I ran from Cade’s sawdust covered floor workshop, past the cabin, the campfire and snowed under truck and headed down the mountain to where I thought my car might be still. I ran out of embarrassment. A fresh surge of shame hit me as I remember how sure I’d been the woman he was sculpting was me. I don’t know why I thought that. Her face was not even finished. I’d been falling all over this guy, dripping with sweetness and stinking of desperation ever since I arrived. I’d never done that with anyone before and it hurt to be so soundly rejected.
I needed to get a grip. He was just a guy.
The wet, heavy snow made it exhausting to move through. Mist hung not far up ahead. But I wouldn’t give up and turn around. I slogged on through, shame pushing me farther down the mountain. I just wanted to get down there, by myself with no one coming to my aid. I’d always taken care of myself before and I didn’t need him or anybody else to save me.
Sure he rescued me that time, but he did it because he had no choice. And ever since then, at every turn he made it crystal clear I was not wanted, and yet I kept on trying to get him to like me. It was pathetic.
I followed my instincts over boulders in the direction of where my car should be on the closed off Dogwood Pass. Unfortunately, my instincts were not exactly sharp as a tack. My car was out there somewhere, probably still wedged between some trees and covered in fresh snow, but it was about as good as invisible to me. Actually, I was beginning to realize I couldn’t find my way anywhere in the eternal white that surrounded me.
Exhausted and disoriented, I sat on a stone and rested my back against a cluster of boulders behind me. Suddenly, emotion crept in on me. I felt utterly defeated. I had gone about it all in the wrong way. I had tried too hard to seduce him and I had failed. Tears, cold on my face, sent a shiver down me. I felt silly for crying, but what the hell was I going to do? I was stuck in a ridiculous situation.
He didn’t want me and even though I, too, had enough and wanted out of this situation, I couldn’t. The fact was I couldn’t get out until the snow cleared away some. Once it did, I would leave and go straight back to my sister. I buried my face in my hands. But with no money, how will I pay for her medical bills?
I need money. I have to survive and get the money for her. Somehow, I must find a way to get my hands on it.
I looked around me.
It was so beautiful, but I could enjoy none of it. I stifled a sob. I was not beaten yet. I was never one for giving up. I would try again. I decided to march myself back up that mountain to Cade’s cabin and exist peacefully alongside him. Both of us would be equally disinterested in each other until the snow clears and then I would get out. It was so cold my tears cooled on my skin.
I stood up, brushed my tears away from my face and set off back through the fog.
The next moments came so fast, it was hard to believe they happened at all. It was like the memory of it that lives in my mind became more real to me that when it occurred in real time. It began when my boot slipped in the wet, slushy snow. I slid down for what felt like ages, my body hitting on everything hard and stony for about thirty feet. When I came to a stop, I was all arms and legs in every direction. Before I even took a breath, I sensed the presence of someone, something.
Oh shit!
The strength of her stare was palpable. I knew I should move, try to scare her away, yell or jump around, throw a stone or something, but I didn’t. I froze. With a strange mixture of fear, shock and awe, I stared into her yellow eyes.
She was a magnificent golden creature. It was like seeing royalty. Out here she was the Queen with a stunning, angular face, enormous fluffy paws, and eyes that knew what power they commanded. Almost flirtatiously she flicked her tail, which seemed to be as long as her body itself and was thicker than I expected it to be.
I’d never seen a mountain lion this close.
She must have only been about fifty feet away. She was downhill on the mountain from me, standing crouched, poised to sprint, and listening. I bet she could hear my heart beating in my chest, smell the scent that emanated from me. She moved with prowess from one boulder to another, graceful, sure-footed and watching me the whole time. I could see that she was giving herself a better vantage point to track me from.
I had to do something, but I didn’t know what.
Her coat was thick and luxurious and her strength was evident in her sleek muscles. There would be nothing I could do if she attacked even on my strongest day, much less banged up from a fall. Not that I could feel any pain at all. It was delayed by shock. Some part of my brain noted that if she got me in her jaw I probably wouldn’t even feel the pain.
It was in that moment I decided I had to move, but I realized that wasn’t going to be so easy. Time had shifted to slow motion. I threw my legs under me and fell over immediately.
A searing pain came from my knee.
Oh, I felt that. Fear filled me and replaced the awe I had felt for the mountain lion with sheer panic. She smelled it in me. I saw the change in her gait. She was approaching faster. She knew now that she had the upper hand.
Again, I tried to stand, with every cell in my body screaming with pure, unadulterated fear. In those few seconds I thought about my parents. How sad they would have been to know I would find my end in a mountain lion’s belly. I thought of Cade and how he tried to warn me, but I was so stupid I did not take heed. In those seconds I even felt sadness that Cade and I would never know each other.
Then I thought of my sister. What would happen to her without me?
I had to find the will to fight for my life.
A fearful guttural sound came out of me as I attempted to scare her away with my voice. She shamed me with a roar like I have never heard in my life. So ferocious and wild. The still mountain air amplified it. This was no cuddly big cat. She was a meat eating, killing machine, and I was her winter score to ensure her survival and see another spring.
On one leg, I leaned for a stick just out of reach and tossed it like a Frisbee towards her before stumbling again. It seemed to distract her away from her poised attack position long enough for me to reach another stick and a rock. I threw them one at a time. The lion moved to another boulder on an even level to me and looked at me unblinkingly. As if she was wondering why I was prolonging the inevitable. She gave the impression she was in for the long haul. Both of us knew, eventually, I would run out of things to throw at her.
I yelled again and hopped on one leg. I thought of Anna again. Only her. I thought of how she would be alone in this world and the painful death she would have. This just couldn’t happen. Not yet. I promised my parents to take care of her. This
wasn’t my moment to die. I’d fight this lion with my bare hands if I had to.
Her paws thudded when they hit the snow.
The sound was petrifying. It filled my entire body. Then, I heard the thudding sound coming from behind me. I turned just as Cade reached the back of me. He picked me up by the waist and lifted me in the air yelling all the while. The lion ran to within fifteen feet of me, her eyes never straying from mine.
She was furious.
Cade
The lion got closer.
I’d prepared myself for an encounter like this, but I’d never had one this intimate before. I watched the lion to read every twitch, eye movement, and breath she took.
“Raise your arms up high! Make noise!”
Katrina stretched her arms out high and yelled.
I shouted and stomped around out wide to make us seem like a large figure to the lion. If she feels that you’re much bigger than her she won’t bother you.
“Arms out wide!”
The lion flinched and moved backwards. She sought higher ground and looked back at us. By then she must have been trying to figure out what the hell kind of creature she was dealing with that had suddenly became taller and wider than it had been a moment before. Or maybe she just thought we were too crazy to bother with. We kept on making threatening gestures.
Luckily, she made the decision to run off.
Slowly, I lowered Katrina to the ground. My heart was thudding hard against my ribcage, and I didn’t want her to hear it. I felt almost high with adrenaline as we watched the lion trot away, after a few backward glances.
I brought my gaze back to her. “You ok?”
She looked up at me. Her lovely eyes enormous and her eyelashes wet. She must have been crying.
“Um, yeah … I’m fine. That was unbelievable,” she replied gruffly.