TAWOG: Instinct

The Beast

The Beast 

The sound was equal parts a roar and a cry, and when it passed through Tina's ears she felt her already mounting fear skyrocketing. She had never heard such a noise before, and yet, it instilled in her a level of fear the likes of which she had never thought possible. Something deep within her resonated with that sound, a long unused instinct that told her to run, to flee, that the creature responsible for the noise was too formidable for her to challenge; an ancient call from her ancestors who once clashed with this beast in the ancient past. 

And were never once victorious.

Tina looked up at the creature Gumball had become, involuntary tremors of fear shaking her being as she tried to stand, but was unable to do so due to her injury.

“Gumball…” she said pleadingly, all earlier confidence absent now. “Stay…stay away from me…”

But within the mind of the abyssalis cat that now stood before her there was not a trace of the consciousness of Gumball. The creature in his place knew nothing about friendship, or emotional attachments. Knew nothing about mercy or compassion. All he knows is the laws of nature and the laws of the strong. All he knew was instinct. And his instincts told him that the individual before him wasn't a classmate from school, (such concepts couldn't be more foreign to him now) but competition; a rival predator. And his instincts also told him there was only a certain response to competition.

Challenge. Subdue. Dominate. Prove superiority.

The abyssalis cat's only response to Tina's plea was to growl, crouch, then lunge forward with a ferocious snarl.

Tina only had time to fully stand up before the beast Gumball had become plowed into her, impacting her chest with enough force to lift both of them off the ground, sending them rolling up her nest of debris and tumbling down the other side. She impacted the floor first on her back, the beast on top of her, straddling her chest and leering into her face. Tina whimpered pitifully as these harsh movements aggravated her broken wrist, but a moment after she locked eyes with her attacker straddling her she would come to realize that that injury would be the least of her concerns, for she soon found the beast lunging his head under her lower jaw and sinking his teeth into her throat.

Tina growled in agony as she felt sharp fangs piercing her soft scaly flesh, made all the worse when the beast began throttling and thrashing her head around side to side by the thin section of skin he held in his jaws. Her head impacted both the ground and the pile of metal debris she slept on, responding to each impact with a resounding cry of pain, unable to even retaliate, she was in so much agony. Tina's blood splashed violently from the bite wound as she was thrashed about, drizzling over the floor and over the muzzle of her assailant, whose eyes just continued to glow menacingly, apparently relishing in the cries of pain from his opponent.

Tina could not believe this was happening. At this rate this thing was going to maul her to death. Gumball…was going to maul her to death.

A loud roar sounded from the door to her room and the abyssalis cat released his hold on Tina's neck to look towards the source. Her dad was standing in the doorway, his scarred face snarling in rage at the current state of his daughter, growling at the massive feline that was undoubtedly responsible. Tina usually didn't see eye to eye with her father, but at that moment she couldn't be more glad to see him.

“D…dad…” she whimpered pleadingly, gargling slightly as blood seeped up her throat.

Mr. Rex roared at the pain in his daughter's voice, lunging his head into her room to try and seize the perpetrator in his jaws. The abyssalis cat responded with a roar of his own, enraged even further at the sight of what he perceived to be another potential rival, muzzle stained crimson with Tina's blood. Just before Mr. Rex's jaws closed around him, the abyssalis cat vanished in a cloud of black smoke. Both the wounded Tina and the perplexed Mr. Rex looked around in confusion at what just happened for a second when Mr. Rex suddenly jerked backwards, his head pulling out of his daughter's room as he was seemingly yanked out into the wrecking yard.