lacerate
\ LAS-uh-reyt \ , verb;
1. to tear roughly; mangle: The barbed wire lacerated his hands .
2. to distress or torture mentally or emotionally; wound deeply; pain greatly: His bitter criticism lacerated my heart .
1. lacerated.
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Kyle and Jill moved carefully through the cavern, both
keeping a keen eye out for anything that might be considered a threat. They knew at least one threat in the form of
the savage predator they saw earlier.
There was also the issue of having another intelligent creature in the
cavern with them. They didn’t know if it
would be a hostile species or not, but neither wanted to take any chances.
Although
both of their minds were racing, neither spoke.
Since they no longer knew what might be waiting for them around the
corners formed by the glowing butterfly colonies, they had opted for as much
silence as they could muster, and that meant not a word escaped their lips. Jill’s heart was beating like a drum though,
and she was worried that something with keen enough hearing might be able to
hear it. She wanted to take some deep
breaths to try and calm herself down, but the need for silence kept her from
doing so. She had a suspicion that it
wouldn’t help much anyway.
Suddenly,
the call of some animal echoed through the cavern. It sounded almost like a midsized wild cat
with an unusual strong voice. The two
explorers looked at each other, fear showing on their faces. Cats were always top predators, especially
the big ones. Without weapons, they were
at the mercy of whatever it was. But the
most worrying thing was that it was close.
Very close. In fact, the only
reason they couldn’t see the animal was that it came from the other side of a
particularly large stalagmite.
The
animal’s call echoed again through the cavern, louder and fiercer than the
first. Then the sounds of what sounded
like a fight reached their ears. Kyle’s
curiosity got the better of him, and he slowly and carefully crept around the
rock formation, hoping the glare from the butterflies combined with the rock
formation itself would keep him out of sight.
There
were two animals fighting. One was one
of the large, voracious predators they had seen earlier. This one looked to be just over three feet
tall. Its back didn’t protrude any, so
it hadn’t eaten recently. The other animal
was clearly the source of the calls. It
was feline it shape, about the size of a large bobcat, save for the fact that
its legs seemed a bit too long. It’s fur
was sleek and black, reflecting the glow from the butterflies nearby. Kyle thought some of the reflections were a
bit more substantial, like they weren’t actually reflections, but something on
the fur, but it was moving too fast to see clearly. By far the most noticeable feature though was
the tail. It was slender and very
long. About mid way through it though,
it slip into two separate lengths, each apparently able to move independently. On the ends of the tails were three clawed appendages that
seemed to have some finger-like qualities.
The cat
like creature was jumping around the much larger beast, making use of the
springy moss as well as its feline grace to jump well clear of its opponent,
flipping and turning so that it used its clawed tail to rip into the beasts
flesh. The cat occasionally landed on
the beasts back to make use of the sharp claws on its feet to tear and rip into
its opponent, while using the claws on its tail to hold on.
The
beast bucked and threw its weight around, trying desperately to throw the
smaller, more agile creature off it. It
was clearly unable to do so though, as the cat was easily able to avoid any
attacks of the larger creature, and its claws were more than strong and sharp
enough to keep it rooted on its back, even as it was torn to shreds. As Kyle watched, mesmerized by the one sided fight,
the cat made its first mistake. In its
attempt to inflict as much damage as possible, it dug it’s claws into an area
that it had already thoroughly lacerated.
The result was a much weaker grip.
It probably wasn’t much, but it was enough for the large, powerful
beast. It flung the cat off it’s back
and sent it soaring off. The cat was
able to flip itself upright and land on its feet, using its claws to dig into
the moss to keep it from bouncing back up uncontrollably. It was not a moment too soon either, as the
beast opened its mouth wide and flung one of its razor sharp teeth at the
cat. Kyle expected the bullet like projectile
to end the fight. To his amazement though,
one side of the cat’s long, split tail lashed out, knocking the small but
deadly tooth out of the way. Without
wasting a moment, the cat jumped forward, using the springy moss to propel it
with incredible speed. The beast fired
off more of its teeth in the hopes of hitting the fast moving cat, but the
feline’s tails kept any of them from hitting.
As it
got closer to the beast’s head, the cat held both halves of its tail out. With lightning speed, the cat gripped both
sides of the beasts head with the clawed appendages, and used them like a pole
vaulter would, sailing well over the beasts back. Once there, the cat tore into the fleshy,
elastic pouch on the beast’s rear, then jumped away. A thick putrid liquid poured out of the deep
gash. The smell was horrible, Kyle held
his nose shut to block the scent, but it still got to him. The beast howled in pain as the fluid gushed
out of it. It took a few steps, trying
to get away from the cat, but it fell, succumbing to its many injuries. The cat stood by, waiting for the beast to
finally fall. Once it was dead, it
looked up and let forth a might victory howl into the roof of the cavern, high
above them.
With the
fight over, Kyle slowly and carefully backed off. He didn’t want to deal with something that
could take down one of those beasts without a single scratch. He had to get back to Jill, and then the two
of them needed to get out of there as quickly as they could. Hopefully they could get far away while the
cat was busy with its kill.
Jill was
where he had left her, looking at something with her back turned to him. He tapped her on the shoulder. She practically jumped out of her skin when
she felt his touch. Pure fear was
plastered on her face, sweat pouring from her forehead.
“Come
on, we have to get out of here.” Kyle
whispered as quietly as he could.
“I don’t
think that’s possible right now.” She
said. She spoke in a normal voice, breaking
any attempt at silence. She nodded over
her shoulder at whatever she had been looking at. Kyle glanced over his shoulder and saw several
pairs of glowing yellow feline eyes looking back at them. A lump formed in the pit of his stomach.
Several
more of the felines crept out of the shadows formed by the glowing
pillars. They were surrounded by them,
with no clear avenues of escape. Not
that they could, even if there was. Kyle
knew how fast these creatures were, and had no illusions about their chances of
escape. As he looked at the animals
though, he noticed that every one of them was larger than the one he had seen
earlier. He also noticed the bright blue
markings on their fur. Once he thought
about it, he had noticed some similar markings on the fighting animal, but it
had been moving too fast to properly identify.
The markings were very similar to those they had found on the cavern
walls, and seemed to have been painted on.
“Jill, I
think we just found the intelligent species down here.”
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Ok, so it's Sunday, so what? Weekends are still part of the week. I just had to use this word. I can't tell you how many weeks I've been waiting to introduce these guys, and this was the perfect word to do so. Unfortunately, I ran out of words before I could really do anything with the locals, so you'll have to wait for that.
Can't wait!
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