by Michelle N. Broughton

Created on: November 18, 2008

I came into my new dwelling rather late in life. I spent my first years in a big woods, where food was whatever I could catch and home came in the form of a space under an overhanging rock. Life ran sweet until the pack of wild dogs came, looking for new territory and refusing my request to join them. The leader challenged me and we fought; I lost and almost died.

I dragged myself as far away as my broken body would allow, coming out of the woods to a strange cave unlike any I'd ever seen before. It stood alone, with no surrounding rock or hill, sheltered by trees. Perhaps it could be my new home. I waited outside under a bush to see if any animal claimed it before. My exhausted body refused to stay awake and I sank deep into dreams.

A dim ray of sunlight creeped through the thin branches of my cover waking me from chasing a fat rabbit through the woods. Odd, the sun seemed to come from holes in the cave, for all around its outside, darkness held sway. A shadow stood upright in the cave opening. A strange covering over the door opened and the being stepped from the cave onto the grass.

I struggled to move further under the bush. My stiff, sore body protested and a moan escaped before I could stop it. The thing stopped, looked hard into the dark, but I could tell it had poor night vision. Turning, it went back into its cave only to return with sunshine captured in a tube. When he released it, the light found me trembling with fear, my back against the base of my hiding place.

The beast fell to all fours, grunting at me in a strange language. Since it could not speak simple dog words, I knew it must be an inferior being. Perhaps through sign language, I might reason with it. It seemed harmless, but sleeping bears look innocent enough, too, so caution must be used approaching it.

Through almost unbearable pain, I pulled myself toward the creature and thumped my tail on the ground to signal good intentions. It almost crooned in its pathetic speech as it reached a paw forward to stroke me. Good, it WAS gentle. The thing reached behind me and pulled forward. The pain, oh, the pain! Bolts of agony shot through my body and though I had no wish to harm the poor thing, I snapped and bit its upper limb. Squealing with shock, it fell away from me.

I whimpered to let it know I meant nothing. Could it understand? It returned to the cave and when it came back, another of its kind followed. They threw something over my head, blinding me. Had I been wrong? Would they now kill me?

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