fight or flight

Weary from travel, Heloise attempted to play it safe. Going on the defensive was easily done when one was tired, and she was easily an intelligent fighter. She’d swing her body to meet the cougar’s, hackles raised and trying to appear larger than what she was. Her thick fur fluffed up not unlike a house cat. Sleep still showed in the feline’s eyes as it went at her again. The beast was as sloppy as it was tired, and she’d dodge again. But this time as the claw was retracted, the ivory woman tried to sink her teeth into the retreating limb and hold on. Her canines met flesh and the cougar yowled in pain. It tried to drag its paw back by force, throwing out another off-balance that Heloise took to the side of the face.

Forcing herself through the sudden sea of stars, she’d clamp her teeth down harder. Another hiss of pain came from the cougar, jerking its paw back more forcefully. Loosening her touch, Heloise let the limb slip through her jaws. Blood soaked the ground in a simple flow though it was an easy thing to ignore, that injury. But it made its due and mark; the cougar was now off-balance and limping. The ivory woman advanced, lowering her head and growling in a threatening matter. She wasn’t in the mood to play around with her life, and this cougar picked the wrong woman to attack. Heloise surged forward, rushing at the beast and turning at the last second to throw her weight against the cat’s flank to wind it. Staggering backward, the cougar’s claws flashed out after a moment of vertigo.

Caught on the shoulder this time, crimson blood soaked the woman’s white coat. She was barely aware of another’s footfall sounding nearby as she calculated her next again. If someone had come to join or hinder her, she would attempt to take it with grace. That was all she could hope to do at this point. Outweighed and outclassed, she was trying to survive against this brutal predator. Regret was not a thing; she had been hunting in order to eat. No matter how graceless it had been.

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