Your Trail of Blood in the Snow

Chapter 12

Larry woke up shaken as his body reminded him that he was in serious danger. He had some superficial wounds made by the owl's talons, from which a few drops of blood were emanating, but he quickly thought it was nothing to worry about. The first thing he did after that was to look at the sky to see if the bird that attacked Lucas and him was in the air, but the sky was clear. He looked around, still dazed, and noticed something that puzzled him: to the left of where he was, there were two figures, one on top of the other, struggling with each other. When he looked closer he realized that it was actually Montimer who was there, but on his face there was an expression of disturbance and complete horror when he saw his hands tightly clutching Lucas' neck.

He didn't know how Monti had gotten there. He didn't know how he had found him... his mind wouldn't allow him to continue processing the information as he saw that Lu's body was stopping moving, little by little.

"Montimer!" shouted Larry to get his beloved's attention. But he did not take his eyes off Lucas' face.

Larry, with great difficulty, began to crawl and then stood up, limping at first, but gaining strength and speed as he took the next few steps.

"Montimer! Montimer! No! He saved me! Don't hurt him! Montimer! Don't do it please!" I shouted, but there was no reaction from Monti. He kept showing his teeth and his eyes were flooded with blind rage, looking at Lucas, looking at his eyes, looking at...

Larry ran faster. Even if he had barely been running for less than two minutes since he recovered from the fall, a bout of energy from fear gave him speed. He began to run even faster, getting closer. He feared that Lu would stop moving because he did so with less intensity, with less strength as the seconds passed, even struggling against Montimer he saw in his movements that he was trying not to harm him, even in his faint and weak blows, in his scratches lacking malice and strength... in spite of everything he was protecting him from himself. Lu was protecting what Larry loved most in the world. "Montimer, please stop."

Larry leapt at Montimer and knocked him to the side.

"Monti... Montimer... Please calm down... Lucas... he..." mumbled the mouse who looked at Monti with frightened eyes. He held both his hands and cuddled up to him.

Lucas began to cough loudly. His body was bloody from a wound on his abdomen and another on his head, plus lacerations on his back. He brought his hands to his throat and continued coughing. Larry saw him out of the corner of his eye. He was still breathing and that relieved him, although he was doing it with great difficulty. He turned his eyes to the front; in front of him was a Montimer who was a complete stranger. He was struggling to break free of his grip and his eyes were bloodshot with restrained, uncontrollable rage. Larry saw him, then he saw Lucas, dying, and again he saw Montimer breathing agitatedly and snarling. Larry gave in to tears, but they were tears of joy and fear and relief, all contrite feelings.

"Monti, honey... it's me, Larry. Don't you recognize me? Please... listen to me, I beg you," Larry begged, his voice in a knot, stumbling over the syllables, over the vowels.

Montimer did not listen. His clouded mind did not allow him to see who was in front of him, but even so Larry kept talking to him, he was sure he could not hold him back for long. He was afraid he was going to kill Lucas.

"Come on, Monti. Calm down... I'm here. Look at me, I'm here... please look at me. Montimer... my Montimer...

Larry's hands were still gripping Monti's wrists, but Monti was winning the battle. If he did nothing, he would soon break free and... No! I won't let him!

"Monti... I missed you... I missed you so much. You don't know how much I missed you, how much I missed the children... Montimer, my love... my adoration....