Six Shades of Romance

by Darling, P. K.

  Before she could puzzle it out further, whiteness floated in the air drawing her attention away from her thoughts. Mist drifted over the ground as it crept over the mud and through the trees. Caroline stumbled back. If the mist rose, which it looked like it was doing, she wouldn’t be able to find her way toward the tunnel.

  “Caroline.” The voice. The same coaxing plea in her name resonated around her. As if the man with the beautiful voice was in the mist. “Come to … Come … to me Caroline.”

  Spinning around and searching the growing fog for the man which turned out to be useless. No one was there. Caroline brought her good hand up and she wanted to slide it through her hair and grip it out of frustration, but a slick substance met her fingers and a sharp pain stabbed inside her head. Curious, she tentative felt around the area. After exploring the area with her finger tips, she realized a jagged cut edged down her head from eyebrow and reseeded three inches into her hairline. Withdrawing her hand, she inspected it and saw water-downed blood.

  What in the hell happened to me?

  Caroline’s breath left her as the mist circled her legs, rising up to them and to the hem of her dress. She heard the bird before she saw them. And then suddenly black shapes and caws flew by her head, and the crows surrounded her again. She cried out in protest and hunched down. The mist continued to rise and the birds were shadows in the fog. Their caw’s both menacing and disturbing.

  A deep snarl followed by a growl had the ground shaking under her feed, her stomach somersaulted, whether from the baby or her fear, she didn’t know.

  The crow’s chorus filled her ears; sharp bursts of air hit her face as they flew by her head. Caroline spun around in a circle. “Shew. Shew.” She screamed and used her good arm to bat at them. Adrenaline and fear flooded her.

  This time when the rumbling sounded, it had come from only a few feet behind her. She froze. The crows took immediately flight as if fleeing a predator. And a new sound took over the stillness in the mist. Deep hoarse breaths. The kind a large animal would make. A large dog or wolf. The thought came to her and yet she didn’t know how she’d known about dogs and wolves before now. She still couldn’t remember much about herself or her life.

  Caroline didn’t dare breathe. She tried to minimize the rise and fall of her chest. Latching on to her dress and squeezing her own thighs was the only thing she could think to do to keep her hands from trembling and giving herself away. However, the beast may have been what she’d felt watching her earlier. Maybe it had tracked her here. Who was she kidding? Of course it was aware of her presence. She was covered it blood. It had probably smelled her. Had it been the thing to cause her injuries in the first place?

  Maybe. She had no idea.

  Then she heard it. Movement, and huffing. Clenching her eyes shut and biting the inside of her cheek, she braced herself for an attack. She’d never be able to run from it. It would surely be able to catch her in this deep mud, so what options did she have? How would she survive? If it was only herself she would probably face the animal and do her best to inflict as much pain as possible and probably die while trying. But with her knowledge of a small, innocent baby growing in her belly, she couldn’t do that. She needed instead to focus on escaping. Climb a tree. Anything to get to safety.

  The steps sounded closer. Unlocking her eyes and turning, Caroline saw a large dark shape out of her peripheral vision in the mist. Whatever it was stood about four feet or so high and was at least three feet thick in width. Not a dog then. And certainly not a wolf. Too big. The form became more visible as it made its way toward her. As it moved, she noticed how smooth and catlike it appeared. Within seconds, a large black and brown paw covered in fur with claws extended, sank into the mud four feet in front of her. The claws were blackish-yellow and extremely sharp at the tips.

  The paw was connected to a massive front leg. The animal’s pelt was shiny and a black and brown. The brown parts were almost like spots. It looked soft to the touch. But she in no way wanted to touch it. She wanted the beast and its giant paws as far away from her as possible.

  As if hearing her thoughts the animal made a chuffing sound. Air puffed out of his nostrils and it took another step toward her. Its breath felt like death drums in her ears. Her heartbeat competed with them for dominance pounding away. Didn’t fear give off pheromones that attracted predators? Too late she recalled this information and knew that if it was true she was dead. The knowledge made her cringe. She might as well have rung a dinner bell for him between the blood and the fear flowing through her.

