He lets out a scream so high I can barely hear it. My ears throb in protest as I use my tenuous purchase on his hide to grab on with another hand.
Then I'm climbing up his broad back so I can start shredding him with my back claws.
I'm just about to clamp down on him with my mouth when he lets go of the tree and we hurtle backwards into the night.
I have just enough time to whip my tail around and deliver a load of venom before we hit the ground. A flare of pain across my back is quickly followed by the crushing weight of the male on top of me.
My ears are still throbbing from his screams as my mind tries to process all the layers of pain before they are thankfully muted by my nanites.
I'm still working on collecting myself, venom bliss and pain a nauseating mix, when his death throes end.
"Thivoll! Oh mygod. Thivoll!"
I don't have enough air back in my lungs yet to answer her. She's making her eye leaking sounds.
I take a ragged breath in, then I see what parts of me are still working.
Everything, it seems, though painfully.
I wriggle and kick out until I'm able to get my head out from underneath the stinking hulk of fur.
"I'm alright," I tell her, though my voice betrays me.
"I c-can't get to you," she tells me with a hitch in her panicked voice.
"Just give me a bit. I'll come for you soon."
I'm not yet positive I can follow through with that promise, but continue to move out from underneath the dead male.
He's huge, with multiple sets of limbs tipped with jagged claws. I can't make out a head, then stop trying to make sense of the bundle of fur.
I'll recognize one if I see it again, and that's all that's really important.
My tail's stuck under him and I'm not as gentle with it as I should be in my need to no longer be trapped.
I can feel my instinctual response building up quickly. The last thing we need right now is for me to enrage.
I yank it out and tumble backwards into more of the bushes with a groan. One of them broke my fall from the tree. The puncture wounds seeping blood down my back are a small price for an intact spine.
In fact, when I shakily get back to my paws and fists I know I've been incredibly fortunate to come through that fight with no broken bones or missing body parts.
I realize Ree's talking again and I shake my head to clear it.
". . . damn fucking liars. So much for blocks against hurting each other. Fuck!"
Despite it all, my whiskers jut forward. I love her fire.
I decide to give my nanites some time to catch up before I climb, which just leaves my usual burning curiosity.
"Why did he attack?"
She sniffs and lets out a huff of breath.
"He was completely deranged. Or that's just how his species is. I don't know. He was talking about feet when I first heard him. So I called out a greeting. Nicely, I thought. Then he was talking about how mine would taste. Over and over. I tried to reason with him, but by the time he started talking about cracking open my bones I knew there wasn't any hope."
"But he smelled nice."
I realize how stupid it sounds right after I say it.
