The Battle Begins by Devon Hughes

Author:Devon Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

25

You wake without a whistle to jar you from sleep or a whip to snap you to attention. Instead, you stir as if from a long nap on a lazy afternoon, stretching your paws out languidly and blinking away the dew.

You are in the place you know but have never been. The place you’ve missed so much but can never remember. You’re in the free place.

The green place.

The green is different this time, though. You don’t see the dusky green of moss-speckled tree trunks around you, or the leafy green of a canopy above. No jungly green vines hang nearby, either. All you can see is a flat field of grass stretching in all directions.

The field is a green so bright it makes your eyes water. It smells like the sun. Your fur is warm, the ground is cool, the bed of grass is soft, and your breathing becomes shallow. You think you might like to go back to sleep.

You start to doze again, but your senses snap to attention when a flock of birds startles out of the grass. They are plump birds with white collars and green heads. You see their webbed feet outlined against the clearest sky, and you feel a strange kinship with them, though you don’t understand why.

Your claws press into the dry earth, and they are the hard, blunt nails of the German shepherd. When you arch your back to stretch, the thick, buff coat of the Mexican wolf bristles. You are all dog, and the ducks remind you that you should find water and maybe something to eat.

You stand, shaking the dust from your hide. You can smell the pollen in the air and the earthworms underfoot. A sound rustles through the grass, and your ears stand at attention. It’s like a whisper of wind—shhhhhh—but instinctively, you know it is the sound of prey, calling you.

As you start to trot through the field, your tail is a proud flag waving behind you. You are a hunter now. Confident, carefree, canine.

The grass parts up ahead as something slithers through.

Shhhh.

You give chase. Your heart quickens. Saliva drips from your jaws. Your body is a coiled spring, ready to pounce at first sight.

But the grass is growing taller and thicker around you, and the wind whips it into waves. You’ve lost sight of the path.

The sun beats down. Your tongue feels thick in your mouth. It might be time to give up the hunt.

You pad to a stop, listening for that hissing sound. There is only the wind.

The wind and, faintly, the varied calls of insects. They chirp and buzz, but as you listen, the sound gets louder, growing into a singular, urgent hum. It starts to sound like a warning, and your adrenaline spikes.

The grass is over your head now—too high to see which way is out. You push forward with your chest, anyway, but the dense weeds push back. You turn in circles, and burrs snag in your fur.

You wish you had a view from above.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.