Change in Life

Chapter 29. An Eye for an Eye...

He slid on his paws, sinking into the mulch and stumbling slightly and yelping as he tried to use his broken leg for support. The stillness that shattered the air screamed for him to keep running home as loudly as the fracture did at the sudden halt. He glared behind him, his eyes widening at the advancing horror he had just summoned... And he was leading them straight to the den with his scent trail. Their dogs would be the shooter's guides. Home was not an option, despite the need to hide and rest his damaged leg. Not yet.

Sitting down hard, Blake cringed as the pain along his leg appeared to get worse with every second spent moving. He glanced down with anguish dripping from his eyes to the point of the impact. The sickening immediate swelling around where the steel maw had bit him and his trembling paws as his body adhered to the onset of shock pounded another fearful cord. To get home like this was going to take all the strength of will be could muster. Yet now it was going to be even more trying as the overarching danger settled in that needed him to put his agony aside.

I can't go home! he thought with utter despair.

To go home now in his panicked state would leave no time for Jade and Sky to prepare for a hasty flee before the humans caught up. He looked back in front of him to the scavenging trails free of traps and gritted his teeth, furrowing his brows. He turned left and hobbled off as swiftly as his beaten legs would take him off the natural path and through the thicker scrub towards the river. He hoped his recent discovery of direct motions through the woods would throw the hunters off his trail long enough to give him and his family time.

With each pathetic bound with only three legs as the other hung limply in the air, he grunted under the strain. His progress was inert at best. The only condolence he had was the stalking pace of the ones hunting him. Their cautious stride was still slower than Blake's drawling gait. So long as he kept moving, he could keep a healthy distance for long enough.

The next nagging bug digging into his mind filled with strife: where to go? The woods were no longer a place of tranquility. The humans had sorted that out; whether they were in sight or not. Anywhere near an animal that wasn't man was a trap for the former. Was safe even a possibility anymore?

Not long, his good foreleg started to weaken under the sudden over-use from supporting his whole front end and his bad leg throbbed painfully when he fought back against the limb from hitting the ground with each bound. He guessed he was half way there when he had to stop and give a little whimper under his breath. There had to be a better, less excruciating, way to manage this?

While he mulled over his fever inducing predicament, he kept half a watery eye open for that ghostly line of silk in the gloom. The rain had let up a tiny bit, yet it still hampered his attempts to see right. And with his pulsating leg reminding him every second that his body was in a very bad way, he began whimpering more. If anyone was near they would hear him. It was too late to worry about that though. Someone had heard him. Any light struggled noises made now served to draw them to him. Exactly what he needed. He was already halfway gone. As long as attention was paid to him and not his family...

Re-entering another natural path from the underbrush, he stumbled on the sorry sight, wincing at the shot of pain that arced up with leg like lightening and into his chest. A large rabbit had the unfortunate gratitude of finding a snare as well. The simple yet powerful bane of the woods wrung itself around its neck in its unforgiving deathly hug. A light red stain ringed its neck after what seemed a short feverish fight.

As pointless a death as he found it, Blake counted this as his only true blessing for his mistaken time in the invaded lands. Acting quickly, he removed the body from the tangled mess, as well as the tethered line from birch it had been attached to. After taking what hide he needed from the corpse and fiddling with the snare, as well as grabbing a suitable length of straight branch, he decided to spite his pursuers and rigged up a makeshift sling and splint, wrapping the thin pelt around his leg and the branch before securing both ends of the line around his leg at his ankle and knee respectively enough to take up the slack, then looped the remainder to sit around the back of his neck. It took time, a bit too much time, yet the relief was close to bliss... Close.