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I hunched close to road Padded close Within range Gathered all power in Weight balanced Silent Sprang Through air Long tail revolving for stability Forelegs reaching Unsheathing claws Lips back Mouth open Killing teeth bared
It looked up Glione Gone Fast
Shock flooded through Overshot place where h empty air Retracted claws Lifted paws to break fall Crashed hard into brick wall Weight on one pad, bending into it Body whipping Hard slaround, eyes searching
Strange sound Look up There On ledge, one, two stories Too high to leap It clung toledge Looking down Laughing I growled, spat It ju escape I raised head Screaht Get away and shift back White e was hts came to fore She was expert inDown block Into shadows Creeping around tall, blocky truck Huh dark, avoided hu in sparkles Almost back to Katie’s Sick scent suddenly overlapped Fresh
Hunched, nose low Mad one ca short steady drafts, air and scent, tongue extended to taste/smell Looked at sky Sunrise far off Crouched Followed, silent in night I ae full of cars, light No shadows to slink across I cli clouds of poison Pulled paws close Ti prey Leaped
Claws and paws hit, scra balance Like riding buffalo, rocking, claws scrabbling, instinct seeking flesh
On far side of big river, city thinned, sed Less death: sour river water, dead fish, alcohol, exhaust More prey: do rats--nutria She had studied Twenty-pound rats Good to eat? Birds--prey and predator Owls hunting Bats Squirrel, small mouthful Mosquitoes, too s into lakes around New Orleans Still-water stretched ahead Sharp, pointed moon reflected on top
Truck slowed I jus House squatted in dark, down short road, just ahead, ht in s like predator eyes No other houses near Moved on bent legs, tail tucked close, following scent, to house, warded with power Not witchy power She caht
Her kind Cherokee I pushed her down My hunt Followed scent of -scent Pets inside, with hue, she thought, her exciteh An elder lives here I re silence Padded to lodge Ground rank with mad one Scent followed path, into woods Well-used path Lair near? Or it hunted elder
No! she thought Vision of kits, helpless To be protected, she demanded Such is an elder I forced her down, deep, silent She struggled Swiped at her with inside claws, scoring her ry, worried
Tracked us had fed it, two dog bodies decaying in brush This was hunting ground
Ispeed of mad one Didn’t move like sick prey Moved like wind, unseen Fast I stopped often, scenting air Circled back, sniffing, into trees No fire had cleaned forest; underbrush was thick Path only way Trap? Mad one would understand traps
Trees opened into clearing, floor of pine needles Hunched doaiting Nothing , no out- CarefullySoil rank with its scent, heavy with reek of old blood Liver-eater rot It hadn’t left Yet was not here Puzzling A gaht left I/ere far from new den, from rock she marked to find place Far from food that did not have to be stalked Much dead cow in cold place in den
Refrigerator, she thought at , I padded back down path
Near dawn I stopped at edge of city, in safe place, full of shadows Garden near house where family slept One snored Jane awoke, clamored to be alpha If I did not shift, Beast would be all day; she would not But bad in this hunt I/we slid beneath plant Crouched Let her come I/we shifted Gray place like half-dark of cave sedin storh like a thousand knives