All characters referred to in this story are copyright Daniel Pering. Any unauthorized alteration, or distribution constitutes as theft and will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. Enjoy but don't mess with this stuff.

CHAPTER I

Foliage flew past at a breakneck pace, and small branches scratched her as she sprinted. Lillian ran through the trees as fast as her supple legs would take her. She could hear the bushes breaking behind her as the huge tusked beast followed her intent on a meal consisting of fillet o tigress. She could distantly hear the rest of her hunting party trying to locate her. Their yells echoed through the forest, barely audible through the cacophony of noise she and her ex-prey were making as they ran. Try as she might, she could not seem to find them. She was panting heavily attempting to keep up her pace long enough to allow her

to figure out some way to survive the seemingly deadly encounter that was bound to occur if something miraculous did not happen. Her ears perked up hearing a new noise. Movement nearby, her keen ears told her that she and the giant six-foot boar were not alone. Someone was running on a course parallel to her own,

"Help me," she paused in order to take another breath, "Please!" she cried. She could not tell who the other creature was. Her ears detected no words from the other, she was running too fast to get the scent, and the shadows flashing by were smearing her vision. The only thing that told Lillian the other was still there was a black silhouette of the other. She could see it pull an arrow from a quiver on its back. The other turned toward her and pulled the arrow taught on its bow string,

"There is no way anyone could make a shot running like this." she thought. The other held the bow in Lillian's general direction for a moment then let fly. Lillian heard the arrow pass mere inches behind her head then a juicy *thunk*. The boar let out a squeal of pain and turned on its new attacker. The figure dropped the bow and sped away from Lillian leading the boar away from her as well. She fell to the ground panting and quickly blacked out.

Darkness all around her,

"Am I dead?" she pondered. Lillian opened her eyes. She took a breath and her throat ached, she was parched dry, "Well I'm in pain, so I guess I'm not dead yet." She took a long gulp from her water-skin to ease her thirst. She looked around trying to let her eyes adjust to the little amount of light that still permeated from over the trees, "Thank you moons. And thank you, Great Spirit, for allowing me to live." she said.

She could no longer hear her hunting party. Lillian knew from hearing the stories from older hunters that staying outside during the night could be dangerous. She didn't know where she was in relation to her clan, or anyone for that matter,

"Whoever that was, must have either forgotten where I was or else couldn't find me." she thought to herself. Using her acute sense of smell and night sight she soon found the tracks the boar had left. She followed them through the forest rationalizing that either she would find the boar or find her savior; in either case she would probably be safer than staying in the same place and freezing to death.

She emerged into a small clearing from the thick underbrush. Staring her right in the eye was the wild boar. Lillian froze, its eyes were closed and it was still breathing. It was not moving though,

"Strange," she thought, "Why isn't it charging?" She heard a muffled grunt nearby, which was followed by a whimpering noise. She could just barely make out the silhouette of the mysterious figure who had saved her life. Its legs were trapped underneath the boar. Suddenly it occurred to Lillian that the reason the boar was not charging, or even struggling for that matter, was because it was not long for the world of the living. Blood had pooled, in great amounts around the once fierce beast's eye. Despite being a semi-experienced huntress, Lillian could not stand the sight of another living thing in pain. She had been trained to hunt since she was five, that was twelve summers ago, and she still could just barely stand the sight of a dying creature. She could look at a corpse all day if she had to, but the transitional period from life to death was what frightened her. Lillian took out her skinning knife and mercifully cut the boar's throat ending its suffering. She ceremonially put her left paw on its forehead and prayed for the boar to find green pastures and many others to share its afterlife with. She wiped her knife blade on her old cleaning cloth to keep the ancient relic from rusting.

Lillian imagined what it would be like to die. Would she finally meet the Great Spirit? Would she see her parents again? The thoughts whisked her away to an imaginary world for a moment. The pained grunts of her savior brought her thoughts back to reality. The figure was still trying to get out from under the dead boar. Lillian sheathed her knife and looked down at the figure. She could not make out any particular details. She felt around for its paws to help it up. The figure cringed away from her whimpering.

"Maybe it doesn't have night sight." she thought.

