The place was quiet.
The Eagle sat on the ledge. Not moving its wings, not making any sounds. Just sitting there, a soulless, hate filled gaze of its black, minute pupils fixed on To-mas.
To-mas mirrored the demonic stare of the large predator back to him. He sat there on the further part of the ledge, sitting down coolly. He blinked slowly, serpentine eyes shooting its venomous hate straight at the Eagle.
My head reared from left to right, looking at both predators.
They had been like this for a full minute, just staring at each other intensely. Both motionless, unmoving. Hate filled eyes furrowed at each other. Low grumbles, heightened hisses.
But they both stayed where they were, unmoving. Unphased. Locked in some silent, unspoken war.
It made the air thick and heavy. The atmosphere recked of death. My stomach had sunken, taking a deep dive off of the cliff.
Even though we were almost to the top of the tree, I was sweating like a rat that had fallen asleep in an oven being heated up. Beads of sweat pushed themselves through my pores, salt seeping into my wounds and stinging them bitterly, convulsions of throbbing pain spreading across the torn, open flesh on my back.
I twitched, a mixture of pain and itching pricking me all over the wounds.
I so badly wanted to rub it, to soothe myself, do something that would lessen the pain.
But I couldn't.
If I moved, I would die.
I looked around nervously between the two.
The Eagle sat there valiantly; his beady eyes locked on To-mas. The determined bird hadn't blinked since he sat there, his line of vision channeled to the Cat in front of him, out on the ledge.
To-mas eyes were narrowed and watchful, keeping a vigilant gaze on the Eagle.
The two continued sitting there, quietly assessing each other for what felt like forever.
The silence was deafening.
I laid there, my cold, clammy hands covering my head, eyes shut tight.
The only noise I heard was the frantic beating of my heart; my stomach was curdling rambunctiously. I shifted, struggling to keep still.
Even though I was in the midst of Chaos itself, a million thoughts were going through my mind about this whole thing.
I wondered.... why were they fighting???
Was it a territorial Issue? Eagles could be very territorial, and To-mas happened to be in a tree, an area where cats usually weren't. Did the Eagle see To-mas and I from far out, deciding to swoop in and steal the Cat's meal? No, he wouldn't. He's too focused on To-mas to even be bothered be me. He definitely came here for him. I may as well have been invisible, the way his steel gazed was fixed on him.
Sounds of hissing from behind me interrupted my thoughts.
I clamped my hands around my head tighter, peeping out through my fingers.
To-mas arched his back, growling lowly at his adversary, his fangs baring as he clawed at the air. The Eagle chopped its beak and made a very frightening gnarl, flaring its wings and heisting its shoulders in the air, willfully making its appearance bigger.
Slowly but surely, I inched myself up, my eyes stuck on the Eagle.
The bird kept its focus on To-mas, not moving his eyes away for even a second. I decided to step back in the most cautious way, reversing away from its glaring hate, then I stopped; not wanting to get any closer to the frenzied, dangerous cat behind me.
The two enemies persisted in fizzing at each other, the Eagle clamping its beak, the cat raising its claws and fangs.
I swung my head, looking back and forth between the two. I want to run. I have never wanted to leave a place so much in my entire life until now, but where? How?? Where would I go and How???
Here I was trying to escape the Giant's holdings so that I could live on for my Family, just how they told me to do in the dream. I manage to escape barely before To-mas turned me into minced meat, and now an even bigger enemy comes into play. Next thing you know, I am wedged in a space where I don't want to be in. Being fought over like I was nothing, but an object of their cravings. I couldn't move left. I couldn't move right. I was horrified, glued to that awkward middle on this branch.
There was only three ways I could escape this. Being killed by the Cat, being killed by the Eagle. Or...
I looked down into the abyss, the ground seeming millions of feet down, to nothingness.
Death by a fall. If the Eagle didn't fly after me.
Just then, all the images of fighting for survival flashed forth in my mind's eye. Every time my brothers and I had to tip toe around kitchen corners to prevent being heard. How hard we struggled in that fire from the bird that attacked us the day we were trying to save Sharp's life. That time mother came home with that huge scar on her back.
I sill saw Cheese's body floating in that grey tub.... The thoughts of it haunted me at night.
I didn't even to give him a proper burial. A hungry mongoose snatched up his dead body before I could retrieve it. Not to mention the images of the cat digging into my mother's body in that room. That horrific incident played over and over again in my head, like a movie.
Sharp had been bitten to death, and I actually thought that I could save him. Only for him to bleed out and die in my very arms...
No matter how much I tried, everywhere I turned there was an enemy. Lurching about, waiting to pounce on us unknowingly. They were everywhere, and they all wanted the same thing; to kill and destroy.
I sighed, blinking back tears. A series of stiches pricking my lungs and my throat. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry, shout, bawl. Every time I hoped that things would change, every time I pushed to see brighter days, things only got worse.
Mother told me that Life had a better side. A side that was worth living for...
Where was it? As far as I knew, the only better side..was the other side.
My eyes were still over the long fall below us. Seeing how far it done went, my chest began to constrict. Death was the only option. There was nowhere else I could go.
At least, this way, I got to choose how I went out.
Falling to the ground and dying was way better than being eaten to death by any of these two. I'll leave them up here to figure out their own grudges.
Closing my eyes, I breathed in slowly. Time came to a halt. My heart speed up, I was nervous, but I knew what had to be done.
