The Departure by K.A. Applegate

Author:K.A. Applegate
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

The leopard flew.

Karen never even had time to react. Neither did I.

But someone did.

It happened almost too fast to see. A blur of gray hurtled down from the sky. It hit the blur of tan and black.

A flash of talons, bright red blood welling around the leopard’s eyes.

“Rrrooowwwrr!” the leopard snarled.

But it hit Karen, just the same. Down she went. I lunged toward the leopard.

Wham! It hit me with the back of one paw, as cool and calm as Jackie Chan. It was like being slammed by a hammer. I went down hard.

“Aaaahhhh! Help!” Karen screamed.

The osprey fluttered up a few feet, then came down again in a second attack. It raked the leopard’s face, but this time the leopard struck back.

With a crumpling sound, the osprey was knocked down. It lay jerking and heaving in the dirt.

I had already started morphing, but it was too late. The leopard opened its jaws. Karen, on her back and screaming, kicked wildly at its face.

The leopard chomped her leg. Its jaws closed right over the splint of sticks. Karen screamed, in pain this time.

The leopard looked around, coolly surveying the situation. It could smell the dangerous wolf smell already coming from me. It decided maybe this was not the place to eat its prey.

The leopard began to drag Karen away. It still held her ankle and dragged her along backward across the dirt and leaves and pine needles.

“Help me! Help me, Cassie! I’ll let you go, I swear! Help me!”

I staggered after her on bandy, half-wolf legs, lumbering clumsily and slowly, half-human, half-wolf.

“Help me! Help me! Aarrggghh!”

I looked at Marco. Because, of course, he was the osprey. He was fluttering weakly and starting to stand up. He was also starting to demorph. He’d be okay. But Karen would not be okay. As soon as the leopard felt safe it would apply the killing bite: to the throat, to the back of the neck, or even to the head itself.

I was mostly wolf now. But would the leopard back down? The last time, I’d scared it away before it got to Karen. Now it would be defending its “kill.”

And I had a bad feeling about fighting a leopard one-on-one.

I bound forward, letting out a threatening growl.

The leopard turned, keeping Karen’s leg twisted in its mouth. It stared at me with curious yellow eyes.

We were each about a hundred and fifty pounds. We each had powerful jaws. Each of us was fast. I had an armor of thick fur around my neck to ward off bites. But the leopard’s teeth were much longer than mine. And it had four deadly paws, each armed with hooked, ripping, razor-sharp claws.

I felt a terrible sinking sensation. One-on-one, in a fight to the death, I would lose.

We stood staring at each other, just a dozen feet apart.

Karen lay on her side, shaking in terror, her face contorted by pain.

“Help me,” she moaned pitifully. “Don’t let him eat me.”

I was shocked. I knew right then: The person begging for help was the real Karen.

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