Playful death... -- The Middle of Nowhere

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Date Posted: 11:39:06 03/03/02 Sun
Author: Stone Tigers, Infernio, CaraCara, Trahes
Subject: Playful death...

The sun glistened off the partially striped fur of the two Stone Tiger cubs as the wrestled around. The water of the spring was too close to the back of the smaller cub for the larger to resist the temptation: splash! The small cub yowled pitifully as he tried to walk on water. The mother of these two looked up and shook her head. The cubs, Emargo and Dew, were half-grown, and very playful. At least twice a day one of them took a dip in the freezing cold waters of the brook.

The mother, whose name was Keyani, stood and trotted over to Em. Leaning over, she firmly grasped his scruff in her jaws and pulled him, thrashing and sputtering, out of the water. Giving Dew a reproachful look, she started grooming her son with quick, short strokes. Dew gallumped over to his father, Nemain, and pounced his tail. With a growl, Nemain swatted Dew away with a paw and the cub rolled straight into the cold spring. Pa-loosh!

"Mrrrg." Nemain chastised himself, pulling Dew out of the water and grooming him roughly. Em dry, Keyani looked around to see what needed done. The rest of the pack, which had nearly thirty felines, had taken care of those with cubs very well; the defenses were secure. Keyani lay down, suddenly feeling the heaviness inside her, the only clue that she was pregnant. There may have been secure defenses, and her mate may have been a mere ten feet away, but, like an insight, she felt like she would soon need her defense, her only defense: herself. Keyani. Her claws and teeth and agility and rippling muscle. Her intelligence, her speed. Her.

Nemain stood and sniffed the air. His fur rose stiffly and he leapt upon the largest boulder, growling. No sounds, except for the rumbling snarl. The male straightened. "Intruders. Dew. Go tell the Simnohs. Trahes, Infernios. Go!" He snarled as he climbed down, bristling. Dew had a split second of astonishment before he took off, bounding along the stream's banks. Faster than Emargo, not to mention older and stronger, the cub disappeared from sight very quickly. Keyani silently trotted over to Em and picked up him. Without complaint, he let himself be carried to his den and dropped inside.

"How many females have newborns?" Nemain asked.
"Five," Keyani replied. They would be automatically out of the fight.
"Then there will be only twenty-two of us," Nemain muttered. Keyani did the familiar calculations in her head.
"No. Twenty-three," she corrected her mate.
"You are staying," Nemain ordered sternly.
The female snarled, drawing her lip back over her fangs. Nemain may be bigger than she, but she always had her way. Always.
Too late now, she thought as an Infernio leapt onto a boulder with fluid grace.

Nemain bellowed his rage to the huge feline, who returned a snarling hiss. Then, the Infernio attacked! Not Nemain, but Keyani. She sprang back and slashed out at its head, claws shot. Score! The Infernio had use of only one eye. Nemain tore towards the beast and, before it could turn, scrambled up on its back, planting his claws in tough hide securely. The Infernio, though over three times the Stone Tiger's size, was at a loss. Should it attack the female? Try to reach the male? Flee?

The Infernio roared a direct challenge at Nemain, thick tail lashing behind its long body. The male jumped off and faced it squarely. With a snarl, another Stone Tiger appeared. Keyani's sister, Oran, had been sent to help the small family. Unlike Nemain, Oran knew not to tell Keyani to stay out of a fight. The sisters began to stalk the Infernio, circling around to wind up on either side of Nemain. Hissing, the Infernio refused to back down. Suddenly, it lunged at Oran. Standing her ground, she crouched, prepared to take the blow. Keyani, however, darted behind the Infernio, planted her paws, clamped its striped tail in her jaws, and stopped the huge carnivore in its tracks. Nemain roared loudly as the Infernio swung around and snapped at Keyani. And missed. Wham! The Infernio took a hard blow right in the head, delivered by Nemain. Deciding it had had enough, the carnivore tore out of there, with Oran nipping at its heels. None of the Stone Tigers had been injured. Luckily.

A call from above echoed through the air. With a lightened heart, Oran bounded back to her sister and looked up at the CaraCara. The gargantuan bird spread its 60+ foot wingspan as it hovered, a small cub clutched in one talon. The cub was Tenya, Oran's own son. The huge avian gently dropped the cub before landing its bulk on a nearby rock. Reminded of cubs, Keyani nosed the rock off the entrance of her den. Emargo scampered out and went immediately to sniff at the crimson Infernio blood. Nemain cocked his head at Dew's pawprints and looked at his mate, worry tightening his muzzle.

Kk-vai! Kk-vai! BAI! A frightened cry for help seemed to stretch into silence. It was clearly Dew's voice. Then, the cries of cubs and kits filled the air, most less than half-grown... defenseless. Following that, direct-challenge screams could be heard from the mothers, going straight through the rocks, trees, the family's bones. Nemain bowed his head in grief. They would all die, almost certainly. Keyani flung herself forward into a lope abruptly, Oran following, down Dew's path. Head low and tail high as a banner of their intent, the sisters defied reason as they quickly came upon a boulder and sprang onto it. Their blazing eyes met the horrid, blood, death-ridden scene below them. At least two mothers gone, at least five cubs and kits dead. Their hearts froze. A full pack of Trahes ripped through the families. No hope.

Oran felt the rage, the helplessness more than Keyani. It was she who tackled a Trahe, nearly five times her size, and killed it. It was she who skinned the corpse and made a messy, bloody basket out of its hide. It was she who saved over a dozen newborns and several half-growns. Keyani valiantly tried to match her sister's effort, but only after getting herself nearly slaughtered a few times did she attack an Infernio instead, using its furred hide for a stretcher. However, she rescued an adult, along with the rest of the living infants. A full grown female. Unconscious, but if she was gotten to a healer soon enough, she would live. The rest of the pack finally arrived, and it went past battle, into slaughter. So many died. So many...

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