  Chapter 2

  Then the animal’s face came into view and her jaw mentally dropped. A cat? No. Yes. No. It seemed familiar but she couldn’t place it. Could it really be a cat? It had to be. The way it moved, the size of its body, its eyes were green, slanted and feline for sure. It had long fangs on each side of its mouth like … she tried to recall the animal and memory she was thinking of … like an elephant. No, but it did have the two long, white, knife like teeth. Not to mention it had a wide jaw and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

  Though she knew cats to be regularly small and calm creatures, this beast was anything but. Its entire appearance intimidated every bone in her body. Her knees wanted to give out and she wanted nothing more than to fall into a ball and make herself as little as possible in front of it. Had she ever seen anything like it before? Her mind whirled and a name for it popped into her mind.

  A Saber-tooth. As if somewhere inside her memory she knew of such a creature.

  It stared back at her, but had halted ten feet from where she stood.

  What? Why are you following me? She wanted to shout.

  For the sake of the baby she kept her mouth shut.

  Slowly she let her eyes drift around looking for an escape route. The trees were her only option. Couldn’t cats climb trees fairly well? And what if she fell?

  What would she do after she climbed it—stay up there until she starved? No, she had to get to the city. Just then her stomach did some growling of its own. The beast sunk down and responded in kind, which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

  Seconds ticked by, it felt like eternity passing waiting for the animal to attack her. It just watched her though, intently.

  It was hard to tell time in moments like this because fear took over all of her senses. It seemed like forever before either of them moved. When they did finally move, it wasn’t due to the animal attacking, or her legs finally giving out. No, this time it was the shadows of birds sweeping past her head and the crows caws that put her teeth on edge that caused the saber to move. And move he did. He launched towards her, claws stretched out for maximum lethality, fangs open and ready to sink into her flesh.

  Only it wasn’t her flesh. It was the crows, feathers flew everywhere. Small black bodies were knocked out of the sky by the beast large paws. The eerie cries of the birds died as with a vicious roar the animal attacked the small cluster of menacing birds and sliced into them.

  The animal had it work cut out for it though, there were at least a dozen of them.

  Within moments Caroline saw her opportunity for escape and took it. With the beast thoroughly distracted she headed toward the tunnel.

  After two steps in she realized she’d never make it to the tunnel in time before the saber caught up with her. The mud was too thick. The trees were popping up everywhere and closing off her path to the tunnel. Between those things and the mist it would be impossible to know if she was going to right direction, that’s if she could somehow make it quickly through the mud.

  Impossible.

  Caroline turned and looked at the yellow brightness far in the distance behind her. There hadn’t been any trees that she had seen and surely with the sun there would be dry ground. She had to turn around. If she stayed in this mess she’d never make it out. Not alive. And she could just imagine what the saber would do to her once he found her, and how the crows if they survived, would pick over what was left of her carcas
s.

  She turned back and headed towards the sunny area she’d seen upon waking. There had to be somewhere to hide, someone there that would help her.

  Limping and fighting through the muck, Caroline made it into a less misty part of the field, and it also had fewer trees. She fought past the pain and rain barreling down on her. In the distance behind her she could still hear the cat fighting the birds, and the horrible squawk that turned into the dying creature’s last cry of life. She didn’t care. She had to keep going. Her hand covered her stomach as she limped and did her best to move quickly and silently.

  Caroline stopped just for a few seconds to pick up a wicked looking tree branch on the ground. One with a sharp end. Hopefully it was sturdy enough to use for a weapon. She gritted her teeth and picked up her steps, putting as much distance between her and the saber and rapidly as possible that she could manage.

  Silence fell once again. The sounds of the crows were completely gone. A hoarse howl pierced the air. But it was in the distance.

  The sunny area was now only a hundred or so yards away. The river of blood still bubbled and flowed as she passed the spot she’d woken in this awful place.