I opened my eyes, peeking over the edge of the branch. Everything from up here looked smaller. From a thousand feet up, looking down at the grass that was so far below us, the green land appeared to be soft, and comfortable, like those cotton nestlings that mother used to make us.
"Mother, here I come" I whispered.
**********************************************************************************************
Looking over the edge again and closing my eyes, I inhaled. Relaxing my body, a sense of calm came over me. It was time.
Turning around, I positioned my backside to the end of the branch. I strolled back, the ankles of my two hindlegs feeling the cool breeze scathe the soles of my feet. Finally, I unclenched my claws from the wood.
All I had to do now was go backwards and completely let go..
Pushing my body off the limb further, the lower half of my body hung slightly off of the branch. I closed my eyes and quieted my mind, praying that I would get a heart attack mid-way of falling and plummeting to my death.
"Raaaawwrrrrrr.." To-mas was still growling loudly at the bird. I could feel the wosh of the wind on my fur as the Eagle flapped its wings. I inhaled. I exhaled. Then, something bizarre came to me.
I was prepping to let go and fall off of this tree, and they were still fussing at each other. I was getting closer and closer to the edge, and they were there, still focused on each other.
Both of them were unconcerned about me.
Both of them...were...unconcerned.
Unconcerned.
About
Me....
A mammoth of an Eagle, and a greedy Cat, on a ledge, with a wounded rodent in the middle, who was blood soaked, torn, and ripped. A free meal, in front of their faces.
And they weren't paying attention to me.
The Eagle glanced at me but once since it landed on the tree. Then it instantly focused back to To-mas.
Then, it clicked.
I remembered that day I had seen To-mas escape out of that tree with that infant bird in his mouth, then I saw the Mother Eagle looking for her baby. My eyes popped open. I turned to the Eagle, looking up at her towering structure.
It wasn't just an Eagle. It was the Mother Eagle that To-mas stole from. The child that I saw him eating that day in the Garden, clearly it had been hers...She figured out it was To-mas that ate her child. My head turned to To-mas, who was still in defense mood.
He ate that baby, just when she hatched. How? How did he even get into an Eagle's nest without being alerted. Common sense hit me again.
I remembered all those times in the early morning when To-mas would never be home. Before the cock crowed, he was out the house, gone through his flap door..
Had he been spending those mornings on some kind of stake out?? Watching to see when Mom would leave her nest???Birds got up early to get food for their young...he had to have been doing that this whole time, else taking a baby from an Eagle would be damn near impossible, unless he wanted to die.
That ignorant, foolish puss dipped his mouth into something that was too hot for him, and now he was about to suffer the consequences for his actions. The death of losing a loved one is unbearable...I had to see my whole family taken down. Imagine how a loving, dutiful Mother felt about her kids... I knew nothing but grief and sorrow..and anger. If I were as huge and powerful, I would stop at nothing to get back at the one that destroyed my babies. Killing that puss must be the only thing that's on her mind...
Suddenly, I heard my mother's voice ringing through my head again.
"Have Faith."
"Have Faith, Burrow"
Was it possible? Could I just trust in the powers to be, let go, and have faith? Was it that simple? At that moment my eyes flashed open. The Eagle's yellow eyes were still glued to the cat. The cat's fangs were still bared. Both of their eyes locked onto each other.
My eyes wondered to my feet. I blinked slowly, thinking about the underneath of this branch.
There was a way I could get out of this.
I have claws. I could easily twist my body upside down and cling to the underneath of the branch, cling to it, and crawl under it, leaving these two fools on this stupid branch to tug it out themselves!! The same way I evaded To-mas, If I could just repeat that..I had to be quick about it though, in case before they realized.
The faith was still there, even in this deathly situation, I could still see a way.
This was risky, but I was willing. I was willing to try anything once I got to live to see another day. I would carry on my Family's name, no matter what.
I hitched my claws back into the wood, twisted my body around and getting ready to fling myself under the branch.
Okay Burrow, you have to do this in one quick sweep, I thought to myself. One time. All I needed to do was climb my way under the branch and scamper back to the base of the tree, like my life depended on it.
Because it does.
I took my right hand and slid it to the side of the tree, my feet firmly anchored in. I was on the side of the limb. The pain in my stomach was coming back, I was anxious for this to work. There was just one step left.
Sliding my hand across the hard, rough surface of the wood, stealthily bringing it down to my side; Pushing on my hindlegs I took one step back, unclenching the claws from my feet out of the wood.
As I went to reattach it to climb under, the Eagle fluttered its wings wildly.
I gasped, frightened, my foot losing its grip on the wood.
My hands flailed about in the air and my body was falling back; quickly I latched my claws onto the limb, staying in place.
The Great Eagle heaved its white head back, bawling out and propelling its body forward. With three powerful sweeps of its husky wings, it thrusted itself into the air; hoovering over the limb and flying away from us.
It took off with such momentum that the wind from the blast of its wings had me staggering backwards, almost throwing me over the branch; I hung on at the last moment, clawing my way back onto it, scrambling up and going closer to the tree trunk that the Eagle blocked while it sat there. The spot was warm.
I sat there, my head slowly rotating as I followed the large giant soaring through the sky, passing the tree where its nest was, flying far away into the horizon.
To-mas's mouth was parted, his head turned in the same way that mine did, following the bird as it fled.