A Chance For Survival

Chapter I

My name is Cocoa and I'm a 4 month old female thylacine. I know I'm one of the last of my kind and have to protect myself at all times, no matter what. My mother, Crystal, comforts me every night before we go to sleep in our secret cave. Over time, I have lost my other two siblings, Joey and Swan, to our worst enemies; the humans. Sometimes during the night, my mother goes out and hunts for food to bring back for us so we can eat in the morning. My mother has a close friend; Penelope, who has a son, Leo, that is a little older than me and has been my very best friend throughout all my life. Occasionally, we have play dates with each other and we get along very well.

One late evening, our parents met up with each other and I got to spend more time with Leo. I was very happy and we licked each other hello. Before running off, we turned to our mothers.

'Remember Cocoa, be safe and stay away from any humans.' She told me, 'If there's any trouble, run back to me straight away.'

'Yes mummy.' I replied, snuggling up to her warm coat before saying goodbye and running of behind Leo. I caught up to him and we ran through the bushes of Tasmania together.

'So what do you want to do?' Leo asked, looking over at me. We stopped running and slowed down to a walking pace.

'Uh...' I thought for a moment, looking at my paws as they kept walking, 'let's play tag. You're it!' I raised my paw up and tapped him on the shoulder before stepping away quickly.

'Nah, we did that yesterday,' Leo groaned, 'let's do something else.' Calmly, I walked back to him.

'... What about hide and seek?' I asked. My eyes glanced over at Leo as he shook his head in disagreement. I groaned in frustration. 'Well what do you suggest we do then?'

'... Uh...' He paused, thinking with his head down. I laughed a little at his indecisive expression and looked over in the bushes. There were some rabbits hopping by freely which made me hungry.

'Hey I know!' I bolted in excitement, 'Let's hunt down those rabbits and bring them back to our mums. They'll be so happy.'

'Yay, finally something not boring!' Leo exclaimed. We turned to our left, ran into the bushes and locked eyes on a small white rabbit hopping away as fast as it could. 'Hurry Cocoa!' He shouted at me. We sprinted as fast as we could to catch up to the rabbit.

'No, it's getting away!' I yelled, sprinting faster towards the delicious looking meat. I ran as fast as I could, sprung up and jumped onto the rabbit silently. My claws came out and I held it down forcefully under my paw. Hungrily, I sunk my teeth into the back of the rabbits neck and killed the thing quickly. I lifted my head up and looked as the rabbit's fresh blood flowed out.

'Did you get him?' Leo asked behind me. I tried to regain my breathing as he walked closer to me. I turned around and lifted my paw off him.

'Yeah, I got him!' I replied with a smile. Leo looked down at the rabbit and picked it up with his teeth.

'Okay, let's show it to our moms now.' Leo muffled, turning around and starting to walk back to the cliff our parents were on. We walked happily, feeling proud of ourselves and thinking what our mother's will think.