Wilderness Double Edition 32 by David Robbins

Author:David Robbins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mountain lions, the rockies, piccadilly publishing, hawken rifle, american frontier fiction, westerns ebook, american settlers, david robbins westerns
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Two

THE FEMALE SENSED great danger. A growl started to rumble from her chest, but she stopped it and waited to see what the strange creatures would do. They were jabbering at each other like chipmunks, making noises new to her. The creature on the ground took a few steps up the slope but stopped at a sound from another of the creatures on one of the elklike animals. It seemed to her that the creature reluctantly turned back and climbed on the animal it had been riding, and together the whole strange group moved off into the woods toward the setting sun.

For the longest time she lay listening. She was fearful they would come back, and did not know why she was fearful. The only other time she had ever felt this way was when her mother was killed by the hunger-crazed wolves.

But the creatures did not return. Gradually the normal sounds of the forest returned, and she relaxed. Two of her kittens played with her tail, while two others wrestled and hissed. The big dark male paced back and forth and stared down at the alien world below. He was odd, the dark one. She had never had a kitten quite like him. For one thing, he always looked her in the eye when he came up to her. The others rarely did; they were too interested in her teats or her tail or her ears. For another thing, he was not only bigger but more muscular than the rest. By the time he was two months old, he had the build of a male of six months or more.

By then she weaned them from her milk. Their teeth were too sharp and it hurt when they sucked. Their claws, too, which they liked to flex when they nursed, pricked her belly uncomfortably. She started to bring her small kills to the den. The first was a rabbit. She plopped it down and five of the six were so startled they scrambled back in fear. Not the dark one. He walked up to the rabbit and sniffed and then sank his teeth into the rabbit’s throat and sucked what little blood remained.

Another moon passed, and the kittens ate whatever she brought. They always fought over the meat and it was always the dark one who got the most. He brooked no disputes. One time when the second biggest male tried to wrest a piece of grouse away, the dark one cuffed him so hard he was nearly sent tumbling from the ledge.

At last came the day the female looked forward to, the day when she took them from the den for their first excursion in the outside world. Five of the six were scared and hugged her like a second pelt. The dark one walked at her side with the assurance of a yearling. He studied her every movement and imitated her with perfect ease. That night she licked him until he tired of being licked and moved off to curl up and sleep.

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