A Near Death Experience

     “There it is again,” Cat informs me two days later.

     We`re a mile away from where we first heard the growls, and we`ve only heard it a few times, all when we least expect to.  I haven`t had a decent night`s sleep since it began, Cat on the other hand only worries about it in the morning.  I scan the trees wishing to get even the slightest glimpse of our stalker.  At first, I thought it was different animals scaring us, but now I have my doubts.  Yesterday I woke up to find a paw print the size of my head imbedded in the mud next to my backpack.  Today I found the same paw print a few feet away from where we were sleeping.  I have kept both instances from Cat by filling in the indentations with mud, but I know that whatever it is, it`s waiting for just the right moment to attack us.  Hearing the animal scream at us during supper sends sheer terror throughout my whole body.  I don`t have the strength to move the bread to my mouth.  This is my last meal anyway, right?  Which would be better?  Dying on an empty stomach or a full one?  All I know is that the more food I eat, the more that animal gets to eat, so I think starving myself is the best option.

     We fall asleep a few hours later.  Well, actually Cat sleeps, I just lay there with my eyes open not willing myself to go to bed and be dinner now or ever.   I must have fallen asleep sometime, because next thing I know I`m waking up to the bright orange world.  It takes me a moment to adjust to the light, but as I lay there, I am thankful that I`m still alive, and not torn into a dozen pieces.

     “Don`t make any sudden moves,” Cat whispers staring intently past me and into the woods.

     “What is it?”  I ask.  What is behind me that I can`t see?  Fear surges through my body, as I wish to look at my predator, before he chews my head off or something.  “Please tell me it`s just a skunk.”

    “I don`t know what it is, but I heard some growling coming from the trees about an hour ago.”

     “Again, please tell me it`s just a skunk.”  I say as I get up slowly, and some angry animal ejects a hiss at me.  I freeze knowing that this is no skunk.  Some animal is watching me, waiting to lunge its horrible teeth into my calloused skin.  The thought unnerves me, but I know that my only defense is fighting.  I grope at my belt, trying to grab that cold metal.  “Cat do you have your knife?  I`m afraid I left mine in my backpack.”

     “Nope, mine`s probably hiding in your backpack too.”

     My heart races, knowing this is the end of my adventure, the end of life if you want to get technical.  “Okay, don`t scream and draw attention to yourself.  Keep quiet, no matter what.”  I feel like saying It was nice knowing you, but it just doesn`t seem appropriate.  As much as I want to tell myself that I`ll be fine, and live, I have a feeling that it would just be a lie. 

     I slowly roll onto my back, listening to the animal`s vicious hiss.  Panther.  I`m not sure at all if I`m correct, but it would be nice knowing what is going to kill me, before it does so, and this is why I settle

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on panther.  The thought of lying until the panther leaves enters my head, but I know, deep down, that he will kill us eventually.

     I reach my hand for the backpack, but of course, it is about a foot away from my arm.  I jump up, unzip my backpack, and grab the knife.  This all happens as the black mass hurls itself at me.   Once he is close enough, I plunge my knife into his stomach.  The impact knocks me to the ground, and he lands on top of me.  I try to free my knife from in between his body and my own.  During my struggle, the panther swipes his heavy claw at my vulnerable face.  The blood gushes all over my face, partially blinding me.  The blood flows into my mouth, trying to choke me on that dense fluid.

     I wiggle my knife free, by sucking in my gut.  Then I thrust it again into his body, and because of my luck, it gets jammed in one of his ribs.  I aimlessly try to free my knife, when he collapses on top of me.  I wince, afraid that he will rip my head off.

     His body just lies there lifeless, and I`m not sure what to think.  Has he decided to kindly suffocate me with his crushing over two hundred pound body?  I wish he would just kill me now, and get the whole horror scene over.  Poor Cat has to watch all of this.  Make it easier for her, at least, will you?  Is this panther a trained hunter, who kills his prey`s courage before their life?  I ask myself.

     I feel his body weight shift to one side, and I force my eyes to open and to stay open, so that he can`t see my fear.  He may have the satisfaction of killing me, but he shall never know how afraid I am.  The sight scares me even more than I had thought.  His dark eyes are huge and filled with pain.  They seem to stare past me, and into my soul.  They look like they just experienced…experienced… “the pangs of death”  I whisper to myself, but I can`t allow myself to believe that.  It will only make going down harder. 

     Then I see Cat, trying to push him off me.  I lift the panther up, and drop him on the other side. That`s when I see the knife.  My vision is infrared, but there, in his neck is the knife that stole his life, and saved mine.  Somehow I am still alive, and that knife explains a little of it.

     I struggle to my feet, and stagger to the river.  I can barely see a thing, because my one eye is sealed tightly with drying blood, and the other is constantly being doused with blood, so all I can see is a bloody earth in front of me.  The throbbing is so hard that the drum in my head is giving me the largest headache that anyone has ever owned.

     Once I reach the river, I plunge my head into the water.  The swift water washes away some of the blood. 

     Cat is by my side, the second time that my head is plunged into the water, shaking me.  When I rise, she yells, “What are you doing?”

     “Washing the blood off my face.”

 

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     She then guides my head into the luke-warm water.  When my head comes up, I open my eyes to a nonbloody world.  It is refreshing to see the world clearly again.  I glance down at my partly human partly panther stained shirt.  I quickly take that repulsive thing off, and hold it in the river, watching the blood rush downstream.  When it looks cleaner, I put it back on covering my exposed body. 

     By this time, I am forced to wash my face again, or see a bloodstained world.  As I am cleaning my wound, Cat is cleaning her bandages, and when I emerge from the water, she wraps my head and right eye in the bandage.

