Call of the Eagle

Chapter 2

"Can we play a game of hide-and-go-seek?" Samantha asked her sister eagerly.

"I don't know? Can we?" Griffin replied.

"May we play a game of hide-and-go-seek?" Samantha grunted. 

"If you calm down I might consider it," Griffin said amused as she watched Samantha practically bounce around her room from Samantha's bed.

"Ok, Griff!" Samantha immediately stopped and fell to the floor with a hard thump, gasping with shock as she landed.

"I don't know, Sam, it is past your bedtime," Griffin stated plainly glancing at Samantha's pink clock on the messy bedside table. The clock read 7:15.

"C'mon Griff! Just one game! Please, please, PLEASE! I promise that I'll go right to sleep afterwards!" Samantha begged, trying to do her best at puppy-dog eyes, but ended up looking more like a cow eating a particularly tough piece of grass.

Griffin rolled her eyes trying to hide her amusement and covered her eyes and said in the most boring monotone, like she had way better things she's could be doing right now, "1...2...3..." 

Samantha immediately got the idea and shot out of her room and down the hall, turning into Griffin's room, and started scavenging for a hiding spot. Why on earth did Griffin's room to be so well kept? In her room she could hide behind a pile of toys, or since her room was never organized, could move things around to make the perfect hiding spot. She might even be able to hide behind her dollhouse, or behind her pink curtains even, any of these places would offer a better hiding place than anywhere in Griffin's room! But here, if she moved one thing out of place it would be a dead giveaway. Despite Samantha's young age, she wasn't stupid.

"...49...50! Ready or not here I come!" All boredom and the monotone lost from Griffin's voice, and instead replaced with enthusiasm and excitement. 

Samantha would have to settle for underneath the bed, even this was surprisingly well kept, how? How does she do this? Samantha thought with awe. She could hear the search going on down the hallway, as she got closer and closer to Samantha's hiding spot.

"Is she in here?" Griffin announced herself deliberately. "Is she in.... the closet?" Grinding shouted and Samantha giggled as she heard her spinning around abruptly and the harsh protest of the closet being opened so abruptly. "Do I hear giggling?" Griffin said feinting malice. 

"No."

"Oh, then, I  just be hearing things... from under the bed!" Griffin dropped to her knees and reached under her bed to extract a writhing 6-year old from underneath the bed. 

"You took at least an hour to find me!" Samantha giggled.

"Did not!" Griffin denied.

"Did to," Samantha pushed.

"C'mon, Sam, it only took 10 minutes! Face it, I'm the hide-and-go-seek champion!" Griffin boasted.

"No way! I am way better than you!" Samantha said fiercely.

"Shall we test that theory?" Griffin raised an eyebrow.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 32, 76, 100," Samantha counted as best she could.

"WAKE UP SAMANTHA!"

What wake up? B-but this wasn't a dream, was it?

"GET UP NOW!"

Samantha jolted awake sprawled across the desert floor, tucked up under the sagebrush where she had collapsed late last night, or was it early in the morning? Samantha wasn't sure, since the minutes and hours started to melt together after a while. She had barely stopped running until she had collapsed where she lay now, too exhausted to go any further. She glanced down at her injured arm, which had stopped bleeding. Her parents' murderers had attempted to follow her, but were soon left behind, thanks to her head start. Her parents! Samantha slammed her eyes shut, and a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. Greaif welled up in her throat, until she's could hardly breathe, but she's pushed it back, she needed to find out what had awaken her, before she threw her pity party.

She glanced around, taking in her surroundings, it had been dark when she first collapsed here, so she was seeing it in full light for the first time. It was around noon, so the highest temperature of the day was still yet to come. Even now she could already feel the heat bearing down on her.

She clambered to her feet scanning the landscape. She was tucked up against a hill, the landscape curving around one side, and disappearing around it, in the opposite direction she saw it continue on until it disappeared in the distance. Sagebrush stretched in every direction. Turning back toward the bush so she could collect her bag, something caught her eye.

She slowly crept towards it, cautiously picking it up to examine it. It was a bone, all the traces of meat and blood carefully polished off. She looked up and saw another one, and another one, leading around the hill, and disappearing behind it.

"Follow the bones," the voice broke into her thoughts so unexpectedly that she screamed aloud, spinning on her heel.

A flicker of movement caught her eye and she turned to face it, immediately recognizing the slender form of a Mountains Loin. It had angular features and a long scar stretched from the base of it's left ear, down to the left corner of it's mouth. The scar went right through it's left eye, leaving an ugly gash through it, that would never heal, the eye was a cloudy white. The scar looked like the doing of another one of the apex predator's fellow cats. 

"Someone did a job on you," Samantha murmured sympatheticly. 

She subconsciously wondered if Mountain Loins were like humans and the right eye was the dominant eye, or maybe it was opposite? Perhaps both eyes were dominant? 

She immediately dismissed the curiosity, she had bigger problems right now, way, WAY bigger problems.

The cat gracefully stalked out of the bushes, and Samantha gasped: one of the cat's paws was twisted backwards, that explained why the cat ventured so close to humans, and that every one of it's ribs were showing: it was desperate for an easy meal, and Samantha came to the alarming realization that the mountain loin considered her  an easy meal. And was even more alarmed when she realized that it was probably right.

She knew that even with the deformity it would have no problem chasing her down. I'm not  the game that this cat usually chases down, with natural defenses, and this cat knows it. 

The rest of the beast brushed out of the bushes, it was huge, what chance did she stand?

Unexpectedly it sprang at her, barely coiling up to build up power. It must be making rash choices in its desperation. It hit her like a bullet, barely giving her time to brace her arms enough to catch it. She caught it's shoulders, where the leg connected to the body. The impact pushed her back, and she fell onto her back, barely keeping it's deadly fangs from her neck. Claws raked her arms, and its back claws scratched at her legs. It's teeth kept snapping inches from her face and neck, and she realized with a sinking feeling that it's jaws were getting closer and closer, as she's arms were giving way.

"HELP! ANYONE! PLEASE!" She sobbed screaming, knowing that she would end here. 

Then her arms buckled under the weight, and the cat have a screech of triumph as it fell on top of her, knowing that it had won.

Memories flashed through her head of her parents their beautiful faces, her friends always so loyal and supportive, her relatives all of them dead now, and lastly she saw Griffin. She best friend, her sister who would always make time for her...

A harsh battle cry sounded somewhere above her, and she saw a flash of blood, then the Mountain Lion fell onto its side scrambling to get away from her. Was it scared of her? Then a flash of golden-brown flashed into her sight driving the lion back. 

Her breath caught in her throat, it was a golden eagle. She propped herself onto her elbow, watching the beasts battle. The cat had a huge scratch down the right side of it's face, just missing it's unharmed eye. The cat hissed in fury as it aimed a blow at the Eagle, and the eagle dodged scratching it's muzzle. Slowly the cat was being driven back.

Samantha snapped out of her shock and stood up, collected her bag and sprinted down the path of bones, what else is she going to do?  

The screeches of battle were soon left behind.