  Within seconds pounding like the sound of drum reached her ears. The kind of sound huge paws made on the earth as they landed. They came quickly and grew louder. Suddenly the huge beast was in front of her. It had past her in a blur and whirled around to face her. Snarling while it did so at her. It stopped her in her tracks. Then its huge paw swung out at her face. She cried out and feel back a step. The branch had been knocked from her hand and nothing more.

  But the pain it her arm had sent her into a dizzy spell and a sting burned its way up her arm. She hunched forward in defeat and whimpered. Blackness flooded in and clouded her vision.

  The beast undeterred, growled at her, and threw up its neck. It did the same motion three times as it stalked towards her backing her up.

  “Leave me alone,” she shouted.

  But it continued to move towards her, all the while bucking its head as if to herd her back.

  “No! Go away. Just go away.”

  It didn’t. It kept pushing her to where she didn’t want to go. Back to that place—the trees, the mist, and the mud.

  “No. Just go. Please.” Tears brimmed in Caroline’s eyes. “Please just go away. Just leave me alone.” Movement in her stomach drew her hand and she cried harder. “I know you don’t understand me, but I’m pregnant. If you hurt me, you could hurt my baby. If you kill me, you will kill my baby.”

  Then the animal did something she didn’t expect. It huffed out a breath and shook its head back and forth.

  She paused and watched the animal. She didn’t understand its response. She could have sworn it had understood her.

  The beast came closer and she became rigid, tears were still stinging her eyes. “Please …”

  What else could she do but beg? Plead for her life—for the babies?

  It moved slowly, eliminating the space separating them. She braced herself with each step it took terrified of its intentions. What did it want from her? Within seconds the beast stood a hairsbreadth from her and more importantly the bump she wanted to protect.

  Every sound around her quieted. Time froze. And then the animal nudged her hand away from her stomach. It didn’t move. She wouldn’t allow it to. Caroline gasped and rocked back on her heels though. Red hot fear rode over her. She couldn’t move her hand that had turned to stone over her belly—it seemed like all she could do to protect the small embryo. The beast pushed at her hand again, and she whimpered, growing more distraught by the second.

  Its fangs were against her belly. Its large, wet nose pressed beside her hand into her dress and right over where the baby was maturing. It huffed through its nose and Caroline thought she might just die of a heart attack right then and there. Suddenly, a rumbling purr came from deep in the beast’s chest. She felt the vibration of its purr all the way from her belly to her toes. A responding flutter had her eyebrows rising.

  Had the baby felt the purr too?

  It happened again and sure enough the beast pure had caused the life inside her to react in kind.

  Then the animal knocked her back a step. She gasped and thought this was it. It was attacking. But she’d been driven back by the force its heavy weight as the animal turned its head and step forward to rest its ear against her stomach.

  Caroline stared down at the animal, confounded.

  Did it somehow understand that she was pregnant? That there was a life growing inside her? Was she still in danger that it would harm her and by doing so her child?

  Whether from stupidity or shock, she spoke to it. Maybe it had more of a protective instinct. “You see? That’s why you can’t kill me.” The giant cat huffed again. Caroline couldn’t believe that this enormous lethal beast had its teeth inches away from not only her most vital organs but her new reason for living.

  What was she doing?

  Why had she spoken to it as if it was a person, capable of understanding her? It would probably just as soon tear her to pieces than to know what she was trying to say.

  Its eyes told a different story though. They captivated her. They held an expression of awareness. It felt like they were familiar to her, and calmed her. They helped her to look at the animal in a different way. She couldn’t explain it.

  Caroline wanted to believe that it heard the baby and her words, and it had somehow made sense of them. That it wasn’t the blood on her shirt drawing him to sniff at her. There was a small chance the cat had been listening to the baby’s heartbeat. That it knew. Like she did that the baby needed to be protected.

  Please God, it had to know.