     “I`m fine really,” I protest.  “You need it more than I do.”

     “Like that`s the truth,” she snickers. “I`m not the one with the panther`s mark covering most of my face.”

     “It`s not that bad.”

     “So you call a close encounter of his claw to your eye nothing!  You could have lost your sight!”

     “Cat, calm down.” I try to look her in the eye, but the truth is, I`m not sure which ones her.  There are about twenty of her right in front of me, and I feel like I am looking in a huge kaleidoscope.  She is saying something, but all I see are her lips moving.  She is moving in circles, and when I want to ask her to stop moving, I can feel my lips working; but nothing is coming out.  I shake my head to try to clear my senses.  When that doesn`t work, I scramble to my feet to walk it off.

     The first few steps are wobbly, but okay.  The trouble really starts when the world starts spinning around me, I reach for a tree, that isn`t there, and I fall to the ground.  I grab my arm in pain, after landing right on it.  The pain radiates to every area around it, and I don`t know which feels worse, my face or my arm.

     Cat tries to get me to my feet, but my legs don`t want to work, unless they can work against her.  She grabs my arm and that is when I black out.  More than once I yell out, “No! Cat, help me!” thinking that the panther is trying to rip me apart.

     The tugging continues, and so I try to snap myself out of the hallucination, only to fall into it again.  Why couldn`t she just leave me where I was?  I think one time when I am slightly conscience.

     When I arrive at the campsite, I am only conscience enough to see Cat run back to the river.  She then throws some water onto me, which helps me snap out of it.  When I see the panther lying next to me, I quickly jump to my feet.

     “He`s dead, remember.”

     “Yeah…thanks,” I say and then add quickly, “for killing him.”  See, I remembered.

 

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     “Oh, sure.  I get it.  The girl who is named after a knife doesn`t even know how to use one.”

     I would take that as an insult, because I killed her little bunny friend, but the quirky smile she flashes me makes me burst out in laughter.

     “I guess I don`t,” I admit.

     Cat grabs her knife and pulls it out smoothly.  She then cleans it on the wet grass, and helps me push fatso over, so that I can retrieve my knife.

     It takes me a little bit to wriggle my knife loose, but soon it`s dripping blood onto the grass.  I clean my knife just like Cat did and ask, “You care for a feast tonight?”

     “Oh, I haven`t had fresh meat for so long!  I`d love some!”

     We each tear off pieces of my killer, and skin it.  Then we cook the meat until it is brown and juicy.

     “You know, I`ve never eaten a panther before,” I admit.

     “Me neither, but I`m sure he`s better than berries.”

      Once the food is on our plates, we dig in.  One would think we never had food in our whole lives the way we ate.  If I could compare him to some American food, he would taste like steak, just slightly more tender.

     I joke with Cat saying, “Even though he tried to kill me, he does have a sweet side underneath.”

     Cat giggles at this.

     “Thanks for saving my life, Cat.”

     “You did it for me,” she answers.

     “Guess that makes us sisters, seeing as we both risked our lives to save the other.  To me, it was worth the risk.”   I smile.

     Cat wraps her skinny arms around my stomach, and it feels like she won`t let go for anything.  The tears begin to flow down my cheeks, seeing as this was the way Tieson hugged me the last time I saw him. 

     As the tears hit Cat`s head, she looks up at me with her big blue eyes and asks, “What`s wrong?  What did I do?”

     She lets go of my stomach, and sits on my lap as I explain.  “In the United States, I have a little brother, who I love so much, and he hugged me just like that before I left.  You just reminded me of him, and how much I miss him.”

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     “I`m sorry, I didn`t mean to make you sad.”

     “No…no…no, it`s fine.  It just brought back bittersweet memories.  Now are you done eating?”  I ask.

     “Yeah, I`m stuffed,” she says, patting her belly for emphasis.

     “Then it`s time for bed, Sis.”  I joke seriously, if there is such a thing.  “Tomorrow we`ll see new places, so rest up.”

     I lay my blanket down first, and then Cat lays her`s down as close to mine as possible.  I doubt there is even a centimeter of space in-between our bedding.

     She lays down, and I sing “A Mother`s Heart,” which I had forgotten about until now, to her.

Don`t fear, dear one

Yes, the wind howls.

It whips your hair,

It`s just having fun.

 

Don`t fear, dear child,

The coyote’s singing.

He welcomes the moon,

He`s only wild.

 

That`s the trees, dear

They`re swaying in the storm.

They hold in the darkness.

You should not fear.

 

I`m your mother,

I`m here to hold you,

I`m here to love you,

So, come here, daughter.

    

     I bend down and kiss Cat`s relaxed face.  When I sit back up, her little eyes flutter open, and she hugs me around the neck.  She whispers, “I`m glad I finally have a family.”  Then she lies back down and resumes her peaceful rest.

     I lie down on my back, and stare up at the twinkling stars hiding behind the monstrous trees, reviewing the wild events of the day.  “Well, so far, I`ve got quite an adventure to tell Riley and Mariah about.” I laugh to myself at the thought of Mariah`s first look at my face.  Her nose will crinkle, and lines will form around her nose and under her gentle what-ever-color-she-wants-them-to-be eyes.  Her eyebrows will scrunch together, and I will need to try to keep myself from laughing.  It`s hard not to laugh when this little Asian girl doesn`t like something.

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     I smile when I think that I have the sister that I have always wanted.  She can take care of herself, but she doesn`t mind getting help, she loves me, and she saved my skin.  I had never dreamed of having a sister who would save me from being clawed to death.  Who would ever think that I was strong enough to fight a panther, and live to tell the tale!

     These heart-warming thoughts fill my head and overtake my dreams.