Rainbow Reflection

Chapter 20

 

I can feel my daughter's heart beat as if it is within my own chest, she fights to keep control of her body. Gripping with claws as an attempt to deliver a damaging bite is made. I can feel the excited flutter of the little one, already it is driven to fight our age old enemies. I push harder, sending calm to still the little bit of fire and lull it to sleep. I can feel the strength of this body but there is no endurance, no inner reserves. I switch the position of my mouth, it is my mouth now, and bite down using my teeth to fiercely hold my grip. Claws no longer hold so I can bite, instead they shred, digging deeper to vital organs.

I feel the ground beneath me as I roll us, never still and never in the same place. They cannot grab a hold of me as I leave a river of my victims blood where we brush the soil. I release the almost motionless body and leap for those covering my son. I feel her love for this brother of hers she barely knows, we are united as we slash our way into the pile to give him a chance. His jaws are locked around the throat of a cat that is only half way through its change. Hairless skin beneath the claws of my son, I feel satisfaction that this monster will die this day, he stole my chance to be a mother to the only kitt I had left to me.

I feel the impact of a heavy body, a sensation almost like a cold breeze. I reach out as I realise I have lost the body of my daughter. I catch sight of her and time stills for an instant. I can smell the thick scent of the two weredingos who tracked me down that night swirling around her. Higher and higher onto her hindquarters she is pushed, a large muzzle going for a death grip on her throat. I roar my rage and feel my own claws slash through flesh as I throw myself on one of her attackers.

'Not my daughter! Not my grandkitt!'

We go down like a pile of kittens and pups playing but there is nothing friendly about the claws and fangs that slash and tear. I feel the teeth that sink deep into her shoulder, the snarl of pain that rips up through her chest. I lunge for the large canine head but a thick branch beats me to it. I feel her pain as teeth rip from her flesh, the moment of shock as she recognises the one who wields the branch one handed.

Mutto!

Exhaustion is thick around me as I turn my daughter to face the fight as her unexpected saviour lays into the two large cross breed mutts. His face is pale as if ashes have been rubbed into the darkness of his skin, one arm hangs uselessly from a swollen discoloured shoulder that oozes from a small hole. Large powerful jaws manage to twist the branch from his hand and I envy the quick flowing change as a muscular canine takes his place.

I feel the prickle that slides down our spine and I gaze out through eyes blurred with pain and exhaustion. A tall lanky dingo stands just inside the tree line, head lowered and eyes fixed firmly on us. Images flit through our mind, him always there watching, sneaking closer, the power of his threatening presence oozing forth like a toxic slime. Fear for the small vulnerable life within tastes like bile in the back of our mouth. Sly yellow eyes glitter with menace sending a protective surge of fear through us. I can feel the exhaustion, the trembling of limbs as paws are planted firmly.

With kitts back at the buildings there will be no running from this. I feel the resignation, the knowledge flow through our body. Nothing left but to fight for kitts she aches to hold one last time. The cat yearns for something more and I regret all I took from her even if her life was bearable until she returned to here, so close to our land. A flick of our tail, gently it sweeps under our body caressing the unborn. I force our head high as claws are flexed into the ground beneath us. In my mind my human forms stands with feet either side of our body and hands lifted above my shoulders as I reach out towards the bushland. I call for strength from this land we belong to, ask for what once was rightfully mine. My hands become hot as the force of nature answers my plea.