I heard voices wailing out for help. They were screaming. Crying out, bawling, wails of anguish going out.
I wasn't sure where it was coming from. I wasn't sure what was going on, or where I was, but it sounded like hell. The place was dark. Black. I couldn't see anything.
Shifting, ranges of stinging pains went across my back, going through my body and causing me to shudder.
"Owww..." I moaned.
Hmmmm. I still felt pain.
Which meant I wasn't dead yet.
My eyes flashed open.
I was still on the branch.
There was cool breeze blowing above my head. It wasn't warm and hot anymore, and the pins from the cat's teeth weren't sticking me in the sides of my neck.
Which meant that To-mas' mouth wasn't over my head..
I rose my head up, looking to my right. He was still on the edge of the limb, sitting there, his eyes widened. He was peering at something straight ahead of me, staring open mouthed over my head.
My knees buckled as I struggled to rise on them, I got up cautiously, observing the Cat.
He still wasn't paying attention to me even though I moved. Moments ago, he was about to pierce my flesh with his fangs, and now, he wasn't even acknowledging my existence.
I waved my hand to his face. He kept his eyes forward, completely frozen and unmoving.
"What in the..." I swerved around, curious at what he was staring at.
Seeing what he saw I gasped, turning back around just as quickly.
My vision focused back to To-mas.
"Please God let this be a hallucination. I'm hallucinating, yes yes tha- thats what it is. Oh my god..." breathlessly, I tried to convince myself that I didn't see what I just saw.
It was impossible. I was losing too much blood and becoming giddy headed. So now, I'm seeing ghosts again. I chuckled underneath my breath, shaking my head at how my silly imagination played tricks on me.
But how could it be my imagination when To-mas was gazing at ..that...that thing?? He obviously saw the it too..
" Drats...it's real..." I sighed.
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Bending over I held my heaving chest, shaking paws pressing against a racing heartbeat. My hands were freezing, my body shivering, as if I just touched ice.
The place was cold now. Bleak, dark clouds had covered out the sun and its brightness.
The glacial breeze blew through my fur; its polar, numbing temperatures causing me to quiver, like a leaf that just got jumped off of by a Lizard.
I had to look again, just to make sure I wasn't mistaken.
I could feel the weight of my head straightening from my shoulders. Tearing my glance away from To-mas, I turned to see the creature again, but couldn't.
Every inch of me knew that if I looked up, the fright of seeing its horrendous gaze alone, would strike me dead.
Maybe I needed to start small, from the bottom up.
So I turned to see it, lowering my head to the ground and keeping my eyes there.
I saw two massively scaled yellow feet. Blood curdling, obsidian claws protruded out of each toe. They were so long and sharp, that they curved over, hooking themselves into the flesh of the tree. I felt a tinge of pain in my chest, imaging my dead, empty carcass being squeezed by them.
I furthered my vision more to see the mass of its rounded torso, big enough to hold a thousand rats at least; the mid-section of its body curving up to a beefy, protruding chest that shot out like a missile. The top of its head was as white as the clouds in the sky, two eerily yellow irises surrounding a single black pupil, its powerful, clamped beak about the circumference of me, Sharp, and Cheese's heads mushed together, and we still would have needed Mother's own to complete it.
The bird was a herculean hill of a monstrosity, stuffed with nothing but muscle, raw power, and a thirst for flesh and blood.
I marveled at how big it was. Unknowingly, I had joined To-mas in staring with my mouth opened.
"An Eagle...." I whispered in awe. My pupils swiveled from him to To-mas. I compared their sizes.
It was noticeably bigger than To-mas, about four or five times his size. I couldn't believe it.
Not even the Falcon that ran us around the fire was bigger than the cat... he was a huge, astronomical monstrosity. Even when we were playing Dratsmate, I always tried to make the Eagle player piece as identical to what Mother described an Eagle would like.
Seeing the bird now before me, it didn't match up with what she told me. She said it was big. She didn't say it was a whopping, oversized ginormous tyrant...
