Children of the Ark ✔️

Chapter Fourteen

As it turns around, I throw the knife and it lodges itself in it's neck. It's lets out a pained growl as it pounces at me again. This time, I wasn't able to move fast enough and it pins me on my back. All I can do is watch as it's four lips curls back revealing it's sharp teeth and a line of drool is getting dangerously close to my face.

Suddenly, it's head is blown off and bits of it splatter everywhere. I feel it's body fall down onto mine and I just lay there in shock. Chunks of panther and blood cover my face and hair. I just stare at the sky. I feel someone push the panther off me and Tyler's face is above mine.

"Bastien? Are you okay?"

I slowly nod my head in responce.

"We have to help the others."

I slowly sit up still dazed with what just happened. I was moments from death. I look to my right and see Jess pull Zoe out of the way as a panther pounced at her and shoot it, but it didn't fall. I look to my left and see Amelia roll out of the way as one jumped at her, narrowly missing the sharp claws and teeth.

That's what snaps me out of my daze and I get up on my feet. I see something glinting in the sunlight and see a sword lying in the dirt. I run over and pick it up. All I could see was red as I walked over to the panther that tried to attack Amelia.

As I come up behind it, I swing the sword making a deep cut just above one of it's hind legs. It let's out a sound of pain as it turns towards me, I stand with my leg's at a bit wider than shoulder width and crouch down a bit, holding the sword out infront of me in the direction of the panther.

I see it's tail flick as it pounces, but it's pounce is weak because of the wound I made. I slice through it's throat as soon as it is in range of the sword, but the momentum of the panther didn't stop and it lands on top of me. The blood pouring out of the wound onto me.

"Bastien!" I hear Amelia yell as I push the panther off me.

"I'm okay." I say as she quickly rushes to my side.

I sit up and see that all three panthers are dead. The others must have killed the third one. I do a quick scan around the small clearing and see that everyone from our group is okay. Tyler is leaning against a tree, supporting a cut down his arm, Jess and Zoe are hugging not too far from the third panther, and Amelia and Jett and next to me.

I flop back down and let out a sigh of relief, closing my eyes. All I know is that nobody from our group died, just two from the other group. I hear someone run over and drop to the ground next to me.

"Oh my god. Is he dead?" I hear Jess say.

I open my eyes and give her a confused look.

"I'm not dead." I say and she let's out a sigh of relief.

"There is just so much blood on you. And what are those chunks?" She says as she picks something off my face.

"Tyler used a shotgun on the panther and blew it's head off as it was on top of me." I shrug. It didn't really matter, it had already happened and there wasn't much we could do about it. Except wash it all off.

"TYLER! YOU COULD HAVE SHOT BASTIEN!" I hear Jess yell at Tyler and I saw him flinch.

"He saved me Jess. There isn't anything to worry about." She turns to me with a look of pure rage.

"How are you so calm about this? We were almost killed by three panthers, and we now have to deal with these people, who knows if they want to kill us or not!" Jess rants on waving her hand wildly in the air. Zoe comes up behind her and puts a hand on her shoulder and she seems to calm down. I have to ask her how she did that.

I get up from the ground and I walk over to the first panther that was killed, blood was still slowly seeping out from the massive wound and my knife wasn't far from it. I pick it up and wipe the blood off onto my pants. I turn around and see that the other group was moving the two bodies so I walk over to them.

"Um... hi. Do you need any help?" I ask kinda nervously, I wasn't too sure how these people were going to react.

"No. We don't." One of the girls says coldly, giving me a glare.

"Well, do you know if there is somewhere where I can wash the blood off?"

She points her hand in the direction that I have to go. I walk back to my group and ask if anyone want's to come and wash the blood off themselves.

Only Tyler says yes. The other's didn't have as much blood on them like I did. I looked like I had just murdered someone then swam in their blood. Chunks of panther and blood covered my face and hair, and my shirt and jacket were soaked with blood.

After about three minutes of walking, we come across a stream. Tyler decided to go down the stream a bit further to give some privacy, not that I'm gonna be going in nude or anything, but he might be...

I take my jacket, shirt and pants off, laying my jacket down on my ground before bringing my shirt into the water with me. I scrub my face and hair with my shirt while underwater, trying to get as much of it off as I possibly can. I come up for a breath and wring the shirt out and the water only comes out a faint red.

I dunk the shirt underwater again and move it around, trying to get the water to flow everywhere to get all the blood out of it, seeing as it might smell after having it covered in dry panther blood. I get out of the stream and quickly pull my underwear off before pulling on my dry pants. I do not want to be walking around with soaking wet underwear, so I may as well go commando.

I go to the edge of the stream and find a rock to sit on so that I can use the shirt to wash off the blood from the jacket. I dunk the shirt in the water then scrub off the blood. I'm really happy it is working since the jacket is waterproof, but there is blood on the inside, so it's going to be wet when I put it back on, but I'm fine with that.

Just as I am putting my jacket back on, a little bit of squelching from zipping it up, Tyler comes back to where I was. He was shirtless, but all of the blood was gone. His shirt and jacket were both soaking wet as he held them in his hand.

"Let's go back." He says while waiting for me to start walking.

Once I am infront of him he stops me.

"Hold on, you still have chunks of panther in your hair." He says while picking it out.

"Yeah, well it is your fault." I laugh trying to shake more bits out of my hair.

"Sorry." He chuckles before gesturing for me to walk ahead of him again.

We walk for a bit in silence before I speak up again.

"Thank you." I say while looking at my feet as the crush leaves and grass as I walk.

"For what?" He asks as he walks a bit faster to walk beside me.

"For saving my life."

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A/N: WOOO How did you like the double update? Hopefully you read the previous chapter first otherwise you may be a bit confused... if not, you should probably go read it now XD

Soooo what did you think about this chapter?? Hopefully you enjoyed it. I really struggled to write chapter 13, but this one was fun and easy to write!

Remember to vote if you like my story, and comment things that I could improve on or things that you liked! Follow me and add this story to your library if you want to get updates for the story whenever I post a new chapter!

-FlatMatesForLife