Skull Kickers

Bright colorful dots swirled in Rhyme’s vision, leaving trails and making it almost impossible to see what was going on in the world around him. Not that he could comprehend very well anyway, the donkey had kicked the snot out of him. With the blood dribbling down his muzzle and the far-seeing look in his eyes Rhyme was everywhere but in the heat of the moment. He didn’t hear Shaye’s shift from good natured fun to enraged alpha as she witnessed what happened.

The slate alpha continued to stand defensively, though he wouldn’t be able to stand up to much with all the swaying he was doing. As the jenny turned back to the pair of them Rhyme finally noticed Shaye stood beside him. As his wits slowly returned he had just enough brain power to wish he had more control back. He solidified in his stance, no longer swaying as Shaye faced off against the enraged equine. Rhyme’s vision mostly returned, and he could put his eyes on the advancing burro.

He had to recover for Shaye’s sake, she was still recovering from a nasty wound from that cat. Rhyme tried to shake himself of the feeling but was only rewarded with a bit of dizziness and an explosion of pain in his head. He flinched as his alpha partner’s voice commanded the jenny from beside him. The loudness didn’t help his head, but neither did the sudden bray from the donkey as she pinned her ears and began to back away, her foal at her hind quarters. The tiny fluffy little guy reluctantly allowed the jenny to steer him away from the wolves. His main concern happened to be nursing at that exact moment.

The sound of the jenny’s loud voice drilled through his head, he hoped Shaye was faring better in this fight than he was. He squinted in pain, but managed not to cower. Shaye continued forward, slowly, trying to end the confrontation without any more bloodshed. Rhyme’s tongue was still bleeding, but not quite as bad as a few minutes ago. As the donkey finished her defiant call Rhyme pushed forward. His chest level with Shaye’s hips as he added more of a back-up role than another offender. Whatever they were doing seemed to be working decently.

The jenny continued to back up, just as slowly as Shaye and Rhyme pushed forward. If they pushed her any harder she might knock down her foal. Or worse trip over him. She could seriously injure herself, though Rhyme couldn’t deny that course of events would be in their favor. He managed to keep a couple of ravens, why couldn’t they start their own personal donkey herd, starting with their hypothetical little orphan?


word count: 455