"I'm not going to hurt you. You did save me after all." she said. She received no answer, "I guess it doesn't understand me. I'll light a fire. That will provide some light and keep away predators. When it sees me, it will let me help it." she thought. She left the figure alone and spent a few minutes gathering wood for a fire.

She did not have to search for long before she had a fair-sized pile. She arranged several pieces in a circular pattern and took out her flints. They were as reliable as ever and she soon had a nice cheery fire going.

She spoke to the other as she tended the fire with her back to it,

"Well. Now that you see I'm not going to hurt you why don't you let me help ..." she trailed off as she turned around and beheld her savior. "What are you?" she whispered. It took several minutes of starring to realize that she was looking at a creature of legend,

"Oh my claws and paws!" she exclaimed.

The creature she beheld was not a furr like herself nor was it a savage beast like the boar it had saved her from. It had fallen asleep either from the pain in its legs or from exhaustion. Lillian carefully approached it and saw it was still clinging onto a rough stone knife and had been cutting away at the boar to try to free its legs. Lillian carefully pulled the knife away from it then grabbed it by the arms and tried to pull it from under the boar. She struggled with it for a couple of minutes before the creature awoke. It began to struggle to get free of Lillian's grasp.

It grunted and thrashed about, forcing Lillian to loose her hold on it. She lost her balance, fell backward, and landed on her tender tail with a small *snap,

"Ooh!" she moaned in pain, rolling over to get off her tail, "Oh no! My tail!"

she whined. Her tail was her pride and joy. She always kept it in perfect condition, never a single strand of furr out of place. The rest of her might be covered in dirt and grime, but her tail would be clean as a whistle. Which was partly why she was so upset, the other part was she had dislocated part of it. Lillian had experienced that before, and gritted her teeth as she managed to re-locate her tail with some considerable pain.

It took the pain a few minutes to wear down enough to allow Lillian concentrate on something else besides her tail. She noticed the creature was looking for something. Lillian knew what it was trying to find,

"Looking for this?" she asked holding up its primitive knife. It looked up at her and made eye contact. Lillian was amazed. Its eyes shone terrible fear of her, which she did not understand. "I have not done anything to hurt it. Why would it be afraid of me?" she wondered silently. It suddenly took on a look of hopelessness and tried its best to curl up in a little ball even though its legs were stuck under the dead boar. Lillian was puzzled,

"This is one of the creatures of legend?" she asked herself.

Lillian was becoming slightly annoyed with the creature,

"Alright, so it doesn't speak. What can I do to make it understand that I don't want to hurt it?" she pondered, "Well moma always said 'the way to a male's heart is through his stomach'. I can't tell if that thing is male or female but it's worth a try." she thought. Lillian pulled out her knife and walked over to the boar's side. She carefully cut a large chunk of the boar off, and tasted it. The meat was clean and healthy, so she went over to the creature. She crouched down and pried the creature's strange looking paws away from its head.

It looked into her eyes again still frightened. She put the meat in its paws and moved the meat and its paws back toward its strange head.

The creature looked down at the meat then slowly looked up at her, she could see it was still frightened, but it took one bite of the meat as if for show. Lillian again offered her paws to help it get itself out from under the boar. The creature returned the meat to her obviously thinking she wanted it back. Lillian giggled a bit at the minor misunderstanding, but thought it was a good idea, since it would be difficult to get a good grip if it was still holding the meat. She took out her cleaning cloth, put the meat on it, and offered her paws to the creature again. This time it took a long bone necklace from its neck and handed it to her, "I don't want payment. I want to help you." she grumbled. When she offered the necklace back the creature looked frightened again. Lillian pulled one of its paws up and put the necklace back in them, but now the creature was shaking. Lillian was tired, in pain still, and was too annoyed to try to communicate further,

"Fine have it your way. I'll see you in the morning, if we live that long." she said.

Lillian decided to eat the rest of the meat then make a small shelter for herself, like her father had taught her, before he died. She took her skinning knife and dug a small burrow underneath the dead boar. She pulled the fire logs around the creature and herself to keep predators away. She was especially worried the smell of blood would attract night creatures. Somehow after several minutes of worrying she finally drifted off to sleep.