All I could do was hope I’d have no need for self-defense against man or beast. I hadn’t so much as a peeling knife on me.
While creeping past Pharis’ sleeping form, I had eyed the daggers he’d taken out of his belt and laid on the floor but decided against trying to steal one. There was too great a chance of waking him should the tip of a blade scrape the floor or the sound of my skirts near his ears rouse him from sleep.
I was actually a little surprised I’d managed to evade his heightened Elven senses and escape at all. He must really have been exhausted.
I’d been walking for about twenty minutes, when the worst of my fears was realized. Actually theworstof my fears was being taken into custody and carted back to the castle to face the king. Until now.
A large cat jumped from the tall rock towering over my head and landed directly in my path. A mountain lion.
I’d never seen one in person, but I’d seen drawings and heard them described by villagers who complained of the creatures purloining their livestock.
I hadn’t realized how big they were.
This one stood as high as my waist and had to be at least three times my weight. Its lips were drawn back to reveal long, wickedly sharp teeth.
I froze, my mind going blank for a moment before my thoughts returned, rushing through my head in wild circles and crashing into one another.
The cat hadn’t made a move toward me, but it hadn’t left either. Its body was lowered in a crouched posture, its ears flattened against its head as it stared at me intensely.
A snarl left its mouth and sent chills racing across every inch of my skin.
What should I do?
One of the men in my village who raised cattle had talked of encountering a mountain lion in his pasture one day and living to tell the tale by scaring the wildcat off.
If I remembered correctly, he’d said he made a lot of noise and lifted his cloak over his head, waving it around in his arms.
Struggling to move my own sodden cloak, I pushed it over my head as high as I could and started yelling.
“Shoo! Go away! Get out of here now. Shoo!”
The lion’s tail twitched, and it pumped its feet in preparation to pounce. Clearly my attempts to be intimidating were failing.
My feet started stumbling backward over the wet rock, and then I turned to run.
And smacked directly into something.
Someone.
Behind my back I heard the lion let out a loud growl. An arm went around me, pinning me to the unidentified man’s body, and then he jerked in an abrupt, powerful motion.
There was a thud, not far behind me. I fought the arm restraining me, trying to look backward.
Managing a glance over my shoulder, I saw the huge cat splayed out on its side, a dagger protruding from its chest. It was dead, struck through the heart as it leapt.
Turning back to see my savior, I looked up at the underside of Pharis’ jaw.
Rain pounded the top of his head and nose, streaming from his long hair and creating rivulets that ran over his brow and sharp cheekbones.
He was breathing hard, still staring at the mountain lion behind me. Then he looked down, his eyes roaming over my face.
Sucking the rainwater from his bottom lip first, he said, “Did I hear you telling that vicious predator to ‘shoo?’”
My head shook back and forth vigorously—almost as hard as the rest of me was shaking now that the threat of lion attack had ended.
“I don’t remember what I said, actually. My brain was a bit paralyzed.”
Pharis released his tight hold and took a step back to look at me.
