Survivor

Chapter 14

Pov Xaver:

I hadn’t slept all night. The bed smelled strongly of humans, just like everything here. I kept thinking about how the others were doing and hoped desperately that they were safe. I was especially worried about Dan. I was afraid that the humans might still get him and, worst of all, that they might have even killed him. The mere thought of possibly never seeing Dan again broke my heart. If I hadn’t been so foolish with him, this all might not have happened. But my inner ego was simply too big to admit that he was right. My stomach tightened a little, and I felt a slight kick, which made me smile automatically. "Are you also of the opinion that I overreacted?" I reminded myself of why we had fought in the first place. I had the responsibility to take care of Dan and my child. Under all circumstances, I had to ensure we got out of here.
Footsteps echoed through the room, and the old guy from yesterday appeared in front of the cage. He first looked me over and then examined the rest of the cage. "You haven’t even touched your food. Oh, wait, I forgot. You still have your muzzle on." The guy laughed amusedly. I didn’t understand what he was talking about, but this guy was clearly evil. He took a key out of his pocket and inserted it into the lock. It clicked, and he opened the door. My instinct told me to jump up and run away, but I couldn’t. My legs felt heavy, and the lack of sleep left me lacking energy anyway.
The human came toward me, knelt in front of me, and studied me. "Yesterday, you seemed more agile. Is something wrong, or why are you so calm right now?" My opponent laughed again. I glared at him and laid my ears back as a warning sign. The pounding of my heart echoed in my ears, and I could practically feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. The man raised his hands with a broad smile on his face and brought them toward my face. Inside, a voice screamed for me to run away, to escape, but I did nothing. I let the man place his hands on the back of my head and felt him seemingly unfasten some straps. Suddenly, the metal mask fell forward; it had finally come loose from my face. As a reflex, I took a deep breath. It was a liberating feeling to have nothing covering my mouth anymore. "Without this thing, your eyes and your beautiful face will be even more visible.", the man said, smiling. He reached out one hand to me, and my heartbeat quickened. Without really knowing what I was doing, I bit the man’s arm. It was a simple defensive reaction, but I bit down pretty hard. The guy screamed in pain and hurriedly pulled his arm away. I tasted his disgusting human blood and spat it out immediately. "You little bitch! What do you think you’re doing, biting me?", the man shouted, outraged. He grasped the heavily bleeding spot on his arm. A victorious smile played on my lips. The man made a few more angry sounds and then left, presumably to tend to his wound. He slammed the cage door shut with force and locked it again. My expression changed to one of cold, emotionless detachment.
After a while, I heard the man returning. He had wrapped a bandage around the bite and didn’t look very happy. In his right hand, he held a kind of long black rope. "I’ll teach you some manners yet, you miserable mutt!" The guy violently opened the door and stood in front of me. It was only then that I realized that the thing in his hand was a whip. Immediately, alarm bells went off in my head. I jumped up and prepared to attack. These humans fought differently than I was used to. They didn’t use their teeth or claws to attack. All they used were these weird metal things and other stuff like knives and the like. That was also why they could overwhelm me. However, I had no intention of backing down against this old codger. "Forget it! I’m in charge here!", the man shouted and struck the whip on the ground. The sound of the impact was far too loud for my ears, so I covered them with my hands. Loup-ga naturally had pretty good hearing, but mine was additionally sensitive. I could hear much better than most Loup-ga, which is why I couldn’t handle loud noises at all. They sounded at least three times louder in my ears.
"What? Don’t you like the sound?" The man struck the ground with the whip again. I clenched my teeth and looked down. The guy started grinning widely and continued to strike the ground. My ears were already hurting from the loud noises, and I sank to the ground. It sounded almost like a volcanic eruption up close or even like the apocalypse. Against my will, my body started to tremble, and I tucked my tail between my legs. This noise was unbearable, and I prayed that it would finally stop. Fortunately, after a while, it did. "Have you had enough?", the man asked. My body was still shaking, and I tried to regain my bearings. "Tsk. Mutt.", came the man’s voice, and I heard him walking away. Why was he doing this? Why were humans so aggressive toward us? And above all, why had they attacked us right now?