His Tainted Heart

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Adrianna froze on the spot at the sight of it.

Her breathing accelerated as she watched the skinny brown feline slink towards her with its ears flattened back and its yellow eyes narrowed at her.

In panic, Adrianna picked up a pebble and threw it at the cat. The stone missed her target and only caused to aggravate it more. It hissed in warning and revealed its sharp canines in the process. Then with a blink of an eye, the mountain lion sprang at her. 

Without thinking, Adrianna rolled to the side and grabbed a stick next to her. As she scrambled to her feet, she shivered at the thought of how close the cat was to biting down onto her neck.

 Although she had never encountered a mountain lion before, her parents had taught her all about them and how to defend herself from one. Normally these majestic cats wouldn’t attack a human, unless they were threatened or hungry. From what she could tell, the protruding rip cage demonstrated the latter as it was probably hungry and was looking for its next meal.

Too bad she didn’t feel like being cat food today.

Adrianna’s eyes never left the feline as it started to circle around her. She tried to make herself appear bigger by standing on her tippy toes and puffing her chest out. When that didn’t seem to faze the cougar, she swung the branch in her hand and started shouting at it. “Get away! Scram!”

The feline snarled and within seconds, it pounced again.

This time it managed to connect its paw with Adrianna’s left thigh and force her to the ground. She screamed when her head smacked against a tree root. Black dots swarmed her vision as she tried to blink them away. Blood freely poured out of her wound and stained the grass red.

Adrianna didn’t have time to think about the gash on her leg when the cougar suddenly appeared on top of her. It snapped its jaws at her, but she was quick to shield her face and neck with her arms.

The feline swiped its paw at her again and this time it connected with Adrianna’s arms.

She gasped in pain as warm blood ran down her arms. Every part of her body hurt, yet she was desperate to survive. She tried to feel around the ground for anything that could help her to ward off the animal. The first thing she grasped onto was a rock about the size of a tennis ball. Then with all the strength she could muster, she brought it down onto the cougar’s skull.

It roared in pain and stumbled off Adrianna in a daze.

Although the feline was stunned, she knew it was only temporary, which meant she had to find somewhere to take shelter fast.

Adrianna used the light from her cell phone to take a look around her surroundings in hope of spotting something to take cover under. At first she didn’t seen anything that could be of use to her, but then her eyes caught sight of a large fallen tree that lay over a shallow pit in the ground. It seemed to be small enough for her to go into, but large enough to keep the mountain lion out. The only problem about it was that the shelter was a few meters away from her and in the condition she was in, she doubted she could run there before she got attacked again.

Still Adrianna was desperate, and so she tried to drag herself there despite the pain in her arms and legs. Just as she was a meter away from her destination, she took a quick glance behind her to see if the feline was still dazed. To her alarm, it seemed to have quickly recuperated and was advancing towards her at a frightening speed.  

Adrianna’s heart hammered in her chest as she heaved herself forward. She was so close—too close to die now. When her fingers touched the base of the pit, she almost sighed in relief. With a small triumph smile, she shimmed her way under the tree.