The tiny bleat of warning came too late. The fawn raised her head, wide, black eyes searching. Desperation roared as I whipped past tree after tree. My spirit closed in. The skin of my bear stuck against my arms and hugged my thighs. The smashed flat pelt of my bear’s face pressed against the back of my head.
My bones trembled, agony flared, driving my hands to the ground. Long black claws sank over pink nails, digging deeper, pushing harder. The brutal snap in my spine drove me downward, hunkering like a beast. A savage roar thundered in my chest and spilled from my lips.
Her mother was panicking now. Tiny bleats turned frantic. That swish of her tail drove my steps harder…faster. I left the thunder behind and closed in. The tiny one leapt, striding out with those long, lanky legs to surge ahead.
White flared from the underside of her tail as the mother feinted left, cutting across my view…the roar savaged my throat with a burn. Hungry….hungry…she wanted me to follow. Leave the little one behind. The weak one. The slow one.
I surged ahead, stretching out with long strides of my paws and crested the rise. She was panicked, and ran headfirst into a thicket of thorns. Her cry spiked my pulse, punching my heart into my throat as she kicked with a frenzy, struggling to get free.
I opened my mouth as the skin of my bear closed around my cheeks. My jaw ached, bones stretching, molding…long, hard canines grew thick and curved as her sight took over my own.
The fawn scurried, kicked and leapt. I swiped, claws gouging the air inches from her tail as she scampered free.
No!
The thicket buckled, twigs snapped under my weight as heavy paws trampled. She darted right and left, head up, bounding hard down the rise. I moved right, and then left. Momentum took me, soft earth did the rest. I slipped, dug hard and hit the trunk of a tree with a bone-jarring thud. Agony roared through my hip and into my thigh.
I kept on moving, sliding more than lunging, catching the slick grass as she bounded hard, slipping between the gash of a long, brown hedge. I hit the barrier and a twang cut through the air.
The sound raced, shuddering brown links that stretched upwards and divided the mountain. I sucked in a hard breath, feeling the burn down into my belly and pushed against the branches…no…not branches. Cold…cold, like—I searched for the word—metal.
The flash of brown cut between the trees. I probed the…metal…spearing long claws through the middle of each link and leaned in close to sniff. Blood…the brown stuff smelled like blood. I licked the metal. Bits of brown flaked off onto the tip of my tongue.
The fawn darted through, drawing my gaze to the green cabins in the distance. Three…no four. I scoured the trees finding another, old…rotting…the door open, leaves scattered, trees springing out of shattered windows.
My heart thundered and the beast drew backwards, stealing her sight from my eyes, distorting my view for a second before the mountain sharpened. Claws sank back from my nails. Her fur left my skin. Gray bristles glistened as I pressed my fingers against the metal and pushed against the opening.
Bad place… I dragged in the stench as my beast shuddered.
Very bad place.
The sickness carried on the wind, flooding my senses, making me stumble from the metal. A tiny bleat came from within. The fawn turned this way and that, searching for a way out. But she was trapped…trapped inside with the stench and the terror.
The wind at my back turned cold, like the whisper of icy snow on the horizon…coming closer…closer. Taking everything with it, food, warmth, shelter.
Panic grew, tightening my insides. The tiny bleat came once more, and high up on the ridge behind me came the answer from her mother.
I licked my lips, and glanced to the wounded metal. My foot trembled as I stepped through the opening and touched down. The crack of a twig wrenched my gaze left. Not the fawn…I sniffed, drawing the frigid air deeper. The cold sliced through my lungs…rotten, blood. All around me, seeping into the earth and the trees.
But the hunger was brutal, making me weak, making me lower my head. Strands of my hair caught on the metal, tearing from my scalp with a sting. I winced as the edges caught my cheek and my fur.
Leave this place.
I swallowed hard.
Leave now.
White flashed between the buildings covered in moss. The fawn stumbled, slipped…
I pushed through the gap of the metal as the crack came again…only this time inside the cabin. But my focus never moved, watching those long legs, kick and struggle…seeing her fear, her helplessness.
My belly rumbled and the ache gripped my throat. Metal scraped my back as I slid through. The leaves were softer here, thick, untrodden—unsafe. Bright brown cut through the muted green. She danced, following the metal higher, only to skid back down.
Hurry…
Movement came from my left. I wrenched my head toward the building…the sight now gone. The snap came again…this time closer. Darkness blurred in the shadows of the open door. The scrape of a claw danced along my spine, and a shiver followed.
I stilled my steps and scanned the trees as the feeling grew. The fawn scampered, running between one building and the next, before slipping from view.
But I could hear her…tiny hooves pawed, slipped. Thudded hard against something dull, until a snap tore through the air. Screams came, hard, fast, mewls filled with agony and horror.
My pulse boomed, filling my head as the scent of fresh blood slipped through the air. Terrifying bleats came from behind. But her mother couldn’t help her.
Not from the beast in the building, and not from me.
I moved faster, drawn by the sharp, fresh tang that filled my nose. The darkened doorway waited, inviting me to enter. My top lip curled as I watched that darkness, and a growl slipped free. The pungent scent grew stronger; flashes of red stole my focus. Crimson splashed across the leaves…but there was no meat…no food.
I scanned the ground. A trail of tiny drops went farther. She was hurt…slow. I licked my lips, took one last glance at the doorway, and pushed ahead.
The sound of her fear dulled. I shoved ahead, moving around the corner of the building and stopped. Her blood smeared across the trunk of a tree, high off the ground. Too high for her to leap.
The hulking buildings seemed to close in, leaves rustled, wind howled…everything that was once normal…just felt wrong.
I swallowed the scent of fresh blood and looked over my shoulder as a groan came from inside. I knew the sound…it haunted my dreams and filled my panic. Footsteps on floorboards—heavy, slow, and deliberate. I looked to the tree and the cooling blood smeared across the bark.
Hunger fought fear, and my feet moved on their own. I kept my back to the side of the building and slipped around the corner. Bright red filled my view…so close now. I reached out, taking one step up, and then another.
The tips of my fingers slipped in the mess and dropped away. A door swung lazily, widening just a little before it closed with a groan. Darkness beckoned, with the bitter scent of death. The ground seemed to tilt under my feet. I gripped what I could and held on, and for a second I was taken back there…to that night…to those sounds…my mother screaming…my father fighting.