  “Do you understand me? It’s a baby in there. With little feet, and little hands. And it wants to live, you see. So I need to go that way. I need to get it somewhere safe. It needs food, and water, and the sun, okay?” She pointed to the area she had been headed.

  The animal made one finally purring sound, rubbed its large massive head over her belly and then stepped back. Its eyes followed her hand and looked at where she’d been pointed. The cat then shook its head back and forth as if to say no. It gave a chuff and kicked its head up, again trying to back her away from where she wanted to go.

  Indignant, she replied, “No, dammit. I want to go that way. I can’t go back there. I won’t be able to make it.”

  The animal completely ignored her.

  Caroline backed up several more steps. Then she stumbled and almost fell. The pain in her knee stung and she lost her temper. “I don’t want to go that way. I can’t go that way. Do you understand? I think you do. We’re going that way.” She pointed again to the sunny patch not too far in the distance.

  Caroline took a step forward towards where she wanted to go. The saber sunk low and snarled at her. This time it revealed its teeth menacingly. It launched forward and snapped at her and she had to jump back to stay out of the range of its jaws.

  Chapter 3

  “Fine.” She screamed. She held her hand up in front of her and slowly backed up, wary that she may have miscalculated how much the beast liked her and her baby. The cat came up and walked beside her after a few minutes of limping back toward the trees. Caroline turned around, because already the muscles behind her thighs ached from walking backwards. They were close to the river now. Caroline hadn’t taken too much time to look at it before, but now she watched how the blood moved more like lava as it made its way down and went into a low hole into the side of the gray stonewall blocking her off from the city.

  “Why are you doing this? Making me go this way?” she asked the cat. It looked at her and its green eyes met her own and then it looked away back toward the trees.

  Her stomach growled. When was the last time she ate? She couldn’t remember that either.

  Minutes later they were back in the thick of the mist and the eerie trees. Her feet were sinking deeply into the mud and it took all her effort and strength to pry herself f
ree only to get herself stuck in the grasp of the mud with the next step. Her legs ached. Every muscle in her lower body seemed to be burning with exhaustion.

  When she looked ahead and at the distance she still had to go, Caroline paused to catch her breath and regroup. Her stomach growled again.

  A moment later, she felt a nudge on her thigh. She looked over to see a dead limp crow hanging from the cat’s large jaws. Her mouth fell open. Gross. “Um,” she chocked back bile. “No thanks.” There was no way she was going to eat that thing. “All of a sudden I’m not so hungry.”

  Instead of dropping the dead bird though, Saber, or so she was going to call him, started chopping down on it with its jaws. Here was this animal that stood higher than her own hip, with more muscles in its body than any bear or lion, with teeth the size of her pinkie, and fangs the size of forearm and yet she was talking to it and walking next to it, like it was a house dog. I must be dead then. This would never happen in real life.

  They strode deeper into the trees. Branches were so thick here it felt like she was being poked and starched by a rose bush. Even her feet felt like Jello, the muscles beyond sore. They were sinking at least five inches into the mud with each step, and she didn’t have the strength anymore to keep pulling them out.

  When she slowed down, Saber came up behind her and chuffed. He nudged her in the back. “Don’t push me.” She grumbled at him. He did it again. “No stop it, dammit.” She fell forward, her right hand sinking into the mud. A whimper escaped her lips. Her left arm howled with pain, but bore down and fought through it. A sob tried to escape and she bit it back. Her eyes blurred and stung with the tears she fought to hold in.

  “I told you not to push me. Now look. Look what you’ve done.” Mud caked her knees, her hands, and splattered her already stained dress. She tried to get up but slipped to her knees again.

  Saber made a sound behind her. A distinct sound that wasn’t a chuff of impatience or a indignant sound. Actually it sounded an awful lot like a laugh, or the start of one. If saber-tooth tigers could actually do such a thing. She turned her head slowly to glare over her shoulder at him. It did it again as she flicked mud from her hand. There was definitely a humor expression covering its face—in its eyes maybe.