The Light-Bearer's Daughter by O.R. Melling

Author:O.R. Melling
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: ABRAMS
Published: 2012-07-27T06:00:00+00:00

She hunched down on the wolf’s back as if to hide.

They came to a forest protected by a wire fence and a gate with a sign: WILDLIFE SANCTUARY. With one great leap the wolf cleared the gate and landed on the other side. Dana slid off her back.

They crept through the trees, the wolf leading the way.

Dana heard the loud laughter before she saw them, and immediately hunkered in the undergrowth. Crawling forward, she came to a clearing.

There were three men sitting on fallen logs, drinking beer. Empty cans were strewn around them, as well as cigarette butts and plastic cartons of leftover food. It wasn’t at the men that Dana stared in horror, but the cages stacked around them. All were crammed with terrified animals—rabbits, hares, squirrels, even cats. One cage held a fox that stared bleakly through the bars. Each animal was wounded in some way, its fur streaked with blood. Some were half dead, kicking feebly. Others lay still and would never move again.

“Will they take them if they’re dead?” one of the men said, kicking at the fox’s cage.

Beyond hope, the small creature didn’t react.

“Doesn’t matter either way,” said another. “No questions asked. They’re skinned at the factory … kids’ toys and accessories.”

As Dana gazed, sickened, at the cages, the wolf rested a paw on her shoulder. Images streamed through her mind, things she had seen on the television and in Gabe’s animal rights magazines: trucks jammed with cattle, sheep, and horses crossing Europe without food or water; battery hens crammed into boxes, laying eggs until they died without ever having seen grass or sky; scenes of the daily torture in the laboratories of scientists and pharmaceutical, pet food, and cosmetics companies. Her stomach churned. So many animals, countless numbers, strapped into machines with their innards exposed, trembling in the snarl of electrodes or suffering the agony of toxic testing. As well as the cruelty, it was the powerlessness that struck her. They could not fight for their lives, as was their right.

“Where there is no respect for life,” the wolf said quietly, “there you will find evil.”

Dana couldn’t bear it any longer. The poachers were gathering up their snares to set them again. Enraged beyond thinking, she burst out of the trees.

“Can’t you see? What’s right in front of you? Can’t you see how much they suffer?”

The three men jumped to their feet, dropping their equipment. They looked beyond her, for an adult, perhaps the game warden.

Then one peered drunkenly at her.

“It’s the missing kid from Bray!”

Greed replaced the fear on their faces.

“There’s a reward for her!”

Dana was suddenly aware of how big they were and how many, but she had no intentions of abandoning the animals. As long as the silver nails kept her moving, she would open as many cages as possible before they caught her.

The men stepped menacingly toward her. She was about to dash out of their way, when she saw the terror in their eyes.

Behind her, the wolf growled.

As the poachers ran screaming into the woods, Dana hurried to release the animals.

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.