Instantly after thinking that, the Eagle shifted its black, dark pupils at me, as if it had the ethereal power of reading my mind.
Gasping, at its death filled stare, dropping my gaze to the floor.
"We're dead meat..." I whispered.
Every bone fragment that made a linkage in my body, down to the very edge of my tail, was frigid. I could feel everything.
The sharp, harsh breaths that probed my lungs. The cold, icy air that penetrated the various wounds over my body. Even the droplets of sweat were squeezing themselves out of my pores, reluctant to stroll down my fur, for fear that if it strolled too hard, it would enflame the anger of the blood thirsty beast in front of me. In its presence, the laws of nature were defied.
How was I sweating, and the time had gone chilly????
I glanced at To-mas.
The cat's eyes were fully dilated, no longer slim rounded cylinders that intimidated me. His back was hoisted into the air, a curved fringe covered with spikey orange fur, ears pointed; his tail waved from side to side as he propped on the edge of the branch, razor edged fangs bared, hissing wildly at the vicious bird. Claws outstretched; the feline swung its paw threateningly at the bird, swinging above my head.
The Eagle rose on its legs and flapped its massive wings, making a screech that was so high in pitch I had to cover my ears.
It's grappled its heavy clamp of a beak, jutting out its head at To-mas.
The Cat swung away, the corners and snout of his lips in folds from displaying his fangs; eyes narrowed in heightened agitation. The Cat sensed that his enemy was a force not to be reckoned with. For once, To-mas was now placed in a position, where he had to fight for his life.
I ducked to shield myself from the two, covering my eyes and hyperventilating. The pain from my injuries were amplified, blasting all over my body; I shivered in cold sweats and as I closed my eyes shut, hot tears strolled down my face and onto the branch. Sobbing quietly, I admitted defeat, acknowledging that I was completely defenseless.
There was nothing else I could do in this situation but hold my head tightly, wishing for a miracle.
Here I was, clinging to a weakening branch hoisted 50 feet up in the air, stuck in between a diabolical bird that was the size of a dog, who snagged cats, baby goats, chickens on others on a daily basis. And then there was the torturous, rat obsessed feline who obliterated everyone I had ever loved, bent on making me suffer for simply existing.
The monsters that surrounded me were livid, hungry beasts, thirsty for meat and blood. And there I was, inconveniently placed in front of them like a tease, the rising heat from my freshly opened wound calling to their ravenous, instinctual need to feast.
How in rats' damnation was I supposed to survive this? How could I possibly have "The Faith" to know that I would get out of this situation?
The tug of war continued dragging me out of my thoughts, the Eagle snapped its head forward and flashed its wings even faster; To-mas reared his body, taking a step back slowly, and stopped, mindful of the plunge that would kill him if he went any further. The branch shook violently in the air, and I clung on to it for dear life.
"Cawwwwwwww!!!!!!!" the feathered demon unraveled its broad wings and flailed them about angrily, rising on its legs and inching further to me, his eyes fixed on To-mas. It opened its yellow, scissor like clamps for beaks; screeching a loud, boisterous noise filled with anguish, a sound that stopped the air from flowing.
To-mas' back arched over even more, the spikes of his fur turning to needles. He clawed at the bird coming towards him, snapping at him as he threatened to come closer.
I held my head even tighter. The muscles in my chest constricted, anxiety strangling me for air. I tried to inhale but struggled, the tension so thick that it seeped the environment of any breathable oxygen.
I had forgotten how to breathe.
The two hissed and clawed from where they were; I clung to the branch for my life as it bounced up and down.
The tightening in my chest amplified.
I ducked my head to the wood even more until we became one. Closing my eyes, I prayed insistently to a God I claimed to not believe in.
I have never needed this "Heavenly Father" that Mother claimed I should give my heart to. All my life he gave me nothing but suffering and hardship. As I clung to this limb, stuck in between those who seek my kind day and night for sustenance, I begged and prayed and called for him in my heart.
If he wanted to prove to me that he was real, that he showed his face to those in need, I beg that he shows his face to me.