old kessra could not endure the agonizing pain of hunger anymore and committed its reserve strength to its four hind legs. It leaped upward emitting a deafening and terrifying roar that reverberated off the walls. Outside the cave’s confines, the roar alerted the unwary herds of danger.

      The kessra propelled itself over the flames in a graceful arc, while stretching and reaching forward with a pair of thick clawed forelegs poised to grab its prey. Bravely in spite of her terror, Jennifer managed to raise the gun just as the kessra was at the crest of its terrifying leap and instinctively fired three shots at point-blank range into the animal’s head in rapid succession.

      Blam! Blam! Blam! The deafening gunshots sounded from inside the cave, allowing the reverberating echoes to escape and prematurely initiate the mountain pride’s attack on the alert herds by panicking them into a massive and uncontrollable stampede. Blindly the animals ran across the trampled and muddy grasslands away from the kessra roar and the unfamiliar noise of Jennifer’s gun.

      Unable to avoid the full weight and extended claws of the old kessra, Jennifer braced herself as it landed on top of her with dead unresponsive limbs. The forceful impact against her body pressed the breath out of her lungs. Terrified and suddenly struggling to fill her lungs with air, Jennifer frantically began pushing, kicking, and squirming her way out from beneath the dead weight of the beast.

      Once she had herself free, Jennifer sucked in, heaving deep breaths of air filling her lungs and easing the pain in her chest. Shivering from her fright, she looked at the animal that attacked her. The kessra’s distorted, bullet-riddled head was bleeding out odd copper-colored blood onto the dirt while two of the hind legs began to sizzle in the fire. After what seemed like an eternity, Jennifer managed a trembling smile and provided a gentle, soothing touch for her brave little companion’s timely warning. “You’re a good girl, Jaxx. I’m so proud of you.” Hearing her words only between her ears, Jennifer cried, grateful for the tiny puppy that saved her life.

      Her heart was pounding in her chest as she lay naked on the cave’s cold dirt floor half out of her sleeping furs. Her body was still shaking from the ordeal but lifted the growling puppy up to her face and kissed its tiny face over and over again. “It’s dead. It can’t hurt us anymore,” she said softly, letting Jaxx hear her voice even if she could not hear herself speak.

      When the kessra roared and leaped over the fire at them, she recalled seeing the animal’s wild eyes and deadly claws reaching out for her and thought death had come. Instead, she was amazed to be alive and without injury all because of her brave little lycur.